David Cassidy-Live in Concert (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Behind The Scenes Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	80:42 (Case: 87)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (40:20)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	David Barnard
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	David Cassidy
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$39.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    I have to admit to being old enough to have watched The Partridge Family on TV, so it was with some curiosity that I ventured into watching David Cassidy Live In Glasgow. I certainly remember David when he was baby faced, long haired and followed everywhere by hordes of screaming teenyboppers. Well, it seems those days are gone and he certainly looks a lot more relaxed performing for a few thousand people rather than for the 10s of thousands of his heyday. Gone too is the long hair, but he has aged remarkably well and except for a few facial lines his baby-faced looks are still intact.

    Fans of David Cassidy from his Partridge Family days will certainly recognise a few of the songs he performs including I Woke Up in Love This Morning and
I Think I Love You. There's also a few numbers from his post Partridge Family solo career including Cherish. It refreshing to see that he performs all these with new arrangements rather than relying on just performing them as he did in the 70s. The rest of the songs are unfamiliar to me except for some covers such as Ain’t No Sunshine and I Write the Songs.

    I expect that this title is only going to appeal to die-hard fans and those with nostalgic feelings for the 1970s.

Video

    This transfer uses an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. I couldn't positively confirm that this is the original aspect ratio but I'm pretty certain it is.

    Shadow detail was acceptable given the lighting conditions of the concert. The image was quite sharp although a significant number of the frontal close-up shots of David were slightly out-of-focus which I found quite annoying. I'll put this down to camera work as all the profile shots were fine as were shots of the band. There wasn't any low level noise.

    As expected for a rock concert there is a lot of colour which is mainly generated by the stage lighting. This looks quite vivid and realistic, although it does tend to affect the naturalness of the skin tones by giving these a cast which is consistent with the lighting colour in use at the time. The image is free of any colour bleeding.

    There were no MPEG artefacts or film artefacts. Film to video artefacts were limited to some very minor and infrequent aliasing.

    The menu contains an option to turn on English subtitles, however this only affects the Behind The Scenes Featurette - no subtitles are provided for the concert itself. The subtitles, when they are available, are pretty accurate but not word perfect. They are reasonably well timed and easy to read.

    This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change placed between Chapters 11 and 12, at 40:20. It occurs on a fade-to-black but is quite slow and therefore likely to be noticed by most viewers.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Three audio tracks, all in English, are provided; English Linear PCM 2.0 (at 1536Kb/s), English dts 5.1 (at 768Kb/s) and English Dolby Digital 5.1 (at 448Kb/s). The PCM audio is the default. I listened to the entire dts track and took a number of comparative samples from the other two tracks. The two 5.1 tracks are both excellent with the only significant difference being noticeably more bass provided by the Dolby Digital track. The PCM track sounds quite flat in comparison and certainly does not provide the same immersive experience available with the two surround audio options.

    The dialogue and lyrics were always clear and there were no problems with the audio sync.

    The surrounds are used extensively on both the 5.1 audio tracks to provide an immersive listening experience. The subwoofer also contributes to the soundfield but never calls undue attention to itself.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    The extras are pretty limited.

Menu

    A 1.78:1 16x9 enhanced menu is provided and this features animation as well as Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded audio.

Featurette-Behind The Scenes (7:25)

    Nothing too exciting here. A few clips of David and the band arriving for the concert, rehearsals, David being interviewed by Scotland Today, backstage people getting ready for the concert, and so forth. Displayed at 1.78:1 with 16x9 enhancement and with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Gallery-Photo (2:49)

    A collection of stills of David during the performance which are displayed with audio of David singing How Can I Be Sure. Displayed in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with 16x9 enhancement and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded audio.

    It seems that this title is only available in our region. Strange I know, but try as I might I can't find a single reference to this disc in any other region.

    David Cassidy Live In Concert is probably only going to appeal to David's current fans and maybe a few people who remember him from The Partridge Family and are curious to see him as he is now.

    The video quality is good but the out-of-focus shots are very distracting.

    The audio quality is excellent.

    The extras are minimal.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall