I'm considering going through all the (US) Transformers series for my YouTube channel, but I need official released copies of the show and as far as I can tell shows like Generation 1 haven't been released on Blu-Ray (although the movie has) So what should I do?

 

I've never watched a Blu-Ray in my life but IMO there's nothing wrong with DVD. Shout Factory holds the distribution rights for TF right now and they've released pretty much everything in great quality, even correcting a lot of audio and visual errors for G1.

Transformers | Shout! Factory

 

Whaaaaat? Yeah, DVD is OK if there's nothing better, but you can see all the pixels with DVDs. It looks like watching illegal streams from the internet 10 years ago. I mean, I just bought everything transformers shows on DVD, but only because I waited an eternity and they did not release blu-rays. If there were a BluRay release I would never ever buy a DVD. DVDs are a 90s thing. Obsolete.

But yeah, shout factory and mad man entertainment have the best releases. I dumped my Metrodome G1 DVDs for the madman release. Definitely looks and sounds better.

 

I mean.... Beast Wars is a 90s CGI show.... I doubt a Blu-Ray transfer would help the visuals. (I still love Beast Wars. Best TF show IMO)

 

Maybe I've been conditioned by DVDs lol. They look fine to me. But then I still think VHS is acceptable too.

 

Depends on the transfer and compression. I've seen some really good DVDs upscaled on my 4K TV and others that look like garbage ("Wings: The Complete Series", I'm looking at you). When you only put a few episodes per disc, it looks fine. But shove 15 30 minute episodes on a disc and yeesh...

 

Yeah, that's probably true. I doubt they still have the source files to render it in a new resolution. But for hand drawn stuff it would be awesome to have a blu ray. I have a lot of disney and studio ghibli on BluRay and it is soooo beautiful in high resolution. As if you're seeing it for the first time truly.

Unless you have a tiny TV, than a DVD suffices.

 

Anybody remember how bad the Rhino DVDs were of G1?

Like ReBoot, another 90s CGI show, they have said that DVD is the best it will ever look.

 

Honestly, the difference in resolution between DVD and Bluray doesn't bother me when it comes to animation. Live action movies for sure, but not so much with animation.

I would be more inclined to want things on Blueray over DVD more for the sake of keeping up with the modern format than for the resolution. I had a bunch of cartoons on VCD that I could no longer watch because Blueray players won't play VCD's, like DVD players would. I had to convert it to DVD just to be able to watch it. I fear the same thing will eventually happen with DVD's.

 

Well, the larger gap you create between 480p and whatever resolution you are upconverting to, the crappier it's going to eventually look. You're basically shrinking Duplo blocks down to Nano blocks and relying on you're TV or device to fill in the gaps. Some do a better job than others. If the video is just absolutely crushed by way of compression, a DVD is just going to be practically worthless in 4K.

 

To awnser the original question, No. rescue bots never so much as got a season box set, RID 2015 got a season 1 box set but nothing else and cyberverse only got dvds in i believe either the UK or Australia.

 

The only series that would benefit from a BD release are those mastered in HD, so anything post-Animated really. G1, BW, and the earlier shows were mastered in SD so all you’d get is a poor upscale that’s no better or worse than the DVD.

They most certainly are not, what a silly thing to say. DVDs are still being manufactured and many consumers still use it as a media format over BD.

 

You could still buy VHS 20 years ago, same thing.

 

Not at all. VHS was an analog format that deteriorated over time at a far faster rate than current home media. DVD survived longer due to its durability compared to VHS.

 

The 86 Movie BluRay puts every other viewing option to shame tbh. So much crisp detail that was literally invisible on every prior version.

 

Sometimes, the "higher" quality of digital isn't actually a benefit, it really does depend on the transfer, and sometimes the lower technology can actually work in the content's favour. Live action rather than animation, I know, but I really noticed when I watched Back To The Future on DVD - it was very clear that the flame trails on the Twin Pines car park when Doc transport Einstein in the first demonstration were superimposed (some very pronounced straight edges), whereas the combination of VHS and CRT image structure fuzzed the edges enough for it to not be as noticeable.

Early Blu-Ray used the same MPEG-2 encoding as DVD, so as long as the laser can use the correct light wavelength for the disc, it will play  

 

If Shout! Factory does indeed have the current rights, I'd love for them to put out a complete G1 Blu-ray set. And maybe I'm silly, but there are other programs out there that get loving restoration such that even SD material shines when professionally up-converted. Real restoration like fixing missed edits, correcting obvious color mistakes (although this could wipe out dozens bots who exist solely due to coloring errors), synchronizing audio tracks and replacing missing effects. Sure, there is the old slap-the-broadcast master on disc method that Mill Creek and others do (or sometimes not even broadcast masters), but I'd be looking for a real reason to upgrade my Rhino discs.

The other thing I'd be looking for would be an American version of the Japanese series on Blu-ray. And I'm talking about letting the old Sunbow writers go crazy with the Japanese material and make American series 5, 6, 7 out of it. There is still a good mix of the original voice actors and more modern voice artists to provide an American audio track. I'm working my way through the Japanese episodes with subtitles and I know there are some fair/bad english dubs out there. I'm all for preserving the Japanese versions, but it would be nice to have American versions of these stories as well. They've got 3 seasons worth of animated material (featuring toys that Hasbro doens't quite sell anymore, but does occasionally try to fit into newer programs). I'm surprised Hasbro has never tried to more fully exploit this material for North America. Is it no longer worth the effort to record new audio for 4:3 material? Is the story just too heavily influenced by Japanese culture to really work as an American import? I know Harmony Gold and others grabbed lots of overseas productions and managed to mash them together where the visuals were basically the same, but the stories could be wildly different.

Or should I just enjoy the Japanese series for what they are?

 

DVDs are great. I have no problem with DVDs. DVDs are not obsolete. Everyone still uses DVDs, to the best of my knowledge, unless you specifically choose Blue Ray or downloadable content, or are watching movies and shows that are easier to find online.

 

FWIW, most the newer shows are available officially in HD, just not in physical formats. You'd have to buy them on Amazon, iTunes, or whatever. Even Animated is available, but you'll need an iTunes account for a region where Madman holds the license (i.e. Australia).

G1 BluRays would be awesome. Unfortunately they're not likely. Remember all the errors in the Rhino sets? Those were there because they used scans of the original film sources, which don't have those errors corrected. The only known source for the corrected scenes is analog video tape, which is what Shout!factory used to fix their version. The difference between (scaled-down 4K) film scans and standard def archive tape is already somewhat noticeable on DVD. In HD it would be jarringly obvious. They would have to either apply very aggressive scaling and sharpening to the taped footage, or digitally recreate the taped edits from the rescanned film.

 

I wish RID 2001 would get an official US Blu Ray/DVD release. That was a fun show.