Prince

The Hits Collection

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Music	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1993	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	61:18 minutes	Other Extras	Menu Animation
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Movie	Cast & Crew
Region	2,3,4,5,6	Director	Various
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision Australia	Starring	The Artist Formerly Known As Prince
Case	Super Jewel Case	Starring	The Artist Formerly Known As Prince
RRP	$39.95	Music	Prince

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None	Dolby Digital	None
16x9 Enhancement	No	Soundtrack Languages	English (Linear PCM 48/16, 1536 Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired	Annoying Product Placement	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired	Action In or After Credits	No

Plot Synopsis

This is a collection of Prince (this was before the unpronounceable symbol name rubbish) music videos, ostensibly his hits, dating from the late 1970's to the early 1990's. The hits unfortunately do not include anything from the Purple Rain album and film, which really did contain some gems and represent the pinnacle of his career. As you may have gathered, this is quite a journey.

Some of these videos are so old that I barely recall having ever seen them! Certainly I have not seen Uptown or I Wanna Be Your Lover before, but the rest are quite - okay, very - dimly familiar and it is a nice reminder to see them again, especially the very psychedelic Raspberry Beret, one of my favourite Prince tunes. It is quite amazing to return to these videos after a break of fifteen years, and to realize how quite tame they really are now. In their day, some of these were very controversial and created quite a storm on the likes of the old Countdown with Molly Meldrum. Boy am I showing my age now!

If you remember the innovative earlier albums of Prince such as Dirty Mind, 1999 and Around The World In Eighty Days, then this will really get the old memory working overtime.

Transfer Quality

Video

Okay, the oldest video here dates from 1979 or thereabouts. Just to remind you, that is twenty years ago. You better believe that there is distinct variability in the quality of the videos. And again it needs to be borne in mind that these were shot for essentially promotional use on television.

The videos are presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

The videos range in quality from poor (Uptown) to pretty good (Peach), therefore the transfer reflects a wide variance in sharpness and definition. Overall, it has to be said that sharpness and definition are not much better than average throughout, most especially noticeable in the softer focus of the videos. Detail at times is quite poor and none of the transfers are especially clear. There was the hint of some low level noise in a couple of the videos, but nothing too extreme.

The colours come up very variable in the transfer, but tend towards the muted end of the scale. Several videos show a tendency to over saturation of the colours, which is quite distracting. Flare is a common problem with the videos, but this is an inherent problem in the videos and not really a transfer problem. Obviously the more recent videos are far more acceptable than earlier videos as far as the colours go.

There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer, nor were there any significant film-to-video artefacts. What infrequent problems there were seemed to be a result of problems in the original source rather than mastering problems. There were no real film artefacts noted, perhaps indicative of the fact that most of these videos are from a video source not a film source.

Audio

There is just the one English audio track on the DVD, being a Linear PCM 48/16 soundtrack.

The music and vocals came up very well in the soundtrack.

Audio sync did not appear to be a DVD problem, although there were the usual odd hints of lip synching mismatch inherent in the videos.

The soundtrack makes no use of the surround channels, nor the bass channel, and this is very much like listening to a compact disc, but with visuals as well. There is nothing much wrong with the soundtrack as it is.

Extras

None at all.

Booklet

Nothing more than an advertisement.

R4 vs R1

There is no apparent difference between the Region 1 and Region 4 version, making the only deciding factor the inherent superiority of the PAL system.

Summary

Very similar to the Madonna: The Immaculate Collection reviewed previously (and hence the reason the review is so similar) and needs to be seen in much the same light. This is a nostalgic look back at some of the music of Prince, especially before the lyrics got a little too XXX rated for my taste. However, this is not a DVD that I would return to often. Nonetheless, fans may well find this is useful supplement to their Purple Rain DVD.

A somewhat variable collection of video transfers.

A good audio transfer.

A non-existent extras package.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment

DVD	Pioneer DV-515; S-video output
Display	Sony Trinitron Wega 84cm. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder	Built in
Amplification	Yamaha RXV-795. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Speakers	Energy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL