**Updates:**
1. This is a proof of concept release for the hopefully definitive v3 of the Level Sets for episodes 1-39 - and to show you that I'm still alive. There are several changes, tweaks, and updates for this version, as listed below. Assuming there are no major issues, I will release all of 1-39 within the next month.
2. All video is newly encoded from raw Level Sets with NEPs added in from the R2J Dragon Box (previous releases were a re-encode). In addition, the video has been re-timed to match the Dragon Box for ease of synchronization. This has the bonus effect of allowing me to create a version of 1-39 that uses the R2J Dragon Box as a video source. Grain has been kept from the original release.
3. All episodes contain the higher quality JPN Broadcast Audio as released by AnimeMaakuo. Episodes 1-5 use the cleaned-up audio provided by Evoshare. Unless he or she releases more audio, 6+ will feature my own sync.
4. The Saban/Ocean track has been once again re-timed and cleaned up to provide smoother transitions between track elements. New themes for Eyecatches and NEPs have been created from original soundtrack elements.
***
*These episodes are compiled from the following sources. Unless otherwise specified, I am the original encoder for all elements:*
**Video:** 4x3 1080p R1/US Level Sets - *from raw Blu-Rays*
**Audio - 5 tracks:**
1. Japanese Mono Broadcast Audio (FLAC) - *as originally released by AnimeMaakuo, 1-5 retimed by Evoshare, 6+ retimed by me*
2. English 2007 5.1 FUNimation "Remastered" Dub w/Shunsuke Kikuchi score (AC3) - *from the R1/US Dragon Box*
3. English 2005 2.0 FUNimation "Ultimate Uncut" Dub w/Nathan Johnson score (AAC) - *from the Level Set Blu-Rays*
4. English 1996 2.0 Saban/Ocean Dub (AAC) - *A re-creation of the original English dub, custom made by me, with gaps filled in with the FUNi/Kikuchi dub in an attempt to create a relatively seamless nostalgic viewing experience. Sourced from the "Rock The Dragon" DVD Set*
5. Japanese DVD Audio (AC3) - *from the R2J Dragon Box*
[MediaInfo](https://pastebin.com/1dBCf4gY)
oh man, now that you got the remastered audio once this is finished it'll really be the best release. i'm looking forward to following this, even if it takes a few years. thanks.
Great up. Wouldn't voiceless tracks (+ subs) have possibly been better for the Ocean Dub missing parts rather than use the FUNimation Dub? People who aren't aware of the difference might get confused which is which due to the voices and music difference.
This is awesome! I also love that you're also making an R2J Dragon Box version as well. It sucks that the Levels were never done, but going from the Level footage to the Dragon Box footage was such a huge jump for me with your last batch, so I'll probably end up grabbing both.
If he was also using the uncompressed Level episodes they'd certainly look a lot better than the compressed ones, you can always see some compression flaws due to wanting it at a smaller size. Level episodes 035-039 are available in high quality, which were capped from Xbox LIVE Video.
I have 11TB of space so I don't have to rely on compressed files unless it's the only version really available.
@Super_Saiyan_Lusitano the point of the Ocean track is to smoothly blend in with the FUNi dub so it's not as noticeable (this becomes even more necessary during the latter part of the season where Saban was obviously slicing out whatever parts of the Goku/Vegeta fight that they could to end the season at 26 episodes). Saban didn't just cut out entire scenes - they cut out pieces of conversations and shots to such a ridiculous degree that it's actually incredibly impressive from an editing standpoint that the Saban/Ocean episodes make any sense at all. If I didn't try to blend the dubs together it would be a choppy nightmare and a royal PITA to do subs for. If someone wants the "uncut" Ocean Dub, there's another torrent here that has that.
I believe what Silverldaten is referring to is less a comment about my compression and more about the sudden quality shift from Level Set to Dragon Box in general. At any rate the bitrate of this release is almost 4 times the bitrate of my v2 release, so I think it's a lot better. If we're all lucky the new FUNi remasters will make this issue obsolete.
@iKaos
Yep, I understood that but it would've been better to provide the uncompressed video files so we'd get the best video quality (until the 30th DBZ Blu-ray release is out).Although, some might complain "it's too darn big!".
Edit: How do you plan on including the Westwood dub? By making a similar "uncut" version? Even though that's not quite ideal it'd still be great.
@iKaos Your job is really great. But I noticed a mistake. It's not really yours, it's Evoshare's. The audio used for the opening is CHALA HEAD-CHALA (TV Size) opening from the CD. But there's a reason people never use this source in their release. It is different from the actual opening, because there is a (water flowing?) noise added in the beginning of the opening when the DBZ logo appears on the screen.
I tried to add the noise to the CD version, but I don't have a good software that can properly isolate the noise. I ended up with a slightly different noise, since some of the opening song (from the broadcast audio) was added along the noise with the opening song of the CD. It seemed like there was an airplane flying by. lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOoJ_ctAnrE
I believe someone with a good software like Sony SpectraLayers Pro can solve this problem and then we can have an actual good and legit stereo opening.
@Super_Saiyan_Lusitano Yeah don't get me wrong, I have like 5 versions of this show in ISO and RAW format, so I get wanting to have the source. Maybe when I have time (lol) I'll do a simple remux of the Level Sets as they are and throw them up here.
I have zero attachment to the Westwood dub and did not collect any of the higher quality sources that used to be on Kametsu before it imploded (EDIT: the link on your episode 276 is the one I remember from Kametsu, so there's that). Since it lines up with the original FUNi dub, it might not be any extra effort for me to do it. If someone went ahead and synced any version to the R2J in the upcoming months, then that takes the work out of it for me and I would easily include it.
@Romao I actually noticed that, and wasn't sure if Evoshare just took out the "whoosh" noise or what, but what you say makes sense. In the ones that I've done I just leave the broadcast audio as-is and haven't subbed out the songs for higher quality ones. I'd like to know if this bothers people enough where I would just use my synced BA instead of Evoshares for 1-5. Personally I think there's little point in having a legit stereo Opening when the rest of the episode is only fake stereo.
Which actually brings me to another thought, for anyone - is there any negative to me taking the "stereo" BA and dropping it back down to mono? I've always been under the impression that all of DB (except most of GT) is in mono, and that the "stereo" BA is just the mono channel duplicated. I don't want to get called out for "compressing" the BA if I drop it to mono though.
@Densetsu changes are listed in the description, but it's video and audio.
@ronin559 My goal is one release that has the dubs/BA with the best possible video source. If the remasters come out and they're actually good quality (and somebody ups them), then I'll use them. If not, I'll still use the R2J. If I do end up using the remasters, I will not start over on Season 1 again until after I've done everything else since this release is already pretty good.
Please do not remove that "woosh" sound from the opening. I actually love it. And thank you for this release. Will you alse release 1-39 v3 batch at the end just like before or will you just upload in parts this time?
Edit: Oh, wow. I just noticed the size of the files. More Bitrate!
@ iKaos
I had access to the old Kametsu and the "remastered" versions were somehow lower quality than the TVRips themselves so I just went with the TVRips instead. Hope that you do an 'uncut' Westwood dub with the Dragon Box Z footage. Looking forward to that. :)
He said that's his plan but he'll use the R1 Dragon Boxes Z source than the Japanese Dragon Box Z. The US Dboxes are really good but the JP are even better.
Still, since he uses compressed releases the difference between using the US and JP Dragon Box Z would be minor whereas lossless that'd make a difference. If this was a semi-lossless release then the batches could reach as high as 40 ~ 60 GB than just around 10 GB-ish.
@ab8895 I'm going to release the whole thing as a batch - this release is basically just a test.
@Super_Saiyan_Lusitano Actually since the better BA came out I've decided on using the R2Js as sources. One of the reasons why I've gone back to re-release the older stuff before continuing.
@Densetsu These episodes are R2J synced, while the old ones were actually synced to the WinXBloom1980 BA release (which is basically the level set with a gap before the NEP is pasted on).
@ iKaos
Do you plan on releasing lossless audio files of the "Uncut" Ocean Dub, that is, if there's really an improvement over the lossy one?
By the way, FUNi dubbed some of the Z NEPs but they're kind of hard to find.
@Super_Saiyan_Lusitano My Ocean track, while not lossless, is in the same bitrate as the original (256kb/s). Is there a benefit to releasing the original audio by itself? As far as I know you can still find the Rock The Dragon set on this site, if that's what you want.
I have as many NEPs as I could find from Kametsu and YouTube, and a few from the Internet Archive. It's nowhere near complete though but I'm not waiting until they surface when to do those episodes.
@iKaos are you planning on releasing the updated S1 episodes in packs a few at a time or do you plan on releasing them all at once
reguardless, they look and sound awsome very much appreciate your work
iKaos, can you release all of the audio tracks in the best quality possible whether lossless or lossy?
For example, "English 2005 2.0 FUNimation “Ultimate Uncut” Dub w/Nathan Johnson score" this could be lossless because the source are the Level Set Blu-rays so it's a bit disappointing you're doing it on AAC.
It's not for me but others who enjoy these dubs so they'll get them in high quality.
@Super_Saiyan_Lusitano I'm using the AC3 core as a base, which is encoded at 192kb/s, mainly for space reasons, since I feel like these episodes are already up there in terms of bloat. Because I have to manually sync that particular track, I end up ecoding to AAC at the same bitrate. It feels weird to me to have the 2.0 English track at a higher bitrate (FLAC) than the AC3 5.1 track. I also started this batch before I had access to a lossless encode for episodes 75+, so I was keeping it lower for consistency. If there is other demand for it, I will consider using the lossless source or a higer bitrate encode of it.
@gokuz I've been using the same RTD theme since my v2 encode - it's straight from the Budokai disc with no added compression. I don't think there's anything I can do about it. As for Evoshare I'm abandoning it after this so it'll be gone when I release the full batch.
personally id like the 2.0 english tracks in flac, if you wouldnt mind linking them to me i could just mux them in myself, you dont seem all that interested in adding them and its not my release so
@iKaos I love the releases you are doing. Made an account so I can show my support. I can't wait for more. I am eagerly awaiting your v3 season 1 release as well as anything else that comes up. I hope you continue this because as far as I know, this seems to be the ultimate collection for DBZ.
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