Terminator SE

[LV426]

I've just received (from EzyDVD in Australia) and watched Terminator SE. For anyone that's interested - with a single exception (applicable only to purists) the treatment of the film is absolutely superb.

The disc contains languages and copyright notices for an array of European languages, so it's a fair bet that, like many other Aussie discs, this one is coded for R2 as well as R4.

The image quality is absolutely excellent. It is sharp and well defined. Most of the film grain has been cleaned up to good effect, and for the most part, scratches and dirt spots have gone.

Where this treatment outstands is the soundtrack. This is by far and away the best remixed 5.1 soundtrack I have heard where the original was mono. It compares very favourably with current material. Good use is made of the five channels and LFEs. Excellent.

Haven't looked at the second supplement disc yet - but the listing looks to be excellent and comprehensive.

I have no hesitation in recommending this item on the strength of the film disc alone.

Oh, and that one exception for purists....?

Well, at the start of the film, there is some text that gives the background to the story. It starts, "The Machines rose from the Ashes.....". There are also one or two other single-line texts.

In the original movie, the intro text was a single full screens' worth. This, and the other texts, have been encoded into the subtitles of the DVD, rather than on the film proper. The original full screen intro text has been completely replaced by a sequence of one-liners. I guess this is so that they can be multilingual - one of the side-effects of a European marketplace, I suppose. So that's the caveat - it's a dead giveaway that you're watching a DVD and not a film. Shame.

I agree in general, however, I feel that there was still a bit to much grain in some scenes that could have been cleaned up more.

The audio however is as Nigel says, very good. Heaps of bass and rear channel action considering that the original print was in mono I think.

The features are quite good as well. The usual stuff, however there is no commentary as the booklet says. Strange!?

A good disc in general. I'm not sure if K-Mart Online ship overseas or not, but if they do, use them as they are a lot cheaper than www.ezydvd.com.au . Here is their URL http://online.kmart.com.au/index.cfm...isplayMode=yes or if you want to start from the beginning, www.kmart.com.au

Cheers,
Neil

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That's pretty lame Milhouse!
www.neilhamilton.net
www.simplexfilms.net

[This message has been edited by Neildo (edited 14-03-2001).]