BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Music	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1998	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	121:13 minutes	Other Extras	Menu Audio & Animation Biography
RSDL/Flipper	RSDL (75:21)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	0	Director	David Mallet
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision Australia	Starring	Janet Jackson
Case	Amaray
RRP	$39.95	Music	Janet Jackson

    Recorded live at Madison Square Garden, New York (one of the great arenas of the world), this brings together a collection of Janet Jackson's more recent work, which I admit that I am not too familiar with.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

    The transfer is in general wonderfully clear, with great definition and as sharp as a tack. Some of the shadow detail, especially of the audience, is quite superb. The only time when the transfer falters even marginally is during some of the more intensely lighted sections of the concert, and judging by the enormous amount of lighting equipment around the auditorium, it is hardly surprising. I would doubt that too many transfers would cope as well as this has with the intense change of lighting.

    This is a quite vibrant transfer and the colours come up very nicely indeed. Apart from the odd over bright light, there did not appear to be any oversaturation in the colour, which is pleasing given the wide variety of colour on display. The whole colour palette is consistently rendered and very believable.

    There did not appear to be any MPEG artefacts in the transfer, nor were film-to-video artefacts a problem. There did not appear to be any film artefacts present in the transfer.

Audio

    There are two audio tracks on the DVD, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. I endured the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, and endured is definitely the right word, believe me.

    Whilst I know that I am very bass sensitive, this soundtrack is far, far too aggressive in the bass channel, coupled with the vocal track being a little too recessed in the overall mix, making this a very difficult soundtrack to get any sort of pleasantly listenable balance to. The vocals seem to be mixed very front and central at a much softer level than I would expect, whilst the music seems to be mixed predominantly to the surround channels at a reasonably normal level. I was simply unable to screw the subwoofer down enough and boost the surround speakers enough to get what I would call a decent balance in the soundtrack overall. In the end I just reset everything to the normal levels and just turned the overall volume down.

    As a result, the music comes up quite well in the soundtrack, but the vocals are quite soft in the soundtrack and a little difficult to follow at times.

    At times it did almost look like audio sync may be a problem with the soundtrack, but this is difficult to confirm as at times it also appeared that Janet Jackson was lip-synching some of the concert. This is merely an impression that I got whilst listening to certain portions of the concert, and even then it was not especially bothersome or distracting.

    The soundtrack makes some fine use of the rear surround channels for music and audience participation.

Menu

Biographical Information

    A very good video transfer indeed.

    A problematic audio transfer, especially if you have a dislike for huge amounts of bass.

    A limited range of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ian Morris
12th November 1999