World of Hi-Vision LD

ID: HMV-3002

Price: n/a

Discs: 1

Sound: A-Mode / EFM

Running Time: 19 minutes

Released: Sony

A demonstration disc for retail outlets of the Hi-Vision laserdisc format. Features clips of the following films:

- A Few Good Men

- Hook (planned, but unreleased on Hi-Vision LD)

- Ghostbusters 2 (planned, but unreleased on Hi-Vision LD)

- Bugsy

- Fish Face Exhibition of Okinawa

- Pictures at an Exhibition

- Takemura Shigeru Animation

- DeJohnette,Metheney,Hancock,Holland

It’s hard to rate this disc considering there is so much material, but in a nutshell most of the film stuff looks pretty poor. All the films (except Ghostbusters 2) are dark, grainy, and riddled with compression artifacts. Ghostbusters 2 however is nice, well lit, and full of detail with minimal artifacting. One thing common across the board is that the pictures present are on the soft side.

Fish Face Exhibtion as is Takemura Animation look superb with nice detailed shots, saturated colors, and fairly artifact free pictures. DeJohnette (and the rest) also is superbly shot, and makes me want to own this disc.

Pictures at an Exhibition is unchanged from the actual released disc, and is below standards in color detail, picture detail, and artifacts present.

Sound quality is A-Channel and EFM (reviewed here). Sounds good on all the segments, but nothing to write home about. The concert footage of Hancock is very warm and natural sounding with a feeling of spaciousness to it.

It’s a demo disc, and if you want to see what Hook and Ghostbusters would have looked like in Hi-Vision, this is a disc to get. But not one I would demo the format with. There is far better demo material, and this disc isn’t it.