Review of Ultimate DVD SIlver, The

Introduction

The Ultimate DVD series was compiled to show the DVD format off to the best of its ability. It aims to show all aspects of a DVD and show you why the ‘V’ means ‘Versatile’ rather than ‘Video’.

First up is the Picture section demonstrating the picture quality achievable on this format. You get to see fast moving boats, bikes, breathtaking scenery, flash floods and more. The disk acquits itself beautifully, but it is a pity that all these sections are 4:3.

Next is the Audio section that demonstrates PCM, Dolby Digital and DTS sound with a variety of movie clips to go with it. All these are great and will show off your system well. The DD and DTS tracks start off with a trailer for the sound format.

Aspect ratio demonstrates the different types of picture you can have, 4:3, Letterbox and Anamorphic. They show the same movie clip with each aspect ratio.

Parental code shows that if a disk has been coded so, that setting the Parental level will determine the ‘cut’ of the film that you watch. The lower the parental level of control, the more of the original movie you see and the angle feature demonstrates watching a car crash from different angles.

Video

This disk has been put together very well, as you would expect from a DVD that is trying to promote the format. Therefore, expect to see some of the best-encoded pictures that you are likely to get. The picture section is stunningly sharp, so good they have a wonderful three-dimensional feel to them; even through they are all 4:3. Colours are excellently defined and contrast levels are also very high. Apart from the 4:3 nature of a lot of the material, the picture quality cannot be faulted.

Audio

Again, the sound has been recorded to get the maximum from your system and it delivers in spades. The main audio section gives you a choice of listening to PCM, Dolby Digital or DTS and each offers excellent clarity, great separation between the channels, a very wide and dynamic sound with wonderful bass extension when required. The DD and DTS tracks start off with a Dolby or DTS trailer (Rain for Dolby and the disk for DTS). Cannot fault, you will have a great time showing off some of this material to your friends.

Features

Essentially, there are no extra features to speak of, the disk is there to demonstrate the picture and sound quality, and the extra features that disks could possibly contain. So you could say that there are an abundance of extra features on this disk. However I am not going to confuse matters. Extra features in my mind means material that is supplemental to the disk (i.e. a ‘Making Of’ documentary, or audio commentary and the like). Therefore this section gets a zero, but I am not including that mark in the overall score of the disk.

Conclusion

This is a great disk to show you the wealth of features that DVD has to offer, and if you are the sort of person that gets the DVD player home, plugs it in, and never explores the myriad of other features then this could show you what is possible, and what you’re missing out on. However the Ultimate DVD Silver edition has been superseded by the Ultimate DVD Platinum that contains all the items shown on Silver, but comes with an extra disk with audio and visual set up routines for your home cinema. This is by far a better buy and I would recommend you hunt out that one instead.