Catalog Number | W10-519 |
Format | Extended Play CLV |
MPAA Rating | |
Mono | |
Running Time | 109 minutes |
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Special notes on the cover made sure the consumer was aware of the studio's participation, although today, their involvement is flatly denied. This and special considerations for Walt Disney (who also denies involvement with DiscoVision) were the only occurrences of individual Home Video Labels.
Deliverance is possibly one of the worst video transfers ever produced. The colors are dull and flat with no life at all. The image is also very washed out with poor contrast control. With all this against it, the transfer does manage to hold fleshtone fairly well and is quite sharp. The composite matte shots are obvious and unconvincing. The Pan & Scan image is terribly done. The telecine operator at times is unsure which part of the image should be displayed as the image can weave back and forth annoyingly. The end credits, which fill the full 2.35:1 Panavision frame, are impossible to read. They should have transferred the squeezed anamorphic frame for the last few minutes of the film.
The audio transfer is not wonderful either. There are moments when the background noise is so overpowering one must turn down the volume. But with a camera change, suddenly the volume is under control again, forcing the volume to be increase once more. It is especially bad during the rapids scene on side 2. Disc replication is actually above average. Most copies have some minor speckling, but when compared to other extended play titles pressed at the time, it is superior.
Side 3 has the 2nd greatest mastering flaw in DiscoVision's history. Second only to the Frenzy Side 5 disaster, Deliverance Side 3 is in Extended Play but is incorrectly encoded as CAV. This results in a frame counter rather than a minute counter, and all LaserDisc players incorrectly report a CAV disc. Most players will actually play the disc, even the CAV Only Pioneer LD-V1000, but some (like the Pioneer CLD-1010) can not play it at all. Some players will even attempt special features normally attributed only to CAV discs including freeze frame and slow motion. However, it is very possible for the player to loose synchronization and playback will be aborted.
Deliverance made its last DiscoVision catalog appearance in the May 1980 update.