Friends-The Best of-Volumes 1 & 2 (1994) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio Biographies-Cast & Crew Music Video-I'll Be There For You-The Rembrandts Featurette-Friends Goes To London Featurette-Friends On Location In London
Rating
Year Of Production	1994
Running Time	311:49 (Case: 302)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	James Burrows Michael Lembeck Peter Bonerz Kevin S. Bright
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Jennifer Aniston Courtney Cox-Arquette Lisa Kudrow Matt LeBlanc Matthew Perry David Schwimmer
Case	Slip Case
RPI	$34.95	Music	Michael Skloff

    Friends is an American sitcom revolving around the lives of 6 close friends. It centres on the quirky habits of each character and is primarily filmed within the confines of their three apartments. Please see Michael's earlier review of Friends Series 1 - Volume 1 if you would like to read some background information on the main characters of the show.

    In this Best Of collection, we get to see the top 10 episodes as voted for by fans. I have just put a small synopsis of each episode here - please check each individual review if you require more specific information about the plot of each episode.

    The episodes present on Disc 1 are;

The Pilot (29:33) - Back where it all began. Monica gets herself a roommate.

The One With The Two Parts (48:18) - As the name suggests, this is actually a two part episode spliced together to make it complete. Phoebe learns to cope with her twin; Rachel and a monkey end up in a hospital Emergency Room.

The One With All The Poker (25:36) - Ross is way out of his league when he plays this game of high stakes.

The One Where Ross Finds Out (25:22) - Ross finds out the truth about Chandler and Monica.

The One With The Prom Video (24:19) - Joey buys Chandler a swish men's bracelet. The gang get to see what actually happened to Ross on that fateful prom night.

The episodes present on Disc 2 are;

The One Where No One's Ready (24:25) - Rachel can't decide what to wear and the rest of the group are in no hurry to get ready to go out anyway.

The One With The Embryos (23:48) - Phoebe decides to be a surrogate mom for her little brother.

The One With Ross's Wedding - Parts 1 & 2 (50:17) - Ross weds for the second time. The whole group head to London for the wedding.

The One With All The Thanksgivings (23:12) - Joey gets his head stuck in a Turkey during Thanksgiving.

The One Where Everybody Finds Out (25:04) - Monica can no longer keep her relationship with Chandler a secret. Trouble is, most of them have worked it out already.

Video

    The video transfers across all 10 episodes were of similar quality and appearance. Overall, the quality was the same as the original versions that I reviewed with the exception of the format. Both discs are in NTSC and the PAL versions come up clearer overall and with smoother edges on angles and lines. I will outline any specific examples in their relevant sections below.

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

    Shadow detail is acceptable but most scenes are filmed in brightly-lit conditions making any possible problems less apparent. There is mild low level noise.

    The colours were bright and clear at all times throughout all 10 episodes. There was some nasty edge enhancement on Chandler's face during the fourth episode. The worst can be seen at 3:33 - 3:39, 4:45 - 4:47 and finally at 5:53 - 5:57.

    There were very minor MPEG artefacts seen and as with the previous discs reviewed it is more apparent on the hallway and apartment walls than in any other areas. The aliasing, when it does occur, is subtle but overall there are more instances than the latest Series 7 offerings. A camera pan at 4:05 in Episode 5 causes a shaky image complete with aliasing and was by far the worst instance on either disc. Mild film artefacts were present throughout with the worst examples being during the Pilot Episode at 6:29 and again at 11:35.

    Compared to previous Friends discs, there was a limited collection of subtitles with only English or French to choose from. The English subtitles that I checked appeared close to the spoken word but were not exact. The font size is quite small, most likely to fit some of the longer lines on screen at the same time.

    These discs are presented as dual layered DVDs, which came as a pleasant surprise given the usual "flipper" style discs previous episodes have been released on. Each of the discs also has a graphic of the gang printed across the top of the disc. I was unable to find a layer change and believe that it has been placed between episodes to prevent any layer transition pauses.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The back cover of Disc 1 states that a Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack is present whilst the back cover of Disc 2 mentions a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Both discs contain only a Dolby Digital 5.0 track at 384Kbps.

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times and I detected no hiss during any of the episodes.

    The theme and background score was provided by Michael Skloff. The short little sound ditties played between scenes match the show well.

    The Dolby Digital 5.0 track was disappointing but an improvement nonetheless from Dolby Digital 2.0 episodes. The laughter and clapping is placed throughout the soundfield, but very few instances of directional sound (requiring a match to the on-screen action) are used.

    The subwoofer was not used by the soundtrack at all.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Cast & Crew (Disc 1 & 2)

    A brief biography for each of the main characters is presented as text next to several small pictures of the actor. The producers (Kauffman, Krane & Bright) are also listed here so that you can read about their careers as well.

Music Video - I'll Be There For You (The Rembrandts) (Disc 1 & 2)

Featurette - Friends Goes To London (6:19) (Disc 2)

    This featurette focuses on the producer and director explaining why they decided to do a shoot in London. There is also footage of Phoebe, who stayed in the USA because in the storyline she was pregnant and could not join the group in London. The real reason she stayed in the US is that she hates flying, so they found a nice way keep her at home and in the script.

Featurette - Friends On Location In London (2:15) (Disc 2)

    This featurette offers some background information and location shots of the London episode. This is the episode where the gang heads to London to see Ross get married (again).

DVD-ROM

    When the disc is loaded into a DVD-ROM, DVD Friendly is loaded. Two extra menus are available that link to the "Friends Website" and the "Friends Events" site which is really the main Warner Brothers Events site for all of their products.

Menu

    The menu has had another overhaul to match the new slip case. Like the show, it is in Full Screen and is easy to navigate. The main menu features Dolby Digital 2.0 audio that loops while waiting for your selection from the menu.

    As always, these episodes of Friends contain quite a few good laughs and make for some nice, light entertainment. You are getting nothing extra here than has already been provided on previous seasonal releases. Even the extras have been rehashed with no new content being made available.

    There were a few nasty video problems in Episode 4 and overall the individual PAL releases are superior to this Best Of Friends collection.

    The audio is now available in Dolby Digital 5.0 but does not contain enough instances where the on-screen action warrants its use. In fact, the surround clapping and laughter can be a little too much at times.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall