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Are all american DVD releases so ugly?

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Zalis116:

--- Quote from: deciduous on December 01, 2009, 10:08:57 AM ---
--- Quote from: Zalis116 on November 29, 2009, 10:03:26 PM ---A list of images that has me burning my eyes out.
--- End quote ---

It makes me wonder why they don't turn up the neon knob a little more and introduce the fabulous lime green or orange. The last anime DVD I bought was Blue Submarine No. 6 and, I have to admit, the subtitles were far uglier than the fansub equivalent. Not to mention the timing was... off. Here's to hoping they kick it up a notch and forget ye olden days of yellow unicode.

--- End quote ---
I know it's not a serious question, but... unlike yellow, lime green and orange would have a fair chance of blending into backgrounds and becoming unreadable, fansub-style. And what about the screenshots of subs that were *shock* white and not yellow? Given that Funimation dominates the current R1 market, the majority of subs on new releases will be white. Or does a completely neutral color like white burn people's eyes out, too?

I can understand the aliasing and resolution issues that people have with vobsubs, but I've never understood the virulent hatred for yellow as a color as opposed to other colors. I don't see how yellow is "old" either; I'm pretty sure all the other colors have been around just as long. I'm half-convinced it's got more to do with not wanting to pay for anime than an honest objection to the color. After all, I haven't seen one complaint about gg's Nyan Koi using a similar color. Granted, that's a pretty new release that many haven't seen, but I also haven't seen that many complaints about BOX-Subs' or Anime-Classics' releases that use similar color schemes. Or for that matter, AIP's Rizelmine, which is practically R1DVD-subs in a fansub.

DaggerLite:
@ Zalis116
I won't argue much that yellow with black outline is easier to read than most others, but I don't understand why it has been such a common thing in releases as opposed to white with black outlines. I am personally fine with the white subs.

Things I don't like about American releases is that they make DVDs that are compressed way too much in order to fit more episodes per disc. I'm not sure if they're even allowed to do that over here. Another thing I'd bring up is that the extra material and dubs are usually horrible. I can't speak for every anime out there, but there are very few dubs I'm pleased with. The dub cast on one of my series is composed entirely of the friends and family of the studio, and the general dub "culture" in English-speaking countries is horrible, in my honest opinion. I've almost bought a DVD without Japanese audio on it even.

Now that they've tried to move on to digital distribution, they end up doing it in the worst possible way. The encodes are amateurish, with 2 GB files per 20 minutes last time I checked. One would think it actually looked good, but it doesn't, and it's supposedly watermarked along with being DRM-protected. While I understand that standards are important in most cases, there's something horribly wrong with this industry. Computers evolve every month, so there's no reason to be stuck with standards from '95.

Ghibli and Disney are doing a great job with their DVDs, by the way. I guess they can spend more than certain other companies who are doing half-assed work, but in the end I guess it means that those certain other companies are just taking on way too much for their own good. I'd appreciate if they took only a handful of series and did a proper job in stead.

I have paid for subbed/dubbed anime several times, but for certain groups I'm not thinking about doing it again until I see significant improvement. It's simply a fact that some good subgroups do things much better and much faster than the legit groups. I wouldn't mind paying them (fansubbers) a fee (which the original studios earned royalties from) if that somehow made it legit. I'd buy Japanese discs to support the industry, but in addition to Blu-ray zones not matching with Europe most companies for some reason don't like to ship here, and the postage fees cost about as much as the the disc itself when they do ship here. I have bought Japanese music CDs for instance.

Mag-X:
DVD = waiting months or years to pay money for ugly subs, a dumbed down translation, a dub I won't watch, all in ugly standard definition.
Fansubs can be hit or miss depending on the group, but they usually have better translations (I think), better picture quality, better looking subs, I don't have to get up and change disks, don't take up room on my shelves, come out days after episodes are shown in Japan, and I don't have to pay for them.
I haven't even thought about purchasing any DVDs in quite a long time. If they want me to pay for something, it needs to be better than the free version, not worse.

Neco:
It's not that simple though.

I don't think its fair to compare DVD releases, which usually include dubs, or other features you might get, with a fan sub that is just a video with subtitles and doesn't have to worry about finding voice actors that are good that don't cost a fortune for their time.  You may not use that feature (dubs) but it costs money to put it on the disc so it sells to the core consumers in the first place.


The industry is entirely at fault for the state of things, there is no argument there.  They set up lackluster standards and failed to continue raising the bar.   But you cannot compete against free,  no matter how good your product is.   People will always find a justification, or should I say  rationalization..

I also have to wonder, how much any of us really knows about the production process..  What I mean by that is,  what if their translators are good,  but someone else somwhere is making decisions to dumb down the dialogue?  Do we really know how it works internally I guess..   Also,  there still is the keen point that most likely,  their target audience doesn't care about subtitles in the first place.  

So again, in that sense,  when it comes to discerning fans with discriminating taste,  you can't compete against free.   I just think its more complicated than  "Your products are shit, hire the fansubbers".

I still feel guilty when I watch downloaded Anime,  because  even if the actual people involved in making the product get pennies on the dollar from the publisher/distributor -  that's a few less pennies they get because of me.   But I suppose that's for another thread.

People spend a lot on Anime,  so I would imagine there have to be some high rollers on the "purist" community..  If you want it done right,  start your own studio and hire your own translators / dubbers.   If you have a superior product,  you'll shine,   although I suspect anyone attempting to do such a thing and then charge a fair price at retail, is gonna be in for a rude awakening in the profits department.


On the subject of the dub acting community,  I don't pretend to have any knowledge..  But I doubt the whole  "friends and family thing" is very common place,  and then the questions has to be asked,  was it done to save the project financially?  Or just so they wouldn't have to pay anyone big money and would make more at retail?

Personally,  I watch a lot of dubs and even still I only on ocassion recognize a voice actor from another series.  I would say the community is pretty healthy and has a lot of good people in it.  But I don't have a problem with a particular actor getting a lot of work,  unless they really really suck or I just can't stand their voice..

kurandoinu:
How many non anime DVDs come with subs that aren't yellow or white though?

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