Revelation 199 (2001) (NTSC)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Sports	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Anim & Audio Music Video Featurette-Helmet Cam Featurette-History Deleted Scenes Featurette-Mom Featurette-Dad Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	41:21
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Malcolm McCassy
Studio Distributor	Stomp Visual	Starring	Travis Pastrana Kenny Bartram Drake McElroy Doug Parsons Tim O'Brien
Case	PUSH-1 (Opaque)
RPI	$34.95	Music	Various

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None
16x9 Enhancement	No
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, On the cover, the credits...everywhere!
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

     Every kid dreams of defying gravity, to fly without wings. And whilst most of us have since let the dream fall away with the real world telling us that it just simply isn't possible, some have gone on in spite of convention and expectations and followed their dreams. Travis Pastrana is one of those kids.

    Raised by adventurous parents, from an early age Travis was always riding or driving some sort (any sort) of contraption with quite a high level of skill. At 2 years of age, Travis was driving a Bobcat. At 4 he got his first bike for his birthday. Within a couple of years, he was winning motocross trophies that were taller than himself. By his mid-teens, Travis had a loyal following spanning the globe and even had a video game featuring himself (Freestyle Motocross: McGrath vs. Pastrana for Playstation).

    This video features a good cross-section of material from home videos of Travis as a young lad trying his hand at various forms of racing including go carts to what would eventually bring him his fame: Motocross and Extreme jumps competition. Featured on the disc are some quite interesting and spectacular footage of Travis and a number of cohorts practising the fine (and extremely dangerous) art of motorcycle jumps. And these are not simple short demonstration jumps that you might see at a motor sport exhibition or car race, but full fledged extreme jumps over 200 feet and many many feet in the air. You really can't get a grasp as to how high and far these guys go until you get to see some of the jumps from the air. Several of the jump segments have helicopters following the jumpers and you get the impression that these daredevils really can defy gravity. From forest to mountain to desert to open plains, we follow Travis and a group of young talented motocross riders from the circuits in America to the championships in France.

    If you get a kick out of watching crazy young guys doing what can't be done (but is done) and sometimes coming off second best, then this may just be the video for you. The soundtrack rocks too, so even if you aren't watching the video there are some cool tunes to listen to from the likes of Linkin Park and local band Grinspoon. Fun watching for fans of motocross and extreme stunt jumping and followers of Travis Pastrana.

Video

    One worrying thing about this disc is the fact that nowhere on the packaging does it state that this disc is in NTSC. Perhaps this is printed or labelled on the shrink wrapping that may cover the case when the disc is on offer at the shops, but nowhere on the permanent DVD cover is the fact that this disc is NTSC, so be aware.

    This video is presented full frame, which seems to be the original ratio. There is no 16x9 enhancement to be seen anywhere on this disc.

    With the various sources for the content on the disc, sharpness is reasonable. There is some older home video material that is used (see the History section in the Bonus Material section) and this suffers some ill effects due to age and the limitations of the equipment of the time, but these would be niggling factors and for the most part what we see during this programme is completely watchable. Shadow detail can suffer at times because of the image capture equipment (cameras) and their limitations. Video isn't the best for recording darker scenes. However, for the most part the image is quite watchable with enough detail available to satisfy the viewer.

    The colours portrayed on this disc range from the muted to the exaggerated (28:16) in direct correlation to the source material. For the most part, the colour is vibrant and lively, and that serves the material well.

    There is some slight pixelization to be seen at times (19:32 on the wall), but for the most part MPEG artefacts are absent. There are some MPEG macroblocking artefacts seen during the Helmet Cam feature in the Bonus Material section (0:29, 1:07), but this seems due to impacts of the handheld digital camera during filming and is not a problem with the transfer itself. Artefacts such as aliasing come and go depending on the source, but for the most part they are not a huge problem. There is some cross colouration visible during the Music Video in the Bonus Material section at 0:18 on the mesh floor the band is playing on. There are some analogue tape tracking errors seen during the History portion of the extras at 1:07, but this looks to be part of the original source material and not a problem with the transfer. Edge enhancement continues to gatecrash just about every transfer known and he's back again with 7:53 around the helmets being a typical example. Film artefacts are visible from time to time but are not distracting.

    There are no subtitles available on this disc.

    This being a single layered disc, a layer change is not an issue.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio on this disc works quite well with the material and serves it well.

     There is only one audio track available here, that being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded mix.

     Dialogue quality, for the most part is quite good. There isn't a huge amount of dialogue to be heard during the main program, but what little of it there is presents no problems with intelligibility being very reasonable. I noticed no real problems with audio sync.

     Music for the program is credited to LJ Rodriguez and Wade Metzler, although they are only music co-ordinators. The actual music is by bands such as Lunatic Calm, Saliva, Optix, Junkie XL, Disturbed, Grinspoon, Linkin Park and various others. Thus music suits the material very well. A good mix in the Matrix style.

     The surrounds had little to do on this surround encoded disc other than offer some mild atmospheric sound during the programme.

     The subwoofer has a bit to do during this program with much of the music in the soundtrack having a fair amount of bass. This is evident even during the menu audio which is music from the soundtrack. Although the goings-on on-screen don't push the LFE channel much, the soundtrack is well covered.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

     There are a number of extras available on this disc.

Menu

     After the copyright warnings, we are taken to an animated menu featuring audio from the main feature. The menus are animated in a quite interesting manner with extra options folding out from a central hub on screen. Our options are:

• Play
• Chapters
• Bonus Material
• Point X
• Trailer
• Sponsors

     The Bonus Material offers:

Music Video: 3:14

     A music video by an unnamed band (anyone out there know who this is?) playing a song that I can't remember hearing during the main program.

Helmet Cam: 1:47

     Features some great shots of the guys in the air from their point of view. A supplement to the main program.

History: 4:38

     This segment shows some of the early talent of Travis Pastrana doing what he does best, driving machines better than he has a right to, and from a very early age (as seen here).

Deleted Scenes: 1:36

     Edits from the main programme. Nothing major but more of the same if the main programme isn't enough for you.

Mom: 0:56

     A brief interview (that overlaps some material from the main programme) about how Travis' parents didn't push him into the world of extreme motocross.

Dad: 4:06

     Dad (Robert Pastrana) shows where Travis' daredevil roots came from.

     After that, we have more material selectable from the main menu:

Point X

     This is a static page giving the address, phone number and web site for Point X which offers products associated with Travis Pastrana and his contemporaries.

Trailer: 2:11

     Rather than a trailer for this particular feature, we have various trailers for similar productions available from the same distributor.

Sponsor Ads: 2:25

     More ads, as if this title didn't need any more. This is exactly what it says.

    Right down to the NTSC transfer, we have exactly the same product as available in Region 1.

    For anyone interested in extreme motocross and stunt jumping, this is the title for you. There is heaps of interesting footage that entertains. My only complaint is that it's too short. I always get a kick out of watching this type of extreme stunt work knowing that someone is doing what I dreamed of doing as a child: defying gravity and flying without wings. Travis Pastrana does just this.

     The video is adequate with many sources that contribute to an interesting whole.

     The audio is fine with a good soundtrack that serves the program well.

     There are some interesting extras available that help make up for the short running time.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall