Voltron Volume 1 DVD Set reviewed
Sep. 24th, 2006 12:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yakk0dotorgLast night I got the first Voltron DVD set. Overall I'm extremely happy with the purchase. It took forever to come out, but it was worth it. I wish Rhino had taken a lot of the same care with the original Transformers series.
Packaging
The set comes in a metal tin with the face of the Blue Lion on it. Inside the tin is a traditional foldout cardboard DVD case. The cardboard case is blue and has artwork related to Princess Allura, the pilot of the Blue Lion (after the beginning of the series). It's nice to see they also included Sven in one of the pictures, since he's the original Blue Lion pilot. The case includes a sleeve with a nice booklet about the set and an ad for other DVD releases, and the three DVDs.
Video
I've been watching Voltron for years on my computer that has been encoded from a variety of sources from old VHS copies to rips of official DVDs (the UK and Australia have distributors that have made their own sets), and the quality runs from horrible memories of 80s VHS players to pretty darn good. To make this set, the DVD creators found the US masters were in good shape, but blurry, and instead have used the newly restored masters from the Japanese series Voltron was made from, Hundred Beast King GoLion. They used that source and recreated the entire series from it. The result is a very clear, vibrant picture. Voltron still has some flaws found in the original animation, but overall it has never looked this good.
Audio
Voltron was the first show broadcast in Dolby Stereo. When the show was made, television stations were still making the shift from mono to stereo and the show's creators had the foresight to use stereo and it turned out to be a great benefit to this DVD set. The DVDs include the original 2.0 stereo tracks and a 5.1 track. They were able to use the 24 track masters to make a very nice surround experience.
Extras
The third DVD includes interviews with some of the show's creators, a couple pilots of the original episodes, a documentary on the creation of the DVDs, and the Robot Chicken spoof of You've got Served. Pretty good, but I was hoping some for some cast interviews as well. Maybe one of the future sets would include that
Overall Impressions
I'm very happy with this set. The audio and video are great, and the extras are nice. Voltron was a big part of my childhood, and this is going to take a nice place next to my near-complete Transformers box sets. Volume 2 comes out in November. Can't wait to get it.
I can't wait until Friday.
Packaging
The set comes in a metal tin with the face of the Blue Lion on it. Inside the tin is a traditional foldout cardboard DVD case. The cardboard case is blue and has artwork related to Princess Allura, the pilot of the Blue Lion (after the beginning of the series). It's nice to see they also included Sven in one of the pictures, since he's the original Blue Lion pilot. The case includes a sleeve with a nice booklet about the set and an ad for other DVD releases, and the three DVDs.
Video
I've been watching Voltron for years on my computer that has been encoded from a variety of sources from old VHS copies to rips of official DVDs (the UK and Australia have distributors that have made their own sets), and the quality runs from horrible memories of 80s VHS players to pretty darn good. To make this set, the DVD creators found the US masters were in good shape, but blurry, and instead have used the newly restored masters from the Japanese series Voltron was made from, Hundred Beast King GoLion. They used that source and recreated the entire series from it. The result is a very clear, vibrant picture. Voltron still has some flaws found in the original animation, but overall it has never looked this good.
Audio
Voltron was the first show broadcast in Dolby Stereo. When the show was made, television stations were still making the shift from mono to stereo and the show's creators had the foresight to use stereo and it turned out to be a great benefit to this DVD set. The DVDs include the original 2.0 stereo tracks and a 5.1 track. They were able to use the 24 track masters to make a very nice surround experience.
Extras
The third DVD includes interviews with some of the show's creators, a couple pilots of the original episodes, a documentary on the creation of the DVDs, and the Robot Chicken spoof of You've got Served. Pretty good, but I was hoping some for some cast interviews as well. Maybe one of the future sets would include that
Overall Impressions
I'm very happy with this set. The audio and video are great, and the extras are nice. Voltron was a big part of my childhood, and this is going to take a nice place next to my near-complete Transformers box sets. Volume 2 comes out in November. Can't wait to get it.
I can't wait until Friday.