DVD Sirens (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Screensaver	Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Meet the Sirens Gallery Featurette-Making Of Trailer-DVD Aquarium, DVD Fireplace, DVD Birdcage Trailer-DVD Sirens
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	61:17
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Mark Denning
Studio Distributor	Holborne Australasia	Starring	None Given
Case	Click
RPI	?	Music	None Given

    From the producers of such classics as DVD Fireplace and DVD Aquarium (and who could forget DVD Birdcage) comes a new disc to turn your display device into a .... swimming pool. But not just any swimming pool, this swimming pool comes equipped with five beautiful young ladies in small bikinis and a special 'bubble' soundtrack.

    The young ladies, all in perfect health, swim past an underwater camera in a swimming pool. They go left, they go right and occasionally they go around. Besides the bubble soundtrack (someone with a straw and a coke by the sound of it), there are three other soundtracks that can be chosen to accompany these aquatic adventures. These soundtracks are I suspect meant to be of the 'new age' relaxing kind, but I am afraid that I found them less than relaxing. My wife called them 'menu music', the sort of repetitive sounds that often accompany DVD menus.

    There are four sections to the main, umm, feature, each running for twenty minutes, although they are set to loop indefinitely. The first and second are very similar, with the camera pretty much horizontal in the pool and the girls swimming past again and again. After the first mildly interesting look at some bikini-clad girls, I started to wish that the elastic would give way. Just once would have done. After the next twenty minutes, I was hoping for a visit by Jaws. The only difference between the first and second sections is that the second contains the occasional segment that appears to be in fast forward. The image fast forwards for about half a second and then returns to normal speed. One of these occurs at 2:47 and it occurs fairly regularly through the section. I have to assume these are intentional but have no idea why they were included.

    The third is actually the best of all the material. The camera points upwards at 45 degrees so that the surface of the pool can be seen. They have then lit the pool from above with a spotlight that changes colour every four odd minutes. It starts with blue, then green and so on. With the girls disturbing the surface of the pool, this gives some rather interesting effects with the spotlight shining through. The girls are reduced to silhouettes due to the back lighting, reminiscent of one of the Bond film opening credits. This almost became artistic with the lights and the rather pleasant silhouettes.

    The last section is the same as the first, but this time presented at an aspect ratio of 1.85.

Video

    The first three sections are presented at 1.33:1 and are not 16x9 enhanced. The last section is presented at 1.85:1 and is also not 16x9 enhanced.

    Where the material is not affected by macroblocking it is surprisingly sharp for material that is shot underwater. In three of the sections, the water and the girls are well-lit, leaving no real shadows, but the section with the coloured lights is quite dark in places and the shadow detail on the backlit girls is at times non-existent. This is probably intentional and not a fault in the transfer.

    The colours are very nice, again not referring to the pixelated areas, with good saturation and no noise.

    MPEG artefacts are very prominent with the blocking almost completely replacing the image in places. It occurs any time over about 20% of the screen image changes at the one time. As the girl approaches the camera, the image is all right until she gets close and then it completely breaks up. This occurs throughout the material from the start as the examples at 0:05 and 0:14 show. This material was captured on video, and I could not see any obvious video artefacts.

    There are no subtitles on this disc.

    This is a dual layered disc with the layer change somewhere in between the various sections as it was not visible during the action.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is no talking during the main features, and the dialogue quality in the making-of is a bit of a let-down as they have used the on-camera mike.

    There is consequently not much to judge the audio sync by.

    This is not my kind of music and would not cause me to relax at all, but each to his own. It is electronic and very repetitive.

    There was no surround activity.

    Some of the bass in the music redirected a little to the subwoofer but little else came from there.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    Presented at 1.33:1 the menu is accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 sound of bubbles. It is a very simple menu that gives you the choice of selecting the four sections. Once you make the selection you are presented with a second menu to choose your soundtrack.

Meet the Sirens (2:36)

    Each of the girls jumps in the pool towards the camera. The image is slowed down while some information about the Siren is presented. Important information such as their star sign is included at the top of the list.

Deep Sea Gallery (5:20)

    A series of still shots of the girls underwater presented at 1.33:1 and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. The shot are slowly panned across the screen in various directions. Considering that they are shot underwater they are incredibly clear and actually very nice from a photographic point of view with the girls patterned in the dappled light coming through the water.

Featurette: The Making of a Siren (5:32)

    A very quick and hand held look at the production of the material on this disc. Mostly without voices, although there are a couple of sections with dialogue. This felt very much like one of those 'who will be a star' shows. Presented at 1.33:1 and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

More DVD Titles (1:01)

    Trailers for the three other DVDs in this range; the Fish tank, the Bird Cage and the Fireplace. All presented at 1.33:1 and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and sounding very much like a K-Tel ad.

Trailer: Sirens (1:01)

    The trailer for this disc presented at 1.33:1 and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    There does not appear to be a Region 1 version of this disc.

    You will see more on the average Aussie beach on any summer day than you will on this disc - the pool water is not even that cold! I personally can't see this one getting another run in my DVD player.

    The video is badly affected by blocking.

    The audio is good.

    The extras are of minor interest.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall