Bird Suite (1996)

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General		Extras
Category	New Age	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1996
Running Time	54:15 (Case: 60)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	C-Button-Version 2
RPI	$34.95	Music	Various

    That is not to say that this is a bad thing, but what it does say is that perhaps what worked quite well on a 60 minute Very Hazy System tape may not work quite so well on DVD. Since the broad subject here is clearly birds, the chosen video segments are pretty much some great footage of an assortment of the diversity of bird life in this country (with a little coda from Papua New Guinea thrown in for good measure). Nothing much wrong with that, as we have a wonderfully diverse and colourful assortment of birds in this country and so we are pretty much guaranteed lots of glorious colours.

    It does have to be said however that just recycling a VHS tape onto DVD is not perhaps the best idea under the sun. Firstly, the running length is under the hour, which barely utilizes the available space on the DVD at all. Secondly, DVD can do so much more than just provide pretty pictures and good music and the opportunity to turn this into a far more educationally-orientated tool as well has been sadly ignored.

    Whilst there is not an awful lot wrong with the programme as is, I cannot help but feel that ABC Video could perhaps have taken the opportunity to expand the value of this DVD enormously. As it is, it ends up being not quite entertaining enough and not quite informative enough to really succeed at either task. Too bad really, as the possibilities could have been so much more interesting and informative.

Video

    Since there is one dominant aspect of this transfer above all others, unfortunately it shall be covered early at and length. This sort of material requires sharp, detailed pictures to really make the programming work, and that is where this DVD falls down. Whilst there is indeed some exquisitely beautiful material here, with wonderful sharpness, clarity and detail, it is often preceded and succeeded by material that is suffering a significant amount of grain. And I do mean significant amounts of grain. It is so bad at times that it almost gives the impression that the entire transfer is suffering from some sort of mega blockiness in the mastering. The fact that it is interspersed with material that is as sharp, detailed and clear as you could ever wish to see only makes the presence of the grain that much worse as you simply cannot ignore it. Whilst none of it is grotesque enough to condemn the transfer outright, the sheer consistent presence leaves you with the feeling of disappointment as you watch what would otherwise been wonderful footage. The grain at times robs the video of not just clarity and depth, but also introduces a degree of softness in definition that is hard to ignore. At times the detail in the picture is simply insufficient to generate any enthusiasm over what is being presented to you. Whilst some of the grain may well be source-related, the overall feeling is of enormous disappointment.

    Barring this problem with grain, the rest of the transfer is generally quite excellent. There is something in the way of inconsistency in the various pieces of video footage, but at its best it is wonderfully sharp and detailed. Clarity is wonderful at its best and shadow detail pretty much reflects the problems of trying to shoot wildlife - sometimes their location and the location of the sun simply cannot be overcome! There is no real indication of low level noise problems in the transfer, although this too could have been effectively hidden by the grain.

    Colours are really very nice indeed, with a wonderfully vibrant and well-saturated look to them. The diversity of colours in nature are certainly shown in ample abundance in this collection of video footage. There is no problem at all with oversaturation, but there is just a minor issue with colour bleed at around the 7:00 mark where the orange breast colour of the Emperor Penguin is not quite as sharp as it should be.

    There did not appear to be any MPEG artefacts in the transfer, although it should be noted that some footage seems to have an inherent problem with loss of resolution in pan shots. There did not appear to be any significant film-to-video artefacts in the transfer, although there were a couple of very minor instances of aliasing around 12:50 (the river's edge in the snow) and around 14:58 (in the bridge). There were no apparent film artefacts in the transfer.

    There are no subtitles on the DVD and this I find quite disappointing. It would have been great had the opportunity been taken to use subtitles to show what birds, and perhaps locations, were being featured. It would really have added to the educational aspects of the video. Whilst I certainly recognized many of the birds, there were still quite a few that had me stumped and it would have been nice to know what they were.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The music comes from a number of classical composers, including Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Ludwig von Beethoven, and whilst not being wholly sympathetic to the video imagery is decent enough support. The music is played by various ABC orchestras from around the country.

    Expectations as to what the sound is going to be like here were fairly low, and thankfully did not descend to that level. Obviously we are not going to get an audio demonstration from the show and we certainly don't. There is not much activity from the bass channel and the rear surround channels only get reasonable use. Most of the activity comes form the front soundstage and presents itself pretty well. Overall, the soundtrack conveys what it needs to convey without much problem but it is not exactly going to tax your system at all. Free of any distortion with the music transferred at a nicely low level so as not to overpower the whole programme.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall