DVD Disc Stats

Studio
WHV

Year
1985

Length
153 minutes

Orig. Aspect Ratio
1.85:1

DVD Aspect Ratio
1:85:1

Version(s)
LBX

Soundtrack
5.1 (Eng 5.1, Fre 2)

Subtitles
Eng,Fre,Spa

Released
Mar 24, 1997

Price
$24.99

Age Rating
PG 13

Layers
1

The Color Purple

PlayerConnectionScreenAuthor
Panasonic A300S-VideoRCA 46"Peter Lamarine

Monster 3 S-Video Cables
Onkyo 919THX Receiver
Yamaha DDP-1 DD Decoder

This is one of the best examples I have seen yet of the capabilities of what DVD can do. The intro where the two girls are playing in the field shows the spectacular color rendition and clarity of this medium. While I did notice some slight artifacts of the DSS genre (ever so slight changes in color mostly in the dark scenes), I found them hardly annoying..you have to really look hard to find them.

The remastered Dolby 5.1 track is also excellent. The best scene that shows this is when Danny Glover is chasing one of the girls on horseback...the sound is crisp and detailed. They did not put too much information in the surround tracks, which I usually enjoy, but I suppose that is best left to action films.

Overall, I am very impressed with DVD on the whole. This disc is widescreen, and needs to be flipped. While this is annoying, it is so much easier to flip a 5" disc than that mongo 12" thing I used to have to deal with. I just hope they use the dual side, dual layering more in the future.

Peter Lamarine

More as they arrive...