Gundam Unicorn

[VicViper573]

So, anyone want to do comparisons for the myriad of groups that have done this show?

--link removed--


newy EDIT: Don't link to sites with blacklisted material

[DmonHiro]

I have no reason not to wait for THORA. Can you give me one?
I have 01-06 from them.

[kristen]

Here, let's narrow it down a bit, shall we?

The following groups are expected to complete Unicorn:
1. CGi
2. THORA

I don't think either group did a job so terrible that it would warrant taking subs from multiple groups.

So now we gotta compare those two groups. Here's a reason to take THORA over CGi:
1. I was drunk when I did Unicorn, and will be drunk when I do 07.

Here's a reason to take CGi over THORA:
1. You're drunk and have your rational thought impaired.

Any questions?

[eternalmetal]

I have releases from both groups, so I could do a comparison when I get to it.  However, when I did a quick detail comparison, Coalgirls did their typical debanding that results in slight loss of detail in dark scenes and textures, but overall less artifacts and sharper lines.  Coalgirls also cropped unnecessarily on the top and bottom (seriously, why?).  The colors are also different, like Thora's has some sort of light blue filter applied to it or something, so I dont really know what to make of that.  The source agrees with Coalgirls.  I compared both scripts and the translation looks identical, though Thora's looks retimed (unless Coalgirl's is too) and has some lines italicized for a nice touch.  Thora's lacks chapters though.  Ill post screens later if nobody does it since im having problems with Avisynth atm.

@DmonHiro - Thora's messed with the colors.  It's slight, but it bothers me a little bit.  I dont know what is worse though, Coalgirl's crop and deband or Thora's color shift and compression artifacting.

[kristen]

I have releases from both groups, so I could do a comparison when I get to it.  However, when I did a quick detail comparison, Coalgirls did their typical debanding that results in slight loss of detail in dark scenes and textures, but overall less artifacts and sharper lines.  Coalgirls also cropped unnecessarily on the top and bottom (seriously, why?).  The colors are also different, like Thora's has some sort of light blue filter applied to it or something, so I dont really know what to make of that.  The source agrees with Coalgirls.  I compared both scripts and the translation looks identical, though Thora's looks retimed (unless Coalgirl's is too) and has some lines italicized for a nice touch.  Thora's lacks chapters though.  Ill post screens later if nobody does it since im having problems with Avisynth atm.

@DmonHiro - Thora's messed with the colors.  It's slight, but it bothers me a little bit.  I dont know what is worse though, Coalgirl's crop and deband or Thora's color shift and compression artifacting.

When you have alcohol in your system, edges look blurry, so the encoder says "Crop it!" That's why it's cropped.

[cold_hell]

There was definitely some broken 8 to 10bit color conversation in the early 10bit builds. According to AniDB both are released before 2012 when the "official" version was fixed and there was a fix on some unofficial builds before it.
Both are 10bit. Kristen or MediaInfo can give you info about CGi, but since Thora clear the encoding information in every their release, I doubt that you can check it.

[eternalmetal]

There was definitely some broken 8 to 10bit color conversation in the early 10bit builds. According to AniDB both are released before 2012 when the "official" version was fixed and there was a fix on some unofficial builds before it.
Both are 10bit. Kristen or MediaInfo can give you info about CGi, but since Thora clear the encoding information in every their release, I doubt that you can check it.

Well, at this point I think I'm better off checking with my eyes then, and it seems as though the problem is only in Thora's first 3 episodes.  Coalgirls looks more like my actual BD.

[Dhruv]

As far as i can see, Thora only did 720p. So the question is, the show isn't in 1080p? Production being sunrise, a little hard to  believe since Super robo i offered got a accepted a month back for 1080p.

[kristen]

AVCSource("D:\Unicorn\07\GUNDAMUC_7\BDMV\STREAM\00007.dga")
Crop(0, 4, -0, -4)
Spline36Resize(1280, 720, 4, 0, -4, -0)
gradfun3(1.2)

avs2yuv.exe -raw "D:\Unicorn\07\GUNDAMUC_7\BDMV\STREAM\077.avs" -o - | x264-10bit.exe --preset veryslow --crf 16 --ref=16 --deblock -2:-2 --psy-rd 0.7:0.15 --bframes 8 --rc-lookahead 120 --qcomp 0.8 --aq-mode 1 --aq-strength 1.5 --colorprim bt709 --colormatrix bt709 --output "D:\Unicorn\07\GUNDAMUC_7\BDMV\STREAM\077.264" --demuxer raw --input-depth 8 --input-res 1280x720 --fps 24000/1001 -
avs2yuv.exe -raw "D:\Unicorn\07\GUNDAMUC_7\BDMV\STREAM\07.avs" -o - | x264-10bit.exe --preset veryslow --crf 16 --ref=16 --deblock -2:-2 --psy-rd 0.7:0.15 --bframes 8 --rc-lookahead 120 --qcomp 0.8 --aq-mode 1 --aq-strength 1.5 --colorprim bt709 --colormatrix bt709 --output "D:\Unicorn\07\GUNDAMUC_7\BDMV\STREAM\07.264" --demuxer raw --input-depth 8 --input-res 1920x1072 --fps 24000/1001 -

You tell me, I have no idea what the hell I was thinking, lol.

[cold_hell]

... We were talking about the first movies and the writing library, not the encoding settings, but since eternalmetal can confirm the colors from the BDMV => it is THORA's fault.

Offtopic:

(click to show/hide)

leaving aside the resizing and the cropping

gradfun3(1.2)
==> smode   = Default (smode,        0)
Kristen, pls why you have i7 if you don't use slow settings like smode2... halos are not fun (unless you modified the default value in dither.avsi) and may be reading .../dither/doc/dither.html will help you with the higher bit-deep output. It is not like you need something more than F3 to find it.

[eternalmetal]

As a big Gundam fan I'm kind of disappointed with the available groups.  Sorry Kristin, I don't know why you added grain to the source, cause it didnt fix a damn thing and just seemed to make the ringing artifacts worse.  I can't see it as an attempt to deband, since banding in the source isn't an issue.  Because of the 10-bit issue, Thora's version would be less than ideal to archive as well, never mind the fact that their encode is filled with compression artifacts.  That said, I've decided to make this a project of my own so that the epic conclusion to the UC century can have a worthwhile version.

I have been messing around with encode settings, and I have found some that look pretty good.  I  can't seem to be entirely rid of ringing artifacts, but it is much cleaner than the alternatives, and looks most like the source.  I will be retaining the full 24 bit audio tracks (in FLAC format), and will do subtitle edits as I deem necessary.  Though from what ive seen the subtitles are already pretty good as is, so I doubt they will have to be changed all that much.

I'll post screenshot comparisons later of CGi, Thora, my encode, and the source.

[Zalis116]

Too bad ACX seems to be dead/inactive, as they were the only option for a low-res release.

[kristen]

As a big Gundam fan I'm kind of disappointed with the available groups.  Sorry Kristin, I don't know why you added grain to the source, cause it didnt fix a damn thing and just seemed to make the ringing artifacts worse.  I can't see it as an attempt to deband, since banding in the source isn't an issue.  Because of the 10-bit issue, Thora's version would be less than ideal to archive as well, never mind the fact that their encode is filled with compression artifacts.  That said, I've decided to make this a project of my own so that the epic conclusion to the UC century can have a worthwhile version.

I have been messing around with encode settings, and I have found some that look pretty good.  I  can't seem to be entirely rid of ringing artifacts, but it is much cleaner than the alternatives, and looks most like the source.  I will be retaining the full 24 bit audio tracks (in FLAC format), and will do subtitle edits as I deem necessary.  Though from what ive seen the subtitles are already pretty good as is, so I doubt they will have to be changed all that much.

I'll post screenshot comparisons later of CGi, Thora, my encode, and the source.

The reason why:

(click to show/hide)

Seriously, there's no point in telling me I did a crappy job, lol. I know I did. This show was done drunk. I did no checking of other tracks. Hell, I freaking google translated some of the ED songs.

That said, it's not an effort you should expect out of anything else I have done or ever will do. It's just this show was SOOO bad, it kinda needed alcohol to get completed.

[revo]

I have releases from both groups, so I could do a comparison when I get to it.  However, when I did a quick detail comparison, Coalgirls did their typical debanding that results in slight loss of detail in dark scenes and textures, but overall less artifacts and sharper lines.  Coalgirls also cropped unnecessarily on the top and bottom (seriously, why?).  The colors are also different, like Thora's has some sort of light blue filter applied to it or something, so I dont really know what to make of that.  The source agrees with Coalgirls.  I compared both scripts and the translation looks identical, though Thora's looks retimed (unless Coalgirl's is too) and has some lines italicized for a nice touch.  Thora's lacks chapters though.  Ill post screens later if nobody does it since im having problems with Avisynth atm.

@DmonHiro - Thora's messed with the colors.  It's slight, but it bothers me a little bit.  I dont know what is worse though, Coalgirl's crop and deband or Thora's color shift and compression artifacting.

When you have alcohol in your system, edges look blurry, so the encoder says "Crop it!" That's why it's cropped.

or when you are not drunk you fix them
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/79363 

[kristen]

I have releases from both groups, so I could do a comparison when I get to it.  However, when I did a quick detail comparison, Coalgirls did their typical debanding that results in slight loss of detail in dark scenes and textures, but overall less artifacts and sharper lines.  Coalgirls also cropped unnecessarily on the top and bottom (seriously, why?).  The colors are also different, like Thora's has some sort of light blue filter applied to it or something, so I dont really know what to make of that.  The source agrees with Coalgirls.  I compared both scripts and the translation looks identical, though Thora's looks retimed (unless Coalgirl's is too) and has some lines italicized for a nice touch.  Thora's lacks chapters though.  Ill post screens later if nobody does it since im having problems with Avisynth atm.

@DmonHiro - Thora's messed with the colors.  It's slight, but it bothers me a little bit.  I dont know what is worse though, Coalgirl's crop and deband or Thora's color shift and compression artifacting.

When you have alcohol in your system, edges look blurry, so the encoder says "Crop it!" That's why it's cropped.

or when you are not drunk you fix them
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/79363 

But why would I want to work on Gundam Unicorn if I wasn't drunk?

[revo]

I have releases from both groups, so I could do a comparison when I get to it.  However, when I did a quick detail comparison, Coalgirls did their typical debanding that results in slight loss of detail in dark scenes and textures, but overall less artifacts and sharper lines.  Coalgirls also cropped unnecessarily on the top and bottom (seriously, why?).  The colors are also different, like Thora's has some sort of light blue filter applied to it or something, so I dont really know what to make of that.  The source agrees with Coalgirls.  I compared both scripts and the translation looks identical, though Thora's looks retimed (unless Coalgirl's is too) and has some lines italicized for a nice touch.  Thora's lacks chapters though.  Ill post screens later if nobody does it since im having problems with Avisynth atm.

@DmonHiro - Thora's messed with the colors.  It's slight, but it bothers me a little bit.  I dont know what is worse though, Coalgirl's crop and deband or Thora's color shift and compression artifacting.

When you have alcohol in your system, edges look blurry, so the encoder says "Crop it!" That's why it's cropped.

or when you are not drunk you fix them
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/79363 

But why would I want to work on Gundam Unicorn if I wasn't drunk?

I don't know why should anyone ?

But you crop even when you are not drunk for the shows you love
so yeah it would be better to fix it than crop it

I don't get the logic were you replace near healthy pixel lines with black ones

[kristen]

Actually, outside of a few shows that I resize to 720p only, and something like Ghibli that was made to be cropped, and TV airings, I can't remember the last time I cropped a BD. Usually it's like like 1 pixel that looks a tiny bit off in a few scenes.

[VicViper573]

Thora's complete Gundam unicorn release (including the 7th and final episode):

nyaa 564970

[Takeshi]

Surprised we haven't got Unicorn on BBT yet.

Sounds like we should exclude CGi, but we still have three groups then.

THORA, DHD and Kamigami. THORA is only 720p, DHD only 1080p, but Kamigami is both so comparison either way. Currently downloading Kamigami's although it's taking some time.

[eternalmetal]

I wouldnt exclude CGi from the comparison since I think theirs is better just because they didnt leave the original PGS subs like Kamigami did.  I just dont like that they cropped it for no reason, otherwise their encode looks better than Thora's to my eyes.  Thora's encode is a bit too compressed, and that color problem in the first couple of episodes really doesnt sell me on their release as the definitive version.

I got AvsPmod working so here is the comparison between CGi and Thora.  I didnt specify, but this is Coalgirl's 1080p version, I dont have their 720. 
http://compare.bakashots.me/compare.php?setId=795

Im not exactly sure, but it doesnt look like this show is worthy of 1080p.  Based on any scene ive compared, I cant see detail < 720p.  No 'loss of detail' with comparing Coalgirls and Thora, but as you can see Thora's has some compression artifacts.  These screenshots do show the color shift I was talking about earlier, so keep that in mind too.

I forget what I didnt like about Kamigami's version, but I ended up deleting it  (sorry cant help with the screens on this).  I never felt like bothering with DHD, mostly because their encodes usually arent that good.  Maybe ill look into comparing Coalgirl's 720p with Kamigami.

I know I posted about doing this myself, but logistically it would be tough considering the upload speed on my DSL.  However I am still working on it.  I retimed the subs, changed the annoying tendency of the retail subs to put line splits in lines that dont need it, and did some edits on them to reduce awkwardness and improve flow.  I am fine tuning my encode settings as well, but like I said uploading might prove to be difficult.  I will probably encode this at 720 with a higher bitrate, and of course the audio will be 24 bit instead of CGi's 16 bit.  This project will take me a while, and im not sure about the logistics of uploading it (private collection otherwise).  Anyone interested?  Ill post screens once I get the encode settings down, and a script comparison to show my changes.