Distributed by
VCI

Cat.no: MUDVD1

Cert: E

Running time: 130 minutes

Year: 1999

Pressing: 1999

Region(s): 1-6, PAL

Chapters: Too many to mention

Sound: Dolby Digital 1.0 (Mono)

Languages: English

Subtitles: None

Fullscreen: 4:3

16:9-enhanced: No

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £19.99

Extras : Extensive scene index, Alex Ferguson exclusive interview

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Producer/Editor:

Craig South

Narrated By:

Robert McCaffrey

Manchester United: The Treble is, how the name would suggest, a round up of their 1998/99 football season in which the team from the North became the first ever to win The Treble.

Sir Alex Ferguson's team, known as The Red Devils, had a 33-match unbeaten run which included beating Liverpool, Spurs and Aston Villa in the Premiership. They won the FA Cup too after overcoming arch-rivals Arsenal and Newcastle and smashed their way through Milan, Juventus and Bayern Munich to achieve the previously-unobtainable.

Normally, by the time the video is released popular football teams don't have to try to secure a rush of fans digging into their pockets to purchase them. Just putting out a comprehensive review of the year is enough to satisfy the masses usually, but VCI have made themselves worthy of a knighthood like the team's coach by putting out one of the most clever DVDs to date.

When the cover states "Every Game, Every Goal", it means exactly that. However, in this case it means you can almost select each goal individually and certainly each game. Choose which of the three championships you wish to browse through, or which month, game or player you want to specify to watch and they're instantly accessible.

Also included is an exclusive DVD interview with Sir Alex, also split up into numerous chapters depending on the game in hand, in which he goes into detail about the matches in question.

The picture quality is sufficient but nowhere near perfect. Watching each goal that's all the fans will be concentrating on, but as scenes appear the grass sometimes seems a bit on the blocky side. While the disc's content is split into many chapters and titles (which group chapters together depending on the subject), there's sometimes a brief pause on the screen if the content branches between two titles. Selecting individual moments poses no problems though. The picture is in fullscreen for the entire time and I was unable to determine the average bitrate but there's so much on the disc it's impossible to quantify it all.

The sound is in mono, so nothing outstanding but it does precisely what's intended.

Extras :

Chapters :

Languages/Subtitles :

Menu :

Overall, Man.Utd fans with a DVD player need no further convincing. This is a must-buy and it'll be interested to see how many other teams try this out for the 1999/2000 season including the Reds.

For me, football isn't particularly my bag. When I was young, oh so much younger than today, I went to a handful of matches including seeing Sammy MacIlroy score a hat-trick in 1983 (I think - and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong), when they beat Wolves 5-0, at home. The game didn't really catch on for me, but as a big fan of DVDs and finding what they're capable of as being of great interest, I found the structure of this disc fascinating and it's worth a look for anyone who wants to see what the format can do.

Just don't expect the multi-angle section to allow you to dress David Beckham in a range of Posh's underwear.

FILM CONTENT 		: ***
PICTURE QUALITY		: ***½
SOUND QUALITY		: ***
EXTRAS			: *****
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OVERALL			: ***

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000