CPM can suck my dick.
Oct. 28th, 2003 11:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
absolutedestinyCentral Park Media have the worst video quality in the anime market. They are bottom of the video quality ladder now, even below the once unbeatably bad Manga Video.
Why? Well, I think I have an idea.
They have this annoying habit of sometimes wanting to put hard subs on certain things - on screen events mainly. However, I dont have that much of an issue with hard subs, even though TRSI proved they weren't needed.
The issue I have with this hard subbing system is that it is analogue... and it totally fucks up the video quality. Cross-colouraion is present on all CPM anime that has gone through this process (Utena, NTHT, Alien Nine) and it also seems to really wash out the source footage too.
Alien Nine, which I got today, uses a lot of digital animation - it uses a lot of the same methods used in FLCL (Gainax animated some sections).
Not that the CPM transfer is digital. Hell no. It's got rainbows on every black line you could care to mention and dot crawl all over the place. The beachhouse mat is red with white lines and the dot crawl is hideous. Animeondvd gave it a B+ for video. I'd give it a C. Chris Beveridge needs to use crappier equipment that doesn't hide all the blemishes. It's a shoddy transfer and there's no two ways about it.
These are dumb composite video issues that professional video authoring studios should not have in the year 2003.
Crappy sources are NOT the reason for this one. I'm almost tempted to buy a disc of the japanese release just to do a real comparison. Seriously I find it appaling.
But surely, you may ask, not all CPM releases are like this. You're right. The Utena movie didnt have these analogue issues - they didnt do any hard subbing. It did, however, have a hideously low bitrate. It still looked vibrant but that's the source looking good. IIRC the whole movie is on a single DVD layer and there is some awful mosquito noise during the fast scenes if you pause. I'm guessing the GOTF re-release also had a digital source that they decided not to tamper with. These are the only exceptions I can think of.
grrrrr
Why? Well, I think I have an idea.
They have this annoying habit of sometimes wanting to put hard subs on certain things - on screen events mainly. However, I dont have that much of an issue with hard subs, even though TRSI proved they weren't needed.
The issue I have with this hard subbing system is that it is analogue... and it totally fucks up the video quality. Cross-colouraion is present on all CPM anime that has gone through this process (Utena, NTHT, Alien Nine) and it also seems to really wash out the source footage too.
Alien Nine, which I got today, uses a lot of digital animation - it uses a lot of the same methods used in FLCL (Gainax animated some sections).
Not that the CPM transfer is digital. Hell no. It's got rainbows on every black line you could care to mention and dot crawl all over the place. The beachhouse mat is red with white lines and the dot crawl is hideous. Animeondvd gave it a B+ for video. I'd give it a C. Chris Beveridge needs to use crappier equipment that doesn't hide all the blemishes. It's a shoddy transfer and there's no two ways about it.
These are dumb composite video issues that professional video authoring studios should not have in the year 2003.
Crappy sources are NOT the reason for this one. I'm almost tempted to buy a disc of the japanese release just to do a real comparison. Seriously I find it appaling.
But surely, you may ask, not all CPM releases are like this. You're right. The Utena movie didnt have these analogue issues - they didnt do any hard subbing. It did, however, have a hideously low bitrate. It still looked vibrant but that's the source looking good. IIRC the whole movie is on a single DVD layer and there is some awful mosquito noise during the fast scenes if you pause. I'm guessing the GOTF re-release also had a digital source that they decided not to tamper with. These are the only exceptions I can think of.
grrrrr
