Majster kat [Master Executioner] ◾︎ Paľo Bielik ◾︎ 1966

ČT1 DVB

Reviewed by dvdfreak

Last modified on Thursday 19th March 2020, 11:35:39 PM

Česká verze / Return to index

Label: ČT1 DVB (Czech Republic)

Region: n/a

RCE protection: n/a

Copyright protection system: n/a

Disc type: n/a

Playback time (hh:mm:ss.frames): 1:44:46.00

Video: PAL

Aspect ratio: 2.28:1 non-anamorphic

Bitrate (min / avg / max): 0.71 / 2.53 / 5.29 Mbps

Audio:

Slovak MPEG-1 Layer 2 2.0 mono* / 192 kbps

Subtitles:

None

Menus available in:

None

Special features:

None

Notes:

This is a recording from ČT1's digital terrestrial broadcast.
Its purpose here is to provide a kind of reference for
the SFI's DVD release reviewed below.

*difference between channels is -51.51 dB (0.27 %)

SFI & The Daily SME

Reviewed by dvdfreak

Last modified on Thursday 19th March 2020, 11:35:39 PM

Česká verze / Return to index

Label: SFI & The Daily SME (Slovakia)

Region: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 8

RCE protection: No

Copyright protection system: None

Disc type: DVD5 (the data occupy 4.28 GB)

Playback time (hh:mm:ss.frames): 1:44:51.06

Video: PAL

Aspect ratio: 2.34:1 non-anamorphic

Bitrate (min / avg / max): 0.16 / 4.51 / 6.35 Mbps

Audio:

Slovak Dolby Digital 2.0 mono* / 256 kbps
Slovak audio descriptive in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono* / 256 kbps

Subtitles:

Slovak & English

Menus available in:

Slovak & English

Special features:

Newsreel (10:16, in Czech & Slovak**)
About the movie (2 pages, in Slovak & English)
Press coverage (2 pages, in Slovak & English)
Biographies (2 pages each, in Slovak & English)
- Paľo Bielik
- Vladimír Ješina
- Tibor Andrašovan
- Maximilián Remeň
- Štefan Kvietik
- Vladislav [Vlado] Müller
Photogallery (8 movie stills)

16-page booklet (in Slovak)

Notes:

This film is a part of the "Slovak Cinema of the 60's - II" DVD edition
(released by SFI & The Daily SME), which also includes:

"Kým sa skončí táto noc" ("Before Tonight Is Over")
"Panna zázračnica" ("The Wonder - Maid")
"Šerif za mrežami" ("The Sheriff Behind Bars")
"Skalní v ofsajde" ("Soccer Fans")
"Tri dcéry" ("Three Daughters")
"Vtáčkovia, siroty a blázni" ("Birds, Orphans and Fools")
"Živý bič" ("The Living Scourge")
"Zmluva s diablom" ("A Pact with the Devil")
"Zvony pre bosých" ("The Bells Toll for the Barefooted")

The disc starts with the SFI logo, followed by ads for Klapka.sk & The Daily SME. The former is actually a short interview with Ladislav Chudík (0:50, in Slovak), who speaks about his role in an earlier Paľo Bielik film, the 1959 "Kapitán Dabač" ("Captain Dabač").

Aargh! Will SFI never learn to take advantage of anamorphic enhancement for widescreen features? AND, to add insult to injury, the transfer here is pictureboxed - approx. 5 % of the already limited (SD) horizontal resolution are lost! It's a pity, since otherwise the restoration is very nice; not a blemish to be seen***, the colours pop off the screen... One cannot but think how stunning this could look on Blu-ray!

*difference between channels is -68.83 dB (0.04 %),
resp. -71.52 dB (0.03 %)
**subtitled in Slovak & English
***in fact, I noticed a few "jumps" in the picture, but after doing a comparison with my DVB recording, I'd say these are inherent to the existing source material, and SFI did their best to fix them: