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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
NRL-Classic League Grand Finals: Manly Grand Final Quadruple Pack

NRL-Classic League Grand Finals: Manly Grand Final Quadruple Pack

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Released 29-Aug-2004

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Sports Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating Rated E
Year Of Production ?
Running Time 406:51 (Case: 340)
RSDL / Flipper No/No
Multi Disc Set (4)
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 Slip Case
RPI $69.95 Music None Given


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.29:1
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.29:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

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Plot Synopsis

    It has been quite a few years since I actively followed Rugby League. Basically, they lost me during Super League and I have never returned. Before that, especially as a child and teenager, I was a devoted follower of the great Manly Sea Eagles. My memories are of the 1980s and 1990s with players like Noel Cleal, Ian Roberts, Geoff Toovey, Cliff Lyons, Des Hasler, Graham Eadie at the end of his career, and many many more. Since I was too young to remember much of Manly's glory days of the 1970s I decided to give this box set a try.

    This set of four discs, entitled Classic League Grand Finals includes Manly's premiership wins in 1972, 1973, 1976 & 1978. The discs include the complete games of all four grand finals plus highlights of the 1978 replay. Across the four games, the player who really stands out is Graham 'Wombat' Eadie. His great running, line breaks, fielding of bombs and goal kicking were certainly a huge part of Manly's success in this era. Other players who also stand out are Bobby Fulton, especially in the early games, Terry Randall, Max Krilich, both Alan Thompsons and John O'Neill in 1972. All of the games are good viewing with 1972 and 1976 standing out as football games in my mind.

    In detail, the games are:

    This is not a bad set but only includes the games as they were released for video, probably in the 1980s. In reality you will not gain much from this set if you already have the videos, except that the DVDs will not deteriorate with age. If you are a Manly fan and don't have these on video, this set is probably worth a look. You might also be interested if your video copies have had so much wear as to be hard to watch.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The video quality varies from diabolical (1973) to ordinary (1972) to acceptable (1976,78). The box does carry warnings about the historic nature of the footage but even given that I do not think the 1973 game is good enough.

    The feature is presented in a 1.29:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The sharpness and clarity varied from half a star for 1973 through to 3 stars for 76 & 78. All were affected by grain. The 1973 game looks to me like someone set up a movie camera and took a movie of the game playing on their old television. There is black around the edges and a sepia tone across the middle.

    The colour in 1976 was pretty good considering the age of the footage. 1978 showed some colour bleeding and oversaturation, but was not too bad.

    Artefacts were many and plentiful including constant tape tracking artefacts throughout, sometimes causing loss of picture such as at 59:20 in 1976 and 1:42 in 1978. The opening 10-15 minutes of the 1978 game showed lots of tape tracking issues. The early games featured quite a bit of wobbling and jumping and included lots of black and white splodges and spots. 1973 also featured the most enormous hair collection that I have seen in a DVD transfer. There was a big clump of curly hairs on the right hand side of the screen for quite some time. There was also some microphony when the crowd cheered and I even noticed something which looked like a reel change marker.

    There are no subtitles.

    The discs are all DVD5 formatted and so do not contain layer changes.
    

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

Audio

    The audio quality is acceptable but no more.

    This DVDs contain English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtracks encoded at 192 Kb/s. The first one contains quite a few crackles and pops and a jump after 60 minutes of the game results in a significant volume drop. The other three were not too bad.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

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

Extras

    None.

Menu

    The menu included a selection which showed you the final score but nothing else. The disc autoplays when inserted and the games are preceded by an advertisement for other products by the distributor.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    This set is coded for all regions but has only been released locally.

Summary

    An interesting set of 1970s Grand Final triumphs by Manly-Warringah. One game has very poor video quality which makes it virtually unwatchable. There are no extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Daniel Bruce (Do you need a bio break?)
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV667A DVD-V DVD-A SACD, using Component output
DisplaySony FD Trinitron Wega KV-AR34M36 80cm. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL)/480i (NTSC).
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationPioneer VSX-511
SpeakersBose 201 Direct Reflecting (Front), Phillips SB680V (Surround), Phillips MX731 (Center), Yamaha YST SW90 (Sub)

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