The Complete First Season (This review is the FUNimation DVD Set)
BOX-ART
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The front features main characters, with the exception of Jeremie, in a nicely positioned combat pose. It looks fine, but that renders they used are all from season two and not season one.
The back, similarly to the front, has various render and images scattered throughout. Again, most of them are season two but some are season one. A description of the season is in the center, with logos and tech. specs at the bottom.
MENUS
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The menus on all three discs are pretty basic. The all have options to play all episodes and episode select, with the exception of disc three which also has a third menu for extras. They all play a loop of about thirty seconds of the theme song over a static menu with renders of the characters.
AUDIO
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The episodes are encoded with an audio bitrate of 256 KB/s. Most studio don't usually allocate higher bitrates than the standard of 192 KB/s, so this is a welcome change. The episodes include only the English dub and not the original French audio.
VIDEO
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Code Lyoko is a PAL region show, meaning that it should be presented as 25 frames (or 50 fields) per second. The conversion to North America's NTSC system was done rather poorly here, resulting in some pretty bad frame blending. Blended frames are a ghosting effect the doesn't exist in the source material because they've stretched 25 frames into 30. What's worse is that it seems they were working with an interlaced source, most likely the same material as broadcast, meaning there's additional combing artifacts. on top of the ghosting While most of the episodes seem to be digitally mastered, a few seem to have have been come from an analog source & are a bit fuzzy with dot-crawling artifacts.
NOTE: If you watch on a computer, programs like VLC Player can yield smoother results when de-interlacing is set to "Yadif (2x)."
When viewing on a TV, built in de-combing filters should also produce a smoother look.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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Aside from the blended frames it's a good box set. There's also some minor bonus content such as character profiles, sneak peeks at the following season, and an overview of each tower's position in the sectors.
The next thing I'd like to address is the availability of the box-set. It was released in 2006 so it's been out-of-print for years. I've seen them sell online for crazy prices! Sometimes you'll get lucky and find semi-decent prices, I managed to get mine for about $50 on Amazon.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 3
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 2.0 (256 Kb/s)
SUBTITLES: None
RUN-TIME: 10 Hours
Season 1 (Amazon Set)
BOX-ART
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The cover is very similar to FUNimation's set with the cover featuring the main cast, Minus Jeremie, in a combat pose. Some enemies are also awkwardly superimposed on the side. The back lists all 26 episodes of the season & has an brief description. The Amazon sets are color coded, with season one being red.
MENUS
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The menus on all three discs are very basic, with the still image being the same one as on the cover. They are not animated nor do they play any audio. All the discs have options to play all, or select an episode.
AUDIO
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The episodes are encoded with an audio bit-rate of 192 KB/s. Again, like the FUNimation set, only the English dub is included.
VIDEO
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It seems the video was de-interlaced and encoded on the disc as a progressive scan 30fps. The problem is that it was terribly de-interlaced, resulting in jagged combing artifacts in any scene with motion. They've also added small black bars on the sides of the image, presumably as over-scan? It's unclear as to whether Moonscoop provided the material to Amazon like this, or if they converted it themselves. The same fuzzy, analog effects can be seen on the same episodes as previous set too. Compression isn't great, some mosquito noise pops up now & then, but usually only during high motion scenes.
I'd like to note that Amazon's set presents the episodes in the order that they aired, as opposed to being completely random like
the original set.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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In conclusion, I prefer the original box set to the Amazon one. The inclusion of extras, along with the better video/audio quality seals the deal for me.
NOTE: The Amazon box-sets were produced on-demand and have now stopped production. Your only option to obtain them would be to find them used, and I usually see them sell for ridiculously high prices online.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 6
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer (DVD-R | NOTE: DVD-R can be finicky on some DVD players.)
REGION: 0 / NTSC (Region Free)
AUDIO: English 2.0 (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: None
RUN-TIME: 10 Hours
Season 2 Vol. 1: Sector 5 Mystery (Funimation Set)
BOX-ART
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The cover features the main characters, still no Jeremie, posing on the vehicles introduced in this season. The render used for Aelita on the cover is from season one and not season two, so it looks a little out of place next to the higher quality season two renders. Like the last set, the back has various renders & images scattered around the back with a description of what happens in this set.
MENUS
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The menus on this disc are similar the season one box set. It has run all, episodes, and trailers. It plays a loop of about thirty seconds of the theme song. It is not animated, but shows renders of the characters in a similar pose as the cover.
AUDIO
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The episodes are encoded with an audio bit-rate of 256 KB/s, with the English dub only.
VIDEO
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Exactly like season one, interlacing & ghosting issues appear on all episodes. Aside from that its good, with no issues regarding clarity & colors. Some minor compression artifacts can be seen in some of the high motion scenes. The ghosting creates an artificial noise that's rather bothersome in some of the CGI scenes. It's more noticeable with the crisper models used in this season.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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Again, the field blending is annoying and I wish it had been converted properly, but it still looks decent regardless.
I'd also like to note that this is the last DVD FUNimation released for the franchise before they dropped the show. According to one of the trailers on the disc, a second volume was planned but never released. It's pictured in the image gallery.
NOTE: Much like season one this DVD is also out-of-print and online prices vary.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISC: 1
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer (4.18 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 2.0 (256 Kb/s)
SUBTITLES: None
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 40 Minutes
Season 2 (Amazon Set)
BOX-ART
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The cast on the cover are in a combat pose, with some Hornets & Mantas in the background. The back lists all 26 episodes of the season and has a brief season overview. The color coding of this season set is orange.
MENUS
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The menus are identical to the previous sets, but using the artwork from the cover of this set.
AUDIO
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The episodes are encoded with a bit-rate of 192 KB/s, with only the English dub.
VIDEO
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This is where the Amazon box sets become really mediocre. Some mosquito occurs in the more intense motion scenes due to a low bitrate. The video bitrate maxes out at only 6.5 MB/s! A different de-interlacing method is used here, but they simply discard a field resulting in aliasing in every single scene! They also continue to add over-scan bars, and for some reason the colors on most of the episodes are very dark and murky. Macro blocking and color banding are present in most scenes as well.
COMPARISONS
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The very first episode on disc one is excellent quality and looks just as good as FUNimation's DVD, it even appears they've used a progressive scan source. It looks sharp, smooth, and has no issues.
The following two episodes revert back to the style of de-interlacing used in Amazon's season one set with only motion looking jagged, but it still looks decent overall. Comparing them them to FUNimation's DVD, it's not as sharp and the colors are every so slightly off.
Every episode from "Mister Puck" up until "Contact" are de-interlaced with the discarded fields method. Most episodes have issues with the contrast being too high, clipping highlights & crushing details in the dark scenes. The final three episodes, again, revert to a style similar to season one. It's bizarre how the quality seemingly changes this way with no rhyme or reason.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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I wish FUNimation would have continued with the series, the quality could have been vastly better. The first few episodes on this set looked okay, and I wished they would have all looked like that. Starting with disc two the quality goes downhill, and ranges from mediocre, to downright terrible.
NOTE: Amazon box-sets were produced on-demand and have now stopped production.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 6
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer (DVD-R | NOTE: DVD-R can be finicky on some DVD players.)
REGION: 0 / NTSC (Region Free)
AUDIO: English 2.0 (192 Kb/s)
SUBTITLES: None
RUN-TIME: 10 Hours
Season 2 Volume 1 (French Canadian/Imavision Set)
BOX-ART
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A render of the group, sans Jeremie, in front of a yellow background is featured on the front. A blurb off to the side states that two season one episodes were omitted from their previous volume releases, are included here as a bonus. On the back is a description of the set next to a render of Ulrich, with a a list of episodes underneath. Despite the box stating the episode Mr. Puck is on disc two, it's actually on disc one. A render of the entire group is featured in a slender cutout beneath. Various texts & logos are along the bottom, with a grid indicating technical aspects of the set.
MENUS
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After a short intro, a render of all the all the Lyoko warriors in front of a yellow background is displayed. Clips from the show are displayed within a stylized frame. A low quality sounding instrumental version of the theme loops. There are options for episode select, bonus episodes, and a play all button shaped like the X.A.N.A logo. If you select play all, it will only play the main episodes & not the bonus ones. The episode select menu has clips that play, showing you brief repeating clips of the episode. Various enemy renders are scattered thought the episode selection menus.
AUDIO
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The episodes are encoded with an audio bit-rate of 192 KB/s. The episodes include only the original Parisian French audio.
VIDEO
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Like the FUNimation set, this one also has ghosting issues. It seems that this set is using the same masters as the French DVDs, but converted to NTSC. The episodes look about the same, maybe marginally sharper. The video uses a constant bitrate of 6 MB/s so it looks fine for the most part, but blocks up a bit during high motion scenes. Ideally you would want the bitrate to max out during these sequences to keep it looking smooth, so I'm always confused when studios make the decision to use a fixed constant bitrate.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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With FUNimation's region 1 set only including the first five episodes of the second season, it's nice to have an extra seven here. I guess the idea was that they would try to mimic the French DVD sets & have two volumes per season. Unfortunately they dropped the show after this set, similarly to FUNimation
I wish this set would have included both English & French, it was a Canadian release after all, so both would have made perfect sense.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 2
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC (Canada / U.S)
SUBTITLES: None
RUN-TIME: 5 Hours
AUDIO: French 2.0 (192 Kb/s)
Season 2 Part 2 (Universal Set)
(NOTE: This review is of the region 2 French DVD set, therefor, it will only work on certain drives/player.)
BOX-ART
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The Cover of the outer box has the main characters in a combat pose, like the North American ones. While the region 2 sets actually feature Jeremie, he always looks a tad bit out of place. That's to be expected though, since he has no 3D render. The back has a brief description of the box set & list which episodes are on each disc. There are a few images on the back, but oddly enough none of them are from episode in this set.
Each disc within the box mimics the cover of the outer box, with the characters positioned in a combat pose. The back of each case list the episodes & has a description of each one. Again, the images on each case aren't from this set and are rather misleading.
MENUS
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Some renders of the cast a shown, with a fame to the side showing clips from the episodes on the disc. All the discs have options of play all & episode select. In the episode select sub menu each episode has a video preview that plays beside it.
AUDIO
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The episodes are encoded with an audio bitrate of 192 KB/s. The episodes include only French audio.
VIDEO
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The video is very sharp and clear. It's a big improvement over most other sources out there. (Whether it be other DVDs, iTunes/Amazon, Etc.) They likely mastered in show In HD, and then discarded the HD files after assembling them for SD broadcast. This could be why they use an upscaled version of these masters on Netflix. The video has an average bitrate around 6.9 MB/s which is one of the higher bitrates I've seen on a commercial DVD, comparable to super-bit discs!
FINAL THOUGHTS
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The region 2 DVD's are, in my opinion, the definitive versions of Code Lyoko. It's the highest possible quality I've seen. They are in their proper 4:3 framing too, meaning there is none of the cropping present on the Netflix version.
The only problem with this sets is that there's no English dub to be found. An alternative would be to transfer the episodes to your computer & sync the English audio to them, but this can be tedious & requires some technical knowledge.
I'd also like to note that these DVD's can cost a pretty penny on Amazon.fr and shipping can be crazy! Sometimes you can find 3rd party sellers on Amazon.com and not have to go through the hassle of international buying and shipping, but they usually cost more than importing!
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 3
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer
REGION CODE: 2 / PAL (France)
SUBTITLES: None
RUN-TIME: 5 Hours 38 Minutes
AUDIO: French 2.0 (192 Kb/s)
Season 3 (Universal Set/Region 2)
BOX-ART
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Like all other boxset, renders of the cast from this season are featured on the front. The back has a brief description of the box-set and list which episodes are on which disc.
Each case within the box mimics the outer cover, with the characters positioned in a combat pose on each one. The back of each case list the episodes & has a description of each one. The error on the previous boxset, where the images on the back didn't match the episodes in the set, is not present on this set.
MENUS
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The menus on this disc are similar to the previous set.
AUDIO
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The mix here is a French 2.0 at 192 KB/s, with no English dub.
VIDEO
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Again, great high quality, with no issues.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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As for Amazon's season three box-set...well, I never managed to get a hold of it before they ceased production. I assume it's very similar to season four one anyways.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Fullscreen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 3
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer
REGION CODE: 2 / PAL
AUDIO: French 2.0 (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: None
RUN-TIME: 4 Hours 30 Minutes
Season 4 (Amazon Set)
BOX-ART
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Like previous sets, the front has the main characters in a nicely combat pose. This is the first, and only, Amazon box set to feature Jeremie (and William) on the cover. There is also a render of the Kolossus and Scyphozoa, even though the latter rarely appears in this season. The back lists every episodes and has a brief description. This seasons color coding is blue.
NOTE: During the shows original airing in the U.S a few episodes were skipped due to a falling out between Moonscoop and Cartoon Network, these episode are, thankfully, included here.
MENUS
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The menus are identical to the previous sets, but using the artwork from the cover of this set.
AUDIO
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The episodes are encoded with a bit-rate of 192 KB/s, with only the English dub. Sometimes the background music overpowers the dialogue, I doubt this intentional & I don't recall this issue in any of the previous sets. Maybe they got sloppy when dubbing the final season, or maybe it's further evidence this set isn't great.
VIDEO
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These "on-demand" encodes are rather ugly, looking dull, murky, full of macro blocking. Color banding is present in most scenes as well, most notably in the digital sea. What's worse is that Moonscoop decided to go with a sharper, thinner line art design making the aliasing stand out much more than previous seasons where. The episode "The Lake" has a very blurry look to it, more so than any other episode. for some reason. I mean, it looks like a VCD encode, it's really bad.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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In comparison to the previous Amazon sets, I think this one looks the worst. It should look bright, vibrant & sharp, but instead looks dark, dull & jagged. I could tolerate the dull colors but, the aliasing is just awful. The fourth season is the best looking one, and yet looks the worst out of all the on-demand DVDs.
NOTE: Amazon sets produced on-demand have since ceased production.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 6
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer (DVD-R | NOTE: DVD-R can be finicky on some DVD players.)
REGION: 0 / NTSC (Region Free)
AUDIO: English 2.0 (192 Kb/s)
SUBTITLES: None
RUN-TIME: 11 Hours 50 Minutes
Season 4 (Universal Set/Region 2)
BOX-ART
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Renders from the cast of this season are featured on the cover. The back has a brief description of the boxset and list which episodes are on which disc.
Each case within the outer box mimics the cover, with the cast positioned in a combat pose on each one. The back of each case list the episodes and has a description of each one.
MENUS
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The menus are identical to the previous sets, but using the artwork from the cover of this set.
Interestingly, XANA Awakens special is included as one big forty minute episode, rather than in two separate parts as aired.
Also, the season four intro is used, instead of the season three one. I'm guessing they made this change due to the fact that it's included on the season four set? After the opening, the title simply says, "Le Reveil De XANA," (XANA's Awakening, as it's called in the English dub.) with no mention of it being in parts. It plays both episodes back to back, seamlessly, and the credits play at the end as if it were one episode.
AUDIO
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The episodes are encoded with an audio bitrate of 192 KB/s, and include only French audio.
VIDEO
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The quality here matches the quality of the previous PAL set, and looks very nice.
NOTE: Video quality examples/comparisons in gallery.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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Unfortunately, North American fans are left with no real way to watch the show on DVD now. With Amazon no longer selling the series, even digitally, anymore. The older DVD's are long out of print, but even if they weren't they only encompassed the first thirty or so episodes. While I would would recommend Netflix & the official YouTube, they both have issues. Netflix is cropped to widescreen, and YouTube is just poorly compressed. As of 3/18/24 that's the current situation.
I'd love a Blu-Ray set of the series, ideally, with the following conditions:
Uncompressed English & French audio
Subtitles for the original French audio
Decently upscaled original 4:3 video
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 3
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer
REGION CODE: 2 / PAL
AUDIO: French 2.0 (192 Kb/s)
SUBTITLES: None
RUN-TIME: 11 Hours 26 Minutes
