AFL-Magic Moments: Adelaide Crows (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Sports	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	91:37 (Case: 80)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Visual Entertainment Visual Entertainment Group	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

    "We are the pride of South Australia, we are the mighty Adelaide Crows," booms the parochial team song in the opening moments of AFL-Magic Moments Adelaide Crows.

    The Adelaide Crows controversially joined the AFL in 1991 after legally preventing the Port Adelaide Football Club from leaving the South Australian competition. It was not the way the South Australian National Football League planned to enter the national competition but the Crows have gone on to become one of the AFL's more successful teams over that period.

    You could say that there are many AFL-Magic Moments over that time. This 91 minute disc is a highlight reel of the past 15 seasons, celebrating some of the Crow's high flying, goal scoring and bone jarring moments. This disc showcases some of the players, match-winning goals and gravity defying marks that have occurred between 1991-2005.

    The program is divided up into the following sections;

    The Screamers - These are the marks that show how AFL players put their bodies on the line. See players like Tony Modra and Darren Jarman take 'screamers' that get even the commentators excited.

    Showdowns - How much do the Crows and the Power hate each other? See highlights from matches where Adelaide have come up trumps in the City of Churches.

    The Heroes - Career highlights of Crow legends like Mark Bickley, Tony McGuiness and Nigel Smart. Also has great early (and recent footage) of current players like Mark Ricciuto and Andrew McLeod.

    The Hard Men - Biffos, elbows and bust ups, some amazing footage of fights and game action that makes you wonder how these players can put their bodies on the line, week after week, season after season.

    The Sharpshooters - See goals from incredible distances and impossible angles.

    The Finals -  Highlights from the Crow's back to back premierships in 96 and 97.

    Adelaide Crow fans will find this a valuable addition to their DVD library, but what surprised me is that this disc has enough classic AFL Magic Moments to make it a potential purchase for any AFL fan.

    A fantastic hour and a half's worth of entertaining footy.

Video

    The program is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.29:1. The transfer is not 16x9 enhanced.

    Overall the video quality is what you would expect from sports events. Older games from the early 90s look dated, have various video artefacts and were obviously taken from a pretty ordinary analogue transmission. More recent games look sharper and were probably captured from a standard definition digital source.

    There are a few glitches in cutting from one camera to another that were obviously from the original live broadcasts from the game in question, but nothing that detracts from the viewing experience or the enjoyment of the program.

    Some of the earlier game footage has either really overly bright colour (like almost fluoro green grass) or really washed out colours. Cross colouration and some colour bleed are also present in some clips.

Video Ratings Summary

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

    An English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 Kb/s) soundtrack was totally appropriate for the disc. Older scenes had front heavy dialogue and crowd noise with little to no use of the rear speakers. I was pleasantly surprised that the newer footage had quite immersive use of the rear speakers for crowd noise. Sometimes I felt like I was right there in the middle of the game! The newer audio was definitely clearer and easier on the ears than the older audio.

    There was no sub-woofer activity. It was not expected for this kind of presentation.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    No extras. The menu only had play and chapter options. Interviews with some of the players would have been a nice bonus to add value to the disc.

    There is no R1 version of this DVD available.

    This DVD release is a great showcase that highlights the past 15 seasons of the Adelaide Crows. There are enough Magic Moments for even a casual AFL fan to feel pleased with this purchase. I strongly recommend this to all AFL lovers, and it's a 'no-brainer' purchase for SA football lovers.

    The video quality does the job. Earlier footage can be a little rough but overall it is good for a sports presentation.

    The audio is decent, especially the more recent clips which use surround sound.

    Disappointingly, there are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall