Starring: William Peterson, Marg Helgenberger, Gary Dourdan,
Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment
Video: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby 2.0
Subtitles: English Closed Captions
Extras: Four featurettes (“CSI: Season 5- A Post Mortem”, “The Research of CSI: Maintaining the Accuracy”, “CSI: Tarantino Style” and “CSI: Forensic Procedures on the Scene vs. on the Screen”), audio commentaries for nine episodes
Running Time: 1,088 minutes (7 discs)
Rating: *****
The highly acclaimed and top-rated television series, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, centers upon a Las Vegas forensics unit as they use state-of-the-art scientific equipment and technical methods to solve murder mysteries. Gil Grissom and his entire top-notch team solve complex puzzles and catch criminals in this fifth season of the award-winning show. Memorable episodes from the fifth season include: “Grave Danger” wherein the CSI team comes together to try and rescue Nick after learning that he has been kidnapped and buried alive; “Down the Drain” in which after a heavy rain the team investigates the deaths of two people found in sewer drains; “Who Shot Sherlock?” wherein a Sherlock Holmes enthusiast is murdered in his perfectly recreated Baker Street study; and “Swap Meet” in which a member of a swinger’s group is found dead after attending one of their parties. All 25 episodes from the 2004-2005 season plus the special features are included over seven discs. (Disc One: Viva Las Vegas, Down the Drain, Harvest, Crow’s Feet. Disc Two: Swap Meet, What’s Eating Gilbert Grissom?, Formalities, Ch-Ch-Changes. Disc Three: Mea Culpa, No Humans Involved, Who Shot Sherlock?, Snakes. Disc Four: Nesting Dolls, Unbearable, King Baby, Big Middle. Disc Five: Compulsion, Spark of Life, 4×4, Hollywood Brass. Disc Six: Committed, Weeping Willows, Iced, Grave Danger (Part I). Disc Seven: Grave Danger (Part II), Special Features).
The overall video quality for CSI: The Complete Fifth Season is excellent. Images are pristine with sharp detail. Colors are rich and vivid with fully saturated hues. Black levels are uniformly dark throughout. Picture defect mastering is rock solid with no major flaws or digital compression artifacts. The overall audio quality is very good;. the soundtrack mix is weighted in favor of the forward channels. Dialogue is crisp and natural sounding. The surround channels are fairly active and are used for both ambient sound effects and the music score. The LFE channel is deep and mellow when utilized.
Reference equipment: [Video Projector- Studio Experience Cinema 17SF; Projection Screen- Vutec 103” Silverstar; DVD Player- Oppo Digital OPDV 971H; Video Scaler- DVDO iScan HD+; A/V Receiver- Sherwood Newcastle R-963T; Speakers- Acoustech 5.1 channel speaker system; Tactile Transducer- Clark Synthesis Gold; Cables and Wires-Bettercables.com ]
– Calvin Harding Jr.
