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Category | Music | Theatrical Trailer(s) | None |
Rating | Other Trailer(s) | None | |
Year Released | 1997 | Commentary Tracks | None |
Running Time | 75:56 minutes | Other Extras | None |
RSDL/Flipper | No |
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Start Up | Menu | ||
Region | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | Director | Jeremy Marre |
Distributor |
Warner Vision Australia |
Starring | Jerry Garcia
Phil Lesh Bob Weir Ron "Pigpen" McKerman Mickey Hart Bill Kreutzmann |
RRP | $39.95 | Music | Grateful Dead |
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Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame | MPEG | 2.0 |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | N/A | Dolby Digital | None |
16x9 Enhancement | N/A | Soundtrack Languages | German (MPEG 2.0, 224 Kb/s)
English (MPEG 2.0, 224 Kb/s) French (MPEG 2.0, 224 Kb/s) Italian (MPEG 2.0, 224 Kb/s) Spanish (MPEG 2.0, 224 Kb/s) |
Theatrical Aspect Ratio | N/A |
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Macrovision | ? | Smoking | Yes |
Subtitles | None | Annoying Product Placement | No |
Action In or After Credits | No |
The music begins as being very experimental, typical of the psychedelic era, and very much out-there. Later, as the band matures, they become slightly more main-stream and country/rock-ish. I quite enjoy sixties music, being a fan of Pink Floyd and The Moody Blues, and so I enjoyed the music on this movie, however unpolished and raw it may be.
It is also great to see behind the scenes, especially during such a pivotal time in the world of sound recording. Being a sound engineer by qualification myself, I was fascinated to watch the engineers play with the original multi-track tapes from the recording sessions, and reminisce of what they were doing and thinking at the time. This is how band documentaries should be done. There are no egos here, just a group of old rockers remembering the good old days. Good stuff indeed.
The presentation is full frame, with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and it is not 16x9 enhanced.
At its worst, detail and sharpness is exceptionally poor. By contrast, the recent footage is text-book perfection. Shadow detail is generally acceptable throughout. Low level noise is nearly constant throughout the archival material.
Colours are all over the show in the archival material - sometimes muted, sometimes over-saturated, but bang on perfect in the recent interviews.
There were no MPEG artefacts of any kind during this movie. Any film-to-video artefacts were masked by the poor quality of the film to begin with, and so went unnoticed. Film artefacts were routine, but perfectly acceptable given their nature.
There are five audio tracks on this disc, all of which are MPEG 2.0 surround encoded. We have, in order, German, English, French, Italian and Spanish. This disc has no default; you are forced to choose a track before play commences. I listened to the English soundtrack.
Dialogue during the interviews was always easy to understand.
There was only one small instance where audio-sync was problematic. It was, apart from that, spot on.
The music has very much a late sixties sound to it. Don't expect hi-fi with this baby, even if the disc does claim it! The sound is generally lacking in bass and clarity, but never harsh. I feel it is a very good likeness to the original sound, and matches my old Pink Floyd CDs of that era nicely. If you are a fan of the sixties raw sound and can appreciate it for what it was, you will not be at all disappointed.
I listened to this disc in straight stereo mode for maximum quality. I did note, however, that their is much surround information in the mix should you wish to listen in Pro-Logic mode. This is purely up to taste.
The subwoofer was not called upon for assistance.
The video quality is extremely variable, but as it is mostly archival this does not present a problem.
The audio is of the same variable quality as the video, and is perfectly acceptable.
No extras, not even chapters.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
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DVD | Panasonic A350A; S-Video output |
Display | Pioneer SD-T43W1 125cm Widescreen 16x9 |
Audio Decoder | Internal Dolby Digital 5.1 (DVD Player) |
Amplification | Sony STRDE-525 5x100 watt Dolby Pro-Logic / 5.1 Ready Receiver, 4 x Optimus 10-band Graphic EQ |
Speakers | Centre: Sony SS-CN35 100 watt, Main/Surrounds: Pioneer CS-R390-K 150-watt floorstanders, Subwoofer: Optimus 100-watt passive |