DVE – Digital Video Essentials: High Definition HD-DVD/DVD
Combo Format Edition
Picture
Demos: A-/B Sound Demos: A-/B Extras: B- Main Content: B+
For
years, getting the most out of your home video playback has been one of the
great goals of those who want the best when they are entertaining themselves
with TV and film programming at home.
Even before VHS & Beta, the TV manufacturers were always trying with
bigger and better sets, then adding items like color and remote controls. In 1980, when two videodisc formats were
introduced, the stakes were raised. The
video-needle CED/Select-A-Vision system bombed and 12” LaserDisc managed to
survive after initially bombing under the name DiscoVision. That is when Joe Kane started to examine new
playback possibilities for home video.
Besides
landmark technical innovations in hardware and a total grasp of the analog NTSC
and PAL formats, which helped advance early analog High Definition video and
paved the way for the digital High Definition we have today, he and his
collaborators released the best-selling A
Video Standard, which allowed for LaserDisc owners to make their TVs and
video projectors look better than ever.
CDs were a hit by the mid-1980s and PCM digital sound arrived to the 12”
format years before DTS or Dolby Digital arrived. When DVD-Video overtook LaserDiscs, Kane and
company upgraded the program for that format and DVE – Digital Video Essentials: High Definition HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format
Edition offers that DVD program on one side and a new digital High
Definition program on the HD-DVD side.
Instead
of just a blue filter like the LaserDisc version, red and green filters have
been added for a more through test along with a high-quality paper pullout with
instructions and a table of contents on all the tests. Both sides offer 1.78 X 1 high quality
anamorphic images (all HD formats are anamorphic as standard, unlike regular
DVD) and the HD images are encoded in the VC-1 compression format.
Though
there are many imitators (a few of which are more than problematic) and even
the THX Optimizer on THX-certified DVD-Videos have tried to offer an
abbreviated version of this program, but there is nothing like the full length,
fully detailed, thorough version by Kane to really set things up to top
performance.
Though I
did my best to set my HDTV to the best playback I could prior to the release of
this disc, there is always something you can miss if you don’t have the most
detailed run-through possible. Except
for some personal adjustments you might want to make when finished, nothing on
the market will help you get the most out of your HDTV and video playback in
both DVD formats like Digital Video
Essentials. Like this site, whether
you are a novice or expert, you will get plenty out of this program to justify
its price. It is definitely a keeper.
The DVD
is only 480i/60fps, but the HD side offers 720p/24fps, 720p/60fps and
1080p/24fps, the latter of which tends to offer the best performance, but some
HDTVs (to the shock of many, including those who bought them) can only do
720p! Some nice-looking plasma sets in
particular fall under this sad dilemma.
The color bar, Video Black test, range of color tests, calibration tests
for tint, color, sharpness, brightness and contrast are Kane’s most advanced
yet. It helps HD-originated programming,
which needs all the help it can get with some of the bad shooting we’ve seen
and especially with so many 1080i-produced programs with their own limits.
As for
the sound tests, they are all in Dolby TrueHD, but oddly not also available in
DTS-MA (Master Audio) despite the fact that the DVD side has Dolby Digital EX
and DTS-ES. Dolby TrueHD is better than
regular Dolby Digital (for which non-Dolby Digital fans are most grateful;
thanks Meridian for MLP!) and DTS-MA should have been here. Otherwise, the sound tests are solid and
terrific as expected and make for great audio adjustments and tests for any
serious surround system.
Since the
idea of extras are a bit shaky for a release like this, I count how thorough
all the additional material is, that a DVD side included in a way here that
makes more sense than for a feature film release title since it increases its
flexibility for upgrades and analog is far from dead and the upgraded color
filter is also a plus. It is not that
the competing titles (none of which are HD yet) are all totally awful, but Kane
cares and is so many steps ahead of his competitors that his work is the gold
standard (and higher) for such programming.
DVE – Digital Video Essentials: High
Definition HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format Edition is the next big leap forward for
your home theater system, all video playback and is highly recommended.
With both
of those formats being left behind, a Blu-ray version has been issued (along
with a separate, updated HD-DVD version) now available. Read more about it at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6745/DVE
- Nicholas Sheffo
