DVD Rating

Due to the subjective nature of audio/video, my rating system is far from perfect, however, I'll do my best to keep them consistent. That way, you can get a sense of what my ratings are like and apply them to future reviews.

Update1: Unfortunately, I've only started subtracting points for edge enhancement sometime in December of 2002. Even then, it's not always consistent, so keep that in mind when you read my reviews.
Update2: Progressive-ness has become far less important for me now that I have so many advanced hardware/software solutions to do real-time inverse telecine. I am not going to change the grading system for now, so it is recommended that you ignore the grades and just look at the information for the sake of getting information. At some point, I will probably get rid of the DVD grading system completely.

• Start at score of 10.0
• First criteria is whether it is encoded in progressive or interlaced format. Pre-determined points are subtracted from the score depending on the encoding format and the original anime release type. Occasional frames marked "interlaced" are acceptible to me.
  • -0.0 : Progressive (regardless of anime type)
  • -2.5 : Interlaced (TV-series)
  • -3.5 : Interlaced (OAV or OVA)
  • -5.0 : Interlaced (Theatrical)
  Note that a theatrically released anime with interlaced format already fails the test! (Score of 5.0 is F)
  I will note if dTV was able to detect 3:2-pulldown and reconstruct progressive sequence, however, this will not change the grade. If dTV is able to reconstruct progressive sequence, it is GOOD, but it also means that the DVD mastering guy messed up big time by not doing inverse-telecine on the master before encoding the MPEG2 stream. That is BAD. On the other hand, if dTV has trouble detecting 3:2-pulldown, it's just BAD. It got points off for not being progressive already, so that's the end of that.
• Second criteria is whether it is anamorphic transfer. This criteria does not apply to anime that has 4:3 aspect ratio. Also, any aspect ratio that is narrower than 16:9 cannot be anamorphically encoded, so no points are subtracted in those cases.
  • -0.0 : Standard (4:3)
  • -0.0 : Anamorphic (any wide aspect)
  • -0.0 : Letterbox (narrower than 16:9)
  • -1.0 : Letterbox (16:9)
  • -2.5 : Letterbox (wider than 16:9)
• Third criteria is on compression artifacts. I believe that it is not possible to eliminate compression artifacts completely using MPEG2 and available bit-rate on DVD. It is certainly possible to reduce it to an almost non-existent level. Toy Story DVD's are good example of what is possible on DVD. This rating is somewhat subjective.
  • -0.0 : Not noticeable or almost not noticeable
  • -1.0 : Easily noticeable but not bothersome
  • -2.0 : Bothersome
  • -3.0 : This DVD should've been titled, "Compression Artifacts, the DVD"
  Other values are possible in 0.5 increments.
• Fourth criteria is on video separation. This is a moot point if the master source was never in composite format. It seems stupid to combine video elements into composite format and later separate into components to put on the DVD, however, many studios cannot handle digital masters. Many old anime are on composite master only and there is nothing we can do about those. A good 3D comb filter should be able to minimize video separation artifacts. Video separation artifacts show up as color crawling and bleeding colors (rainbow) or simple dot-crawling. One of the most important characteristics of separation artifact is that they are always moving. Also, unlike some compression artifacts, they do not get better with time when a (almost) static image is being displayed.
  • -0.0 : Not noticeable or almost not noticeable
  • -1.0 : Easily noticeable but not bothersome
  • -2.0 : Bothersome
  • -3.0 : This DVD should've been titled, "How Not to Separate Composite Signal, the DVD"
  Other values are possible in 0.5 increments.
• Fifth criteria is regarding conformance to the NTSC standard color/contrast settings. I calibrate my equipment with AVIA DVD. Unfortunately, due to the impossible nature of obtaining proper saturation level with my 1-chip DLP projector, I tend to be lenient on this criteria. I've managed to calibrate my system pretty darn close, though, thanks to the boat load of available settings in Holo3DGraph(TM). I do not judge harshly on this criteria due to subjective nature of this criteria.
  • -0.0 : Looks fine to me
  • -1.0 : Noticeably off
  • -3.0 : What color is that supposed to be? Is that black?
  Other values are possible in 0.5 increments.
• Finally, anything else I can think of that should affect the score is added.
• Final score is converted into grade.
  • > 10.0 : A+
  • 9.0 - 9.9 : A
  • 8.0 - 8.9 : B
  • 7.0 - 7.9 : C
  • 6.0 - 6.9 : D
  • 0.1 - 5.9 : F
  • < 0.0 : F-

Do keep in mind that many of these are non-issues if you're using low-resolution interlaced displays. This page is, after all, for audio/video-philes.

For now, many people are not able to achieve even the maximum capabilities of DVD's, however, I believe that in the near future, DVD's will be the major limiting factor as it already is to some people. I hope this page will promote better quality anime DVD's.

CD Rating

• This is purely subjective. Don't make any conclusions from it.
• You should be able to get a sense of what I like, but sometimes, I may be biased. I will usually mention that, but sometimes, I might not even know! Take all my CD ratings with a grain of salt.
• Audio quality rating is not as subjective, but is still based somewhat on actual listening experience along with manual waveform analysis results. Despite it having spaces for only 5 stars, it is actually out of 10.
• Feel free to email me and ask specifics about any CD.

Some Pictures....

This one shows what rainbowing is all about. (This file was saved in PNG format to avoid re-compression artifacts) Look carefully at the colors around Spike's face. These are contiguous frames and when played back at normal speed, you'll see rainbowing. Very annoying stuff!

This one shows two effects. One is interlacing (and how bad it can be). The other is bad transition problem. First, this image is created from 7 consecutive frames (left to right). Look at the bottom of frame2, top of frame4, and both bottom and top of frame3. The distortion you see there happens every time there is a scene transistion where content of the screen changes drastically. I am not sure what causes this. I think it is due to the compression program trying to munge transitioning frames together. Now, look at frame3. One field is from the previous frame and the other field is from the next frame. This is one of the worst case interlacing artifacts. In most other cases, it causes feathering near the edges. All of these artifacts are annoying, of course.

This one shows bad black-level. I intentionally put a block of true black (1) on the left top. Compare that with other area (2). Little bit of this is forgivable, but when it gets excessive, it becomes annoying. Now look at the blue area. See the blocky-ness? That's called plain simple bad compression.

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