The Forsyte Saga-Series 2 (Shock) (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	266:04 (Case: 275)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (24:09) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Christopher Menaul Dave Moore
Studio Distributor	Shock Entertainment	Starring	Damian Lewis Rupert Graves Gina McKee Corin Redgrave
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$39.95	Music	Geoffrey Burgon

    As with a number of other recent releases from Time Life, The Forsyte Saga - Series 2 (2003)  is a re-release of a previously released title from a different distributor. The original review by ChrisT is available here. This new release is quite different, despite containing the same material. The differences are summarised below.

	Original Universal Release	Time Life / Shock Release
Video	1.78:1 16x9 enhanced OAR	1.56:1 non 16x9 enhanced not OAR
Audio	DD 2.0 Stereo 192 Kb/s	DD 2.0 Stereo 128 Kb/s.
Extras	None	Nothing
No of Discs	4x70 minute episodes (275:58 total)	Recut to 5x53 minute episodes (266:04 total)

    On the basis of these differences you should stick with the original release if you already have it. The change of aspect ratio is quite annoying and it is obvious that some of the picture is missing in some scenes. The recutting into 5 episodes is a bit odd but I can only assume this was done for a different television showing, possibly along with the cropping. The total run time is about 10 minutes shorter when compared to the original release which is a bit odd. It must have been edited as well.

    In terms of the program itself, the previous review includes an excellent plot synopsis. In my opinion this is a very well made series with excellent acting and some wonderful use of music. The material is highly recommended. I enjoyed it despite having seen it before.

Video

    The video quality is average and at the wrong aspect ratio.

    The feature is presented in a 1.56:1 aspect ratio, non 16x9 enhanced, which is not the original aspect ratio. I will remove one star from the overall video rating due to this incorrect aspect ratio.

    The picture was of quite average sharpness and clarity and was affected quite badly by ghosting and colour bleeding. There was light grain throughout which also became worse in spots. There was no evidence of low level noise. I did notice some very minor macro-blocking in backgrounds. Shadow detail was also average.

    The colour was not overly bright considering how new this production is and as mentioned above some colour bleeding was evident.

    There was quite a bit of edge enhancement to be seen along with some minor aliasing here and there.

    There are no subtitles.

    The layer change on Disc 1 occurred at 24:09 in Episode 2. There is no layer change on Disc 2.
    

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is decent but no more.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at a quite low 128 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was mostly clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The score of this series is by Geoffrey Burgon and some other classical works are also used. The theme song is sung by Bryn Terfel. The combination of music is excellent and very well used. Unfortunately, the low bit rate of this second season has reduced the effect of this music somewhat.

    The surround speakers added some mild atmosphere when played with Pro Logic II.

    The subwoofer was not used noticeably.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    None

Menu

    The menu included music and does its job quite well.

    Region 1 is the pick here.

    The video quality is average and in the wrong aspect ratio.

    The audio quality is decent but at a low bit rate.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall