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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Full Frame
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • English: Dolby Digital Surround
  • Spanish: Dolby Digital Surround
  • Japanese: Dolby Digital Surround
  Subtitles
    English, Spanish
  Extras

    Video Essentials

    Wild Releasing/Wild Releasing . R4 . COLOR . 60 mins . G . PAL

      Feature
    Contract

    This DVD is the first, and probably the best, in audio/visual calibration tools available today. This disk is used to calibrate using an NTSC signal, so your TV must be capable of displaying this. If not, this will be a total waste of your time.

    If you want to know anything about audio and video on your TV, and especially a lesson on Dolby Digital 6 channel sound, this is a great educational tool. There is a lot to learn, and although this DVD only touches on about 5 key concepts, it's amazing how little you can actually know about the controls on your TV. I will never look at the brightness and contrast knobs the same way ever again.

    The DVD talks in quite a lot of detail about setting brightness, contrast, colour, tint and sharpness correctly. Some of this seems excessive, but, if you're even the tiniest bit geeky (and hey, you want a perfect picture, that's why you want this DVD!) you will enjoy the detail. You even get a tiny bit of blue film (which you need to calibrate your set - so don't lose it!!!)

    The audio setup compenent (which is done first), is very detailed. Seeing that you can't really get this too far wrong (you've either set this up right, or you can't hear anything anyway!). Some people may have their left and right speakers setup wrong, but this will be pretty obvious as soon as this DVD starts.

      Video
    Contract

    This is a calibration DVD. It's about the best picture I've ever seen and shows no problems. Is is an NTSC disc though, so it's resolution is not quite as high as PAL, but this does not interfere with the operation. Video cannot really be faulted at all.

      Audio
    Contract

    There are six sound tracks in three languages (English, Spanish & Japanese), each in Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Surround. The Japanese track is spoken my a female, the English and Spanish by a male. I obviously listened to it in DD5.1, but also tried the Surround track to emulate what happens on a non 5.1 system. The audio quality is at least as good as the video quality. The narrator who tells you what to setup and change is always perfectly clear and warm sounding. The varying sound tracks (Dolby Digital 5.1, Stereo etc) are all equally good, and used at appropriate times. This DVD does NOT have any DTS or PCM sound samples, so for that, you'll need to have a look at another calibration disk (Ultimate DVD Platinum), or maybe you've got the Region 4 release of Gladiator which you can give a whirl for DTS testing.

      Extras
    Contract

    There are a few tiny extras, but they are difficult to find. You need to hit the "Title" button (most of us are used to hitting "Menu"). From here, you get to select 4 other screens. The first is on basic DVD controls; this seems incredibly stupid, seeing you have had to press a whole bunch of buttons on your DVD to get here anyway. There is a section on Video Essentials, including a whole slew of NTSC specifications and facts, all of which unfortunately are pretty much meaningless without a detailed explanation (which is not in the DVD itself). There's a screen on setting up a Radio Shack (Tandy) sound meter, but this has already been explained in the video component of the DVD, so is sort of redundant. There is also a few pages of web links to the video essentials site, as well as the Imaging Science Foundation.

      Overall  
    Contract

    If you're the slightest bit interested in perfecting the audio/visual experience on your equipment, this is the DVD to buy. Although NTSC is not the same as PAL, it's calibration (in particular the brightness and contrast settings) are worth the effort, just so you know what you're doing to the tube on your TV.

    Things to look out for: In the intro, during the "Swelltone" logo at the very start of the disc, this entire sequence has two angles. Press the Angle button and you get the reverse view. Quite fun, and totally unexpected.


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=374
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      And I quote...
    ""
    - Rob Pascale
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-717 Gold
    • Projector:
          Toshiba TLP450 LCD Projector
    • Receiver:
          Denon AVR-3300
    • Speakers:
          Krix Euphonix
    • Centre Speaker:
          Krix Centrix
    • Surrounds:
          Mission Dipoles
    • Subwoofer:
          Aaron SUB-240
    • Audio Cables:
          Harmony Gold Coax
    • Video Cables:
          standard s-video
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