Tour Down Under 2010 (2010) |
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Tour Down Under 2010 (2010) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Sports |
Additional Footage Interviews-Cast Featurette-Many |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2010 | ||
| Running Time | 431:15 (Case: 498) | ||
| RSDL / Flipper |
Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (3) |
Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | Directed By | None Given |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Beyond Home Entertainment |
Starring | None Given |
| Case | Amaray-Opaque-Dual | ||
| RPI | ? | 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 |
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| 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 | ||
The Tour De France is the world's premier bicycle race and has been the subject of hours of television and lots of DVD releases, many of which have been covered by this site. A relative newcomer (and now officially part of the World Tour) is the Tour Down Under held annually in South Australia. It was first run in 1999 and the 2010 tour was covered on SBS in January this year. Now, for the first time to my knowledge, the race has resulted in a DVD set similar to those produced for the Tour De France.
The 2010 Tour Down Under covered nearly 800 kilometres over 6 stages which is obviously significantly less than Le Tour but still a pretty serious bike ride. The race this year was competed in by 18 world class teams featuring many of the world's most famous riders such as Cadel Evans, Robbie McEwen, Lance Armstrong, Jens Voight, George Hincapie, Oscar Pereiro and Andre Greipel ((SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) the eventual winner this year). This three disc set is a comprehensive review of the race, issued by Beyond Home Entertainment.
The first disc contains the highlights of each stage plus the precursor race, the Down Under Classic, hosted by the usual team of Mike Tomalaris, Paul Sherwen & Phil Liggett. These were the shows televised on SBS. Interview material with the riders is also included.
The second disc contains the first 3 hours of Stage 5, which is included in full across Discs 2 & 3. The third disc contains the last hour of Stage 5 plus the bonus features. It is great to include a full stage as sometimes it is hard to really understand how a stage unfolds when you only see the highlights.
An excellent summation of Australia's world class bicycle race.
The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, 16x9 enhanced which would be the original aspect ratio.
The picture was quite sharp and clear with only some minor graininess and MPEG artefacts to spoil the clarity.
The colour was very good with no issues to report.
The only other artefacts are from the original source, being picture break-ups from helicopters etc.
There are no subtitles.
The layer change is not noticeable during playback.
| Sharpness |  |
| Shadow Detail |  |
| Colour |  |
| Grain/Pixelization | |
| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
| Overall | |
The audio quality is good.
This DVD contains one audio option, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.
Commentary and voiceovers were clear and easy to understand throughout.
The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
| Surround Channel Use | |
| Subwoofer | |
| Overall | |
The menu is still and silent. The episode select menu is entitled Highlights.
Interview.
Interview.
Interview.
Interview.
Interview.
Day in the life featurette.
Interview.
Interview.
Featurette on the associated amateur race.
The police role in the race.
Featurette on the tour village and visitors to it.
Interview with the family of a young rider present to witness his professional debut.
Adelaide Hilton featurette.
Featurette on the associated kids race.
Featurette on sponsor.
Proper interview hosted by Phil Sherwen covering Lance's comeback and his interest in the race.
Interesting interview with Mike Tomalaris.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
This set is Region free and only available locally.
The video quality is very good.
The audio quality is good.
A large selection of mostly small extras are included.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Sony DVP-NS708H upscaling to 1080p, using HDMI output |
| Display | LG Scarlet 42LG61YD 106cm Full HD LCD. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
| Amplification | Pioneer VSX-511 |
| Speakers | Monitor Audio Bronze 2 (Front), Bronze Centre & Bronze FX (Rears) + Sony SAW2500M Subwoofer |