NBA-Larry Bird: A Basketball Legend (1991)

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General		Extras
Category	Sports	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	60:35
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Larry Bird
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	None Given

    Larry Bird is a rarity. He is one of only a handful of white guys who have 'made' it in the NBA over the last 30 years. When I say 'made it' I mean someone who has won Rookie of the Year, been an NBA All-Star, won NBA championships, had video games named after him and been a member of the Olympic Team USA.

    This 60 minute presentation does a fantastic job of giving you an overview of his illustrious career and attempts to give you an insight into who Larry Bird is. From his early years in French Lick, Indiana (no that's not a typo) to his university playing days (I never knew he had initially dropped out) to his amazing NBA career, the documentary style approach is both a benefit and a drawback to the presentation.

    A lot of time is spent showing his university playing days. I never realised that the Indiana State University Sycamores (a previously unknown team) finished the season undefeated to enter the NCAA Final Four where they ultimately lost to Magic Johnson's Michigan State. Five years later Bird would have his revenge when the Celtics defeated the Lakers in the NBA Finals.

    This disc really shines when it shows the finals footage from their Championship seasons in the mid 80s. Considering the film is a short 60 minutes, the quantity of amazing basketball footage present is incredible. Any basketball fan would value this disc in their collection as it shows a lot of great basketball from one of the game's greatest players. The voiceover can get a bit schmaltzy and the interviews with players, coaches and Bird himself are a bit dated (the copyright for the production is 1991) but the faults are minor compared to the great basketball on the disc. It's great to see a player who is quite down to earth, in contrast to many of the egos in the game at the moment.

    If you even remotely like basketball then this disc is highly recommended. If you like sports in general and respect great sportsmen no matter what sport they come from then you will enjoy this disc.

Video

    The transfer is not 16x9 enhanced, and overall the picture quality is reasonable considering the source material.

    Like many sports shows, the video quality ranges from good to bad. Given that most of the show is taken from live NTSC game footage, there are a lot of washed out colours while other footage has over-saturated colours with some cross colouration and colour bleed.

    There is a fair bit of aliasing, but given the original footage you tend to forgive it. Edge enhancement tends to be an issue too.

    The interviews don't suffer from these issues and tend to look much better than the game reels.

    There were some video tracking errors that affected generally the lower part of the screen. This was not in a lot of reels, but when it did appear it was a little distracting.

    Overall, for a sports show the video quality is good - most of the faults are forgivable considering the age and format of the footage..

Video Ratings Summary

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

    The English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 Kb/s) soundtrack does a pretty good job overall.

    There was a considerable amount of background music which came through sounding fine (admittedly a lot of it wasn't my taste in music) but it nevertheless added to the atmosphere of the show. The interview audio came through clearly in the centre speaker and game footage (players, crowd noise and commentators) came through loud and clear, adding a lot to the feature.

    There were no other audio track options.

    There were no drop out or sync issues.

    There is no subwoofer or surround activity, but it was not expected.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio

    There are no extras on this disc which is disappointing because it is supposed to be a 25th anniversary edition.

    Hands down the Region 1 disc is better - it comes with a second bonus disc showing three classic Bird games. We only get a single disc release. Region 4 misses out again!

    The video is reasonable for this kind of presentation.

    The audio is good.

    There are no special features. Very disappointing considering Region 1 gets a whole second disc!

    Overall, great for NBA fans with a lot of enjoyment for the casual fan.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall