2006 FIFA World Cup-The Final: Italy v. France (2006)

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General		Extras
Category	Sports	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	173:48 (Case: 130)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (86:46)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Visual Entertainment Group	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Visual Entertainment Group have prepared a few DVD releases to celebrate the recent World Cup Finals held in Germany and this is one of them. This one focuses on the final itself, between Italy and France. The most memorable thing about this game was 'The Headbutt which was heard around the world' which is a shame because it is actually a high quality, closely fought game between two very good sides.

    The disc includes nearly three hours of the SBS coverage from the day from the moment the teams run out until the end of the presentations of winners medals. The commentator is Martin Tyler, who does his usual excellent job. The coverage includes the anthems, team lists, the toss, the game, extra time, the penalty shootout plus the celebrations afterwards. The local SBS half time comments are not included.

    You certainly have your chance with this disc to try to work out what Materazzi said and to endlessly repeat the actual butt if that is your desire, however, there is also an excellent game of football and moment in football history to enjoy.

    This game is certainly a worthwhile final for what was probably a slightly underperforming tournament generally, despite being very efficiently run.

Video

    The video quality is disappointing.

    The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was not very sharp, and affected badly by grain and quite a bit of macro-blocking. There was no evidence of low level noise. The macro-blocking was regular and quite obvious on long shots where the outline of the players macro-blocked as they moved. Also, every time the referee appeared on the screen his bright red shirt was a mess of pixelization. Essentially, the long running time on one DVD has resulted in too low a bitrate.

    The colour was quite reasonable although as mentioned above richer colours were affected by macro-blocking.

    Other than what I have already mentioned artefacts included some minor aliasing and a jump at 40:40 which I assume was a digital signal break up.

    There are no subtitles.

    The layer change occurs at 86:46 and was not noticeable.
    

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is good.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Commentary was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync. There was a good amount of crowd ambience included.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    None.

Menu

    The menu included motion, music and the ability to select chapters.

    This disc is coded for all regions. The final does not seem to be available on DVD in Region 1.

    The video quality is disappointing.

    The audio quality is good.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall