Thanks. I'll see what I can do with these later. It'll be a few days before I can make any good use of them. We'll see what results. If I make an updated version, it'll be distributed via Google Drive only, most likely.
Someone just made a torrent with rips of the Japanese Google Play Store's version: https://nyaa.si/view/1278388 This is the best quality of the Japanese version I've seen so far, you may want to use it for the first credits sequence. It has a small Bandai Channel watermark in the bottom right, but it's not too bothersome, as it doesn't overlap the scenes displayed during the credits.
Huh. So Bandai Channel really did just release this title with little to no warning. That explains the claim. Good to see. I will update to that version, though I could live without the watermark. We'll see what ends up being best. Edit: Upon closer inspection, it appears that the Bandai Channel source 'did indeed' do a new scan of the can, much to my surprise, but the source has been uploaded in a poor enough quality bitrate that using my current ISO source still remains the all around best option for image quality. This is leading me to do a few more color/contrast tweaks for a version 2.0 in the next release, but it only truly mostly affects Egg Generator red tinted scene in OVA 2, as that's the only scene where the red tint was strong enough to risk crushing finer details in the original scan. I believe I've found an optimal setting to now make this specific scene look its best. The rest of the transfer remains the same, only with updated shots replacing the 360p source where I used it. Again, I'll update this v2 via Google Drive and 'maybe' via a New Torrent. Maybe. We'll see.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15YsIQBJLmBgvw61Re90qzpRwiWF_JVoU/view?usp=sharing New Google Drive Link released for a 4K Version 2 right now (I also updated the old link on the previous page). Dub Youtube upload and 1080P SDR version coming soon too.
And now, the English Dub has been uploaded with the new encode as well. Note that I decided not to replace the one shot with the edited sign, as I felt it inroducing a watermarked version of that shot right in the middle of the episode stood out more than just a watermark on the titlescreen, titlecard, or credits. As of now, I'm not planning to do a v3 with that change. The 1080P version will also be posted shortly, and I've updated the main post to ad the dub version. At least one torrent will come later, but I will definitely need help seeding, since for whatever reason, Nyaa didn't allow the first torrent to stay up on their tracker. Edit: Google Drive Link for the 1080P SDR Multi-Track version, using the above new encode. Torrents will come soon in the coming days. https://drive.google.com/file/d/11h0P21O_2pIcFDDukr1sNoQT41R_W9-B/view?usp=sharing
I will say, the audio timing of the episode 2 title card is a smidge off (enough that there's an extra beat in 2 measures of the song around the time), and the audio is a bit louder than the upcoming scene.
Any chance of getting this reupped somewhere? I wanted to rewatch it on my phone's nice HDR screen and pass it along to my brother
I'll check if I can get updated google drive links up later today, but they won't work properly for streaming HDR like youtube, and I'm afraid youtube now instablocks the whole OVA, so my hands are tied (They used to only block it in Japan). You'll have to download and keep the full file for it to work properly.
1080p SDR Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NebWTCsiLydhCKxJSV6mTloa49LFKDOq/view?usp=sharing 4K HDR Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MF3ZAiFAfNrnqZe8zk6GOH5sRza5uQ9G/view?usp=sharing
Lovely, looking forward to watching it again for the first time in awhile. Thanks again for your great work on this.
They're an option you can enable in a proper media player (like VLC), rather than having them baked into the video file itself. The file includes the English dub (and a fandub) as well.
Google Drive doesn't work well for actually allowing subs, nor does it recognize them already embedded in the file. These are purely meant for you to download, not stream. The subs and dub tracks are embedded in the MKV already (Both the original dub and the newer fan dub)
Both DVDs are identical. The 2004 "ADV Kids" reprint has trailers for anime that has been OOP from ADV at the time. Both DVDs are uncensored and they both have trailers for anime that are not necessarily kid-friendly like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Battle Angel Alita. The only ADV DVDs I have are the Sonic OVA, Battle Angel Alita, and three versions of Neon Genesis Evangelion (the original release, the Director's Cut of volumes 7 and 8, and Platinum Edition; as well as the movie releases from Manga/Lionsgate; I don't have the GKIDS Blu-ray yet). Still, I am hoping that a Discotek AstroRes upscale is included with Sonic Origins, probably in the Premium Museum.
That would certainly be a wonderful surprise, and perhaps not an impossible one given that Bandai Channel blocked US uploads of the OVA last year (whereas they were only blocking it in Japan for 2020 the first half of 2021.) Not surprisingly, Origins was announced around the time the youtube block rules happened. So who knows?
