C3: Cube x Cursed x Curious

Type: Series (12 Episodes + OVA)
Video: 1920×1080 @ crf 13 (8 Bit)
1280×720 @ crf 16 (8 Bit)
Audio: FLAC 2.0 – Japanese
Subs: UTW
AFFTW-Hatsuyuki (OVA)
Torrent: 1080p – 720p

Final Batch. A bit late, but I was waiting for the OVA to be subbed.

133 Responses to C3: Cube x Cursed x Curious

  1. fhgjhjghj writes:

    maybe you should get your eyes tested then as it significantly reduces banding in the third screenshot. although it would probably be more noticable if you encoded at sane crfs.

  2. tomek writes:

    >and it breaks hardware

    yeah my microwave breaks when i’m playing hi10 animu…

    you just need mplayer or cccp to play it without problem…

  3. mascthemoney writes:

    is it just me, or does fear look like a smelly kid?

  4. Klachilies writes:

    >I see no reason to go to 10, there are no quality increases and it breaks hardware.

    This guy speaks sense. 10bit is pointless.

  5. Alteration writes:

    >no quality increases

    It’s all about the file size decrease, but obviously you know that and you’re just hanging onto 8bit because of hardware, which is quite silly.

  6. Xanas writes:

    There is not a huge need for file size decreases in an era of 2 TB HDs honestly. But in some cases it does increase quality, just not here.

  7. Enigmatic writes:

    Please for the love of God, make the 1920x1080p version crf16…
    and make it 10 bit while you’re at it….:C

  8. qwerty writes:

    oh lol
    dis is bigger than yousei’s

  9. Enigmatic writes:

    Actually , wouldn’t it be a good compromise to make the 1080p version 10-bit, considering that people can only play it IF they hardware that DOESN’T BRAKE when playing 10-bit files.

  10. FlameHaze writes:

    Woot!!! Thanks for C3.

    Also, who gives a shit if its in 8bit or 10bit!? Just watch the damn anime.

  11. Dami writes:

    was hoping to get the 1080p but damn the ordered chapters =/

  12. potaks writes:

    is it ordered chapters ???

  13. XiThau writes:

    FlameHaze is right. Shut up and just enjoy the damn Anime.

  14. Optician writes:

    >maybe you should get your eyes tested then as it significantly reduces banding in the third screenshot.
    You too, the two screenshots are obviously filtered very diffently, the cropping is different and the 10bit is blurred, which means that either:
    1) 8bit is sharpened
    2) 10bit is blurred
    3) x264 settings are very different
    Very obvious in the third screen, but even in the first the grain/texture in the 10bit looks blurred.

    The obvious conclusion is that the comparison in totally flawed.

    • ♦Tenshi♦ writes:

      Both the 8bit and 10bit used identical scripts, and were done at the same CRF. Screenshots were taken on MPC with CCCP.

  15. Izuchi writes:

    ^So basically the screenshots are worthless. Great.

  16. someguy writes:

    Kristen please talk to Tenshi and get him/her to start doing 10bit and all the good it does.

    Tenshi thank you for finally doing chapters.

  17. Dami writes:

    @♦Tenshi♦ o great! dling now n thanks~

  18. cyke1 writes:

    reason you don’t see the difference is cause the bitrates you use most time eliminate the difference, try encoding stuff to like 400mb an ep and you will start to see the difference.

  19. Sum_of_Thunder writes:

    Many thanks! I haven’t been here in a long time since my hardware can’t do more than 8-bit 720p. Time to look around for other overlooked 8-bit gems! ThankyouThankyouThankyou!

    And C3 is a favorite. You can expect a S2, since there were 8 dances in cherry blossoms .

    (–>8 in snowflakes, 8 in leaves, the leaf being the symbol shown in the Katana’s first transformation = 24 total. Twelve down, twelve to go.)

  20. Goshtic writes:

    1080p comparison would’ve been better, if we’re looking at “quality” improvements. I also have to agree with the others, 3rd screenshot is noticable on reduction of banding. Banding improvemens in 10bit is most noticable in dark scenes. The blurr result is probably due to the down-sizing done differently in 8bit vs 10bit, regardless of the settings being the same. It’s just 8bit downsize coding is different than 10bit. You should see better quality result of 1080p 8bit vs 10bit.

    In the end, you do what you want. Still thankful for the release.

  21. DmonHiro writes:

    Yes Tenshi, you are the last sane mane in an insane world. Yes, there are no benefits to 8 bits. Yes, there’s no need to actually think about encoding. Keep telling yourself that.

  22. castor212 writes:

    OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU!!!

  23. MikeP writes:

    Thanks for including chapters, they are much appreciated.

  24. Verix writes:

    I have to agree that in the 3d screenshot, I’d prefer the 10-bit encode. In the others the difference is insignificant. But that’s what 10-bit is mostly useful for: darker scenes, less banding; more efficient encoding. Since I don’t care about hardware compatibility(people can encode it to something else themselves >.>), I’d encode everything in 10-bit. But yeah, coalgirls policy: they do what they want to do. As long as Tenshi thinks 8-bit is more suitable, it’s HIS encodes.

  25. Tyler writes:

    I don’t notice any significant quality differences, buts its irrelevant to me anyway since i have to re-encode to play on my ps3 regardless.

  26. FuzzyLumpkins writes:

    I have to agree also on the 3rd screenshot. I can’t wait until 10bit makes it to crappy hardware so people stop complaining that their shitty WDTV box won’t play 10bit and it’s too fucking hard to put in handbrake or similar and hit ‘encode’.

    That said, whatever. Not only does Coalgirls do what they want, the people in the group seem to all do whatever the fuck they want too as individuals. 😉

  27. akett writes:

    To learn about how encode into 10-bit not by ONE CLICK and you can see diffs.

  28. asdf writes:

    I love CoalGirls, but I don’t know why they keep Tenshi around. He should be fired.
    I just ignore these releases, and pray that all the things I care about get released by one of the others. Unfortunately this was something I was interested in, and it saddens me to see it get picked up by Tenshi. Ah well, maybe UTW will do the BD’s like they’re doing Gosick.

  29. sdfsfsdf writes:

    what’s up with you and shitty shows

  30. AceD writes:

    I see no reason to go to 10

    lol.

  31. Th3avatar writes:

    People, don’t be ungrateful, if you want it that hard, just do it yourself. So stop complaining.

    “Coalgirls – We will do what we want, and do not care about your opinion. “

  32. Sum_of_Thunder writes:

    Thanks Tenshi! I watched C3 1&2 last night. It was fab and the visuals were great.

    C3 surprises me with it’s frankness in some places and it’s beauty in others. And its redemption theme is always welcome.

    I look forward to next time.

  33. alapbun writes:

    Yeah no particular reason to go with 10bit other than:
    – less then half the file size with
    – same video quality

    Also it only may break hardware of not well educated pc users, since I’ve never ever encountered any problem with your or other honorable groups encodes.

    Yes I know it’s your choice but still… meh….

  34. 1Pantsu writes:

    10-bit still has better gradients in this case. however, it’s most likely unnoticeable when actually watching the video.
    if you’re bothering with CRF13, just to get the “best”, why not use 10-bit?

  35. ene13 writes:

    Dude, can you like, grow up? I am not dissing you or anything, but 10 bit does not have any drawbacks that you mentioned.

    Sorry to break it to you, do keep up the good work otherwise!

  36. Graan writes:

    Please, CoalGirls, sub Zero no tsukaima F D:

  37. Lain_13 writes:

    For some reason 10b screens really seems like cropped a little bit. Like 1 or 2 pixels were cropped from left and right side. As result they looks a bit smoothed.
    But there are no significant difference and this anime doesn’t deserve 10b release anyway.

  38. Starcoffin writes:

    Hell if anything, the 10 bit version looked a bit more blurry then the 8 bit.

  39. Frog writes:

    The 10 bit screenshots are def blurry compared to the 8 bit.

  40. DmonHiro writes:

    Oh my God… TENSHI DISCOVERED CHAPTERS!!!! He’s come all the way to 2007. A few more years, and he’ll get to 2012.

    No chapters = Retard.

  41. thatguy writes:

    Man you haters need to stfu. Free is free don’t see any of you taking the risk to distribute to the community so just stfu and be gratefully. Enough said….

  42. MotsuCQ writes:

    @thatguy – The ‘free’ argument is nonsense. We’ll voice our concerns as long as comments are open.

  43. Habitual_Lurker writes:

    Why does it seem like all the less than stellar shows get amazing opening sequences, and vice versa. It’s like a rule; as the quality of the show increases, the quality of the OP must decreases.

  44. noko writes:

    I wonder how all these 10bit loving faggots are going to be when they move over to HEVC?

    8bit ftw.

  45. DarkChaplain writes:

    @noko
    I don’t think they’ll have much issues – they seem much more flexible than those still clinging to xvid encodes or recently the die-hard 8bit people.

    Still think this should be 10bit. If not for the quality, then at least to reduce the size of the episodes. Filesizes are always the thing that give me a hard time picking up Tenshi’s releases. 600-700mb for 720p are simply too much, no way how I look at it.
    Sure, 2TB HDDs, yes, but these days they’re hard to come by without spending a fortune. Since production has slowed down really badly, prices for HDDs went up way too fast. Before you could get a 2TB HDD for 60€ in Europe, now you pay way over 200€ for the very same product.

    With that in mind, I do indeed see an appeal in 10bit aside from improved quality.
    While some might think this show doesn’t “deserve” 10bit, I’d consider it the other way around – it doesn’t deserve the bigger filesize due to 8bit.

  46. Ouji "Gabriel" Tanaka writes:

    Thanks for doing these in 8 bit & not being a 10 bit hipsterfag

    while my 0db zacate htpc can handle 1080p crf16 with dxva hw decode under windows it can only handle 8bit 720p in linux (thanks to amd being wankers & not getting proper decode support out yet).

    without hw decode & hi10p/10 bit requiring raw cpu processing power it can only handle hi10p with dvd rips 720p & above goes into slideshow mode every 10 seconds or on fast scenes & 98% cpu usage where 8 bit would only use 45 – 60% cpu without hw decode on 720p (1080p would slideshow without it)

    hi10p also downconverts back to 8bit on consumer level gear which results in the higher processor usage.

    as for portable devices like tablets hi10p is unsupported & the current home pvr/media players also don’t support 10bit (not everyone wants to upgrade or use a loud gaming system to watch tv on in their loungerooms or wherever they may be viewing they may also wish to reduce their power consumption, save energy, go green, reduce carbon emissions etc.)

    screenshots taken from a pure 10bit source & compared to 10bit encodes & 8bit encodes there is very little noticeable difference & that’s from a still uncompressed image, 8 bit vs 10 bit movement there is no noticeable difference with a led lcd tv.

    of course if you’re sitting 3 inches away from a 50″ monitor/tv on your desk you may notice but a screen with good contrast & colour that suffers minimal or no bleeding & does not use a cathode for it’s backlight or one that has been correctly calibrated while sitting at an appropriate distance there won’t be any noticeable difference in visual quality especially fast motion scenes.

    I work in IT & more people are buying smaller lower power systems, tablets, netbooks & notebooks over big gaming systems these days. all our high powered system sales are to businesses that require workstations, rendering servers, corp datacentre rackmounts etc.

    consumer level hardware isn’t completely ready for hi10p right now & using a suv to go to the corner store is silly.

    also proper 10bit hardware is pretty much exclusively workstation / eneterprise & is costly. some newer consumer level gear supports 10bit but also needs support in the drivers which still have limitations compared to the enterprise gear, a monitor that supports 10bit & one that has display port for the 10 bit connection if you really want full 10 bit viewing though those modes are mainly for professional photo & graphics rendering not so much consumer level entertainment. hell even some plugins for certain software can be costly for that support.

    all those that demand 10 bit go work in the front lines supporting a wide range of hardware that the 99% would be using & bring your aspirin (you’ll get fedup with this 10 bit bollocks in no time) instead of staying inside the elitist club 1% bubble.

    maybe when a future bluray replacement comes out but for now 8 bit is fine.

  47. Chevy787 writes:

    I know you guys won’t read this, but I just want to smack every single on of you guys who are still on 8bit.
    10 bit, it’s better. No argument
    Sure guys, if you want to go back to encoding XviD, go for it. But I’d personally like something better and with a smaller file size.

  48. Omega_Weapon writes:

    For those complaining about Coalgirls release for C3 being too big, 8bit, etc. There are several other options you can refer to:
    1) Do it yourself
    2) Don’t get Coalgirls version
    3) Get another groups version… I think there is another Bluray group doing this and in 10-bit too. I don’t remember who, but I’m sure with a little Googling, you can find it.

  49. abit writes:

    @noko – actually moving to HEVC will put us back to 8-bit h.264 encodes with consumer electronics that can hardware accelerate the format (well, maybe at least a subset of the format depending on how many profiles there are) since it’s the next standard.

  50. castor212 writes:

    8 bit or 10 bit? Doesnt matter, still download it