Play School Meets the Orchestra & Everybody Sing! (1995)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	118:01
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Noni Hazlehurst Benita Collings Glenn Butcher Trisha Goddard John Hamblin Colin Buchanan Philip Quast Angela Moore George Spartels Monica Trapaga James Valentine Tara Morice Warren Carr
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	Various

    Play School has been a part of the childhoods of many thousands of Australians and its many characters are household names. For a look at some of my personal thoughts on the importance of this series, check out my previous Play School review.

1. Play School Meets The Orchestra (61:42)

    These two episodes of Play School focus on orchestra instruments and the roles they play in a large composition. Several instruments are featured in the studio, such as the violin, trombone and cello, and their sounds are interpreted artistically with a paintbrush. Trish Goddard visits the Sydney Symphony while they are in rehearsal and explains the role of the conductor, followed by a great performance of Kakadu by the entire orchestra. Kakadu is an astounding piece that has the orchestra mimicking flocks of Cockatoos and and various other pieces of wildlife. The second half features more musical instruments and dancing, with special appearances by saxophonist and ABC radio personality James Valentine and my favourite Play School pianist, Warren Carr.

2. Everybody Sing (56:19)

    Nine Play School presenters were assembled for this 1995 production, featuring just about every conceivable nursery rhyme one can imagine. The pace of this episode is a little faster than the average Play School show and seems very tightly edited, flowing quickly from one song to another. Some of the interaction between presenters is funny to watch, particularly when the blokes goof about. A lot of the content here is very similar to the previous Play School DVD, Nursery Rhymes and includes many of the same songs and animated interludes that can be found on that earlier DVD release.

Video

    This series was originally made for television and home video and as such the video transfer is presented in 1.33:1, full frame.

    The transfer varies in quality due to the age of some of the animated segments, however the studio footage is consistent in quality and doesn't present any major issues. The video clarity isn't as sharp as recent productions, but is still pretty good. Blacks appear bold and there were no visible examples of low level noise.

    Colours were bright, with no signs of bleeding or oversaturation. I noted a number of occasions in which reflective props caused the studio lighting to flare into the camera, most particularly when the shiny, brass orchestra instruments were present. Although it was highly noticeable, these instances were only brief.

    I didn't see any signs of MPEG grain or over-compression. Aliasing was well controlled and although there were a few small examples present they are of the mildest variety and are hardly worth mentioning. Film artefacts are very noticeable in some scenes, most of all during the animated introduction.

    There are no subtitle streams included on the disc.

    This disc is dual layered and single sided (DVD 9 format). There is no layer transition during playback, so each of the features must be on separate layers.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only one audio track present on the disc, an average English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) that happens to be as varied in quality as the video transfer.

    The program is recorded in a controlled studio environment, which lends itself to clear vocal recordings with no interference or distortion. All of the presenters enunciate clearly and are easy to understand during all of the songs and stories. There were no issues with audio sync during the transfer.

    There are a number of occasions on which the audio quality takes a distinct dive, most notable when we view any of the animated short films. The most common culprit in these cases is background noise and hiss, only lasting for a minute or so.

    There are no examples of left-to-right panning on this stereo soundtrack - all of the music appears to be situated evenly between the front speakers. My surrounds and subwoofer were given the day off.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    None.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall