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Category | Music | Theatrical Trailer(s) | None |
Rating | Other Trailer(s) | None | |
Year Released | 1999 | Commentary Tracks | None |
Running Time | 108:15 minutes | Other Extras | None |
RSDL/Flipper | RSDL (51:15) |
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Start Up | Movie | ||
Region | 2,3,4,5,6 | Director | Joel Gallen |
Distributor |
Warner Vision |
Starring | Eric Clapton
Andy Fairweather-Low Nathan East Steve Gadd Tim Carmon Dave Delhomme David Sanborn Tessa Niles Katie Kissoon |
Case | Super Jewel | ||
RRP | $39.95 | Music | Eric Clapton
Sheryl Crow Mary J. Blige Bob Dylan |
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Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame | MPEG | None |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | Dolby Digital | 5.1 |
16x9 Enhancement | No | Soundtrack Languages | English (Linear PCM 48/16 2.0, 1536Kb/s)
English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 448Kb/s) |
Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 1.33:1 |
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Macrovision | Yes | Smoking | No |
Subtitles | None | Annoying Product Placement | No |
Action In or After Credits | No |
Eric Clapton predominately features, with special appearances from Sheryl Crow (very good), Mary J. Blige (didn't do anything for me whatsoever), and Bob Dylan (slow to get going but OK). The track listing reads as follows;
The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced.
The transfer is reasonably sharp, though clearly not in the same league as a top-notch movie transfer. The initial copyright message and logo suffer from a marked lack of clarity which filled me with a sense of dread but fortunately, this is not reflective of the main portion of the transfer itself. The clarity of the transfer improves as it progresses, which has more to do with the fact that more light is shining on the stage than anything else. Shadow detail is very limited indeed due to the nature of the stage lighting being captured here. Black is simply that - black, with no details discernible within, though the blacks are deep and clean, with no low level noise marring the transfer at all. The black of Eric Clapton's guitar is virtually the same as his clothes, which makes for an interesting lack of contrast.
The colours were variable, once again in keeping with the concert-style lighting. Early on in the concert, blue lighting predominates, which video always has trouble capturing. Predominantly blue shots suffered from an expected loss of definition and some slight chroma noise. This is most notable in back shots of the drum kit which is blurred and indistinct with blue lighting versus crisp and clear with full-range lighting.
There were no MPEG artefacts noted in this transfer, and nor were there any video artefacts noted.
There is a very odd bit of editing at 42:10 with a single frame close-up of Mary J. Blige being inserted into the video stream for no apparent reason.
This disc is sensibly presented on an RSDL-formatted DVD, with the layer change placed as unobtrusively as possible in between songs at 51:15.
The mix of this DVD is aggressive and quite loud compared to other DVDs - I was perfectly happy with this at reference level, but others may want to turn the audio down a little.
The vocals are firmly and loudly anchored in the center channel, along with Eric Clapton's guitar. Despite this, I felt that the other channels tended to slightly overwhelm the centre channel, making some vocals a little hard to make out, especially those of Sheryl Crow.
There were no audio sync problems with this DVD at all.
The surround channels were used as music wraparound, as well as carrying the audience noise. At the conclusion of the songs, the audience noise was wrapped into the front surround speakers which provided an unusually forward audience presence to this soundtrack. The musical instruments were all mixed according to their stage position. This provided some interesting audio-visual discrepancies when a soloist was front-and-centre visually but mixed left or right aurally. Of particular note in this regard was David Sanborn on saxophone and some of Sheryl Crow's guitar, both mixed left aurally whilst visually front-and-centre.
The .1 channel was aggressively and constantly used to support the soundtrack. It was extremely effective in providing a solid foundation on which the rest of the sound could be layered. Nathan East's superb bass work was beautifully and strongly rendered by the subwoofer.
The video quality is good given the source material.
The audio quality is very good.
There are no extras.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
© Michael Demtschyna
(read my bio)
16th March 2000
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DVD | Palsonic DVD-2000 and 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; Hsu Research TN-1220HO subwoofer |