Frank Sinatra-Sinatra and Friends (1977)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1977
Running Time	49:48
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Bill Davis
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Frank Sinatra Natalie Cole Tony Bennett John Denver
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Various

    Sinatra and Friends features Frank Sinatra and a few of his celebrity friends performing some of Frank's best known tunes. This DVD is part of a series of Sinatra DVDs that Warner Vision have released.

    As I wrote in an earlier review, "Frank Sinatra needs no introduction. Since the 1940s he has been consistently one of the biggest selling and most critically acclaimed recording and performing stars in popular music; an Academy Award winning actor and movie star; and a 20th Century cultural icon. Sinatra's life and work speak for itself."

    This made-for-television special moves along at a great pace, and features some high energy performances. Sinatra shares the spotlight with other late 1970s recording stars such as Natalie Cole, Dean Martin, Lorette Lynn, Tony Bennett, and John Denver. All of the music on this DVD has been arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle who, along with Gordon Jenkins and Quincy Jones, is one of the very best arrangers to have ever worked with Sinatra. Some of Sinatra's greatest tunes are included on this DVD, and highlights for me included Sinatra and Cole performing I Get A Kick Out Of You, and Sinatra and Bennett performing My Kind Of Town.

Video

    Any transfer is limited by the source material. The source material here is fairly representative of late 1970s American television, and for its age it is in reasonable condition.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, full frame.

    The image is fairly soft throughout - for example consider the image at 10:01. The shadow detail is also poor throughout.

    The colour is a little drab and murky, and the faces are all a little orange or brown, but again one must consider the age of the source material.

    MPEG artefacts appear in the form of mild pixelization throughout. There was also some 'MPEG smear', such as at 18:37. Film-to-video artefacts are present in the form of mild aliasing, such as the slight shimmer on the background set at 15:12. Pleasantly, film artefacts were never a problem.

    All the subtitles promised on the packaging were present. While the non-English subtitles only appeared during the spoken passages, the English subtitles also display the song lyrics during Frank's performance. The English subtitles were accurate.

    This is a single-layered disc which is acceptable considering the length of the material.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only one audio track on this DVD, an English PCM track adapted from the original mono source. While there were a number of audio clicks, pops and drop-outs throughout, overall the quality of the audio was pretty good considering the age and condition of the source material.

    The dialogue quality and the audio sync are okay.

    As I noted earlier, all of the music on this DVD has been arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle, and again Riddle provides Sinatra with some great, swinging arrangements for these Sinatra standards.

    As a PCM track, the surround speakers and subwoofer are not called upon by this soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    This DVD contains few extras.

Menu

    The DVD auto-plays on loading, but there is a menu if you select it. It is static and without audio.

Trailer

    This four minute and nineteen second trailer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, full frame, with an English PCM track. It advertises the series of Sinatra DVDs that Warner Vision are releasing, as opposed to this DVD in particular. I assume that this trailer appears on all of the series' DVDs.

Catalogue

    Purely text-based, this extra lists the tracks on Warner Vision's ten Sinatra DVDs. Again I assume that this extra appears on all of the series' DVDs.

    There is limited information available online for this title, but from what I can tell, the R1 versions of this series of Sinatra DVDs only differ from their R4 counterparts in the designs of their slicks and in the NTSC/PAL transfer. Thus, I easily favour our version based on its availability, and most importantly, its superior PAL image.

    Warner Vision have released a series of Sinatra DVDs. Each captures a different Sinatra performance over the many years. This DVD would happily join any Sinatra fan's collection.

    The video quality is acceptable considering the age of the source material.

    The audio quality is also acceptable, considering the age of the mono source material

    The extras are really not worth mentioning.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall