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Category:    Home > Reviews > Video Tests > Audio Tests > HD Technology > Adjustment Tool > Calibration > Optimal Playback > DVE – Digital Video Essentials: High Definition HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format Edition

DVE – Digital Video Essentials: High Definition HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format Edition

 

Picture Demos: A-/B     Sound Demos: A-/B     Extras: B-     Main Content: B+

 

 

For years, getting the most out of your home video playback has been one of the great goals of those who want the best when they are entertaining themselves with TV and film programming at home.  Even before VHS & Beta, the TV manufacturers were always trying with bigger and better sets, then adding items like color and remote controls.  In 1980, when two videodisc formats were introduced, the stakes were raised.  The video-needle CED/Select-A-Vision system bombed and 12” LaserDisc managed to survive after initially bombing under the name DiscoVision.  That is when Joe Kane started to examine new playback possibilities for home video.

 

Besides landmark technical innovations in hardware and a total grasp of the analog NTSC and PAL formats, which helped advance early analog High Definition video and paved the way for the digital High Definition we have today, he and his collaborators released the best-selling A Video Standard, which allowed for LaserDisc owners to make their TVs and video projectors look better than ever.  CDs were a hit by the mid-1980s and PCM digital sound arrived to the 12” format years before DTS or Dolby Digital arrived.  When DVD-Video overtook LaserDiscs, Kane and company upgraded the program for that format and DVE – Digital Video Essentials: High Definition HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format Edition offers that DVD program on one side and a new digital High Definition program on the HD-DVD side.

 

Instead of just a blue filter like the LaserDisc version, red and green filters have been added for a more through test along with a high-quality paper pullout with instructions and a table of contents on all the tests.  Both sides offer 1.78 X 1 high quality anamorphic images (all HD formats are anamorphic as standard, unlike regular DVD) and the HD images are encoded in the VC-1 compression format.

 

Though there are many imitators (a few of which are more than problematic) and even the THX Optimizer on THX-certified DVD-Videos have tried to offer an abbreviated version of this program, but there is nothing like the full length, fully detailed, thorough version by Kane to really set things up to top performance.

 

Though I did my best to set my HDTV to the best playback I could prior to the release of this disc, there is always something you can miss if you don’t have the most detailed run-through possible.  Except for some personal adjustments you might want to make when finished, nothing on the market will help you get the most out of your HDTV and video playback in both DVD formats like Digital Video Essentials.  Like this site, whether you are a novice or expert, you will get plenty out of this program to justify its price.  It is definitely a keeper.

 

The DVD is only 480i/60fps, but the HD side offers 720p/24fps, 720p/60fps and 1080p/24fps, the latter of which tends to offer the best performance, but some HDTVs (to the shock of many, including those who bought them) can only do 720p!  Some nice-looking plasma sets in particular fall under this sad dilemma.  The color bar, Video Black test, range of color tests, calibration tests for tint, color, sharpness, brightness and contrast are Kane’s most advanced yet.  It helps HD-originated programming, which needs all the help it can get with some of the bad shooting we’ve seen and especially with so many 1080i-produced programs with their own limits.

 

As for the sound tests, they are all in Dolby TrueHD, but oddly not also available in DTS-MA (Master Audio) despite the fact that the DVD side has Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES.  Dolby TrueHD is better than regular Dolby Digital (for which non-Dolby Digital fans are most grateful; thanks Meridian for MLP!) and DTS-MA should have been here.  Otherwise, the sound tests are solid and terrific as expected and make for great audio adjustments and tests for any serious surround system.

 

Since the idea of extras are a bit shaky for a release like this, I count how thorough all the additional material is, that a DVD side included in a way here that makes more sense than for a feature film release title since it increases its flexibility for upgrades and analog is far from dead and the upgraded color filter is also a plus.  It is not that the competing titles (none of which are HD yet) are all totally awful, but Kane cares and is so many steps ahead of his competitors that his work is the gold standard (and higher) for such programming.  DVE – Digital Video Essentials: High Definition HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format Edition is the next big leap forward for your home theater system, all video playback and is highly recommended.

 

With both of those formats being left behind, a Blu-ray version has been issued (along with a separate, updated HD-DVD version) now available.  Read more about it at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6745/DVE

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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