Question about Evangelion Platinum. Is it actually redone?

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Ozreth
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Question about Evangelion Platinum. Is it actually redone?

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Postby Ozreth » Thu Jun 21, 2012 2:08 pm

Hi there,

So I haven't watched Evangelion since the '90's. My girlfriend recently bought me the Platinum set and while the packaging itself is beautiful I've got a question. After watching a bit I definitely notice more of a vibrance in the colors. Was the show redone at all? Were things added? Or is it a new transfer from the original but with a better machine?

In other words, is it a hashed up money milker or am I now seeing the REAL Evangelion that didn't transfer well back then because of a lack of technology?

*Also, I've never watched it to the end, so no spoilers!

Also, first post, hello all :)

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Postby The Eva Monkey » Thu Jun 21, 2012 2:48 pm

The booklets in the original Platinum release detail quite a few things about the "Renewal" project, the original Japanese remastered release that Platinum is based off of.

http://www.evamonkey.com/platinum-booklets/

Specifically, this entry explains the video remastering process:

http://www.evamonkey.com/platinum-booklets/renewal-of-the-footage.php

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Postby Ozreth » Thu Jun 21, 2012 3:40 pm

Ohh I see. Thanks!

So, if I read that correctly, I am right in thinking that they simply took the original art/slides/whatever and just did another transfer with better technology that enables us to watch it as it was actually drawn/colored?

I guess I'm just biased towards the old grainy look, and am kind of a purest with this kind of stuff. But if this was the "actual vision" then I guess that's as pure as it gets :p

Is there a version that people generally prefer watching for whatever reason?

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Postby svenge » Thu Jun 21, 2012 6:15 pm

In short, the consensus is heavily tilted towards the Platinum version. Every release worldwide (VHS, LD, and DVD) before the Platinum/Renewal version was put out in 2003 was based on the same video master that had terrible color fidelity, telecine wobble, and nasty editing of the jump-cuts that had visible splice marks. The US releases were even worse because Gainax sent ADV crap-tastic copies of the master, which made their pre-Platinum releases look like ass.

Of course, another part of what plays into the preference for the Platinum is that the original US releases (both VHS and DVD) by ADV replaced all the full-screen text slates (e.g. episode title screens, the "next episode preview", etc.) with English text, and added burnt-in subtitles for Japanese on-screen text that was part of the animation. For the Platinum version, soft-subs were used in all instances instead.

Before you chalk it up to "Japanese releases = good, US releases = bad", I own both a set of Japanese pre-Renewal DVDs and the US Platinum DVDs, and I far prefer watching the latter. It's not even in the same ballpark in terms of visual representation.

Here's a relative scale of all the US and Japanese DVD releases of the series:

Japanese Renewal - 10
US Platinum (6-disc thinpak box) - 9
US Platinum (original 7-disc singles release / "Holiday Edition" brick) - 8.5
Japanese pre-Renewal singles - 5
US pre-Platinum Director's Cut discs - 4.5
US pre-Platinum original release (Vol. 1 MOFC version + Vol. 2-8) - 2.5
US pre-Platinum original release (Vol. 1 AIX version) - 1

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Postby Ozreth » Thu Jun 21, 2012 6:58 pm

Gotcha! That's some good info/insight right there. So in short, I'm watching what was intended to be watched from the get go. The original versions lost a lot of quality during their transfer/transition. They didn't recolor or add anything to it.

Also, was anything edited out (nudity, blood, language etc) of any of the NA versions? Or are they all true to the Japanese releases? I know the show dosen't feature much of this anyways.

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Postby svenge » Fri Jun 22, 2012 1:10 am

View Original PostOzreth wrote:Gotcha! That's some good info/insight right there. So in short, I'm watching what was intended to be watched from the get go. The original versions lost a lot of quality during their transfer/transition. They didn't recolor or add anything to it.

Also, was anything edited out (nudity, blood, language etc) of any of the NA versions? Or are they all true to the Japanese releases? I know the show dosen't feature much of this anyways.


No edits have been made.

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Postby robin007bond » Sun Jul 01, 2012 4:46 pm

The EVAGeeks wiki states that the Japanese Renewal is better than the Platinum Edition, but I can't find anything about why it's better.

Is it the difference between NTSC-J and NTSC?

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Postby Ornette » Sun Jul 01, 2012 5:06 pm

Bitrate encoded on the DVD. I can't remember what the numbers were exactly, someone posted it somewhere.

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Postby svenge » Sun Jul 01, 2012 6:30 pm

View Original Postrobin007bond wrote:The EVAGeeks wiki states that the Japanese Renewal is better than the Platinum Edition, but I can't find anything about why it's better.

Is it the difference between NTSC-J and NTSC?.


The JP Renewal discs have a higher video bitrate and are progressively-encoded.

Here's a rough outline of the bitrates for the various releases (including their audio tracks, which take up ~1 mbps unless otherwise noted)...

JP Renewal: 8 mbps
JP pre-Renewal: 7-8 mbps (with only 1x 192kbps audio track)
US Platinum Thinpak: 6-7 mbps
US Platinum singles: 5-7 mbps (depending on which volume and how many episodes / bonus features are on a given disc)
US pre-Renewal: 6 mbps

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Postby Stryker » Sun Jul 01, 2012 9:31 pm

Svenge, y u hav so mch info bot dis?
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Postby robin007bond » Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:31 pm

View Original Postsvenge wrote:The JP Renewal discs have a higher video bitrate and are progressively-encoded.

Here's a rough outline of the bitrates for the various releases (including their audio tracks, which take up ~1 mbps unless otherwise noted)...

JP Renewal: 8 mbps
JP pre-Renewal: 7-8 mbps (with only 1x 192kbps audio track)
US Platinum Thinpak: 6-7 mbps
US Platinum singles: 5-7 mbps (depending on which volume and how many episodes / bonus features are on a given disc)
US pre-Renewal: 6 mbps

Thanks! I'm thinking of buying the Japanse dvd's. Hmm..

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Postby transcendent12 » Tue Jul 03, 2012 3:21 pm

Not easy... the main series will take some hunting down. And renewal of death/rebirth/end of evangelion DTS collectors edition will set you back 90 dollars by itself. And it's not in english...

At the moment I am, remuxing video from italian DTS collectors through various post processing filters (cause frankly, the ZX end of evangelion looks better than the source in some cases but I'm not really satisfied with a 1.3gb mkv). So that video + 1.5mbps DTS Japanese audio stream, + english subtitles from the english release + english commentary.

Re-encode all that to a DVD-9 and I'm done...pain in the ass. Probably going to just take the piss and release it in blu ray next year or something as well ><

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Postby svenge » Tue Jul 03, 2012 8:05 pm

View Original PostStryker wrote:Svenge, y u hav so mch info bot dis?


I own all the pre-Renewal Japanese DVDs, a little bit of the Japanese Renewal releases, and all of the American DVDs (Platinum and otherwise).

robin007bond wrote:Thanks! I'm thinking of buying the Japanse dvd's. Hmm..


The easiest way would be to buy some used copies from here:

Original (pre-Renewal) TV Volumes 1-7 (KIBA-1 ~ 7, currently out of stock)
Original (re-Renewal) Death[True]² + Rebirth & The End of Evangelion (KIBA-105)

Renewal TV Volumes 1-8 (KIBA-1001 ~ 8)
Renewal Death[True]² & The End of Evangelion (KIBA-1009)
Renewal Death[True]² & The End of Evangelion DTS Collector's Edition (KIBA-1209)

Most of the harder-to-find stuff in my Evangelion video collection was bought from the Rakuten storefront I've linked to. They ship internationally (via EMS) so you don't have to mess with proxy services or anything.

While the items are described merely as "used", the items I've bought always were in excellent condition. It's likely that the Japanese collectors are just more meticulous/careful than us Westerners.


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