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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Friends-Series 5-Volume 1-Episodes 1-8 (1998)

Friends-Series 5-Volume 1-Episodes 1-8 (1998)

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Released 6-Nov-2000

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Featurette-Friends Go To London
Featurette-Friends On Location In London
Music Video-I'll Be There For You-The Rembrandts
Web Links
Rating Rated PG
Year Of Production 1998
Running Time 169:44 (Case: 176)
RSDL / Flipper Dual Sided Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Kevin S. Bright
Gary Halvorson
Shelley Jensen
Dana J. deVally
Studio
Distributor

Warner Home Video
Starring Jennifer Aniston
Courtney Cox
Lisa Kudrow
Matt LeBlanc
Matthew Perry
David Schwimmer
Case Amaray-Transparent
RPI $29.95 Music Michael Skloff


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
French
Finnish
Danish
Swedish
Norwegian
Dutch
English for the Hearing Impaired
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement Yes, occasionally
Action In or After Credits Yes, each episode contains one last funny scene

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    I was pleased to see that Warner Home Video have made some improvements with the release of this series of Friends in comparison to previous offerings. My first impression was of a slip cover that is more attractive and professional looking, but more importantly the video transfer contains less quality problems than those found on earlier discs. The disc is still Dual Sided, requiring you to get up and flip the disc, and the poor Side A/B labelling is still the same.

    Friends is an American sitcom revolving around the lives of 6 close friends. It centres around the quirky habits of each character and is primarily filmed within the confines of their two 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.

    The episodes present on this disc are;

The One After Ross Says Rachel (21:13) - This episode recaps the end of Series 4, picking up at Ross' wedding to Emily. It provides some background footage and begins from the scene where Ross mentions the wrong name during the wedding vows, and finishes off the wedding scene. Monica and Chandler's physical needs are starting to become very apparent, but they go to great lengths to hide it from the group. Rachel ends up on a plane to . . .

The One With All The Kissing (21:15) - Chandler and Monica are spending a lot of time with each other and are concerned if anyone in the group has caught onto their little game. The pair become so pre-occupied that Chandler plants a kiss on Monica's lips in front of the gang. To try and pass it off as nothing special he then precedes to kiss all the girls in the hope it will cover up his mistake. This starts to become a common occurrence and the reactions are quite surprising.

The One Hundredth (21:13) - Phoebe's babies are on the way, but her doctor is unable to make it for the delivery. Instead she is given a stand-in doctor that relates every conversation back to the old Happy Days show. Joey starts to get sympathy pains in response to Phoebe's labour.

The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS (21:11) - Monica is caught naked while waiting for Chandler to arrive home. Phoebe tells everyone why she hates PBS - it relates back to when she was a little girl and sent a letter to Sesame Street. Ross and Emily finally start to patch things up after the altercation at the wedding. Emily presents him with an ultimatum that could have dire consequences for the group as a whole.

The One With All The Kips (21:14) - Chandler and Monica finally sneak away for what they hope will be a dirty weekend. Emily visits from London to meet with Ross and discuss how they will patch up their "marriage" but Ross still needs to decide how to handle the ultimatum. Joey stumbles upon a HUGE secret (but I promise not to tell).

The One With The Yeti (21:11) - One of the new tenants in the building has been trekking overseas for a long period. During this time he has not shaved and has a yeti-like appearance as a result. Rachel and Monica don't hit it off too well during their introduction. Rachel decides that she needs to know him a little better, maybe to help heal over her feelings for Ross.

The One Where Ross Moves In (21:14) - Ross is evicted from his unit, which also happens to belong to a friend of Emily's. Joey and Chandler offer him accommodation in their unit until he can get back on his feet. Ross' general nature causes some tension when the 3 guys are living in such close quarters.

The One With All The Thanksgivings (21:13) - This is Ross' worst Thanksgiving because of his second divorce and the others try to make him feel better by mentioning their worst experiences. We are taken back to segments from past episodes as they all discuss their experiences and try to make Ross feel better. Joey getting his head stuck up a turkey's butt will always be a favourite!

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The video transfers across all 8 episodes were of similar quality and appearance.

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

    Although this transfer is not of reference quality, it is generally of a higher grade than Series 4. There is, however, still room for improvement.

    The transfer is as clear as you would expect to see from a TV series but is not a crisp sharp image. Shadow detail is acceptable but most scenes are shot in bright lighting conditions making any possible problems less apparent. The Central Perk coffee shop scene in The One With All The Kissing at around 18:52 is a good example of the shadow detail. There is no detectable low level noise.

    The colours were bright and clear at all times throughout all 8 episodes. I have noticed that the introductory sequence is slightly brighter and contains richer colours than the show footage for all episodes. There were no irregularities with the colour rendition of this transfer, either.

    There were a few MPEG artefacts seen and as with the previous Series it is most apparent on the hallway and apartment walls than in any other areas. Some examples of the artefact problem can be seen at 10:01 to 10:05 during The One With All The Thanksgivings. I did not notice any obvious aliasing. Even when the camera pans across the room, the image remains quite solid.

    There is a good collection of subtitles to choose from, and the English subtitles that I checked appearing close to the spoken word. The font size is quite small, most likely to fit some of the long lines on screen at the same time.

    This DVD is presented as a double-sided single-layered DVD and therefore there is no layer change. Instead, you have to leave your chair for a moment and flip the disc manually to see the other four episodes. Yet again, this disc continues the tradition of poor Friends disc labelling. I would like to see the Side A/B information printed more clearly on the disc.

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

Audio

    There is only a single English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track to listen to on this DVD.

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times and I detected no hiss during any of the episodes. There were no audio sync problems like the one that showed up on the previously-reviewed Series 4 Episodes 9-16 disc. The canned laughter and clapping track was mixed at a more appropriate level than with the previous series and was therefore not distracting at all.

    The theme and background score was provided by Michael Skloff, and has not changed since the very first Episode of Friends.

    The rears were used for the "canned laughter" and were merely a reproduction of the sound from the front speakers at a slightly lesser volume level.

    The subwoofer was not used by the soundtrack at all.

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

Extras

    An average selection of extras are present, but they are exactly the same as the previous Series. My only thought would be that they are there purely as an advertisement to entice people to buy or rent the "Wedding Episode", but I imagine that the number of people that would watch Friends in non-sequential order could be counted on one finger.

Menu

    The menu has had an overhaul just like the slip cover and is easy to navigate. Like the show it is in Full Screen and was easy to navigate. If you manually select a particular episode from the menu you are returned back to the menu after it has finished playing. If on the other hand you select the "Play" option on the menu then all 4 episodes are played on each side.

Featurette - Friends Goes To London

    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

    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.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    I could not find any reference to an equivalent Region 1 version of this DVD. The only ones that I saw reference to were "Best Of" collection discs.

Summary

    These episodes of Friends have quite a few good laughs and make for some nice, light entertainment. It also contains the important second part of the Wedding Episode from Series 4.

    I personally like watching Friends on DVD where it is not interrupted by commercials - I think you get more laughs that way.

    The video appears to be improving with each series.

    The audio is fine - and this time they have mixed the laugh track slightly into the surrounds.

    The extras are the same on both sides of the disc, but The Rembrandts' song is still there...

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Peter Mellor (read my bio)
Friday, October 19, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer XV-DV55, using S-Video output
DisplayLoewe 72cm. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationPioneer XV-DV55
SpeakersPioneer S-DV55ST-K Satellite wall mouted 5-Speaker System; Pioneer S-DV55SW-K Powered Subwoofer

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