Liverpool FC-The 70's (1996) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Sports	Menu Animation & Audio Notes-70s Overview Biographies-Cast Active Subtitle Track
Rating
Year Of Production	1996
Running Time	60:37 (Case: 62)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Steve Heighway Phil Thompson David Fairclough Alan Kennedy
Case	Click
RPI	$34.95	Music	None Given

    This is a one hour presentation of highlights and discussion, bent on deciding who comprises the Liverpool team of the decade for the seventies. I must confess that I am a little too young to really know of any of the players in question firsthand, though history shows it to be one of the most dominant teams in the history of the game. The choice of panel seems quite sound - Steve Heighway, Phil Thompson, David Fairclough and Alan Kennedy were all-important members of Liverpool's great era and recount some wonderful memories.

    Once the panel have decided on the team's composition, they proceed to justify all player's selections with anecdotal evidence from several of the club's successful campaigns of the decade. It is disappointing that there is not more footage of this great team in action.

    The team selected by the panel is as follows: Goalkeeper Ray Clemence, Right Back Phil Neal, Centre Half Phil Thompson, Centre Half Alan Hansen, Left Back Alan Kennedy, Right Wing Jimmy Case, Midfield Terry McDermott, Midfield Greame Souness, Left Wing Ray Kennedy, Strikers Kenny Dalglish and Kevin Keegan. The title finishes off with a small presentation on each player.

Video

    The entire presentation from the archival footage to the interviews seems to have been entirely shot on video rather than film. The disappointing source material resulting in a rather disappointing look to this title. The discussion taped for the show also appears to have originated on video or possibly poor quality film. It is pretty clearly a special that was cobbled together for television and given a meagre budget.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced

    Sharpness is generally mediocre throughout, with occasional periods of quite poor sharpness in some of the archival footage (such as at 47:46). There isn't much in the way of shadows, but what there are have little or no detail. It isn't really a problem for this title as all the action happens on-field. Low level noise occurs to a minor degree throughout this title.

    The colours were quite decent during both the archival footage and the interview segues with the panel. Some of the older footage is a little drab as you might expect, and there are one or two very minor instances of colour bleed, but overall the colour is pretty good.

    Aliasing seems to be a constant companion through this feature, but generally doesn't ever get in the way of enjoying the title. There are no apparent film artefacts, either. Chroma noise is also a serious issue, most obviously during split screens (e.g. 43:15) but can be seen at other times. Steve Heighway and Alan Kennedy are both wearing shirts that demonstrate cross colouration quite well. Grain is bad for much of the feature, though it is muted by the lack of sharpness.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Generally speaking, the audio was terrible. Presented in English Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224 Kilobits, there is no use made of the surround channel except during the menu and theme. The discussion with the panel becomes incomprehensible when the panel become animated at particular points, all talking over each other with the end result being that none are clear. The audio during the 70s footage fares a little better, being mostly just a single, eloquent commentator's voice recorded in mono and presented via the centre channel only.

    The set where the panel is interviewed together seems to have been miked in such a way that there can be no vocal separation. Also, at times the panel's comments seem to become a little distant and muffled. Phil Thompson's commentaries in particular suffer from this. They almost always are quite indistinct and difficult to discern, not just when one of the other lads decides to interject. This is exacerbated by the soundtrack being very very quiet. I had to turn this title up quite a few notches in order to be able to listen to the dialogue without straining.

    Audio sync was not a problem with this transfer at all, and was completely spot on.

    There was no music in this title except for the theme at the start and end, and the occasional one or two bar grab during a cut scene.

    The only time I really noticed the surround channels in use was during the profiles menu. If you sit and listen to it, the crowd lets out a roar from the back of the room, only to be answered by a similar roar from the front.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu Animation & Audio

    Functional without being inspiring. It has about 2 minutes worth of various clips from the feature though these are obscured by a large Liverpool F.C. emblem over the top.

Notes

    The blurb mentions the following extra features:

Player Profiles

    There is a fairly comprehensive annotation of each player's career. A great reference!

Manager Profiles

    There is a fairly comprehensive annotation of each manager's career. A great reference!

1970s Club Profile

    A single paragraph outlining the great side. Hard to justify calling anything this sparse a profile.

Did You Know?

    Little more than an added piece of trivia on a profile. This hardly seems worth mentioning as a separate extra.

    Unmentioned are the little red soccer balls that appear at various times through the stock footage. Activating these will take you to some relevant info such as a player profile or campaign information.

    Poor video, poor sound. Invaluable content for fans. Obviously slapped up on a low budget to get some cash out of the large Liverpool fan base, it does merit consideration by fans.

    The video quality is average.

    The audio quality is average.

    The extras are not satisfactory, being little more than a few paragraphs of historical information.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall