When One More Time was released in late 2000 and I first saw the music video on MTV (at that time MTV was still showing music videos), I was blown away. One of my favorite bands (Daft Punk) created a Japanese animation-style music video, matching the visuals of one of my favorite TV shows as a kid - Queen Millennia (新竹取物語・1000年女王). I couldn't wait for the collaboration to finish and when Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem (インターステラ5555) was finally released in 2003, one of the first things I did was buying a ticket to watch it on the big screen in my local movie theater.
When the DVD was released in end 2003 in Europe, of course it was an instant buy for me. However, when I put the DVD into my Pioneer Drive in my computer, I couldn't believe what I saw: Interlacing all over the place ! No progressive mode to be found anywhere - clearly the European customers must have been ripped off.
So, my search began and several months later a shipment from Amazon Japan arrived - with the Japanese DVD Special Edition. Super excited I started to watch, what I thought had to be a good version of that movie (clearly the Japanese special edition could only be better than the euro version - or so I thought). Only again, this was a badly mastered, interlaced version. Again, a disappointment.
Years later, just by accident I saw the Interstella 5555 Blu-ray (BD), in my local record store at discount, and grabbed this version. My hopes where not high this time, and even then, whoever produced this was able to disappoint me again. The PAL BD version looked like an upscale of the PAL DVD version - unbelievable.
As I saw the movie in the theater many, many years ago, I actually can't remember the quality of the movie in the theater - meaning I actually don't really know if it was a blown-up version with a soft, pixelated look or not - but surely, I remember that I didn't feel the movie theater version looked bad in any way. Nevertheless, I also think I have read or heard somewhere (sorry no source), that Interstella 5555 was actually only produced in a SD format. If my memory serves me correct, Toei Animation was already using digital animation tools at that time and only the drawing sketches where produced with real pen and paper, while the animations were drawn in SD resolution.
So below find a comparison of the disks I own, and also a verdict for which is the best (of the worst).
.jpg)
200 sec. sample of the PAL DVD
- Resolution: 720x576
- Display Size: 768x576
- Frame Rate: 25
- Duration: 01:05:12.000
- No. of Frames: 97800
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings : CustomMatrix / BVOP
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Custom
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=12
Format settings, picture structure : Frame
Codec ID : V_MPEG2
Codec ID/Info : MPEG 1 or 2 Video
Duration : 1 h 5 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 7 013 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 7 800 kb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.676
Stream size : 3.19 GiB
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
.jpg)
200 sec. sample of the NTSC J DVD
- Resolution: 720x480
- Display Size: 640x480 (720x540)
- Frame Rate: 29.970030
- Duration: 01:05:11.9740000
- No. of Frames: 117242
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings : CustomMatrix / BVOP
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Custom
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=12
Format settings, picture structure : Frame
Codec ID : V_MPEG2
Codec ID/Info : MPEG 1 or 2 Video
Duration : 1 h 5 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 6 718 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 7 800 kb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.649
Stream size : 3.06 GiB
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
.jpg)
200 sec. sample of the NTSC US DVD
- Resolution: 720x480
- Display Size: 640x480 (720x540)
- Frame Rate: 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
- Duration: tbd
- No. of Frames: tbd
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings : CustomMatrix / BVOP
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Custom
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=12
Format settings, picture structure : Frame
Codec ID : V_MPEG2
Codec ID/Info : MPEG 1 or 2 Video
Duration : 1 h 5 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 7 123 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 7 800 kb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.688
Time code of first frame : 10:00:00;00
Time code source : Group of pictures header
GOP, Open/Closed : Open
Stream size : 3.24 GiB (84%)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
.jpg)
- Resolution: 1920x1080 (seems to be an upscale from the PAL DVD or from the pan-and-scan 4:3 PAL master)
- Display Size: 1920x1080
- Frame Rate: 25
- Duration: 01:05:35.0400000
- No. of Frames: 98376
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 4 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=24
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1 h 5 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 22.7 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate : 30.0 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Standard : Component
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : MBAFF
Scan type, store method : Interleaved fields
Scan order : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.438
Stream size : 10.4 GiB
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
.jpg)
200 sec. sample of the NTSC BD
- Resolution: 1920x1080
- Display Size: 1920x1080
- Frame Rate: 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
- Duration: 01:05:34.973
- No. of Frames: 94345
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 4 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=24
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1 h 5 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 17.5 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate : 28.0 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.352
Stream size : 8.01 GiB
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
.jpg)
200 sec. sample of the EUR UMD
- Resolution: 720×480
- Display Size: 720x540
- Frame Rate: 29.970
- Duration: 01:07:57.941000
- No. of Frames: 122173
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L3
Format settings : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 2 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1 h 7 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 2 003 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 8 000 kb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 59.940 (60000/1001) FPS
Original frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan type, store method : Separated fields
Scan order : Bottom Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.097
Stream size : 974 MiB
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Full
- Based on the interlacing comparison the PAL BD seems to be an upscale from the PAL DVD or of a pan-and-scan 4:3 PAL master with simple frame blending as "deinterlacing".
- The PAL BD and NTSC BD are cropped at the top and bottom compared to the PAL DVD. Both croppings are the same.
- The NTSC (J) DVD is cropped at the top and bottom compared to the PAL DVD.
- PAL BD and NTSC BD seem to have been mastered from the same source, as they have the exact same cropping.
- The NTSC (J) DVD seems to be produced using a 3:2 pull down Telecine conversion from 24 frames/s to ~29.97 frame/s.
- No version is using progessive frames unfortunately (except for one video on the Daft Clup Promo - see further below for details).
- The UMD (PSP) version seems to have a similar cropping to the PAL BD & NTSC BD version.
- The UMD (PSP) version, the PAL BD version and the NTSC BD versio are the only ones having the subtitles in the beginning burnt into the video, making me believe all these versions were mastered at the same time.
- The PAL DVD version seems to be the "best" version as it retains the most image information - due to having no or the smallest cropping of all versions and also having approx 20% (or 96 additional lines) higher vertical resolution then the NTSC (J) DVD.
- The PAL DVD has a slightly higher Bits/(Pixel x Frame) value compared to the NTSC (J) DVD, meaning that it has less compression and in theory a picture more true to the original. In reality however the difference is so small and neglectable that it would be impossible to spot a difference.
- The PAL BD and the UMD seem to have a slightly brighter and warmer color grading compared to DVD versions.
- NTSC BD seems to be a tid brighter then the PAL BD.
The EUR UMD and PAL BD / NTSC BD have the biggest cropping, the NTSC (J) DVD has minor cropping, the PAL DVD has the least or no cropping and sometimes has 3-4 pixels of black bars at the top and bottom, which indicates the full movie frame was scanned with slight savety margin (no cropping).
The EUR UMD has the worst combination of blending, ghosting and interlacing. It seems the PAL BD version (which includes already frame blending) was used as a master, but the frame-rate was upconverted from 25fps to 29.97fps again and this added even further interlacing.
And see here the original frames (grabbed from the PAL DVD):
Oh - by the way, also have a look at Stellas hair, they forgot to cut out the transparency for her curleys on one frame 😊.
For certain sequences its very hard to recover the original full frames - in the example below the middle frame of the PAL sequence contains information which can not algorthimically recovered. You would need to hand-redraw. The NTSC version unfortunatly also doesn't contain information which can be "salvaged".
NTSC (J) DVD
PAL (DVD)
"Photoshopped" from PAL DVD
In other examples such as below some information most likely is lost forever - in that case the middle frame:
NTSC (J) DVD
PAL DVD
The DVDs have soft subtitles in the intro compared to the BD and UMD, which have these 'burnt in'.
- According to IMDB the runtime of the cinema version is 68min, while all the disk versions have runtime of 65min, except the EUR UMD which has 68min runtime. Other cinema screenings list a runtime of 67min Festival International des Cinémas d'Asie de Vesoul, Viennale, Bergen International Film Festival
Screenshots were created using VirtualDub2. The settings as described below were used to get examples from the source data streams, without introducing scaling, deinterlacing or other post-processing from the player software. A 1:1 pixel aspect ratio means that the screenshots of the PAL DVD, NTSC DVD, and the UMD are shown as they are stored but not shown as they should according to intended aspect ratio:
- Zoom 100%
- 1:1 pixel (Square)
- copy-pasted to Paint.Net and saved as 24bit PNG
Order: NTSC (J) DVD, PAL DVD, EUR UMD, PAL BD, NTSC BD
Frame: 4804
Frame: 4007
Frame: 5033
Frame: 4497
Frame: 4310
PAL DVD Timecode: approx. 02:40 (its the last frame before switching to the drums)
Frame: 4810
Frame: 4012
Frame: 5039
Frame: 4502
Frame: 4315
PAL DVD Timecode: approx. 02:40 (its the 5th frame after switching to the drums)
Frame: 4964
Frame: 4141
Frame: 5200
Frame: 4631
Frame: 4438
PAL DVD Timecode: approx. 02:45 (its the 1st frame after the dancing crowd)
Frame: 5127
Frame: 4277
Frame: 5371
Frame: 4767
Frame: 4569
PAL DVD Timecode: approx. 02:51 (its the 3rd frame of Baryl the drummer)
Frame: 43329
Frame: 36143
Frame: 45204
Frame: 36632
Frame: 35129
PAL DVD Timecode: approx. 24:05
Frame: 59758
Frame: 49848
Frame: 62329
Frame: 50334
Frame: 48269
PAL DVD Timecode: approx. 33:13 (its the last frame before switching to the band)
This promo set is quite interesting. The DVD contains a progessive frame version of "Crescendolls" (Track 3). Even so the encoding settings are interlaced it is definitely progressive.
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-5294451-1455843290-1058.png.jpg)
- Resolution: 720x480
- Display Size: 640x480 (720x540)
- Frame Rate: 29.970 (30000/1001)
- Duration: tbc
- No. of Frames: tbc
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings : CustomMatrix / BVOP
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Custom
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=15
Format settings, picture structure : Frame
Codec ID : V_MPEG2
Codec ID/Info : MPEG 1 or 2 Video
Duration : 3 min 53 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 8 200 kb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.792
Time code of first frame : 01:00:00:00
Time code source : Group of pictures header
GOP, Open/Closed : Open
GOP, Open/Closed of first frame : Closed
Stream size : 228 MiB (84%)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Order: Daft Club DVD, NTSC (J) DVD, PAL DVD, EUR UMD, NTSC BD
Frame: 221
Frame: 33428
Frame: 27888
Frame: 69757
Frame: 27208
Frame: 2111
Frame: 34393
Frame: 28690
Frame: 71771
Frame: 27981
Frame: 3146
Frame: 34904
Frame: 29115
Frame: 72837
Frame: 28389