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A definite step backwards

Austin Knoblauch | Los Angeles, CA USA | 12/16/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"While the 2006 Le Mans DVD is similar to previous incarnations, the extremely poor video quality due to a large amount of distortion and pixelation, definitely makes this the worst of the Le Mans DVDs.

Content-wise it's the same stuff: Plenty of testing and qualifying highlights with a little more than an hour devoted to the actual race itself. However, the poor picture quality makes this DVD seem almost like a VHS tape. The distortion and pixelation, at times, is hideous and it really draws away from the pleasure of watching the race. If you compare this DVD side-by-side with Le Mans DVDs covering the 2002 and 2003 races, the 2006 edition is definitely worse.

Another complaint is that the DVD covers testing and qualifying highlights twice -- adding plenty of repetition to the DVD's 140-minute run time. This has been an ongoing habit for the producers of this series, who crammed in this highlight show that originally aired on SPEED channel prior to its live Le Mans race coverage. This preview show, which takes a little more than an hour to cover testing and qualifying, leads into the real start of the DVD, which then goes right back into more testing and qualifying highlights.

The lack of special features and in-car cameras is another disappointment. In the 2005 DVD, the producers included special feature in-car cameras for the first time (even though the DVD had some slight pixelation problems). In the 2006 version, there are no special features and the in-car camera footage is no more than a couple of seconds for each car it shows. It would have been great if there was a full, in-car lap onboard the Audi R10 Turbo Diesel.

Overall, I would still recommend this DVD to any avid Le Mans fan since it is the best record of a race which saw Audi triumph with a diesel-engined car for the first time in the race's 74-year history. It also does a good job showing all of the race action and all of the drama and glamour that makes up the annual festival of endurance on the Circuit de la Sarthe. It's just disappointing that the picture quality is so poor."