UFC Ultimate Heavyweights (Anchor Bay Blu-ray) + 2010 World Series: Texas Rangers vs. San Francisco Giants (Shout! Factory Blu-ray w/DVD)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: C+     Compilations: B-

 

 

A new category of special interest Blu-ray that is turning up is the sports compilation program.  As most sports have been shot in analog video until the recent HD era, they are often a mix of HD and some low definition video (NFL Films is one of the rare franchises still shooting games on film) and two new releases show how good such titles can be.

 

After seeing so many DVDs from various companies from the UFC, Ultimate Heavyweights is our first (not theirs) Blu-ray look at what is one of the hottest new sports around, mixed martial arts.  This is a sport that actually benefits from widescreen and high definition as you can see just how hard these guys are really going at it.  The main program has 40 fights, well picked to see just how wild these can get.  Some have tried to write this off as just violence with no point, but this actually takes strength, skill and talent it may take years for these competitors to get.  This is the best release we have seen in the franchise to date in content as well as performance of the disc.

 

One of the best sports stories of 2010 is that the San Francisco Giants won the World Series for the first time since leaving New York in 1958.  The well-edited 2010 World Series: Texas Rangers vs. San Francisco Giants program is one of the best baseball subject releases we have seen since this site launched, telling a truly great story of the rise of the team in what feels more like a real baseball story and not just some big money crapshoot.  They took on the Texas Rangers when that team seemed more formidable and beat them.

 

Though I do not keep up the sport, I like to check in to see the latest and this is another top-rate MLB release that impresses and even non Giants fans can enjoy.  I also like how the fans of the team become inadvertent stars of the show.

 

 

The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on both has their limits and UFC mixes in its share of 1.33 X 1 NTSC video centered in the HD wide frame.  This works well enough, but is a noticeable drop down from new HD-shot matches.  The Series Blu-ray has its moments of softness, staircasing and other minor issues like being in wide open spaces where the Video White can be an issue (the UFC matches are restricted to a small stage), but it fares well.  The anamorphically enhanced DVD of Series hides some of these flaws, but cannot do color as well, plus cannot always pull off the Blu-rays better detail and depth, but it makes them more even than expected with the Blu-ray only narrowly better.

 

The PCM 2.0 Stereo on UFC is pretty good throughout with some surrounds on the newer footage and more clarity than expected, though older TV audio is limited.  The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 5.1 mix on Series favors the music, which can sometime overwhelm the dialogue and other audio.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on the Series DVD is decent, but not as consistent as the DTS-MA on the Blu-ray.

 

Extras on UFC include 20 bonus fights, ten of which are dubbed “classic”, while Series adds a This Week In Baseball profile on Buster Posey, 10 full-length presentations of key moments from the road to winning for the Giants and scenes from their World Series Parade.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo