©1972 Warner Bros. Inc. All rights reserved.

Catalog Number W10-519
Format Extended Play CLV
MPAA Rating
Mono
Running Time 109 minutes

Pressing Location DiscoVision Carson
Label Color Blue
Issued January 1980

Side Frames Running Time
1 35½ min
2 38½ min
3 50,383 34min 59sec
108min 59sec
Dead Side Various
Ratings
Video Transfer
Audio Transfer
Replication
Packaging
Open-Top 
Side-Open Sticker
Printed 
Price History
Silver Catalog $15.95
November 1979 $24.95
May 1980 $24.95

Pressing Notes

Although not advertised as such in the Silver Catalog, Deliverance was one of the first titles to be released in the CLV format. House Calls, National Lampoon's Animal House and Destry Rides Again were the only Extended Play titles in the initial catalog. DiscoVision wanted to make sure everyone knew the title was Extended Play, and plastered a sticker almost as large as the words "DiscoVision" across the lower portion of the front cover. Deliverance is the only CLV pressing with blue labels, indicating that it was originally intended to be pressed in the CAV format. This is further supported by the overall size of the side labels - in the style of the titles released in 1978 rather than those issued in 1980. At Warner Bros. request all titles were to be Extended Play. Although the original catalog promised eight Warner titles, Deliverance is the only Warner Video title to be released by MCA DiscoVision. It is unclear if the struggles that DiscoVision and Philips were having with CLV discs had any weight to the lack of title support from Warner.

Special notes on the cover made sure the consumer was aware of the studio's participation, although today, their involvement is flatly denied. This and special considerations for Walt Disney (who also denies involvement with DiscoVision) were the only occurrences of individual Home Video Labels.

Deliverance is possibly one of the worst video transfers ever produced. The colors are dull and flat with no life at all. The image is also very washed out with poor contrast control. With all this against it, the transfer does manage to hold fleshtone fairly well and is quite sharp. The composite matte shots are obvious and unconvincing. The Pan & Scan image is terribly done. The telecine operator at times is unsure which part of the image should be displayed as the image can weave back and forth annoyingly. The end credits, which fill the full 2.35:1 Panavision frame, are impossible to read. They should have transferred the squeezed anamorphic frame for the last few minutes of the film.

The audio transfer is not wonderful either. There are moments when the background noise is so overpowering one must turn down the volume. But with a camera change, suddenly the volume is under control again, forcing the volume to be increase once more. It is especially bad during the rapids scene on side 2. Disc replication is actually above average. Most copies have some minor speckling, but when compared to other extended play titles pressed at the time, it is superior.

Side 3 has the 2nd greatest mastering flaw in DiscoVision's history. Second only to the Frenzy Side 5 disaster, Deliverance Side 3 is in Extended Play but is incorrectly encoded as CAV. This results in a frame counter rather than a minute counter, and all LaserDisc players incorrectly report a CAV disc. Most players will actually play the disc, even the CAV Only Pioneer LD-V1000, but some (like the Pioneer CLD-1010) can not play it at all. Some players will even attempt special features normally attributed only to CAV discs including freeze frame and slow motion. However, it is very possible for the player to loose synchronization and playback will be aborted.

Deliverance made its last DiscoVision catalog appearance in the May 1980 update.

Known Dead Sides

Release History

Deliverance was released twice on LaserDisc by Warner Home Video. A Pan & Scan edition (Catalog #1004LV) was issued in 1984, and a 2.35:1 Widescreen edition was issued in 1992 (Catalog #: 12482).

MCA DiscoVision Home Page
Updated: August 1, 2020
Copyright ©2016 Blam Entertainment Group