CČV/Bonton (frame 240)

CČV/Bonton

Reviewed by dvdfreak

Last modified on Friday 20th March 2020, 12:41:20 AM

Česká verze / Return to index

  
Label:  CČV/Bonton (Czech Republic)

Region:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6
RCE protection:  No
Copyright protection system:  None

Disc type:  DVD9 (the data occupy 6.81 GB)

Playback time (hh:mm:ss.frames):  1:54:54.15

Video:  PAL
Aspect ratio:  1.33:1 non-anamorphic


Bitrate (min / avg / max):  1.84 / 7.00 / 9.64 Mbps

Bitrate (min / avg / max)

Audio:
 

Czech Dolby Digital 2.0 mono* / 224 kbps

Subtitles: Czech for the hearing impaired

Menus available in: Czech


Special features:
 

  • Photogallery (2:03, 33 movie stills)
  • Interviews (in Czech with optional Czech subtitles)
    • Vojtěch Jasný (7:30)
    • Radoslav Brzobohatý (5:40)
    • Helena Růžičková (3:26)
  • Filmographies (in Czech)
    • Vojtěch Jasný (2 pages)
    • Vlastimil Brodský (9 pages)
    • Radoslav Brzobohatý (6 pages)
    • Vladimír Menšík (10 pages)
    • Waldemar Matuška (3 pages)
    • Drahomíra Hofmanová (1 page)
    • Pavel Pavlovský (1 page)
    • Václav Babka (4 pages)

Notes: 
Whew, this is the 11th review I'm working on today! ;-) And a quite important one at that; Vojtěch Jasný's "All My Good Countrymen" is one of the milestones of Czech cinema of the 60's. Its local DVD premiere was first announced in 2004, but it took 3 more years for the disc to finally appear. The reason - as claimed by Zóna (Czech only) - was simple enough; there was no source to create the DVD from, because a usable - in terms of picture quality - master did not exist, nor did a film print a new master could have been created from (even the film's negative stored in the National Film Archive is damaged). A solution presented itself in 2007, when a reasonably preserved copy resurfaced in Germany.

So, how does it fare? Well, I'm not sure myself... A year ago or so, I managed to record "Countrymen" off CSFilm - a satellite channel specialized in Czechoslovak classics, unfortunately, their broadcast quality is - mainly due to an inadequately low bitrate - frankly disgusting. :-( Still, I decided to use that recording for comparison purposes, and the results are quite surprising! Allowing for the DVD's high bitrate, the level of detail is - obviously - superior to that of the broadcast, however, the colours - supposedly the greatest problem of the surviving film prints - seem to come off quite well in CSFilm's master (which, I assume, is based on a local "damaged" print). Of course, there are exceptions - mostly in the 2nd half of the film (see e.g. the blue curtain in frames 76788 / 76779, or the red background in frames 147484 / 147483). When it comes to imperfections, the broadcast constantly displays the so called "tram lines," but it's miraculously - albeit not completely - free of little blemishes like specks of dust, spots and whatnot, which the DVD suffers from in abundance...

CČV/Bonton / CSFilm DVB
16030 / 16035 | 18770 / 18774 | 24529 / 24533 | 29959 / 29962 | 35156 / 35161 | 39160 / 39169
50620 / 50619 | 56850 / 56849 | 62507 / 62509 | 72222 / 72221 | 75709 / 75700

CČV/Bonton (frame 16030)

To see the screenshots from the 2nd half of the film, click here.

*difference between channels is -76.86 dB (0.01 %)


Bontonfilm / Blu-ray (frame 720)

Bontonfilm / Blu-ray

Reviewed by dvdfreak

Last modified on Friday 20th March 2020, 12:41:20 AM

Česká verze / Return to index

  
Label:  Bontonfilm (Czech Republic)

Region:  A, B & C (?)
RCE protection:  n/a
Copyright protection system:  AACS

Disc type:  BD25 (the data occupy 20.49 GB)

Playback time (hh:mm:ss.frames):  2:00:07.21

Video:  MPEG-4 AVC, 1080p24/1.001
Aspect ratio:  1.37:1


Bitrate (min / avg / max):  0.27 / 20.01 / 50.78 Mbps

Bitrate (min / avg / max)

Audio:
 

Czech DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono* / 1,567 kbps

Subtitles: Czech for the deaf and hard of hearing

Menus available in: Czech


Special features:
 

  • Interviews (MPEG-2, 576i50, in Czech** DD 2.0 / 224 kbps)
    • Vojtěch Jasný (7:40)
    • Radoslav Brzobohatý (5:47)
    • Helena Růžičková (3:34)
  • Photogallery (1:46, 35 stills, MPEG-4 AVC, 1080p24/1.001)
  • Restoration demo (3:05, MPEG-4 AVC, 1080p24/1.001, in Czech** DD 2.0 / 224 kbps)

Notes: 
Also available in a Special Edition, accompanied by a book:



Can't really think of anything to say here... If I was a professional reviewer, I'd talk about "acute/apparent absence of artefacts, bespoke blacks, competent contrast, distinct deficit of DVNR, and - last but not least - elliptical/elusive/no/non-existent evidence of edge-enhancement," but I just work here... No, I tell a lie - I don't even work here, so nothing prevents me from saying that I was quite surprised by the more-dark-greyish-than-black blacks (graded like that to match the look of a contemporary distribution film print, perhaps? NFA did stipulate something on those lines in the conditions of the tenders for their previous two restorations - Marketa Lazarová and The Firemen's Ball), but the rest of the epithets wouldn't come amiss here.
     What mars the overall positive impression are the signs of hasty / sloppy work and lack of QA; for example, on my Oppo set to Region A, the region mismatch screen appears, but the disc jolly well loads anyway:


And the restoration demo, which contains all of like 10 short lines of text, sports this really glaring typo (it should read "POŠKOZENÉ FILMOVÉ POLÍČKO"):


To see the screenshots in glorious Full HD 1080, click here.

*difference between channels is -139.93 dB (0.00 %)
**subtitled in Czech for the deaf and hard of hearing

Česká verze / Return to index

Mouse over the links to see the other version(s) - requires JavaScript.

CČV/Bonton | Bontonfilm / Blu-ray

CČV/Bonton (frame 3989)

CČV/Bonton | Bontonfilm / Blu-ray

CČV/Bonton (frame 7500)

CČV/Bonton | Bontonfilm / Blu-ray

CČV/Bonton (frame 16030)

CČV/Bonton | Bontonfilm / Blu-ray

CČV/Bonton (frame 18770)

CČV/Bonton | Bontonfilm / Blu-ray

CČV/Bonton (frame 24529)

CČV/Bonton | Bontonfilm / Blu-ray

CČV/Bonton (frame 29959)

CČV/Bonton | Bontonfilm / Blu-ray

CČV/Bonton (frame 35156)

CČV/Bonton | Bontonfilm / Blu-ray

CČV/Bonton (frame 39160)

CČV/Bonton | Bontonfilm / Blu-ray

CČV/Bonton (frame 50620)

CČV/Bonton | Bontonfilm / Blu-ray

CČV/Bonton (frame 56850)

CČV/Bonton | Bontonfilm / Blu-ray

CČV/Bonton (frame 62507)

CČV/Bonton | Bontonfilm / Blu-ray

CČV/Bonton (frame 72222)

CČV/Bonton | Bontonfilm / Blu-ray

CČV/Bonton (frame 75709)

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