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| Category | Romantic Comedy | Theatrical Trailer(s) | None |
| Rating |
| Other Trailer(s) | None |
| Year Released | 1993 | Commentary Tracks | None |
| Running Time | 105 minutes | Other Extras | Cast & Crew Biographies |
| RSDL/Flipper | No/No |
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| Start Up | Movie | ||
| Region | 4 | Director | Ivan Reitman |
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Distributor |
Warner Brothers |
Starring | Kevin Kline
Sigourney Weaver Frank Langella Kevin Dunn Ving Rhames Ben Kingsley |
| Case | Snapper | ||
| RRP | $29.95 | Music | James Newton Howard |
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| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame | MPEG | None |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Dolby Digital | 2.0  |
| 16x9 Enhancement | Yes | Soundtrack Languages | English (Dolby Digital 2.0 )
French (Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 ) |
| Theatrical Aspect Ratio | ?2.35:1 ?1.85:1 |
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| Macrovision | ? | ||
| Subtitles | English
French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired |
Smoking | No |
Dave agrees to go along with this until his enthusiasm gets the better of him and he sets out to make things right in America. Along the way he charms the voters and the estranged Ellen Mitchell (Sigourney Weaver).
Dave is a fun movie. It is pure schmaltz, but, what the heck, it is very entertaining.
The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced. The other side of the disc carries a Full Frame presentation of the movie. The Internet Movie Database lists this title as having an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. I believe that this is incorrect as other sources list this movie as having an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, which makes more sense.
The transfer was oversharpened, with subsequent ringing around foreground characters and a lot of background graininess. This was quite distracting at times. Shadow detail was acceptable, and little low level noise was apparent.
The colours were somewhat oversaturated at times, and I noticed one scene where the saturation changed mid-scene (5:48).
No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of small amounts of aliasing, none of which was of much consequence. There was considerable judder during the opening helicopter shots which was distracting. Film artefacts were frequently present, and made worse by the oversharpening of this picture. They were very distracting, and I was quite disappointed with this aspect of the transfer.
Dialogue was always clear and audible.
There were a few ADR sync problems evident on this disc, but none of this was particularly distracting.
The musical score was by the superb James Newton Howard. I have yet to hear a soundtrack from this composer which is anything but superb, and Dave's soundtrack is no exception. The music complements the on-screen action perfectly, adding just the right amount of feeling to the scenes.
The surround channel had little use except for some music. This soundtrack was pretty much a front soundstage mix, and not particularly enveloping.
The .1 channel received a small amount of signal at times from the processor.
The video quality is just barely acceptable.
The audio quality is acceptable.
The extras present are very very limited.
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| Extras |  |
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© Michael Demtschyna
19th May 1999
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| DVD | Pioneer DV-505, using S-Video output |
| Display | Loewe Art-95 95cm direct view CRT in 16:9 mode, via the S-Video input. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials. |
| Audio Decoder | Denon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital AddOn Decoder, used as a standalone processor. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | 2 x EA Playmaster 100W per channel stereo amplifiers for Left, Right, Left Rear and Right Rear; Philips 360 50W per channel stereo amplifier for Centre and Subwoofer |
| Speakers | Philips S2000 speakers for Left, Right; Polk Audio CS-100 Centre Speaker; Apex AS-123 speakers for Left Rear and Right Rear; Yamaha B100-115SE subwoofer |