Product Details

• Directors: Joe Kane
• Format: Anamorphic, HiFi Sound, THX
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: DVD International
• DVD Release Date: April 24, 2007
• Run Time: 114 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000IHYY3Y
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #45,978 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Originally created in High Definition, Digital Video Essentials is now coming to you in High DEfinition on HD DVD in both 1080p and 720p. As audiences turn to High Definition home theaters it becomes increassingly important to have the tools and the demonstration materials needed to optimize the quality and capability of the display. Developed by A/V legend Joe Kane, Digital Video Essentials offers and entire range of audio and video test signals for the all-inmportant home system tune-up. These test tracks can make the difference between an artificial-looking picture and poor sound and the amazing presentation quality and realisim you can only get from an HD DVD.
HD DVD/Standard DVD Combo Disc
Both SD and HD versions of DVE in one package
The calibration tool for HD home theaters
Includes one year free membership to online support community
Future-ready for downloadable advanced content
Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby True HD Calibration content
Color filters for checking decoding
Wide Screen 16x9 in SD and HD
Audio-Dolby Digial 2.0 Surround Sound

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected! HD material is there.. but no HD instructions... So you need a good memory!, September 23, 2007

By	Charlie "Charlie" - See all my reviews

This ran fine on my Toshiba XA2.. both the HD and the standard DVD sides. I am somewhat familiar with the configuration and setup of HD sets.. I tinker with mine a lot. The DVD side... good instructions on how to do anything you need to do, and will get fairly in depth. The HD side is a rip... they just give you the test patterns and configuration screens.. no how to's, no instructions. I guess they just wanted to sell the DVD version all over again, with the addition of the HD material. Since I already had the DVD version... I feel like I wasted my money. I can download most of the HD stuff on the dvd from the web.

IF you dont have a disc like this already.. this would be a good disk for you.

If you already have a something (Non HD).. then dont bother.. just use what you have. Hopefully someone will bring out a decent disc with ALL HD content including the instructional videos and info, so we can have the HD config screens with the instructions... for those of us who dont do it for a living.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pretty much useless., December 27, 2007

By	Steven Rogers "Thirdmonster*" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Let me start by saying I've been using Digital Video Essentials since the days of LaserDisc. I've always found them informative and helpful when calibrating television audio components to their highest standards. Well, the HD DVD version is simply awful. I don't know who authored this, but navigation is nearly impossible. See, normally these discs begin with simple explanations (of, say, what chroma and luminance is; how it "should" look), then it starts with the test patterns to help you...well, this HD DVD is set up using menus and titles. The menus are fine, but if you want to get to "presentation and help" you must use the "Titles." I have a Toshiba HA3 (no, not the brightest bulb in the tanning bed but I'm not sinking any more than $130 in a player while the HD DVD / BluRay war is still raging). My player does not have a "Title" button. I cannot get to certain menus...what?...what's that, you say? There's other ways to get to the titles? No, there isn't. Get this: in the manual for this disc it states, "If there is no 'Title' key on your remote, the Program Menu can be reached from the lower menu system by highlighting the 'Program Menu' option. This is illustrated in Title 3." Other words: use Title 3 to see the Program Menu if you haven't a Title button. WHAT??? I don't have a Title button, so how can I see Title 3? Catch 22 anyone? And I've updated my players firmware (whoever thought that was going to be something you'd have to do with a player?) and I've emailed them...without reply (that was about a month ago). AND (insult to injury) if I pop in this hybrid disc into my standard def DVD player it starts right in with the aforementioned explanations and test signals. Frustration and disgust doesn't begin to cover my feelings. I know a thing or two about authoring DVDs (even HD DVDs) and there are simply better ways to do it that using Titles. It's a shame, really. I bought this, sat down, ready for a couple of hours of geeking out and calibrating my home theatre. Instead I ended up downloading firmware, gnashing my teeth, pulling my hair out, and finally emailing Joe Kane only to be ignored. It's simply terrible. I know there are other discs on the market like this and after nearly two decades of using Joe Kane's version (since he is the guru) I have to recommend you look to the other solutions. This one is just awful.

Steven
December, 2007.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars 147 Pages of required program notes = Intolerable Cruelty, June 5, 2007

By	Movie Fan (LA, CA USA) - See all my reviews

The DVD version was a bit cheesy but did exactly what it was supposed to do. They've had a full decade to improve upon menu navigation, so I was hoping for something a little more user-friendly.

Much to my astonishment, the HD-DVD side of this disk only includes demonstration materials and test patterns, with no audio instruction accompanying the test patterns! Leaving the unlucky user with 2 choices:

1. Memorize or write down what you're supposed to do on the DVD side of the disk, then flip it and find the HD-DVD test patterns, or

2. Print out the 147-page "book" to make sense of it all. Joe, what were you thinking?

Avoid this disc like the Black Plague. For the reader's reference, the rest of this review is a direct quote from the 147-page "book":

"The original reason we chose to provide just the test and demonstration materials in HD was one of hoping to be able to reach the market near the time of the introduction of the format. As with Video Essentials in 1997 we found the challenge of producing a test disc in a new format to be far more difficult than we expected.

Knowing we still needed some form of tutorial for use of the basic test patterns, we decided to include the SD version of DVE in the HD DVD package. That capability, providing HD content on one side and SD content on the other, is part of the HD DVD format. It's called a Hybrid or Combo Disc.

We've taken the test materials on the HD side of the program much further than anything that is described on the SD side so we needed some additional documentation. That's what you have here.

In writing this description we decided to detail the entire contents of the HD side of the disc rather than covering just the materials not mentioned in the video tutorial. It's become a "book"."