Enhanced on DVD

from the TV series to the film, from the film to the Blu-ray, with each step, the visuals continued to evolve. Even if I think I've already watched a certain scene, each time I re-watch it, it's like it's been reborn

—Gen Urobuchi

Things take time and some companies really don't have the time to spare. TV airings can be more the beta version of the episode and fully complete on DVD and Blu-Ray, or even in subsequent airings before home video copies are made (satellite/cable, online streaming, syndication, export…). Sometimes this can be fixing of Off-Model, additional animation and special effects, or rework of backgrounds. Often the TV version is never seen again; the more nostalgic viewers might want to Keep Circulating the Tapes.

Primarily an Anime trope. The anime Fandom has named this being "Shafted" after the Studio Shaft, which uses this on nearly every series it produces.

Unrelated to Better on DVD, which is “archive binge enhances the series.”

Compare Recut, which is the re-release special edition of this trope, and somewhat related to Updated Rerelease for Video Games. Super-Trope to Too Hot for TV, which is this used for censoring. Compare negatively Digital Destruction.

Examples of Enhanced on DVD include:

Anime & Manga

• Studio Shaft uses this in nearly every one of their releases. The worst examples are:
  • Bakemonogatari is probably the most famous for this; nearly every scene is reworked in some way. The climax of the "Nadeko Snake" arc in particular is especially enhanced, although that's not saying much when the vast majority of the scene wasn't drawn or animated at all on the broadcast version.
  • Negima? various scenes got remade, adding characters and other details in the background and adding animation in various places most noticeably in the opening of episode 19 where instead of static shots of Asuna's dud form it now runs around trips and falls. FUNimation used the DVD version in their releases.
  • Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei got this as well. Most notably, the first five episodes had various funny title cards, one of which read "The opening isn't ready yet." The opening is included in the DVD releases.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The first two episodes released on Blueray have had a ton of reworks to just about everything, with ridiculous amounts of added complexity in the background, completely redone shots, unnecessary color changes...it might have been easier to redo the whole thing from scratch.
• Sunrise is also known for this. Code Geass in particular was heavily reworked for DVD, though other series got improvements too.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is another textbook example of this. A lot of the QUALITY were fixed in the DVD volumes, instances of which have actually changed the meanings in a few select scenes. Also, improved transformation sequences.
  • Toward the end of StrikerS Episode 8, in the broadcast version, just before she fires at Teana, Nanoha looks as though she's having a serious wartime flashback. This is fixed in the DVD version, where it's more clear that she's disappointed.
  • There's also the famous scene where Nanoha blasts the ever-loving crap out of Quattro. In the TV version, Nanoha slams her foot down to brace herself on the floor before firing her magical girl staff. In the DVD version, she slams her foot down... and smashes the floor under her foot, leaving a miniature crater. Guess which version fans prefer?
• Xebec's Mahou Sensei Negima anime's Off-Model was largely corrected in the DVD releases.
• Crescent Love had this perfectly spherical "cabbage".
• Tenchi Muyo!: As the first Tenchi-related series to be fully computer animated, the producers of Tenchi Muyo! GXP were able to make two different versions of the show. The Japanese DVD release features scenes that are slightly different from the TV broadcast version. In most cases, these altered scenes replace some backgrounds with more detailed versions, recompose some shots and remove the towels from the female characters in the bath. It's like Cartoon Network in reverse!
• When They Cry - Higurashi looks somewhat clearer and has some design changes compared to the Japanese TV airings and Japanese DVDs.

Film, Animated

• There are some differences between the theatrical version of The Lion King and the main VHS/DVD versions. Then came the enhanced DVD for both TLK 1 and TLK 2.

Western Animation

• Parodied in the South Park episode "Free Hat", where there's a Parody Commercial for the new enhanced edition of the first episode with all-new graphics.

Trey Parker: For instance, in the scene at the bus stop, we always meant to have Imperial walkers and giant dewback lizards in the background, but simply couldn't afford it.

• Inverted by the DVD releases of The Transformers. The original release by Rhino Entertainment contained numerous errors that didn't exist in the (already error-prone as it is) original broadcast version of the episodes, and they also added in extra SFX that were often mismatched with the original soundtrack in terms of volume and quality. Shout Factory's recent re-release did its best to clean up the errors, but limitations in available masters to use means it's still somewhat lower quality than the original broadcasts.
• The producers of The Big Knights pulled out all the stops for the long-awaited DVD/Blu Ray release of the show, pulling the source computer files out of their archives and re-rendering the whole show in high-definition widescreen.
• Due to the amount of vicious censorship, and the amount of offensive, disgusting and outright insane content they could not air on Comedy Central, Drawn Together's DVD set was the only way to experience the series for what it truly was, all of the mind-raping, childhood-raping, emotion-raping and animal-raping events that would unfold. Not only that, they added in many scenes and lines that they could not show on air, and played the "real" version of some other watered down scenes. They left nothing out, not even the mutilated penises, fat jokes or the incestuous romance plots.

Video Games

• Dragon's Lair is a literal DVD-Video example. Not only does it have relatively a lot of bonus content, but it also has less dust and fewer VHS artifacts on the picture, compared to the arcade version. Brought Up to Eleven with 20th Anniversary Edition and Dragon's Lair HD.