Alaska: Last Frontier (1994) [00MW-0008] is from 1994 and Sony. It's one of the early documentary disc with Muse encoding.

The content is snow, ice and more ice. All bright day time shots. Mostly distant shots of ice mountains and few close ups.

The video is a bit dirtier than the noise free Guyana disc which is 3 years newer with the best at the time camera/encoding. The video noise is present on blue skies. The picture gets a bit softer on camera pans. No motion smearing though. This disc is probably one of the lowest quality you can expect from Muse titles but still better than LD and DVD by a long mile.

The soundtrack is average at best. Everything happens in the front channel, even at that its average.

This content was a smart choice by Sony for its early Hi-Vision releases. All the nemesis of Muse encoding such as fast moving objects, dark scenes, heavy green are all absent from the content. What's in it is what Muse encoding deals with best such as bright scenes, slow or stationary picture, more whites. So the content is extremely suitable for Muse but the result video doesn't tell the same story. It would probably make your jaw drop back in 1994 but doesn't impress much in 2015, even with a less expecting eye.

The packaging is beautiful. This alone makes you proud of owning this title. It's a beautiful digibook with a slipcase.

Equipment:
Pioneer Elite Kuro Pro-141FD - 60" Plasma Monitor
McIntosh Mx-121 AV Preamp/Processor
McIntosh Mc207 7ch Power Amp
Pass Labs XVR1 Active Crossover
Meridian 519 RF Demodulator
Martin Logan Theos L/R Speakers
Martin Logan Stage X Center
Martin Logan Descent I - two subwoofers
Martin Logan Motion 4 Side and Rears
Lumagen Radiance Pro 4449 Ultra HD Video Processor
Lumagen Radiance 2144 Video Processor
Pioneer HLD-X0 Reference Laserdisc Player
Sony MSC-4000 Muse Decoder