What is the difference in quality between R2 DVDs and R1?

[milkmandan]

Here is an interesting topic i've been wondering about and i've been doing my own research for a little but i'd like to get other peoples opinion, and if possible, even some hard evidence and facts. (references would be helpful).

What is the difference in quality between anime R2 DVDs and R1 DVDs?

Anime R2 DVDs usually come with 2 episodes per disc + butt loads of bonuses for a high cost ($50USD per disc), while US companies release the R1 DVDs with 4-7 episodes for a lower cost ($25-35USD per disc).

What is the quality difference? Is there one at all? Obviously cramming more episodes on a single DL-DVD disc is going to force lower bitrates in some areas of the video, but does that mean R2 DVDs don't do this at all? Are all R2 DVDs higher quality than R1 DVDs because they don't cram episodes on a disc?

R1s need to be re-authored with new english menus and the original master from Japan needs to go through MPEG-2 encoding again.

Been reading up on mania.com for R1 DVD video quality reviews, and even if a company like Nightjar does the authoring, is the quality still not up to par compared to R2 DVDs?

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I've been a sole owner of MANY R2 DVDs for my collection and also using R2 DVDs as source footage for several AMV projects. With the turn of the economy, I've been thinking of actually saving money and not importing R2s and just settling with R1. I am happy to see releases of series come out with 'only' an English sub track. Not providing a crappy dub has reduced the cost of the series set (which is VERY smart i think). So here I am asking, R1s are cheaper for sure, but i am worried about quality loss. Yes, i am very anal, even though i know i'll never see the difference, is there a difference in video quality between R2 and R1 DVDs?

[Qyot27]

The differences are many, although whether you feel R2 is worth the relative gain is your own decision.

Japanese R2 discs do generally have fewer episodes, but they don't all come on dual-layer discs. I know of plenty single-layers that hold a paltry 2 episodes.

Yes, this does generally mean the bitrate can or probably will be higher than the comparable R1, but some of the companies use PCM for the audio instead of AC3, which means that the bitrate isn't as high as it could possibly be. I've never seen an R1 that uses PCM. However, on actual dual-layers, the use of AC3 might occur. Those discs generally do store 3 or 4 episodes rather than 2 anyway.

If you're looking at the Blu-ray/DVD divide, I'd say that the prospects for some Blu-ray releases here in the States are slim, if the series even gets licensed at all. A possible Kara no Kyoukai Blu-ray release for example, or maybe even Rebuild 1.11 (as I have no idea whether Funimation will issue it State-side even if they put out 1.01 - or they could mangle things and use a 'remastering' process on 1.01 to upscale it for Blu-ray instead of using 1.11 proper).

Japanese discs, while not a general rule, tend to be easier on your IVTC process than R1s - on many of the R2s you can just use Force Film instead of a heavy TFM/TDecimate combo.

To go along with that previous point, the masters used for the R1s vs. the R2s are not always the same. American companies do have a price point to contend with, and the studio copies they get are not always the most optimal ones, which the R2s would invariably be produced with. That said, this is something I think the American companies are getting better at.