Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

[o.supreme]

I purchased my first DVD in 1998, and I'll still purchase them today if it's the only format available. I still have hundreds of them. I've upgraded on very few things because it's really not necessary ( mostly Kaiju releases incidentally) I still don't have the OT Star Wars or MCU phase 1 on BRD ( except Avengers was my first MCU Blu-Ray).

While I have replaced all my VHS ( again except for a large box of Kaiju VHS I have in my closet), I won't be doing the same with DVD. They go right beside Blu-Ray on my media shelves and it all looks good

[Lecontinentperdu]

I keep all my DVD, I never double dip (only when the dvd is really awful and the movie really significant for me), I still buy dvd when no BR is available and I don't put BR on a pedestal (I've seen more than once a movie looking worse on a BR than on it's dvd counterpart). But I go with BR most of the time nowadays and cringe when a new release is dvd only. As for those releases, since it's sd, a dvd will do. And it was shot on video, so it must not look good anyway. Tv on video is ugly as a rule...

[tbeasley]

Nerds when their niche market Japanese superhero show gets a DVD only release -

[gvamp]

I'm a little disappointed that these won't be BD releases but I understand. That being said once the BDs do come out I'll just give this DVD releases to my nephews or sell them to a collector for cheap. I'm hoping Mill Creek works out a new deal to get the newer stuff too.

[o.supreme]

So... we know what all is coming through December 2021. What is left as part of the current MC/TPC Deal?

Ultraman Zearth (2 Movies)
Ultraman Neos (TV Series)
Ultraman Cosmos (TV Series) (+ 3 Movies)
Ultraman The Next (Movie) & Nexus (TV Series)
Ultraman Max (TV Series)
Ultraman Mebius (TV Series) (+2 Movies) (+3 OVA)
Ultraseven X (TV Series)

*Keith did also say that Ultraman Kids was part of the deal. I'm guessing it will be the 1991 TV series, since the older films probably aren't part of it.

Still, I believe this should fill out 2022 nicely, It will be amazing to finally have most of the Ultraman universe in some form released domestically.

[tbeasley]

According to this guide here's everything else they have -

Series: Ultraman Kids: 30 Million Light Years Looking for Mama (1991–1992)
Movie: Ultraman Zearth (1996)
Movie: Ultraman Zearth 2: Superman Big Battle - Light and Shadow (1997)
Series: Ultraman Neos (2000–2001)
Series: Ultraman Cosmos (2001–2002)
Movie: Ultraman Cosmos: The First Contact (2001)
Movie: Ultraman Cosmos 2: The Blue Planet (2003)
Movie: Ultraman Cosmos vs. Ultraman Justice: The Final Battle (2003)
Movie: Ultraman: The Next (2004)
Series: Ultraman Nexus (2004–2005)
Series: Ultraman Max (2005–2006)
Series: Ultraman Mebius (2006–2007)
Movie: Ultraman Mebius & Ultraman Brothers (2006)
Special: Ultraman Mebius: Hikari Saga (2007)
Series: Ultraseven X (October 2007–December 2007)
Special: Ultraman Mebius: Armored Darkness (2008)
Movie: Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers (2008)
Special: Ultraman Mebius: Ghost Reverse (2009)
Series: Ultraman Zero: The Chronicle (compilation) (2017)

[o.supreme]

ok, so basically the exact same list. I just listed them in an order that they will *hopefully* be bundled together, except for that last Zero chronicle series. I have no interest in recap stuff of series and movies already released.

[gvamp]

I wonder how long it'll be before Tsuburaya releases proper HD masters for all the DVD stuff coming out? I'd assume next year for Ultraman 80 since we've heard a few pages back that HD versions of that show are airing over in Japan now. I'm surprised that they didn't do a reissue for Tiga this year since it's the 25th anniversary and all.

[Terasawa]

As far as any of us here know, the shows from Tiga through Mebius can't be reissued in high definition because of the way they were originally shot.

[Angilasman]

Now, there are some promising experiments using AI to make a higher detail picture from an SD source, but we're probably several years away from that tech being ready and implemented on, say, old sitcom reruns.

[omgitsgodzilla]

That stuff is interesting, but I'm iffy on its implementation on official releases of things that never actually existed at such high resolution. I don't necessarily think it's a slippery slope that's going to lead to everything being reissued interpolated to 60fps, for example, but I'm dubious on it for a lot of the same reasons.

[o.supreme]

So... I keep seeing comments about how TPC Ultraman Tiga/Dyna/Gaia BRD were just "upscales", is that basically the same as SD on BRD? if so, advertising it as true BRD seems a little disingenuous on the part of TPC, unless it is actually something different.

Also, I'm sure my viewing standards are not nearly as high as some experts here, but I thought Ultra Galaxy (shot on video) looked great on the recent Mill Creek Blu Ray, I wouldn't mind if we got everything from Tiga-Mebius on BRD and it looked just as good.

[goji1986]

So... I keep seeing comments about how TPC Ultraman Tiga/Dyna/Gaia BRD were just "upscales", is that basically the same as SD on BRD? if so, advertising it as true BRD seems a little disingenuous on the part of TPC, unless it is actually something different.

No. The shows were "upscaled", as in the pixels were stretched from standard definition to high definition (I am over simplifying this, as I'm sure there was some computing/algorithm involved to sharpen the resulting image).

Also, I'm sure my viewing standards are not nearly as high as some experts here, but I thought Ultra Galaxy (shot on video) looked great on the recent Mill Creek Blu Ray, I wouldn't mind if we got everything from Tiga-Mebius on BRD and it looked just as good.

Ultra Galaxy was shot on HIGH DEFINITION video, therefore it was natively HD and well suited for the bluray format.

[omgitsgodzilla]

Upscaling at its simplest is basically like pasting a small image onto a large canvas in a photo editor and just blowing it up to fill the canvas. When you save the result, you have a file that contains many times more pixels, but only the same small amount of actual information. You can use various effects to sharpen the image or basically guess what the detail would look like in that higher resolution, but the results can be pretty variable, and might not be worth all the extra space the upscaled version takes up.

[o.supreme]

Thanks for the responses. So does anyone know when exactly the Ultra series switched from Video to HD Video? I know the theatrical films scan still get BRD releases, but I'd love to at least see Mebius on BRD if that is possible.

[goji1986]

Thanks for the responses. So does anyone know when exactly the Ultra series switched from Video to HD Video? I know the theatrical films scan still get BRD releases, but I'd love to at least see Mebius on BRD if that is possible.

I believe Mebius was the last Ultra series produced on SD Video. Ultraseven X was the first to shoot in HD.

[tbeasley]

Finally have all seven Showa SteelBooks and can feel the Ultra energy surging through my veins.

[Angilasman]

Thanks for the responses. So does anyone know when exactly the Ultra series switched from Video to HD Video? I know the theatrical films scan still get BRD releases, but I'd love to at least see Mebius on BRD if that is possible.

I believe Mebius was the last Ultra series produced on SD Video. Ultraseven X was the first to shoot in HD.

Didn't Kamen Rider use HD video starting with Kuuga?

[goji1986]

I don’t really know anything about KR. The question was about the Ultra-series.

[Angilasman]

^ Oh, just wondering aloud. I read last year that the decision to film Kuuga on HD video put a strain on production at the time because it meant the monster costumes needed to be way more detailed. Kuuga came out in Jan '00 and Ultraseven X near the end of '07, which would mean KR transitioned about 8 years before Ultraman!

Come to think of it; since the two seasons previous (Kamen Rider Black and RX) were shot on film in the late '80s that must mean no Rider series was even shot on standard definition?

Weird how there's this funky period from the '80s to the early '00s were a lot of TV shows will just look kind of archaic, when stuff like The Twilight Zone and Batman '66 look like they were filmed yesterday.