BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Music	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1999	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	83:21 minutes	Other Extras	Menu Audio and Animation
RSDL/Flipper	RSDL (49:40)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	2,4	Director	Lawrence Jordan
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision Australia	Starring	Sheryl Crowe
Case	?
RPI	$34.95	Music	Sheryl Crowe

    Let's get it straight out into the open: for those of us who slightly future-proofed our home theatre systems by indulging in DTS-capable players and amplifiers, the reward is at hand - and the wait was very much worth it! This DTS soundtrack knocks the pants off the Dolby Digital soundtrack. Believe me, for I have heard the difference and the difference is noticeable. All I can say is: get used to looking for that red DTS logo because on the evidence of this DVD, it is going to be worth looking out for. Okay, I would have been happier if the first DTS DVD that I could get my hands on was something a little bit more to my musical liking than Sheryl Crow, but this is ultimately quite a decent concert video recorded in Detroit last year.

    The tracks on offer here are: Maybe That's Something, A Change Would Be A Good Thing, Anything But Down, My Favourite Mistake, It Don't Hurt, Riverwide, If It Makes You Happy, Am I Getting Through, Everyday Is A Winding Road, The Difficult Kind, All I Wanna Do, There Goes The Neighborhood, Strong Enough, Mississippi and Home. Accordingly, it contains pretty much all her hits, and they tend to be the stand-out tracks in what is otherwise a fairly lacklustre collection of tunes. It may not be the greatest concert that I have ever heard, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting, and the soundtrack was something special indeed. It was, after all, my first look at a DTS DVD, and I was suitably impressed. If this is the calibre of releases that we can expect from the recently-announced deal, then I really do look forward to future DTS releases from this source.

Video

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

    If there is one thing that has in general impressed me with the concert videos that have passed through my player in the last nine months, it is the general high quality of the video transfers. This one is no exception, and in general is a very sharp and clear transfer that probably helps make the whole concert experience better than it actually was, for I have to confess that Sheryl Crow is not the most dynamic stage presence that I have ever seen. The overall detail is very good, including shadow detail, and there is little to really complain about here, other than the inevitable minor lapses in focus. There was not a hint of low level noise in the transfer making this another very impressively clear transfer.

    The colours have come up wonderfully well in the transfer, with a very nice depth to the colours that is exceedingly believable. The saturation was pretty much spot-on throughout and even the periods of extreme red stage lighting that normally have me cringing in anticipation of murkiness were handled extremely well. The only hint of oversaturation in the transfer was during these periods of intense red and blue lighting, and even then it never looked like descending into something unwatchable. The blacks really have come up black, and the end result is a very believable and very accurate palette of colours.

    There was no hint of MPEG artefacting in the transfer. There was a consistent, albeit rather minor, problem with aliasing throughout the transfer, but nothing that was too gross. It was only the mere consistency of it that made it noticeable and I would seriously doubt that too many will find it a distraction on a normal size television display. I would suspect, however, that those with larger screens will be slightly disappointed here. There is not a single film artefact in the transfer as far as I could determine, and this is an extremely clean transfer in that regard. Really, the only thing that denies the transfer reference status is the aliasing, and the inherent problems with the source material that no amount of wizardry is going to overcome. There did appear to be a slight jump in the video at around 39:36, as if part of a frame had been missed in the master. It was not really too much of a concern, and it sort of fell into the "did I really see that" category. This is apparently an NTSC to PAL conversion, and the jump may be an inherent problem of that conversion.

    This is an RSDL formatted disc with the layer change coming at 49:40. This is during a panned shot of the audience between songs and is just a tad too noticeable for my taste, since it is clearly visible, as well as there being a slight pause in the audio stream.

Audio

    There are three English audio tracks on the DVD: the aforementioned DTS 5.1 and the Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks, together with a Dolby Digital 2.0 track. Okay, so you can guess what soundtrack I listened to! However, I did also do some brief sampling of the other soundtracks.

    The music and vocals came up very well in all soundtracks, although the differences in the styles of the soundtracks are extremely marked, far more so than I was expecting. Indeed, I was very much surprised by how much more distinctive the DTS soundtrack was compared to the Dolby Digital 5.1 effort. To be fair, it is almost pointless to have a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack on the DVD, as there is no way that you can listen to it after experiencing the DTS soundtrack, which makes even the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound a little bit wimpish in comparison. To be really fair in the comparisons, one should listen to the soundtracks in the order of Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1 and then DTS 5.1. By doing so, you would probably recognize that in themselves there is nothing inherently wrong with any of the soundtracks. It should, however, indicate just how much better DTS is in comparison to Dolby Digital 5.1 - and that is my view, whether you agree with it or not.

    Audio sync did not appear to be a problem with any of the soundtracks.

    I have no idea about the technicalities of how they encode the sound or anything like that. All I am really interested in is whether it sounds any good or not. Well, if nothing else, this has convinced me of how good a well-mastered DTS soundtrack can sound when compared to a well-mastered Dolby Digital soundtrack. I am not just talking minor degrees of difference here, either. After listening to the much more vibrant and powerful DTS soundtrack, it was a positive chore to return to listening to the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Whilst both the DTS soundtrack and the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack made quite effective use of the surround channels, with a lot of nice ambient detail included, there is quite a noticeable added punch to the DTS soundtrack. Indeed, if you like to turn your sound up a little, at the equivalent listening level of the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, it would be virtually impossible for many to listen to the DTS soundtrack, as you would almost certainly cause meltdown in your equipment, it is that much more dynamic. Yes folks, you have a new and very much improved way of annoying the neighbours. A damned effective one, too, as a bit of judicious testing proved, and which will not be repeated for fear of reducing the house to a pile of rubble. The main difference between the soundtracks, apart from volume level and dynamics, is the more encompassing sound of the DTS soundtrack, which really seems to surround you in a rather more natural way than I have hitherto been used to. In comparison, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack sounds very unidirectional, almost mono in style, even though I know it is not. None of the soundtracks are perfect and the slightly undermixed vocal track in the DTS soundtrack is as close to a disappointment here as anything can be, but I am really clutching at straws with this one, as it really is not that bad or noticeable at all. Overall, I am very impressed by the quality of the DTS soundtrack and the sound picture it creates. At the end of listening to it, you can judge the effectiveness by the fact that it is the closest experience to a live concert I have ever heard from a video, even down to the slight pounding in the old head at the conclusion! Admittedly, I did have the sound turned up just a tad on the high side - purely for scientific purposes, mind you!

Menu

    A very good video transfer.

    A superb DTS audio transfer, and fine (if not in comparison) Dolby Digital audio transfers.

    Disappointingly, no extras.

Video
Audio	(DTS) (DD)
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ian Morris (have a laugh, check out the bio)
7th July 2000