How do the companies decide how many episodes to put on each volume?

[rocklobster]

This question has always bugged me. I mean, wouldn't it be easier just to divide it up evenly? I can understand when it's something with 13 episodes (since there's no way to divide that evenly), but most anime could easily be divided up evenly.

[Kura Ookami]

How can you split up 26 episodes evenly? 26 is 13 multiplied by two and 13 is a prime number. Some animes are split evenly anyway. like having three episodes per dvd for a 24 episode series. I think that most animes are divided up evenly as much as is possible

[eva-boy7985]

For 6 six disc, it goes 5 5 4 4 4 4 (episodes). For 7 discs, it's typically 5 4 3 4 3 4 3 or that same combo of numbers in a different order. The now rare 8 discs is usually 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3. That's what's I've run across. If it's 13 episodes, you'll usually see 4 discs with 4 3 3 3, or 3 discs with 5 4 4.

[Rocketshipper]

But what they really should do is 4 discs with 7, 6, 7, 6 for the episode count (for a 26 episode series). I think anime companies should include at least 6 per DVD, otherwise it's kind of a rip-off. And then there are really stupid release schedules, like releasing the 6 episode FLCL series on 3 DVDs, or releasing Golden Boy, Cutey Honey, and Ah My goddess on two DVDs instead of one. And what ADV is doing with Gantz is just plain EVIL!!!! And then there is funimation. anime companies should be required BY LAW to include at least 6 episodes per DVD if the series is longer than 26 episodes. 3 episodes per DVD for Yugioh uncut and DBZ is just ridiculus *smacks funimation* And any anime series that is shorter than, say, 9 episodes, should be released on a single DVD.

[eva-boy7985]

well, bear in mind that as much as we love the medium, and no matter how much we complain, it is still a business. ADV, Funimation, Bandai, etc. has to make some kind of profit in order to pay VAs, computers, staff, and work with new shows all the time, etc. There's tons of little intricacies that I'm sure none of us are aware of unless a person is actually involved directly. I still agree that at times it sucks, but we just gotta face facts. At least the whole 8 disc things has kinda died out. now it's usually 4 to 7 at the very most. Unless it's an amazing show, I usually wait a while for prices to drop or try to get the whole series via eBay for cheap.

[starwarsboy90]

like Bebop and other series. I do agree with Rocketshipper though, although the Factors of Production are sometimes high, keeping your customers happy still should be your main goal.Lol, I'm just ranting,lol.

[Rocketshipper]

True, there are many costs for dubing and releasing an anime series, but i think when you have a 3 episode per DVD schedule for a series that is nearly 290 episodes!!! (DBZ, not even including DB or GT) then that falls a little bit more into the "rip-off" category than the "we need to break even" category. I think episode counts are often determined by how popular a series is, not the cost. Dragon Ball releases have a ton of episodes on them, while most DBZ and GT releases have only 3 episodes. Why? because DBZ and GT are way more popular than DB, so funimation knows it can get away with including fewer episodes because the rabid fans will buy the DVDs anyway. Also look at Pokemon. Back in the day Viz and pioneer only released 3 episodes per DVD but in recent years the series popularity fell a lot, and now Viz has released Pokemon DVDs with up to 12 episodes per disc. And then there is stuff like Corrector Yui and Magical Project S.

[Kaligraphic]

FLCL has two episodes per disc. It's a six-episode series and takes three discs.

On the other, eight-fingered hand, there's only so much you can fit on a DVD without sacrificing quality. So, uh, support Blu-Ray. Yeah. Then they could make 26-episode discs of older series, and we'd just have to wait for them to come out. (not that they're quite likely to, but we can dream)

[Azier the Swordsman]

Costs may have a little to do with it sometimes. In Japan, where everything is more expensive, series' can have 3 or 2 episodes per DVD. Not all the time, but it's not uncommon. OVA's are, of course, 1 episode per disk.

[Yeito]

:walks in wearing serious glasses and determined look: I agree there are many factors to consider :nods seriously: But.... :brightens suddenly:

As long as we get to see it more than one episode per disc thats something right? *-* For instance... On DNAngel dvds in japan.. they only put like... two episodes a dvd. o_o Thats alot of dvds. especially for a 28 episode series. :nod: 14 discs to be exact. I'm glad they cut that by two and gave us a seven dvd series in america.

Another thing to be happy about is that it keeps the series going. Like on peacemaker... they could have just smushed the last four dvds together and made it a 6 dvd show instead of a seven. But now it gets to last longer and I get to enjoy it more.

o_o And they do have to pay all the people that work on it. -_- So I can understand. But thats just my point of view. Take the good with the bad!

[Anime Dad]

Another thing you have to consider is: The more episodes you fit on to a DVD, the lower the quality of the episodes (as in resolution etc) It's not physically possible to have too many high-quality video files on one DVD, especially if there's "extras" on there too.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Another thing you have to consider is: The more episodes you fit on to a DVD, the lower the quality of the episodes (as in resolution etc) It's not physically possible to have too many high-quality video files on one DVD, especially if there's "extras" on there too.

dunno.... dvds hold about... how much? 4 gigs? and how big is each mpeg4 files? about 200-250 megs

so thats about 800-1000 megs... on a 4000 meg disk... what do they do with that extra 3000 megs? wasting space?

they divide them to make more money, thats why theres so much space

or so atleast i think

[Technomancer]

I've seen as many as six or seven episodes on a DVD, but I've always had problems with them. Basically, there are several trade offs involved.

The Mpeg's use a combination of predictive and lossy transform coding. This means first that anime with more motion will not compress as well as a result of the predictive coding. Additionally, greater compression involves greater distortion, the video will appear blocky at times. Also, greater robustness can be had if extra redundancy is added to the files for forward error correction. This means that your disc will be less vulnerable to scratches or dust.

That said, I'm sure many companies do reduce the number of episodes on a disc for marketing purposes. Some shows seem to only have 2 or 3 episodes on a disc, which is defiantely lowballing things. You should certainly be able to get well over two hours worth on a single disc. The "Millenium" DVDs that I'm watching now have about 4 hours worth on each of them.

[Anime Dad]

dunno.... dvds hold about... how much? 4 gigs? and how big is each mpeg4 files? about 200-250 megs

so thats about 800-1000 megs... on a 4000 meg disk... what do they do with that extra 3000 megs? wasting space?

they divide them to make more money, thats why theres so much space

or so atleast i think

Yeah, i'm sure there's a bit of that too. But, i've burnt mpeg files to DVD before, you would think that would be the case but typically a 250mb .avi file ends up about 1 gig once it's converted to DVD format. Obviously professional mastering companies can do it better, but there's still a bit of a physical limitation if you want good resolution.

[Rocketshipper]

The only DVD I have where I can actully notice a drop in video quality is my Pokemon Orange Island DVD, which have 12 episodes per disc. The DVDs I've seen with 6 or 7 episodes still look pretty good.

[Anime Dad]

The only DVD I have where I can actully notice a drop in video quality if my Pokemon Orange Island DVDs, which have 12 episodes per disc. The DVDs I've seen with 6 or 7 episodes still look pretty good.

Oh, I forgot, until recently normal DVD burners couldn't burn double layer, which professional ones obviously could. That would increase the capacity to about 9G.

But yes, i'm sure plenty of companies put only a few eps onto a DVD where they could fit more, just to stretch the money-making potential a bit more.

[MasterDias]

Long-running and popular series (like the recently licensed Naruto) are usually quite expensive to license.

In order to make a profit, they really have no other choice than to put only 3 episodes per disc.

[Kisa]

All I know is when they put a long series out they should put more eps on a DVD besides 3! Grumble grumlbe....

[Namelessknight]

FLCL has two episodes per disc. It's a six-episode series and takes three discs.

On the other, eight-fingered hand, there's only so much you can fit on a DVD without sacrificing quality. So, uh, support Blu-Ray. Yeah. Then they could make 26-episode discs of older series, and we'd just have to wait for them to come out. (not that they're quite likely to, but we can dream)

Yes, we can dream! I am really looking forward to the day that blu-ray makes it debut and everything starts going into that format.

Long Live Blu-Ray...