Family Values Fall Tour '98
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Details At A Glance
|
General
|
Extras
|
| Category |
Music Video |
Theatrical Trailer(s) |
None |
| Rating |
 |
Other Trailer(s) |
None |
| Year Released |
1998 |
Commentary Tracks |
None |
| Running Time |
85:44 Minutes |
Other Extras |
None |
| RSDL/Flipper |
No/No |
Cast & Crew
|
| Start Up |
Menu |
| Region |
1,2,3,4,5,6 |
Director |
Joe Friday |
Studio
Distributor |
Epic Music Video
Sony Music Entertainment |
Starring |
Limp Bizkit
Rammstein
Orgy
Ice Cube
Korn |
| Case |
Opaque Brackley |
| RRP |
$34.95 |
Music |
All of the above |
|
Video
|
Audio
|
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame |
Full Frame |
MPEG |
None |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio |
None |
Dolby Digital |
5.1 |
| 16x9 Enhancement |
No |
Soundtrack Languages |
English (Linear PCM 2.0, 1536 Kb/s)
English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 448 Kb/s) |
| Theatrical Aspect Ratio |
1.33:1 |
Miscellaneous
|
| Macrovision |
? |
Smoking |
Yes |
| Subtitles |
None |
Annoying Product Placement |
Yes |
| Action In or After Credits |
No |
Plot Synopsis
Don't bother asking me to list the "bands" in the actual
order they appear, because I am doing you, the DVD viewer, a big favour
just by contemplating watching this load of bollocks in the first place.
What happens when you get a couple of groups of Pungent Stench wannabes,
a James Brown wannabe, a mob of Das Ich (or even Bethlehem)
wannabes, yet another group of David Bowie rip-off artists, mix
them together, and stir? You basically get the Family Values Fall
Tour '98. Obviously, the general American audience needs to get
out and hear some real music, judging by the mobility of the audience.
This is especially obvious during Limp Bizkit's pathetic rendition
of the George Michael classic, Faith. Let's give this
song to The Residents so we can have a demonstration of what real
alternative music sounds like. Anyway, in case you were curious, the tracklisting
for this DVD goes a little something like this:
Limp Bizkit:
-
Faith
-
Counterfeit
-
Jump Around
-
Cambodia
Ice Cube:
-
Check Yo Self (Remix) [how the hell do you get a remix of
a live perfomance?]
-
It Was A Good Day
-
F___ Tha Police
-
F___ Dying
Orgy: [this is the only band on the disc
that suggests having any musical ability at all]
-
Blue Monday
-
Stitches
-
Revival (featuring Jonathan Davis, whoever he's supposed
to be)
Rammstein:
Korn:
-
Got The Life
-
Blind
-
A.D.I.D.A.S.
-
All In The Family
-
Children Of The Korn
-
Faget
The more I am subjected (albeit somewhat voluntarily)
to this sort of material, the more I hope that Music For Nations will get
off their butts and release some of Peaceville's bands on DVD. My DyING
BRIDE and Anathema have great live videos available on VHS -
surely it cannot be that hard to take the source tapes and put them onto
a DVD of some description. A noise-addled video of real musicians playing
actual music would be vastly preferable to a reference-quality version
of this drivel.
One last comment: this music video is rated R, and
it is rated R for a reason other than the idiocies and four-letter words
on display during the show. Under no circumstances should you allow any
small children to see this nonsense, in spite of how childish the action
onscreen really is most of the time.
Transfer Quality
Video
Well, regardless of what I think of the content in musical
or artistic terms, this is a very well-presented concert video which I
am happily used to seeing from Sony and Epic Music Video. The transfer
is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (Full Frame), with NTSC formatting.
Given that the 1.78:1 shape is scheduled to be phased in within a matter
of years now, it would have been more thoughtful to have been presented
with video in this ratio, but we can let this one slide for the time being.
The transfer is very sharp for concert footage, but it does suffer from
the usual problems with stage lighting and high levels of movement. The
shadow detail is pretty much non-existent, as everything is brightly lit
to a point that would seem completely unnatural outside of a concert. Low-level
noise was present in some of the images used to comprise Korn's
set (the idiots responsible for editing this video decided to interrupt
it with "historical" footage).
The colour saturation was much more accurate than
I've come to expect with concert footage, although it is still not without
the problems offered into the mix by stage lighting. MPEG artefacts were
absent from the presentation, although the bitrate was constantly all over
the place in order to accomodate the needs of some imagery, especially
during Orgy's set. Film-to-video artefacts seemed to be absent from
the presentation, which is a terrible pity considering that this would
have given us something a little more interesting to look at. Film artefacts
consisted of the occasional black or white mark on the image, but these
were so rare that they might as well have not been there at all.
There are no subtitles available on this disc, which
is a real pity since many of the lyrics in English require them to be understood,
and it would have been nice to see translations of Rammstein's lyrics.
Some subtitles are provided for the sole interviewee before and after their
set, but these are burned into the video image rather than provided as
a subtitle stream.
Audio
As always happens with a DVD of musical non-events such
as this, we have a transfer which makes the music being performed seem
much larger than life. There are two audio tracks available on this DVD,
both of them in the English language: a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, and a
Linear PCM 2.0 track, which also happens to be the default selection. The
Dolby Digital effort is a muffled and compressed-sounding one compared
to the Linear PCM track, with the sounds from all speakers being rather
muffled and low. I mostly stuck with the Linear PCM mix, while sampling
Orgy's
set in both mixes for good measure. The vocals were given their proper
priority in the mix, but this didn't make them any easier to understand
at any point. Audio sync was never a problem during the performances or
the offstage chatter.
The music is fairly typical of the stuff that Sony
fling out at us with their "you want" advertising campaigns: it has been
done much better before, and it is still being done much better today.
During the 1970s, these performers would be relegated to the bargain bin
without so much as a second look. Orgy might have earned a second
glance, but that's really stretching it. Bear in mind that your opinion
may differ, especially if you're in my age group and of the mindset that
Sony would have us believe is the whole and sum total of said age group.
The surround presence of the Linear PCM mix actually
seemed greater than the Dolby Digital mix, in spite of being restricted
to two channels and a subwoofer. This can be fairly and squarely blamed
upon the low volume of the Dolby Digital mix, which sounded as if it had
been recorded using a unidirectional microphone in the audience. The surround
channels got some usage in an effort to create an enveloping sound field,
but I had to listen to this at about twice my usual volume (which is pretty
damned high to begin with) before the effect was noticed. The subwoofer
got a fair workout in both mixes, supporting the drums, bass, and even
some of the rhythm guitar notes in pretty much all of the songs. It was
especially active during Ice Cube's set, where a lot of false bass
activity is pumped in from one of those damned synthesisers.
Extras
Well, there is a menu...
Menu
Not the best-looking or most functional one I have ever
seen, either. It is at least 16x9 enhanced.
R4 vs R1
This disc is formatted for worldwide playback, which
makes the lack of subtitles all the more curious. In any case, there are
much better music videos to source from Region 1.
Summary
Family Values Fall Tour '98: Sony's attempt
to bring us "music" on DVD. Myself, I say stick with Ozzy
Osbourne since he still has a good idea of what the word means.
The video quality is superb for concert footage.
The audio quality is wonderful until you get into
the Dolby Digital mix.
The extras are non-existent.
| Video |
 |
| Audio |
(Linear PCM)
(Dolby Digital) |
| Extras |
|
| Plot |
|
| Overall |
|
© Dean McIntosh (my bio
sucks... read it anyway)
May 27, 2000.
|
Review Equipment
|
| |
|
| DVD |
Grundig GDV 100 D, using composite output; Toshiba SD-2109,
using S-video output |
| Display |
Panasonic TC-29R20 (68 cm), 4:3 mode, using composite
input; Samsung CS-823AMF (80 cm), 16:9 mode/4:3 mode, using composite and
S-video inputs |
| Audio Decoder |
Built In (Amplifier) |
| Amplification |
Sony STR-DE835 |
| Speakers |
Panasonic S-J1500D Front Speakers, Philips PH931SSS Rear
Speakers, Philips FB206WC Centre Speaker, JBL Digital 10 Subwoofer |
