Houston
Astros World Series Champions 2017: Special Edition Blu-ray Box Set
+ Official Documentary
Blu-ray/DVD Set
(both Shout! Factory releases)/Mygrations:
Season One
(2016/Fox/National Geographic DVD)
Picture:
B/B-/C Sound: B/B-/C Extras: C/C/D Main Programs: B+/B-/B
Now
for a few special interest releases...
Each
year, after Major League Baseball wraps up another season, they do a
great job of celebrating the climax over who won the World Series by
creating memorabilia and programming to commemorate the event.
Because it takes so many games to win, they do a small and large
video release to cover everything, going back to the early days of
DVD to really capture all the excitement in detail. It is a very
smart thing and this time, for 2017, it is how the Los Angeles
Dodgers (you know, the ones originally from Brooklyn so many decades
ago) put up a good fight, but lost to the Astros from Houston.
Houston Astros World Series
Champions 2017: Special Edition Blu-ray Box Set
and the Official
Documentary Blu-ray/DVD
set have been issued by the MLB (now via Shout! Factory) and it is as
rich a thorough as usual.
This
battle took all seven games, dragging out the suspense and
possibilities of whom might win and lose for the longest time and for
fans on both sides, a very torturous period. Reliving it the long
way is a great thing for fans wanting to capture the moments that
stuck with them the most, only enhanced and multiplied by the
availability on the box set of four different soundtracks (though
many might not understand Spanish, so make that three in many cases)
and this also means more possibilities of seeing ands hearing things
in a new light , which I cannot recall from hardly any other sports
releases on home video to date, as good as many of them are.
No
big fan of either team, it is still interesting and of course, seeing
people tormented over something you're not a fan of is always an odd
experience like a franchise film series you have zero investment in
the characters of. The Documentary
is more personal and to the point, usually not feeling pretentious
and usually well edited like the one here. The two releases are
therefore for passive (documentary only) active (box set) and
fanatical (both) fans and as compared to previous releases in the
series, up to the MLB's high quality standards of content
presentation.
Many
wonder why the Blu-ray are not 1080p, a fair question as we head into
the 4K era and the Japanese are about to try out 8K sports
broadcasting, but apparently the programs are not being produced on
the latest cutting edge equipment, though they still play fine for
what they are. The 1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition
image transfer on the Documentary looks good, ut you can see some
edge issues and motion blur, while the 720p 1.78 X 1 digital High
Definition image transfer on the games in the Box Set can
appear thinner on larger screens, they blur less.The 1080i 1.78 X 1
digital High Definition image transfer on the Documentary looks good,
but you can see some edge issues and motion blur, while the 720p 1.78
X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on the games in the box
set can appear thinner on larger screens, they blur less. Are they
720p to fit the discs? I doubt it. Maybe the MLB just wants to save
higher definition copies for later releases for some reason.
The
Documentary
is offered with a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix that
sounds good, if inconsistent soundfield-wise as many audio portions
are just talking and simple stereo. The DVD is also included in an
anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image and lossy Dolby Digital. 5.1 sound mix that
are weaker still, but passable. The Box
Set
offers four versions of DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless
sound,
but the audio between the four tracks have a slightly wider range of
quality than you might expect, so be careful of volume switching and
high playback levels just in case you get too carried away watching
the game. No need to damage any equipment over this.
Extras
for both releases include Digital
HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and other cyber iTunes
capable devices, while the box set features
a SleeveStats insert booklet containing official stats, game trivia
and more; also included are four audio options, allowing viewers to
watch the games while listening to either the television broadcast,
Astros or Dodgers Radio Network announcers, or a Spanish-language
version of the broadcasts. I liked the Astros track best.
Bonus
features on the Documentary include Regular Season Highlights,
Clinching Moments, World Series Highlights and the World Series
Parade which brought the city together for an emotional celebration.
A
group of 20 people attempts to follow the Wildebeest's migration for
200 miles through the African Serengeti. The group is made of up
various experts, scientists, athletes, military, and extreme
survivalist will try follow one of the greatest migration done by
land animals, without weapons or guides, attempting to cross Africa's
wilderness, the Serengeti to follow the Wildebeest. The human 'herd'
will test their mettle, themselves and each other in the first season
of Mygrations
(2016).
While
man has nearly mastered the planet with their intellect, machines and
tools, to return to nature is a reverting to the laws of nature and
the laws of the jungles, survival of the the fittest. Make no
mistake, only the strong survives, the wild will kill those who are
old, weak, or too young. As they trek father each day, there are
those who would drop out when they are no longer able to move
forward. They will face animals, terrain and other dangers, but even
more dangerous when they are not fighting against nature, they are
fighting themselves and each other. Each one will test themselves and
mankind's ability to work together over come difficulties that one
can not accomplish alone.
National
Geographic follows a group of people to make a journey across the
Serengeti. While it is about surviving in the wild, it is more about
the humans and their journey than the animals (but isn't man an
animal too?) The group is filled with genius in their respective
fields, but that all means nothing in the face of survival, nature is
not as forgiving. Even if mankind is a species who has superior
knowledge, if he/she does not knows how to use it correctly, it
proves to the difference between knowledge and wisdom. In the end it
comes down to two types of people, the ex-military and civilians
...and not everyone will make it.
The
anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image and lossy Dolby Digital sound are very
average with everything from motion blur to location audio limits, so
have patience if you tae this one on. There are no extras.
-
Nicholas Sheffo (Astros)
and Ricky Chiang
