BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Released	2000
Running Time	45:42 / 45:37
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme Selection, then Menu
Region	1,2,3,4,5,6	Director	Bayron Binkley Jay W. Griffiths
Studio Distributor	Massive Massive	Starring	Merle Haggard
Case	Amaray
RPI	$39.95	Music	Merle Haggard

    Both programmes are actually live in concert efforts. The first is recorded live in Nashville, whilst the second is recorded in a large unidentified baseball stadium that may be Houston. As I have suggested, this is not my cup of tea at all, and I rather wish that I had not stuck my hand up to review it. Compounding the issue is that this is another of those Massive releases that have been greeted with a general lack of enthusiasm from a reviewing point of view. Just like the earlier DVDs from this source, the presentation of this material leaves something to be desired, with the overall result being decidedly lukewarm. Also as usual from this source, take the year of 2000 shown above with a very large pinch of salt. I cannot vouch for when exactly the second show was filmed, but the first was recorded in 1987.

Video

    The transfer is presented in a Full Frame ratio and is not 16x9 enhanced.

    I am presuming here that the first show, Poet Of The Common Man, was recorded for television as it displays the typical lack of sharpness and detail that is demonstrated by other DVDs from this source. Indeed, at times the source material is very out-of-focus, with some distant shots of the stage being quite laughably indistinct. And if I thought this effort was relatively bad, then I simply have no words to describe how utterly appalling Live In Concert is. I have seen home videos with more definition than this. Indeed, the shots of the stage are so bad here that most of the time you simply cannot distinguish Merle Haggard amongst the equipment on the stage, and the bulk of this show is completely unwatchable in my view. Overall, these shows demonstrate quite lamentable sharpness and detail. Shadow detail is best not commented upon, as it will only lead to the use of profanity. Grain is a significant problem throughout the transfers, and these are anything but clear transfers. There did appear to be some problems with low level noise, but this may of course be a reflection of the appalling inadequacies of the source material rather than the result of any mastering issues.

    There is nothing especially noteworthy about this rather insipid palette of colours other than the distinct differences between the underwhelming colours of Poet Of The Common Man and the somewhat over-rich colours of Live In Concert. There is nothing here that you would confuse for stunning depth of tone and vibrancy of colour. At their best, the colours are barely decent and nothing more. At their worst, the colours are very indistinct. Colour bleed does not appear to be a problem at all in the transfer.

    There are no apparent MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There were no real problems with film-to-video artefacts in the transfer, although there were some problems with minor aliasing here and there. Film artefacts were not much of a problem. The main issue is the inherent flaws in what I am guessing would be a video tape source.
 
 

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue was always clear and easy to understand.

    There did not appear to be any particular problems with audio sync.

    There is nothing remarkable about the soundtrack, and it certainly is not the best effort I have ever heard. There are some rather noticeable drop outs here and there (try 32:06 in Poet Of The Common Man) which are a tad distracting. The soundtrack sounds distinctly mono rather than stereo, but I shall give Massive the benefit of the doubt here. There certainly is nothing at all to indicate surround channel use, and there is of course no bass channel use at all. Once again you just occasionally wish for some surround encoding to add a bit of bite to the sound. Still, the sound is not congested and reasonably free from distortion.
 
 

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    A poorish video transfer.

    An average audio transfer.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ian Morris (have a laugh, check out the bio)
20th September 2000