Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Best of Europe: London & Beyond Blu-ray Movie Review

Welcome to the British Isles!

Reviewed by Dustin Somner January 12, 2010

The Best of Europe travel series offers a handpicked selection of Rudy Maxa’s Emmy-award-winning public television series, “Smart Travels: Europe with Rudy Maxa”. In a forward-thinking move on the part of the show’s producers, this series was the first high definition travel offering on public television, making it an obvious choice for release on Blu-ray. If you ever had a desire to visit Europe, but lack the financial means to make the physical journey, this is your opportunity to take in the sights from the comfort of your favorite recliner.

It's almost as if the clouds are floating away from the bridge in every direction.

Best of Europe: London & Beyond offers four 26-minute segments that focus on prominent tourist destinations within the British Isles. Hosted by Rudy Maxa, a longtime consumer travel expert and former host of “The Savvy Traveler”, the show offers a glimpse of the best attractions at each location and tips to make your stay a little easier. In addition to the informative narrative provided by Maxa, we’re given occasional text-based pop-ups that provide specific travel recommendations regarding accommodations and entertainment. The following list includes the title of each episode:

London
Bath & South Wales
Edinburgh & Scotland
Dublin & Beyond

This is the second “Best of Europe” disc I’ve reviewed from Questar (the first focused on Italy), and I found this experience a bit more entertaining. The reason for my increased appreciation this time around isn’t as much a fault of the Italy focus, but more in the realization that it’s typically more interesting to soak up a travel program if you’ve never been to the destination. Watching someone else give recommendations on a place you’ve visited has the potential to create a difference of opinion regarding the attractions worth visiting, since everyone clearly has their own specific taste. Considering I’ve never been to the British Isles, every location suggested by Maxa seemed fresh and intriguing making the experience that much better.

If there’s one thing I truly appreciate about the style of Maxa's travel series, it’s his focus on the historical relevance of each destination he visits. Whether it’s a castle, museum, hotel, or restaurant, he has a story to offer behind every location, adding to the entertainment value of the production. In fact, watching the episodes on this disc, I’d almost say I enjoy the structure of Maxa’s travel show more than Samantha Brown or Rick Steves. Brown tends to deliver plenty of personality, but doesn’t offer a whole lot of information. On the flipside, Steves has a tendency to lean heavily in the opposite direction (almost coming across boring at times). Rudy Maxa incorporates a nice balance, which makes his series entertaining for newcomers or long-time veterans of the featured locations (though I still maintain it’s more interesting to watch travel entertainment on destinations you haven’t yet visited).

My only notable complaint about this release is the difference in depth on each episode. The London entry is clearly the best of the four, taking viewers on a tour of the rich art and structural history present in one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. The other three entries are all entertaining in their own right, but you can tell Maxa had to dig deeper to find information worth presenting.

Best of Europe: London & Beyond Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in 1080i utilizing the AVC codec (at an average bitrate of 28Mbps), Best of Europe: London & Beyond offers a reasonably proficient visual experience that's downgraded by the presence of several digital anomalies. At first glance the level of detail appears wonderfully crisp with natural colors, deep blacks, and excellent contrast. Unfortunately, as you look closer you'll begin to notice the transfer also suffers from the presence of easily noticeable moire effects that lead to some nasty artifacting. Anytime you see lines running parallel to each other with minimal space between them, shimmering will take hold of those lines, giving that portion of the picture a lack of consistency. Additionally, images with dark borders that run at a slight diagonal angle reveal drastic stairstepping that shifts as the camera pans in various directions. I've noticed this to a large extent on 1080i productions, so I'm assuming it has to do with the inherent weaknesses of an interlaced signal, which lacks the smooth consistency of a progressive offering. Other than the problems I've noted, most fans of the television series will enjoy the upgraded visual perspective on this collection of Europe's most scenic sights, so long as you're careful not to set your expectations too high.

Best of Europe: London & Beyond Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The only audio offering on the disc is a Dolby Digital 2.0 track in the native language of English. Even though this clearly isn't a surround sound experience, the audio crew recording the original source material did a nice job capturing the ambiance of the city streets and local pubs, bringing out every nuance of the hustle and bustle around Maxa as he attempts to blend in. Moving on to the music, the selections in each episode are standard fair for a television documentary, with a mixture of choral and orchestra entries. It doesn't add much to the overall experience, but the score was never obtrusive or inappropriate for the subject matter and offered an appropriate volume balance when blended with the dominant narration. Speaking of the narration, I never felt the need to strain in order to make out the dialogue, which is key in a narrative-heavy travel show.

The overall audio track is far from impressive when stacked up next to a surround sound lossless mix, but considering the material doesn't demand that kind of treatment, I doubt anyone will have many complaints after listening to the track.

Best of Europe: London & Beyond Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements provided on the disc.

Best of Europe: London & Beyond Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Whether your planning a trip to the British Isles, or searching for a way to relive your prior experience, Best of Europe: London & Beyond is an enticing high-definition offering for the world traveler in all of us. The production values aren't the greatest, but seem entirely appropriate for a travel television show. The only thing holding me back from a wholehearted recommendation is the presence of several deficiencies in the transfer, which I hope Questar rectifies in future Blu-ray offerings of the series. As it stands, I'm still quite satisfied with the idea of adding this disc to my collection and I'd imagine any fan of the series will welcome the opportunity to travel through Europe from the comfort of their home.