BUY

General		Extras
Category	Music	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1999	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	72:10 minutes	Other Extras	Menu Audio and Animation Photo Gallery
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Movie
Region	2,3,4,5,6	Director	Nick Wickham
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision Australia	Starring	Andrea Caroline Jim Sharon a.k.a. The Corrs
Case	Super Jewel Case
RRP	$39.95	Music	The Corrs

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto encoded	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Dolby Digital	5.0
16x9 Enhancement		Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.0, 448 Kb/s)  English (Linear PCM 48/16 2.0, 1536 Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired	Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The Unplugged concept that MTV has now used to good effect for a number of artists is by its very nature one that sorts out the genuine musical talents from a whole host of pretenders. Simply put, 95% of the musical artistes of today unfortunately could not survive the scrutiny afforded by the Unplugged concept, which strips them almost totally of their reliance upon overdubs, redubs, remixes, upmixes, downmixes, and so on and so on, and which mercilessly exposes their talents for exactly what they are. That The Corrs are if anything even better under the scrutiny of the concept clearly indicates that they are genuine musical talents, and you can be assured that you can forget about any qualms you could possibly have above the musical abilities of these siblings - even down to the (gasp!!) one bad note at the conclusion of Runaway, which earns Caroline a bit of a ribbing from the rest of the band. Even the very best make the odd mistake, but the fact that we get to hear it is possibly the greatest joy here: how often are these testimonies to the fallibility of the talent, that make music a genuine part of what we are, are edited out of recordings, thereby depriving the music of its very soul!!

    The track listing obviously reflects some overlapping with the earlier DVD but when the music is this damn good, who really cares? The tracks on offer here are: Only When I Sleep, What Can I Do, Radio, Toss The Feathers, Everybody Hurts, Dreams, Runaway, Forgiven Not Forgotten, At Your Side, Little Wing, No Frontiers, Queen of Hollywood, Old Town, Lough Erin Shore and So Young. The standout tracks? The whole DVD, but if I really have to make a judgement, I would have to say the instrumental tracks Toss The Feathers and Lough Erin Shore (they have simply got to get this band into the studio to do a whole instrumental album based upon Irish folk tunes) and as an R.E.M. fan, a superbly sublime rendition of Everybody Hurts.

    This is superb music making, and you should do everything in your power to (legally) add this gem of a DVD to your collection. And forget about getting the CD - just stick this on without the visuals and you would not know the difference. Although why anyone would want to avoid the visuals here is beyond my comprehension: but then again, I have always been a sucker for fiddlers by the name of Sharon.

Video

    The concert is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced. For those who find Pan and Scan important, this DVD also has automatic Pan and Scan information encoded.

    This is one of the best transfers I have seen in a music DVD, displaying a wonderful sharpness and clarity that really helps make the whole concert shine. The overall detail is quite stunning, and this is so well transferred that you can just about see every individual hair on the girls heads! Well, that may be stretching it a little, but there simply is some gorgeous detail here. There was not a hint of low level noise in the transfer and this is about as clear a transfer as I have seen outside of A Bug's Life , and higher praise I cannot give.

    The colours come up beautifully in the transfer, and if you like deep, deep blacks, you are going to love this effort. The only quibble I have, and this is definitely more a personal preference than anything wrong with the transfer per se, is that the transfer was just a little on the dark side. This probably reflects the way the show was recorded, in a nice intimate studio atmosphere, and in no way detracts from the DVD at all though. There is not a hint of oversaturation here and this is a quite natural looking picture overall.

    MPEG artefacts in the transfer? Nope. Film-to-video artefacts in the transfer? Only some exceedingly minor hints at aliasing due to the usual problem areas, such as guitar strings, and you would really have to be looking very, very hard for it cause any distraction to the program. Film artefacts in the transfer? Nope. Gorgeous stuff indeed.

Audio

    There are two English audio tracks on the DVD, a Dolby Digital 5.0 track and a Linear PCM 48/16 track, the latter very similar to the sound you would expect on a compact disc. I listened to both soundtracks, several times!!

    The music and vocals came up very well in both soundtracks, although the differences in the styles of the soundtracks are not so great without the .1 channel being used in the Dolby Digital soundtrack.

    Audio sync did not appear to be a problem with either soundtrack.

    The Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack made quite effective use of the surround channels, with some very nice use of the rear channels for audience ambience and the odd musical track (especially the drum track). The lack of a bass channel is hardly a concern, except on a couple occasions when the rhythms would perhaps really have bounced with a little bit of judicious bass. The overall sound picture is very effective indeed and this really sounds as if the band is playing in your own living room just for you. A better Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack than this would be hard to imagine. Absolutely no complaints whatsoever about what is offered here!

    The Linear PCM soundtrack is very much like the sound off a compact disc. Even without the separate bass channel, the higher decibel level of this soundtrack still conveys the music well, more especially the vocal tracks. The overall soundscape here is a lot more encompassing, and there is just as convincing a sound picture on offer here. I doubt whether two more consistently superb soundtracks on the same DVD will be achieved as easily again.

Menu

Photo Gallery

Booklet

    A superb video transfer, so, so close to reference quality.

    A reference quality audio transfer.

    The extras still need a little work though.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ian Morris (have a laugh, check out the bio)
12th April 2000