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Category | Music Video | Theatrical Trailer(s) | None |
Rating | Other Trailer(s) | None | |
Year Released | 1999 | Commentary Tracks | None |
Running Time | 82:33 Minutes | Other Extras | Photo Gallery
Menu Audio Featurette - Live At The Fillmore East (57:35) |
RSDL/Flipper | Dual Layer |
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Start Up | Menu | ||
Region | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | Director | Bob Smeaton |
Studio
Distributor |
MCA Records
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Starring | Jimi Hendrix
Billy Cox Noel Redding Buddy Miles Mitch Mitchell |
Case | Amaray | ||
RRP | $34.95 | Music | Jimi Hendrix |
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Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame | MPEG | None |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | Dolby Digital | 2.0 |
16x9 Enhancement | No | Soundtrack Languages | English (Dolby Digital 2.0, 448Kb/s) |
Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 1.33:1 |
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Macrovision | ? | Smoking | No |
Subtitles | None | Annoying Product Placement | No |
Action In or After Credits | No |
The second feature on this disc is a bonus of sorts, turning the DVD into a double feature with footage of a famous concert at the Fillmore East, predictably titled Live At The Fillmore East. The packaging makes it clear that this is enclosed as a bonus feature rather than a feature in itself, which is just as well given that a disc consisting solely of this footage would be a laughing stock in quality terms. Personally, I find it hard to recommend this disc to anyone after experiencing the Live At Woodstock DVD, but if you're a major fan of Hendrix, then this may be worthy of a spot in your collection.
The transfer is presented in a Full Frame aspect ratio with NTSC formatting, and it is not 16x9 enhanced. The transfer's sharpness really varies according to age, with the thirty-year-old black and white footage in particular suffering from some serious problems. Shadow detail in the historical footage is poor, but most of it consists of well-lit concerts on a stage, anyway. Low-level noise is something of a problem at times, but no more than you'd expect with footage this age.
MPEG artefacts were not a problem in this transfer, and like Live At Woodstock, the transfer rate is constantly up at the ten megabits per second maximum that DVD allows. Film-to-video artefacts were prevalent during the snippets of historical footage, with video ghosting of the performers being quite a problem during the Fillmore East footage, which appears to have simply been taken from the bonus featurette anyway. Some edge enhancement appears to be present in the present day interviews, but this was only occasionally noticeable and rather mild.
This disc is presented as a Dual Layered DVD, with no layer change discernible at any point. This would indicate that each feature has been encoded onto a layer of its own. This is not an ideal way to encode the disc for a number of reasons, but given the fact that the main feature looks and sounds fine when it isn't showing footage taken from the featurette, it is perfectly sufficient.
A fair selection of the post-Experience music written by Jimi Hendrix is present and accounted for, and is ever-present in the Band Of Gypsys feature. The post-Experience music is a much funkier, dirtier-sounding beast than Jimi's work with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, but we are essentially dealing with a later branching-out of the same style. Billy Cox and Buddy Miles are more than equal to the task of supporting Jimi Hendrix on his musical adventures, however, and credit must be given to them for this.
Being a straight stereo mix, there really is no surround presence to speak of, although the wall of sound that comes out of the front speakers more than makes up for this. The combination of the music and the interview footage presented no problems for this DVD, reflecting the work that was done to restore and combine the two audio tracks. The subwoofer was again called on quite frequently to support the drums and bass, and its presence was felt frequently enough to make it rather inconspicuous.
The video quality is fine until you see the Live At The Fillmore East footage, which looks like it has been stored in the nostrils of a rotting corpse for the last twenty or thirty years.
The same can be said of the audio quality, although the high points of the audio quality during Live At The Fillmore East are much more tolerable than the best points of the video quality.
The extras are very limited.
Video | (Band
Of Gypsys)
(Live At The Fillmore East) |
Audio | (Band
Of Gypsys)
(Live At The Fillmore East) |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
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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 |