[Kuraze] 魁!! クロマティ高校 / Sakigake!! Cromartie Koukou (Charge!! Cromartie High School) (DVD 716x480 H264 Hi10p AC3)

Series Information
Video


Sources
Resolution
DAR
Format
Bitrate
Framerate
MediaInfo




R2J, R1 DVDs
716 ✖ 480
4:3 (Anamorphic)
H.264 10-Bit
~1500 kbps
23.976 fps
Link



Audio


Language
Channels
Format
Bitrate




Japanese
2ch
FLAC
712 kbps


English
6ch
AC3
448 kbps



Subtitles


Language
Style
Format




English
Styled Modified R1 Dialogue (Modified Jarzka)
ASS


English
Styled Modified R1 Signs / Songs (Modified Jarzka)
ASS


English
Unstyled Modified R1 Dialogue (Modified Jarzka)
SRT


English
Unstyled Modified R1 Signs / Songs (Modified Jarzka)
SRT



Filters used:
KNLMeansCL (chroma noise removal only), FineDehalo, aWarpSharp4xx (chroma sharpening only), F3kdb, BalanceBorders
Source Comparison (WEB-DL vs USBD vs R2J vs R1 DVDs)
Encode Comparison vs. Source

Notes:
A hopefully definitive release of this early 00s delinquent gag series.
The R2J DVD set was, for the first time, used as a base for the video as even the recent streaming 1080p & USBD sources were both slightly cropped by comparison and contained terrible over-sharpened upscaling which smeared much of the fine hatched shading emblematic of the series artstyle whereas the old R1 DVDs were poorly compressed, losing detail in high motion and darker scenes. Additional light treatment to reduce or eliminate haloing, chroma noise, and banding was also applied. See comparison screenshots above.
With respect to the audio, the R2J DVDs actually contained uncompressed PCM tracks (compared to the lossy R1 DVD tracks) which were losslessly encoded to FLAC. Upon further investigation, despite having lower bitrate/bit-depth compared to the USBD’s high-definition tracks the R2J DVD audio nevertheless exhibited higher frequency extension confirmed by spectrogram comparisons here with the original audio topping out near 24 kHz whereas the USBD audio was brickwalled at ~19 kHz. This was further corroborated by DR Meter analysis of both the R2J DVD & USBD tracks, confirming the Japanese DVDs’ audio present more dynamic range. It was the same story for the English dub where spectral plots showed evidence of compression in the USBD rerelease which also resulted in lower dynamic range of the USBD than the original lossy audio on the R1 DVDs. Therefore, the R1 DVD dubbing was selected to be synced with the R2J DVD for this release.
Styled subtitles were based on Jarzka’s old release with significant additional QC by me to correct the following:

Completely retimed script to the R2J video
Correct spelling/grammar errors
Add several missing lines/signs
Typeset songs
Notably, with the help of several kind benefactors the Japanese DVD-exclusive extras have now been fully subbed for the first time!
Unstyled subtitle options are also included for those that prefer them as well as Signs & Songs-only tracks for dub viewers.

See also, my release of the live-action movie for additional Cromartie content.