Wrecks to Riches-Volume 1 (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	87:08
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Nomad Distribution	Starring	Barry White
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$19.95	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	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    From the makers of Mythbusters comes this Discovery channel programme that sees a rusting car wreck turned into a gleaming piece of automotive excellence. Barry White is one of America's foremost experts on customised hot rods and street machines. Using his car restoration business as a base, he takes on the challenge each week to find a wreck of an old car - preferably a classic and in a condition that will allow it to be restored. He then has four weeks to turn it into a fully restored classic that can be auctioned for a profit. He will regularly sink more than $40K into the restoration, so the job needs to be good and the right buyer needs to be found.

    Volume One of Wrecks to Riches features two episodes with Barry and his team tackling tricky rebuilds of two cars.

    Episode 1 - Frankenstein's Monster (43:34)

    Barry's been scouring the wrecking yards looking for something suitable to restore, but can't find the right wreck. His daughter has been searching the modern way and finds something on Ebay that just might be suitable. Barry hates the internet idea, but when he sees the car - a '71 Chrysler Plymouth Road Runner that doesn't look in too bad shape - he's interested. Checking out the wreck for real reveals a lot of rust, but when the option to purchase another Plymouth is raised, the idea of merging two cars into one takes shape. Barry and the team don't just stop with a restoration of the Road Runner either. They are intent on making this new car into a top-of-the-line GTX Plymouth muscle car complete with 426 MOPAR Hemi engine. It looks like Barry is going to be spending big dollars to get this thing on the road. But will the fans at the auction be as enthusiastic and get him his money back?

    Episode 2 - Christine Camaro (43:34)

    Barry comes across a wreck of an old '69 Camaro that he thinks will scrub up quite nicely. But when she's stripped back to bare metal the truth is exposed and its name is dodgy paint work and RUST - lots of it. The rust repair means lots of new metal which delays the rebuild and when the supercharger doesn't quite fit the engine Barry's got some problems to sort out - quickly.

    Wrecks To Riches is a fun show that will appeal to all motoring enthusiasts even if you're not quite into the whole muscle car thing. Seeing the process the team goes through to restore a car to its former glory is an interesting experience. The biggest negative with this disc is that it is limited to just two episodes.

Video

    This is a lovely video transfer, obviously benefiting from modern digital cameras. It is presented in the widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is also 16x9 enhanced.

    All the vision is incredibly sharp and detailed, and is consistently good throughout. There isn't a trace of edge enhancement and there are absolutely no problems with shadow detail. There is little grain.

    The colours are excellent, with deep saturation and even and consistent shading. The repainted cars look an absolute treat here.

    There are no compression artefacts and video artefacts are also absent. All up, this is a very clean image with no problems to report.

    Unfortunately, there are no subtitles available at all on this disc. This is disappointing.

    The disc is single layered so there is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only one audio soundtrack on the disc, that being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at the bitrate of 192 Kb/s. Despite the surround flag not being embedded in the bitstream, there is certainly enough separation across the front and rear left/right channels to suggest it is surround encoded. It is quite a decent soundtrack that is as clear and precise as you could hope for.

    Dialogue is excellent with no obvious audio sync issues.

    There is only minimal surround and subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    As at the time of writing this review Wrecks to Riches does not appear to have been released on Region 1 DVD.

    Wrecks to Riches will appeal to all car enthusiasts, whether they are into custom hot rod style cars or not. The process the team goes through to restore a complete wreck to something shiny and beautiful is truly amazing. Host Barry White doesn't have quite the charisma of the two zany guys from Mythbusters, but he knows his stuff with the cars and his enthusiasm for the machinery shines through even if the laughs are few and far between.

    The video quality is superb while the two channel audio is more than up to the job.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall