The Fifth Element (Superbit) (1997)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Dolby Digital Trailer-City dts Trailer-digital experience
Rating
Year Of Production	1997
Running Time	120:44
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (59:17)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Luc Besson
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Bruce Willis Gary Oldman Ian Holm Milla Jovovich Chris Tucker Luke Perry
Case	Soft Brackley-Opaque
RPI	$49.95	Music	Eric Serra

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	French Dutch	Smoking	Yes, huge filters...
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    There was a time when the chief sign of a DVD geek was having seen the Diva scene lots of times; true DVD geeks had seen the Diva scene on equipment that cost more than their car (or maybe house). No DVD collection was complete without The Fifth Element. Many DVD collections started with a copy. Those days have passed — I know people who collect DVDs, and claim to know something about DVD, and yet haven't seen The Fifth Element... Even so, I really don't think I need to go into the plot of this disc. If you really want that, I suggest you read the review of the original R4.

    The movie remains a DVD favourite of mine, and so I pre-ordered a copy of the Region 1 Superbit version the moment it was announced. Unlike Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the Region 1 Superbit version was significantly better than the R4 disc I had at the time. So it was with considerable interest, and more than a little curiosity, that I put the Region 4 Superbit version of The Fifth Element into my DVD player...

    OK, I'll put you out of your misery: the R4 Superbit disc is a d*** fine effort, and very slightly better than the R1. That makes it a heap better than the original R4 — at one time regarded as a measure of superior DVD quality, but not now. It may sound petty, but I think our black bordered packaging looks much nicer than the flimsier silver packaging of the R1.

    If you watch DVDs on a small television, I can't honestly recommend this disc to you. But if you have a large display, and full 5.1 sound, then this disc might be one for you. Strongly recommended for the DVD fanatic obsessed with the eternal search for perfection... (stop smiling that knowing smile at me!)

    I've been asked how much space is occupied by each version of the disc. Here are the numbers for the discs I have:

• Original R4: 4 431 230 976 bytes (this disc was single layer)
• Superbit R1: 7 432 468 480 bytes (but 53 248 bytes are used for jacket photos)
• Superbit R4: 7 443 478 528 bytes

Video

    This movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, which is the intended ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    The image is magnificent. It is superbly sharp and clear, making it possible to count the hairs in Bruce Willis' stubble. Shadow detail is marvellous, providing detail that was not visible in the original R4. Film grain is never a problem. There is no low-level noise.

    Colour is beautifully rendered. It's very clear that Leeloo's hair is many different shades, rather than a single unnatural colour. There are no colour-related artefacts.

    Interestingly, it looks like the R1 and R4 Superbit versions were drawn from the same high definition master, because I found three film artefacts that are identical. The first, and most distinctive, is a small irregularly shaped black spot on frame 3 at 1:54 in the R4 version — it's in frame 19 at 1:58 of the R1 version. There's a small white hair at 17:05 (frame 20) of the R4, and 17:48 (frame 9) of the R1. And there a tiny white spot at 75:42 (frame 20) of the R4, 78:51 (frame 24) of the R1. If you want to do the mathematics, you should remember that frames on the R4 are numbered 0 to 24, while those on the R1 are numbered 0 to 29.

    I won't claim that these film artefacts are only children, but they are definitely not from a large family. These ones are small and barely noticeable - any others are smaller still.

    There is some extremely mild aliasing, but it's difficult to spot when the film is playing — you really have to pause, or single-step to see it (yup, that's obsessive!). There's no moire or noticeable shimmer.

    There are no MPEG artefacts. In fact, I noticed that many of the backgrounds offered more detail than the original R4; I'd say that's courtesy of the reduced level of compression.

    There are subtitles in French and Dutch, which struck me as odd — there are no English subtitles at all. Maybe they forgot about those of us who might want to watch this film with our elderly parents, and who don't want to lose their hearing turning the sound up loud enough for the parents to hear? This is a mistake, but I think it's the only one on the disc.

    The disc is single-sided and dual layered, formatted RSDL. The layer change is at 59:17. It falls in the middle of a scene, at a silent moment with relatively little movement on screen, and is completely invisible — very impressive work.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Superbit discs are supposed to feature the soundtrack in the original language only, in Dolby Digital 5.1 and dts 5.1. At least, that's the theory. The R4 Superbit discs don't quite follow the rules. This disc has three soundtracks. English in dts 5.1 is present as expected. But rather than another English soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1, we get an English soundtrack in Dolby Digital 2.0 (surround-encoded), and a French soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1. It seems to me that the R4 mastering team want to make their mark... I listened to the whole of the dts soundtrack, on the principle that this is likely to be the one the average Superbit purchaser will listen to. I checked that the other two soundtracks had sound on them (they do), but that's all.

    The dialogue is clear and comprehensible in English. There is no trace of any audio sync errors.

    Eric Serra's score is well-suited to the action, and it is well presented.

    The surround speakers get lots to do, with a nicely enveloping score, and lots of well-placed environmental sounds. We're talking demo-quality sound here.

    The subwoofer is given plenty of exercise, starting with the opening credits. It adds ominous undertones, provides the kick to the various firearms, and generally woofs its subby heart out.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Superbit = no extras. Watch the movie again. And again...

Menu

    The menu is standard Superbit: static and silent.

    As mentioned above, I suspect that the R1 Superbit and R4 Superbit discs draw their video from the same (superb) high definition transfer. So the two Superbit discs offer equal quality video, you might think. Not quite so, to my eyes. The lower resolution of the NTSC system seems to tell against the R1, making the very mild aliasing a touch more noticeable. The effect is slight, true, but I'd rather have the slightly better rather than the slightly worse.

    The Region 1 disc has the standard Superbit soundtracks of 5.1 dts and 5.1 Dolby Digital, both English, so it's missing the 5.1 Dolby Digital French we get on the R4, but it does have English Dolby Digital 5.1 rather than 2.0 (surround encoded). I thought that was a serious limitation at first, but then I started to wonder: could I really imagine someone buying a Superbit disc without having dts support? Nah!

    The original Region 4 disc had a few extras:

• filmographies
• poster gallery
• MPEG 2.0 soundtracks in English, French, and Spanish

    It had Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks in English and French (no dts).

    At the time, the original R4 disc was considered state-of-the-art. Now, we notice little things like the dot-crawl on the opening credits, the touches of edge-enhancement, the lower levels of shadow detail, and the somewhat greater levels of aliasing. The original R4 is not an awful disc (I've seen lots worse...), but both Superbits are considerably better.

    If you have the R1 Superbit disc I can't recommend lashing out for this one (unless you really feel the need...), but if you don't have the R1 Superbit, then this one makes a wonderful demo disc for that huge new display you just bought...

    One of the original demo movies, given a face-lift on a new DVD. If we still had a Hall of Fame this disc would immediately supplant its predecessor.

    The video quality is the stuff demos are made of. The original R4 once rated 6 stars — this one rates 7.

    The audio is demo quality.

    The extras are deliberately omitted.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall