The Harmony Gold Dub & Broadcast Audio Discussion Thread

[superrayman3]

But really, great work! That's definitely something I wasn't expecting to happen, and all of the work you've put towards this alone is commendable. I don't really think there's anything left t-...

Honestly I don t think anyone was expecting FUNimation to be so open about the idea (even though I was really hoping they'd say yes it still took me by surprise that they actually did) and all the work Derek put into this is very commendable considering he did all of this on his own.

I managed to get ahold of a fairly good copy.

...Just when you thought it couldn't get any better.

I agree when I read takarajima's post I was really surprided and impressed at how he not only found a complete tape of the HG movie but how much better the quality was compared to WillieD7's (especially the title screen, on WillieD7's version you see completely yellow orbs right under the DB logo but in takarajima's you actually see sort of an area towards the left of each orb that's white to show a kind of shine effect with more detail).

[Kuririn Of Orin]

I'm kinda glad the HG dub failed.

Lot of ridiculous name changes but the dub wasn't half bad. At least with Funimation they kept the names relatively intact.

When it comes to names in the Funi dub, the only real issue with most of them are mispronunciations that can be overlooked. Like "Goekoo" instead of "Gokuh".

There was a Mexican dub which was based on the Harmony Gold dub that dubbed quite a few episodes.

Lol, are you sure about that? I think I heard that somewhere, not sure if it's true though.

[kei17]

Translated just the interview because the rest of the post doesn't really have any interest:

It's been a while, but thanks for the translation Puto.

The audio was in Japanese, but the dialogue was given us in xerox photocopies (of copies of copies of copies) in English. As you can imagine, it was the Harmony Gold dub, with everything they'd made up.

So that means that HG themselves didn't dub any further episodes and sent the video tapes with the original Japanese audio on them. I wonder why they used the English dub audio in the first few episodes though. Did HG throw away the ME tapes of the already-dubbed episodes or something?

Good news, everyone. FUNimation has said yes to accepting the tape!

So, think next you can team up with kei17 in an attempt to convince FUNimation to accept the high quality TV recording audio for Z for any potential future release? That would be real swell of ya!

I will definitely do that if he tells me how to get in in-depth contact with FUNimation. I know a person who's got the entire series (DB, Z, and GT) on Betamax in pretty good quality, but he refused my approach because it's illegal to lend TV recordings to others without permission from the right holders. He said he would lend his recordings to me or Toei if I've got their permission.

[DerekPadula]

I will definitely do that if he tells me how to get in in-depth contact with FUNimation. I know a person who's got the entire series (DB, Z, and GT) on Betamax in pretty good quality, but he refused my approach because it's illegal to lend TV recordings to others without permission from the right holders. He said he would lend his recordings to me or Toei if I've got their permission.

I'm not familiar with what this is about.

You have a higher quality audio of the Japanese episodes? Or higher quality than the audio recorded in English by FUNimation?

Please private message me with the details.

Thanks.

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

So, does that mean it's possible for FUNimation to release the tape Harmony Gold provided on the DraonBall DVD as an extra as well as the high quality Japanese audio without the permission from Toei? Or do FUNi have to contact them to see if they can approve it?

[TheBlackPaladin]

So, does that mean it's possible for FUNimation to release the tape Harmony Gold provided on the DraonBall DVD as an extra as well as the high quality Japanese audio without the permission from Toei? Or do FUNi have to contact them to see if they can approve it?

I'm sure they'd probably have to get Toei's permission. At least they probably would in the case of the Harmony Gold dub, and almost definitely in the case of the higher-quality Japanese audio. Releasing a superior version of Toei's product without telling them...I mean, I don't know this for a fact, but I'd have to imagine that such a move would infuriate Toei.

[Animefreak1325]

This is somewhat irrelevant, but, does anyone know where I can get the Zero Y El Dragon Magico VHS for a reasonable price? I want it just because, really.

Also, Derek is my hero.

[DerekPadula]

Also, Derek is my hero.

Haha. That made me laugh out loud with a big smile on my face. Never been someones hero before... except my fiance's of course.

Thank you.

[Animefreak1325]

Also, Derek is my hero.

Haha. That made me laugh out loud with a big smile on my face. Never been someones hero before... except my fiance's of course.

Thank you.

No, thank you for what you've been doing for the past few months. You've worked so hard to solve the mysteries that surround the Gold Harmony dub by contacting TV stations, FUNimation, and even Gold Harmony themselves. I hope we can revive this piece of history, and not let it die and be gone forever. I'm sure many people who've posted on this thread feel the same way. You honestly deserve more than just the compliments and thanks people have been giving you.

Thanks again.

[KiddoCabbusses]

I remember that there -used- to be one on Amazon for about $40.... it appears to be gone now.
Googling any further turns up no other sellers.

[superrayman3]

I remember that there -used- to be one on Amazon for about $40.... it appears to be gone now.

Yeah atm5508 bought it back in December (if I would've had the money in my bank account at the time I would've bought the tape myself oh well), Now for a little update I just checked out some of the storage building (like 1/8th of it) for that possible HG tape and my results yeilded nothing but I still have quite a bit to look through before I can say for sure whether or not I have such a tape so bear with me, also my mom says that she remembers buying a Dragon Ball tape when I was a kid so that tape might still be in the storage building when I search some more i'll update again.

[takarajima]

.

[superrayman3]

Just letting you guys know that I'm speaking with Ashura privately regarding the footage I've got.

Ok cool thanks for the update takarajima.

[superrayman3]

I found another interesting tidbit today and boy are you guys going to love this one, just for fun I decided to compare WillieD7's HG footage of Movie 1 to the footage found on FUNimation's release of Movie 1 that came with the movie 4 pack for footage area loss and it turns out the HG footage was actually zoomed in when compared to what FUNi gave us, it's actually pretty interesting to find out that FUNimation wasn t the only company that zoomed in footage when it comes to Dragon Ball.

[Pokewhiz7]

I found another interesting tidbit today and boy are you guys going to love this one, just for fun I decided to compare WillieD7's HG footage of Movie 1 to the footage found on FUNimation's release of Movie 1 that came with the movie 4 pack for footage area loss and it turns out the HG footage was actually zoomed in when compared to what FUNi gave us, it's actually pretty interesting to find out that FUNimation wasn t the only company that zoomed in footage when it comes to Dragon Ball.

Well of course. Every release is zoomed in a little, whether to remove the tape marks or to reduce jitter.

[superrayman3]

Well of course. Every release is zoomed in a little, whether to remove the tape marks or to reduce jitter.

Really? I thought the technology to do something like that didn't exist in the late 80's or early 90's, oh well shows how much I know.

[KiddoCabbusses]

Well of course. Every release is zoomed in a little, whether to remove the tape marks or to reduce jitter.

Really? I thought the technology to do something like that didn't exist in the late 80's or early 90's, oh well shows how much I know.

It's pretty easy to do zoom-ins, pan and scan with film - that's how one gets both widescreen and fullscreen editions of movies. If Harmony Gold got a film master, they probably did the zooming in themselves. If not, Toei probably supplied them a Betamax video with a zoomed-in film recording.

It'd probably be a tad harder to do with VHS or Betamax video, though - would basically be the equivalent of a digital upscale with some cropping.

[superrayman3]

It's pretty easy to do zoom-ins, pan and scan with film - that's how one gets both widescreen and fullscreen editions of movies. If Harmony Gold got a film master, they probably did the zooming in themselves. If not, Toei probably supplied them a Betamax video with a zoomed-in film recording.

Oh I get it now so thats how widescreen film masters are produced thanks for explaining a little bit about how zooming is used in film.

It'd probably be a tad harder to do with VHS or Betamax video, though - would basically be the equivalent of a digital upscale with some cropping.

I was wondering about how a VHS recording
could look zoomed in when compared to the original source material but after your explaination about it everything makes sense.

[superrayman3]

Hey guy's I just had an interesting thought about how FUNi might possibly have a textless DB opening 2 without even realizing it, now before you say anything keep in mind that this scenario is just a theory and not concrete fact, with that out of the way here's the scenereo I came up with. We all know that Toei gave FUNimation Dragon Ball material back in 1995 right? Well what if Toei gave FUNi some of the original material they gave HG back in 1989 as something for FUNi to go by when making their 1995 dub, okay let's say in theory that somewhere in that pile of material HG used previously a master for a textless DB opening 2 got thrown into the mix by accident, now what if FUNi had this textless opening 2 master and thrown it in their archives along with the 1995 edited dub that they worked on with BLT Productions without knowing it? If that's the case the master would still be with that 1995 material and FUNi would never find it with their latter DB material.

I know my idea sound's extremely far fetched but I just had to throw this out there, hey Derek when you speak to FUNi's head of marketing for Dragon Ball again, do you think you could ask him about this and see if it is possible?

[atm5508]

Hey guy's I just had an interesting thought about how FUNi might possibly have a textless DB opening 2 without even realizing it, now before you say anything keep in mind that this scenario is just a theory and not concrete fact, with that out of the way here's the scenereo I came up with. We all know that Toei gave FUNimation Dragon Ball material back in 1995 right? Well what if Toei gave FUNi some of the original material they gave HG back in 1989 as something for FUNi to go by when making their 1995 dub, okay let's say in theory that somewhere in that pile of material HG used previously a master for a textless DB opening 2 got thrown into the mix by accident, now what if FUNi had this textless opening 2 master and thrown it in their archives along with the 1995 edited dub that they worked on with BLT Productions without knowing it? If that's the case the master would still be with that 1995 material and FUNi would never find it with their latter DB material.

I know my idea sound's extremely far fetched but I just had to throw this out there, hey Derek when you speak to FUNi's head of marketing for Dragon Ball again, do you think you could ask him about this and see if it is possible?

This has been brought up before as a possibility. Specifically, there was an old Usenet post that seemed to reference Funimation using the Harmony Gold dub as a sort of screener/test pilot to get stations on board with the show.

It's likely that Harmony Gold was told to destroy their materials or send them back to Toei, but the actual order is unknown. Harmony Gold might have held onto them until Toei requested that any materials they have be sent to Funimation. Of course, if this theory is true, Funimation could already have the Harmony Gold dub in its archives.

Wild speculation, but certainly intriguing.