British Steam-Best of: Scotland (1994)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Theatrical Trailer Trailer-The Best Of British Steam (3), British Steam (6)
Rating
Year Of Production	1994
Running Time	57:55
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	RV Television MRA Entertainment	Starring	Robert Symes Mary Jean Hasler
Case	Brackley-Opaque-No Lip
RPI	?	Music	None Given

    Whilst it has a strong heritage in railways, Scotland simply does not have as strong a collection of preserved railways as either England or Wales. What it might lack in numbers, though, it more than makes up for with the quality of the collections - as well as the scenery.

    Nonetheless, the result is a somewhat less stellar DVD programme, simply as there is not the same sort of variety - although we do get to see a lot more of what is on offer. This third journey though the Best Of British Steam takes us first to the Bo'Ness and Kinneil Railway (home of the extensive collection of the Scottish Railway Preservation Society), then a journey up the Highland Main Line to the superb Museum of Transport in Glasgow, the Strathspey Railway, the Scottish Industrial Railway Centre (which potentially could become one of the pre-eminent industrial railway centres in the world), the Prestongrange Railway Society and finally the Caledonian railway in Brechin.

    It is a pity that there was not more coverage of the main line action in Scotland - for the country offers some of the most stunning railway journeys in the world. The Highland Main Line, running between Perth and Inverness, is one of those journeys and one I have done recently, but the West Highland Line from Glasgow to Mallaig is even better and does now feature regular steam hauled trains during the summer months on the section from Fort William to Mallaig.

    Lacking something in the way of variety, this is perhaps the one DVD from the series that is definitely of interest to fans only. It is also probably the poorer of the three reviewed DVDs so far as far as the technical quality is concerned.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    Just remember that this is closer to home video rather than professional film. The transfer is probably poorer than the two previous DVDs reviewed from the series. It is somewhat variable in appearance, with the interior footage of the Museum of Transport for instance being rather soft in resolution and detail. Shadow detail is not an issue but the sunlight provides more problems with some footage being very washed out in appearance.

    Colours are weaker overall with tones and saturation being very underdone on occasions. The look is very digital at times and highlights the fact that this material is video sourced.

    There are no apparent MPEG artefacts in the transfer. The major issue here is again with aliasing and at times this is quite a grotesque problem - the worst in the series so far. Just about any straight line in the programme exhibits the problem so it is rather hard to ignore it. There is some evidence of flaring here and there. There are no film artefacts to worry about in the transfer.

    This is a single layered, single sided DVD so there is no layer change to worry about.

    There are no subtitle options on the DVD.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is just the one soundtrack on the DVD, being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 effort.

    The narration comes up well in the transfer, being easy to understand, but once again some of the sound recording of the trains themselves is a little underwhelming. There do not appear to be any audio sync issues with the transfer.

    The original music accompaniment is also nothing much to worry about again.

    The soundtrack itself is a reflection of the nature of the programming and whilst slightly better than the earlier reviewed DVD still does little more than carry the narration and expose the lack of quality in the original sound recordings of the engines and trains themselves. There are the odd blemishes here and there, but for the most part these are the nature of the beast with these sorts of live recordings. Nevertheless, they are still mildly annoying.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Previews (10)

    Since they are all pretty much the same in presentation (each one of them uses the exact same music and effects track playing over the video), the ten trailers are more easily dealt with in one paragraph rather than ten! All are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, are not 16x9 enhanced and feature Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. The technical quality is very much the same as the main feature with most of the same issues with colour and aliasing noted. The ten trailers are:

• Best Of British Steam - Northern England (0:59)
• Best Of British Steam - Southern England (0:59)
• Best Of British Steam - Wales (0:59)
• Best Of British Steam - Scotland (0:59)
• British Steam - The North Yorkshire Moors Railway (1:08)
• British Steam - The West Somerset Railway (1:07)
• British Steam - The Severn Valley Railway (1:08)
• British Steam - The Paignton and Dartmouth Railway (1:07)
• British Steam - The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (1:08)
• British Steam - The Bluebell Railway (1:06)

    This is the same DVD as is available in Region 2 and I seriously doubt that anything different would be made available anywhere else, so if you want the programme, once again this is your choice.

    With the technical quality falling back somewhat and with the lack of variety of steam on offer, this is perhaps the poorest of the three DVDs from the series that we have now reviewed. Definitely one for the buffs only.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall