BUY

General		Extras
Category	Music Concert Video	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1992	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	59:47 minutes	Other Extras	Biography Discography Videography
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	1,2,3,4,5,6	Director	Jill Goodacre
Studio Distributor	Columbia Music Video Sony Music	Starring	Harry Connick, Jr.
RRP	$34.95	Music	Harry Connick, Jr. & Various

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None	Dolby Digital	5.1
16x9 Enhancement	No	Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 448Kb/s) English (Linear PCM 48/16 2.0  , 1536Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	?	Smoking	No
Subtitles	Lyrics (English)	Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    I chose to review this disc out of curiosity more than anything else, and it has been satisfied. If you are a Harry Connick, Jr. fan, you will love this concert performance, which was filmed in 1992 when he was a young lad of only 25, but with the stage presence of an old hand. The concert harkens back to the old school of performance - the big bold brass, the personalities of the trumpet player and drummer, the chatting and charming of the audience, and a more intimate style of concert. I found it a nice change of pace, but as they say - it's a nice place to visit ....

Video

    I really can't stand NTSC, as most of you who read my reviews will be aware. The problem is, it just cannot describe an image with enough information for it to be sharp and pleasant on the eye. This disc is a prime example of this, being soft and almost out-of-focus looking, whilst in truth it is just that I am used to crystal clear 16:9 PAL on my display. Call us spoiled, but damn, Americans need high-definition television badly. Detail was just not present on this disc, with a lack of clarity putting it in the realm of VHS. In fact, I have seen better looking PAL tapes than this disc. Shadow detail was fine, with nothing being lost in the darker sections of the band. There was no low-level noise, perhaps this image's best accolade. Edge-enhancement was not noticed.

    Colours were nicely handled, with a nice level of saturation and absolutely no chroma noise at all. Of concern, however, was dot-crawl, especially on the reds. Really, this image did not look composite sourced (rather, I believe it was shot on film), but the dot-crawl concerned me - maybe it was the conversion from film to tape -there is a form of 3/2 pulldown apparent.

    There were no significant MPEG artefacts. There were no film-to-video artefacts, nor were there any film artefacts.

Audio

    Harry's smooth, mellow voice came over very well, and with no lip-syncing issues to report.

    The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix made average use of the frequency spectrum, sounding slightly thin, though with nice, tight bass. Channel separation, however, was very poor, with the sound being very centre-biased, and not at all what I would expect for a 5.1 concert mix. Changing to the stereo LPCM track revealed a much warmer, weightier sound with deeper and more powerful bass. There was excellent use of that all important front soundstage, placing instruments in discrete positions and with the audience to the extreme edges. This was much preferred, and switching between the two revealed that the 5.1 mix sounded artificial, and even "matrixed" from the 2.0 mix. The centre-pull of this 5.1 mix is very reminiscent of pro-logic processing, and after a while became fatiguing. The LPCM track is surround encoded, and there is much rear information (more, in fact, than in the 5.1 mix), and is far and away the better of the two soundtracks.

    Surround presence on the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix was minimal, so much so that I had to physically go to a rear speaker to make sure anything was coming out at all. The surround-enoced LPCM mix, when listened to with pro-logic decoding, had a much fuller surround presence, and was preferred.

    The subwoofer was used to round out the lower registers, but never really got a big workout - that is, unless, you turned the volume waaaay up. Things change when that happens. Hanging pictures also tend to fall off the walls.

    Themed but uninspiring.

Biography

Discography

Videography

    The transfer is ordinary, and impaired by virtue of it being NTSC as much as anything else.

    The LPCM audio is excellent, but the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is wanting.

    There is a meagre but welcome set of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall