- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080i/60
- Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
- Subtitles: English
- Rating: Not Rated
- Region: ABC (Region-Free)
- Discs: 4
- Studio: A&E Home Video
- Blu-ray Release Date: February 22, 2011
- List Price: $49.95
[amazon-product align=”right”]B003QP4DRC[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Ice Road Truckers: The Complete Season Four on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Series
[Rating:4/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(Screen captures are lightly compress
ed with lossy JPEG thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
The Series
[Rating:4/5]
I have to admit that I never watched Ice Road Truckers on television although I have seen it on and passed it over many times. It never seemed like the sort of series that would grab my interest, but having watched this Blu-ray release, I see where I was mistaken. There is something oddly fascinating about the vicarious thrill of watching these truckers brave the treacherous roads and weather conditions in the wilds of Alaska to deliver their much-needed cargo to oil fields and isolated native villages.
The series follows a group of six truckers from the Carlile trucking company, a mixture of rookies, veterans, sophomores, and one woman trying to prove herself in the boys club of trucking. The drivers brave blizzards, windstorms called “blows” that kick up blinding amounts of snow, avalanches, dangerous, sub-zero temperatures, and dubious ice roads over frozen rivers in their race to deliver the loads and make their hard-earned pay.
It’s a fascinating series that draws viewers in to the lives of these hardworking, working class folks. It gets you caring and worrying on the edge of your seat with the excitement of what dangers are lurking around each icy bend.
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
The 1080i/60 AVC/MPEG-4 encoding of the series looks life-like with natural color reproduction, but every so often the white levels seem just a little hot and there is some slight aliasing noticeable. Add to that the often lower quality production of night vision cameras and the image quality is overall solid, but inconsistent.
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
There’s a simple DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo soundtrack provided on Ice Road Truckers. Although is offers clean dialogue and a decent amount of dynamic range, it would have been nice to hear some of the sound effects in full surround sound for a more engaging presentation. With that being said, the overall quality is good, despite the score being placed rather low into the mix and stereo separation being minimal.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1.5/5]
The only supplemental material provided is about eighteen-minutes of additional footage (1.33:1; 480i/60) from the series that consists mainly of interview segments with the truckers.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3/5]
Ice Road Truckers on Blu-ray offers the vicarious thrill of man (and woman) against nature. It’s an ongoing adventure that never seems to get boring, despite the outward appearance of what could be deemed as monotonous material.
Additional Screen Captures:
[amazon-product align=”right”]B003QP4DRC[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Ice Road Truckers: The Complete Season Four on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Series
[Rating:4/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1.5/5]
