Here’s a little sample of a difference for you.
Simply, I got bored and encoded a DVD for Quartet. There are some extreme differences between the TV broadcast on BS-i and the DVD. As you can tell, the colors are a lot better, and the image is sharper. Something you may NOT notice is mainly on the OP/ED/Eyecatches. On the BS-i raws, there were lots of rainbowing, dotcrawl, etc, which needed to be corrected and still looked weird. In here, there is nothing of the case, and it just looked beautiful.
Please note that I don’t know if/how long we’ll do this. It is off a DVDISO I found on share, and if we continue this past DVD 1, we WILL NOT encode off of anything but a DVDISO. This release is for the highest video quality possible, so we will NOT accept anything other than the highest quality. For now, please act like we will not continue doing DVD releases for Quartet.
That also means no XviD. Before you whine, think of this. XviD is a bad codec. At the same bitrate and same resolution, it creates a ton of blocks. Heck, that’s why some 704×400 h.264s can be at 120 MB, and the XviDs are at 170. There is no additional content in here, so it’s would be counter productive to create a lower quality release for comparability when you already have the TV WS for comparability. If you want higher quality, you wouldn’t be DLing XviD to begin with.
Encode is 720×480 anamorphic. Last thing – This is NOT what the DVD releases donation drive was for.
01: Here
02: Here
Though quality-wise h264/mkv is better than xvid/avi, compatibilty-wise xvid/avi is unrivaled. Remember that not everyone wants/is able to watch your releases on PC only.
Nevertheless, thanks for release. I’ll seed them both until at least 5.0.
xvid is not bad. its old
http://www.opaquelucidity.com/facepalm.jpg
There are many ways to watch h264 video on TV. Get a TV tuner card or use a game console like the ps3 to play the files.
# Cyber1 Says:
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:01 pm edit
Though quality-wise h264/mkv is better than xvid/avi, compatibilty-wise xvid/avi is unrivaled. Remember that not everyone wants/is able to watch your releases on PC only.
Nevertheless, thanks for release. I’ll seed them both until at least 5.0.
Yes, XviD/AVI is compatible. That’s why you have the WS XviDs to get. As I said, there is no additional content, so there is no benefit to doing an XviD here.
@nigga: BS. You don’t even NEED all that. All you need is to have a video card from the last 3 years, an LCD, or if you can’t affrod one, a convertor, and a freaking CABLE. If you can’t even do THAT you are either too lazy, or too stupid.
this is very good quality, MUCH better than tv rips, hopefully you can get the other dvd isos too after they are released^^ very very nice
this really has great quality! thank you! i have a question though, does this mean that the widescreen versions will be done anymore? keep up the great work guys!
For now, please act like we will not continue doing DVD releases for Quartet.
That means, we’ll still do TV WSs.
Kristen: frankly speaking, I don’t care about Quartet that much. What’s alarming is that “XviD is bad” idea you seem to have. XviD isn’t “good” or “bad”, it’s either suitable for a given purpose or not. If said “purpose” is to make your releases as popular as possible, you have to make them suitable for as many people as possible. I.e.releasing both versions.
Leaving personal opinions (good vs bad) aside, XviD/avi releases aren’t that much/significantly less popular than H264/mkv’s ATM to drop avi’s at all (see Eclipse’s torrent DL stats, for ex.). So if you decide to do mkv’s only, that’s pretty much like shooting your own foot in terms of popularity.
And no, I don’t ask for xvid of Quartet or whatever, since I watch anime mostly on my PC (I sometimes watch it on PPC that doesn’t support h264/mkv, but it’s another story). But that doesn’t mean everyone is like me. Take care.
Kristen: frankly speaking, I don’t care about Quartet that much. What’s alarming is that “XviD is bad” idea you seem to have. XviD isn’t “good” or “bad”, it’s either suitable for a given purpose or not. If said “purpose” is to make your releases as popular as possible, you have to make them suitable for as many people as possible. I.e.releasing both versions.
Leaving personal opinions (good vs bad) aside, XviD/avi releases aren’t that much/significantly less popular than H264/mkv’s ATM to drop avi’s at all (see Eclipse’s torrent DL stats, for ex.). So if you decide to do mkv’s only, that’s pretty much like shooting your own foot in terms of popularity.
And no, I don’t ask for xvid of Quartet or whatever, since I watch anime mostly on my PC (I sometimes watch it on PPC that doesn’t support h264/mkv, but it’s another story). But that doesn’t mean everyone is like me. Take care.
I’ll repeat. XviDs are done on the TV releases. It’s not like we’re dropping the on any project.
video quality looks good (from the screenshot, at least).
you’ve come a long way, kristen. ( ‘ __ ‘)b
I don´t know if Kristen or somebody else is reading this, but many of the newest realeases are stil in “Others Annoucement”.
Thx for the release as always chihiro!
But talking about the subject, how there are so many problems with h264 codec?
I mean, my old and good atlhon 3200+ venice can hold it without any trouble, the only problem i encounter is the screen resolution, it’s sd not ws (this matter isn’t relevant for quartet, since res is .
704×400, if not mistaken).
So, if the screen holds such resolution, and processor handles the video playback and decoding, what is the problem? Watching on the tv? If that is your problem, go get something like convert x to dvd and create the dvd’s with the epis, if i’m not mistaken, they will be resized to DVD quality.
Want a better solution? There are some of them, like a external hdd box capable of playback video and music (I haven’t tested one of this by myself, i can’t tell you if they are really good or not), or go get a small media center and plug it on the damn tv!
There are so many solutions out there, why so much hassle about it?
@shiroh Said: “xvid is not bad. its old”
Old for sure, but still good. – By the way, a bit out from the subject, but here in my country several fansubers still do their work using the old “rmvb” format (that is plain old, but still one of the most popular video formats around here). – I myself do prefer the xvid/avi, and regarding quility, it has not much difference if we compare with those mkv videos. – But the xvid codec is still very popular all over the world (and less “heavy”) than the h264 videos.
We all need to realize that a lot of people out there have older machines and just can’t run a heavy video format like the mkv, so, in my point of view, the xvid will keep popular all around for some more years (maybe even a decade)… Oh well, but I understand Kristen’s point of view. – Anyways, I just don’t agree that xvid is a “bad” codec format.
if theres already an Xvid for the TV release there is abselutely no need for an Xvid on the DVD release couse it wont change anything :S.
You guys need anyone to supply the DVDISOs?
So you are telling me that you have wooden pc’s rather than true pc’s?
God, get over it! I’m not telling you to get the most top notch machine, but you should consider do a serious upgrade to your computers.
It’s a WS show and have to watch them cropped to 4:3 is a real pain. I think you people have to remember this before fighting about the video format.
Anyways thanks Chihiro. Your efforts for useless leechers 🙂
what happen to Yozakura Quartet ep 7 cant find it
@Kristen: maybe I’m just over-anxious… XviDs meet a demand, so dropping them would indeed be silly. But if you decide once again to skip XviD, post separate script file (.ass or whatever) along with mkv, if there’s corresponding raw available on BT. This way anyone having raw can enjoy your translation. And having more group followers never hurts.
Oh, and BTW, “Published by Kristen on Jan 23rd, 2007 in Others Annoucement with ..” doesn’t look real enough, especially in 2009.
@Johny: you still don’t get it, do you? If I want an avi version but Chihiro don’t release it, it’s far easier for me to grab another group’s avi rather than bothering with reencodes of Chihiro’s mkv. Therefore that “another” group gets what Chihiro would get instead (appreciacion, popularity, longer lifetime of a release through BT or other P2P means etc.)
Besides, why would I change my TV/DVD player combo if it’s working? And the same applies to PCs. It’s what they call “practical’, you know.
@Mizore90: http://www.tokyotosho.com, torrents #171360 (avi) & 171336 (mkv). Quite alive.
But if you decide once again to skip XviD, post separate script file (.ass or whatever) along with mkv, if there’s corresponding raw available on BT. This way anyone having raw can enjoy your translation. And having more group followers never hurts.
Why don’t you get it? THERE ARE XVIDS OUT THERE ALREADY! It’s on a TV source, and there’s NOTHING NEW on here other than video quality.
Hmm – so the much higher res WS isn’t as good as the tiny SD DVD res?
HD raws are still that bad in general? (Yes that’s a question, not a statement)
Oh well, I still hate DVDs coz they are only SD (or even smaller, when letterboxed) and should die ASAP.
@Kano: are you an idiot? You would preffer and UPSCALED blurry “HD” raw, then a very good SD DVD rip? Are you blind?
i can’t tell the difference between the two pictures??
@Cyber1
If you want xvid that badly, then you have only one option avaiable (errr, in fact, two): or you download the chihiro release and you re encode it to be xvid (it’s a pain in the ass I know, I made it a couple of times and it’s bothersome), or you go elsewhere download the xvid.
About the hardware, I only said that because you must realize when a computer got too old, sometimes an upgrade is really needed (since I saw somebody trying to watch a h264 mkv movie in a MMX processor and told me that mkv is crappy because it won’t run, I always say to pay attention to their hardware and how up-to-date it is).
@kano
I have no idea where you got that truly wrong idea, because I’ve tested myself the difference between ws and sd, and as far far as I’ve tested, is ws far nore better than sd.
Got your doubts? OK, grab a ws screen and see for yourself. If you are trying to watch a ws in a sd screen, then you are wasting your time downloading ws,
@Rob
I told that to myself at first, but after I’ve opened each image in a different tab and switched over and over between the two image and there are very different (try looking for image color and sharpeness, if you know what I mean),
*more
Sorry for the mistype, but typing when I wake up is like a walking disaster xD
where is Asu no Yoichi 3??????
@Kristen: At first I thought that they’re different when I read “There are .. extreme differences between the TV .. and the DVD” but when you said there was no additional content, the question was no more. Don’t worry, be happy =)
Besides, I can’t care less about Quartet, as I already said, whether it’s avi or mkv. Probably I won’t even watch it, and if I someday will, I’ll get DVD-rips anyway. I’m speaking of all XviDs in general because “XviD is bad” idea is just wrong. I like the way Chihro make their releases and I simply want them to be more popular. Two versions will help it, one version will harm it. That’s all.
BTW, you could add links to corresponding Quartet avi versions in post above (that’d give them some more leechers -> seeders).
And how about branching comments? That overquoting (moreover, non-formatted) makes replies hard to read.
@Johny: I rarely watch anime on anything besides my PC. So whether avis exist or not isn’t _my_ problem. Chihiro could profit off them, but that (again) isn’t _my_ problem.
As for “options”.. My “option” is to get raw of ongoing show (which happens to be xvid/avi in most cases), watch/listen to it, understand something, get an .ass/srt script (if it comes out) or mkv (if it doesn’t) and watch it again to understand the rest. Then whatever release I think is best gets upped to an anime server of my ISP’s LAN (latter of ~10k users’ scale). That’s my way of learning Japanese and helping others to do the same =)
@Cyber1
That’s a good way to learn japanese (i learned some things by ear too), but notice one thing you don’t need to download the raw and then the mkv release, chihiro releases are always softsub (as far as I know), you can watch it first without subtitles, and after that, you can select subtitles adn watch it again.
How you do this? Very simple, if you are in xp or vista look for a little green arrow in the system tray when you are playing the file (assuming that you are using media player classic or similar), in there after you click with the right mouse a column of options appears, there is an option about subs, deselect it and you watch a raw, without being a raw!
If you are in a linux system or mac, in the player look with the right click in your player window for the subtitles option, and then deactivate them.
Easy huh? No need to down the same thing twice!
PS: If the question is not exactly this, please clarify me about it.
@Johny: I’m on 2003 Server ) And I use Media Player Classic Homecinema from K-Lite. It has “Navigate” menu with “Subtitle Language..” list, where one can easily switch subtitles. As for raws, first: they’re almost always on the BT way before subtitled version appears (especially true with Chihiro) – what’s important for ongoing series, and
second: English isn’t my native language, so I use external subtitles in my language, and English subs (especially hardsubs) aren’t of much use in this case. What type of video gets to my LAN depends first on the video quality, and only then on subtitle quality. Even so, I prefer Chihiro releases for mkvs, I’m grateful to Chihiro for their work and I’d like to be of use to them (hence my advice to continue doing XviDs). Anyway, we’re way offtopic already, so I feel like stopping this. Hope you understand.
@Cyber1
Just one thing, check out mkv toolnix: http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/downloads.html
@ all you fools:
Stop your bickering already, if you want something in a specific file type then convert it yourself, it doesn’t take that long.
LOL – as I said, it was a question!
I watch on a PC, HDMI to 42″ 1080p TV (1920×1080) or on a 2nd PC with a 21″ screen (1680×1050)
These DVD images are from 400p (SD DVD but also letterboxed)
Basically, some people are saying that either none of the TV raws are better than 400p or are upscaled from something similar to DVD SD? (and thus of course would not be better)
Even a true 720p has 1.8 times as many lines as a 400p – so I guess the 720p would have to be pretty poor image quality or upscaled from something pretty low, to be considered worse than 400p
DVD images are 720×480, which gets stretched to 853×480. Not 704×400. We CAN downscale to 704×400, but I’m not going to for this series.
The BS-i raws are 1440×1080. We tried 1280×720, 1024×576, and 704×400, and it is REALLY a terrible source. 1280×720 was impossible. 1024×576 would be possible if I was a better encode when I started those. 704×400 was the only option.