Patterns of Evidence The Red Sea Miracle Part 1 Blu-ray (released 3-18-20)

[HDTV1080P]

Patterns of Evidence: The Red Sea Miracle Part 1

(brief user review)

Patterns of Evidence: The Red Sea Miracle Part 1 was released in theaters on February 18th 2020, and then released on the standard 1080P Blu-ray format on March 18th 2020. On May 5th 2020 Patterns of Evidence: The Red Sea Miracle Part 2 is scheduled to be released in theaters and then in theory the Blu-ray disc version might be released on June 5th 2020. However due to current and possible future world events some theater releases and Blu-ray releases might be delayed.


After watching both Patterns of Evidence: Exodus and Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy on the Blu-ray format. I inserted Patterns of Evidence: The Red Sea Miracle Part 1 into my OPPO UDP-203 Blu-ray player.



When Moses stretched out his hands over the sea, the waters of the Red Sea were divided. Millions of people living in modern 21st Century believe this was a supernatural act revealing God’s glory to the nations. In this documentary Timothy P. Mahoney looks for the historical and scientific evidence of where God parted the Red Sea to allow for around 2 million Israelites to cross. Yahweh performed many miracles when he freed an estimated 2 million Israelites from being enslaved under Pharaoh. The biggest miracle was not parting the Red Sea, but keeping over 2 million Israelites alive for 40 years in the desert. Yahweh fed the Israelites with Manna from heaven which was some type of perfect vegan food. God also provided fresh water for the Israelites over the 40 years in the desert.



This documentary looks at the historical research that Cecil B. Demille used when making the classic 1923 and 1956 Ten Commandments movies. God miraculously saves the Israelites and destroys the Egyptian army. Patterns of Evidence The Red Sea Miracle Part 1 on the Blu-ray format is a ideal documentary for both people into Judaism and Christianity. This documentary is ideal for anyone that wants to learn more about the Red Sea Miracle.

Video quality

This documentary did not receive the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format treatment and instead was released on the standard 1080P Blu-ray format. Patterns of Evidence: The Red Sea Miracle Part 1 uses a total of 20.1GB of space out of 25GB on the single layer Blu-ray disc. Patterns of Evidence: The Red Sea Miracle Part 1 uses the MPEG-2 codec with a resolution of 1080P. Average MPEG-2 bit rate for some scenes appeared to be around 22Mbps. It is almost unheard of to use the legacy lower quality MPEG-2 codec for the main program on a 2020 Blu-ray disc release. For a standard Blu-ray release MPEG-4/AVC and VC-1 has a better picture quality when compared to MPEG-2 when the exact same bit rate is used. Only HEVC codec is better than MPEG-4/AVC and VC-1, however HEVC codec requires a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray optical disc. But in the secular world MPEG-2 codec has not been used for Blu-ray releases for several years, since almost 100% (99.9%) of secular Blu-ray discs receive a MPEG-4/AVC or VC-1 release. The funny thing is Thinking Man Films faith based studio used a dual layer Blu-ray disc with high bit rate VC-1 codec 5 years ago for their very first Blu-ray disc release. In the future all faith-based Blu-ray releases should stop using MPEG-2 for the main program.



Overall, the Patterns of Evidence: The Red Sea Miracle Part 1 MPEG-2 1080P picture quality looked sharper and better when compared to the average 1080i cable TV and satellite TV program. Color quality and resolution detail was ok. So, MPEG-2 is not a deal breaker, but my point is there are better video codecs to use in 2020 (MPEG-2 was used on some of the very first 2006 Blu-ray releases but then studios started switching to MPEG-4/AVC and VC-1 a year or two later). This Blu-ray disc is encoded with both English SDH subtitles and Spanish subtitle option. However most likely by mistake this Blu-ray disc has the English SDH subtitles defaulting to the on position, and if one wants no subtitles they have to manually turn the subtitle feature off. That is not the normal and most likely a mistake of the master Blu-ray disc file that was used before 1,000 Blu-ray discs were professional stamped (pressed in the factory).

Audio quality

In another disappointment for a 2020 Blu-ray release Thinking Man Films used a lossy audio soundtrack instead of a lossless soundtrack. Consumers that purchase documentaries on the Blu-ray format want both a better picture quality and better sound quality when compared to the DVD format. While Patterns of Evidence: The Red Sea Miracle Part 1 Blu-ray release clearly has a better 1080P picture quality when compared to the average 480i DVD disc. That is not true when it comes to the sound quality. Thinking Man Films ported over the English 5.1 Dolby Digital 448kbps DVD soundtrack for this Blu-ray release. So, there is no audio difference between the Blu-ray and DVD release. In an ideal world all future faith-based Blu-ray discs should be released with a studio master PCM, DTS-HD Master audio, or Dolby TrueHD soundtrack that would be bit for bit exactly the same as the PCM studio master.



The English 5.1 Dolby Digital lossy soundtrack mix sounded ok. The dialogue was easy to understand when coming out of the center speaker. The left and right front speakers and surround speakers sounded ok. Once and awhile the surround sound mix activated the subwoofer for certain scenes in this documentary.

Bonus features

100% of all the menus uses the MPEG-2 codec at 1080P quality (The main menu also uses 5.1 Dolby Digital at 448kbps). All the extra features uses the MPEG-2 codec. The Red Sea Miracle lasts 2 minutes and 24 seconds (MPEG-2 1080P with 5.1 Dolby Digital at 448kbps). The Moses Controversy lasts 2 minutes and 9 seconds (MPEG-2 1080P with 5.1 Dolby Digital at 448kbps). The Exodus lasts 2 minutes and 23 seconds (MPEG-2 1080i with 2.0 Dolby Digital at 192kbps). The Cast Bios contains a total of 23 still slides (MPEG-2 1080P). Resources contains a total of 6 still slides (MPEG-2 1080P).

Conclusion

Patterns of Evidence The Red Sea Miracle Part 1 contains very interesting information about how many Israelites crossed the Red Sea and where exactly the Red Sea crossing most likely took place. For a 2020 Blu-ray release it was disappointing to discover that the MPEG-2 video codec was used and also disappointing that 5.1 lossy surround sound was used. However overall, this single layer 1080P Blu-ray disc has a better picture quality when compared to a 1080i cable TV or satellite TV program. The 5.1 Dolby Digital sound quality is no better then a DVD, and was below average for a faith-based Blu-ray disc release. The extra features contained less material when compared to all prior Blu-ray releases from Thinking Man Films. Patterns of Evidence The Red Sea Miracle Part 1 on Blu-ray is recommended for faith based families that want the best possible picture quality when learning about God’s historic Red Sea Miracle.