Eric Clapton

24 Nights


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Details At A Glance

General
Extras
Category Music Theatrical Trailer(s) None
Rating Other Trailer(s) None
Year Released 1991 Commentary Tracks None
Running Time 90:03 minutes Other Extras Menu Animation
Cast Listing
RSDL/Flipper No/No
Cast & Crew
Start Up Movie
Region 2,3,4,5,6 Director Gavin Taylor
Studio
Distributor

Warner Vision
Starring Eric Clapton
Case Super Jewel
RRP $39.95 Music Eric Clapton

 
Video
Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame MPEG None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None Dolby Digital None
16x9 Enhancement No Soundtrack Languages English (Linear PCM 48/16 2.0, 1536Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio 1.33:1
Miscellaneous
Macrovision Yes Smoking Yes
Subtitles English
English for the Hearing Impaired
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes, during

Plot Synopsis

    As has been noted before, I am a huge Eric Clapton fan. I love his particular style of music.

    24 Nights was recorded over a series of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in England, where Eric Clapton had sold out 24 consecutive performances. Some of the songs are performed with a 4 piece band, some with a blues band, some with his more usual 9-piece band, and some were accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. There is no doubting the quality of this man's music - this is a superb compilation of songs with a wide variety of styles.

    The track list is as follows;

4 Piece Band
Blues Band
9 Piece Band
Orchestra

Transfer Quality

Video

    This video transfer is very problematic indeed. Having said that, I suspect that non-critical viewers will have no problems with this transfer.

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is variably sharp. Some shots are very clear and well-defined, others are much less clear and much less defined. Flare because of the concert lighting is frequently very problematic, leading to many shots being washed out and lacking in detail, particularly close-up shots of Eric Clapton's guitar playing. Shadow detail is quite lacking, presumably because of the lighting style, and low level noise was intermittently present in the darker portions of the image.

    The colours were variably rendered. There was some excellent use of colour early on with deep, strongly saturated purple hues highlighting Greg Phillinganes on keyboards during the first song. There was no chroma noise nor colour bleed during these excellently rendered scenes. On the other hand, there was considerable wash-out of colour frequently observed during other scenes.

    I have often wondered why concert videos tend to be mastered in the higher bitrate ranges. This video transfer answers the question. 90-odd minutes have been compressed onto a single layer, with a bit rate in the 7 - 8 Mbits/sec range. Taking away the 1.5Mbits/sec allocated to the Linear PCM audio track, and we are left with a video stream compressed at 5.5 - 6.5 Mbits/sec. Put simply, this bit rate is inadequate. MPEG artefacts are frequently present and quite noticeable at times, including one of the worst MPEG artefacts I have seen in a transfer to date that is not the fault of a scratch or a fingerprint. At 39:44, the background image of Ray Cooper on tambourine is extremely blocky - this is an artefact that should not have passed by quality control. Additionally, there are frequent artefacts present with transitions, where a single frame will appear slightly blocky and then correct itself with the second frame as more data is added to the image. MPEG artefacts in the blackness are also frequently evident, showing themselves as extreme grain in the blackness which rapidly corrects itself. At normal speed, a lot of these artefacts pass by rapidly, but single-stepping reveals the poor quality of the compression on this DVD dramatically.

    This disc should have been mastered onto a dual layer disc, as the level of compression artefacts shown on this single layer disc is simply unacceptable.

Audio

    There is only a single audio track on this DVD; English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0.

    Dialogue and words were always easy to understand and clear.

    There were no audio sync problems with this disc.

    The music encompasses a wide range of styles, from the bluesy Worried Wife Blues to the atmospheric Edge Of Darkness.

    The surround channels were not used, this being a stereo mix only. The music sounds good, and well spread across the front soundstage.

    The .1 channel was not specifically used.

Extras

    There is an extremely limited selection of extras on this disc.

Menu

Cast Listing

R4 vs R1

    The Region 4 version of this DVD appears to have the same limited features as the Region 1 version.

Summary

    Eric Clapton: 24 Nights is more than decent in the content department but it is let down by a mediocre video transfer.

    The video quality is poor, with an unacceptable level of MPEG artefacting in the image.

    The audio quality is good.

    The extras are extremely limited.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
16th December 1999

Review Equipment
DVD Toshiba 2109, using S-Video output
Display Loewe Art-95 95cm direct view CRT in 4:3 mode, via the S-Video input. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder Denon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital AddOn Decoder, used as a standalone processor. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Amplification 2 x EA Playmaster 100W per channel stereo amplifiers for Left, Right, Left Rear and Right Rear; Philips 360 50W per channel stereo amplifier for Centre and Subwoofer
Speakers Philips S2000 speakers for Left, Right; Polk Audio CS-100 Centre Speaker; Apex AS-123 speakers for Left Rear and Right Rear; Yamaha B100-115SE subwoofer