Premier League-Great Goals/The Year in Review of Season 03/04 (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Sports	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	105:10 (Case: 104)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Visual Entertainment Group	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$39.95	Music	None Given

    I greatly enjoy watching the English Premier League when I get the chance, although during this last season I didn't get to see very much of it. Accordingly, I was keen to review this double disc set to see what I have missed in Season 03/04. The set is a very similar format to that used for the previous year's set Premier League 02/03.

    There are two single-layer DVD5 discs included, each of which contains an approximately 50 minute show (and an annoying two minute advertisement for such fascinating titles as the latest offering by Danielle Steele).

    The first disc is called Great Goals 03/04 and is very true to its title. It is formatted by each month of the season from August 2003 to May 2004 and includes some spectacular strikes. Each month's best goals are interspersed with some mini featurettes on great free kicks, great saves, goofs which resulted in goals or resulted in a miss, a small section on the Golden Boot winner, Thierry Henry (30 Goals for the season) and ends with a countdown of the Top 10 goals of the season (although there is no explanation of how these were chosen). Many old favourites such as Dennis Bergkamp are included as well as new faces such as Christiano Ronaldo & Hernan Crespo. Also featured are Australian stars such as Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, Stan Lazaridis & Brett Emerton. The original commentary is included in most cases and a voiceover has been added by Mark Saggers. Overall, this contains 50 minutes of non-stop action and includes some great goals.

    The second disc is called The Year in Review 03/04 and is a documentary style wrap-up of the season including the newly promoted clubs, manager dismissals, the rise of Chelsea under Abramovich, the fall of Leeds United, the Ferdinand missed drug test scandal, the Arsenal player attacks on Ruud Van Nistelrooy, the Leicester City arrests in Spain and of course all the great games and the race for the title. The relegation fights are also covered and Arsenal's unbeaten season (the first in the modern era). Hosted by Marcus Buckland. An interesting wrap up of the season, although it seems a little rushed and might have benefited from more action, maybe extended highlights of the best games.

    Like the previous reviewer, I think it's a little cheeky to have 100 minutes in total on two discs when they could have easily fitted on one DVD9. Accordingly, this may make you question the price tag.

    If you are a fan of the English Premier League, this set is worthy of consideration.

Video

    The video quality is generally excellent with only some minor issues.

    The feature is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is possibly the original aspect ratio although it may have been transmitted in widescreen in the UK.

    The picture was sharp and clear throughout (except when altered for artistic reasons), with no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was excellent.

    The colour was generally excellent although there was some colour bleeding around 26:00 of Disc 2 especially from yellow and blue clothes.

    The only noticeable artefact was some minor but regular aliasing of sidelines and signage around the grounds. It was not particularly distracting.

    There are no subtitles.
    

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is very good but front and centre focussed.

    This set contains one audio option, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand except for some accents during interviews, such as Alex Ferguson or Bobby Robson.

    The music is nothing spectacular but does its job in the production.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer are not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu includes the ability to select scenes but is preceded on both discs by a two minute advertisement that you cannot skip past. All you seem to be able to do is fast forward.

    This set is coded for All Regions and is the same format globally.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The set has no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall