New Order-Crystal (DVD Single) (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio-Only Track-Behind Closed Doors (5:24) Teaser Trailer-Live Excerpts (3) Credits Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	4:35
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Johan Renck
Studio Distributor	London Records Warner Vision	Starring	Bernard Sumner Peter Hook Gillian Gilbert Stephen Morris
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$12.95	Music	New Order

    Maybe I am just missing the point completely about DVD-Singles? Why would I shell out $12.95 for a DVD-Single where the video is only four and a half minutes long, the extras are longer in length than the "feature" and the whole thing leaves hardly a blip on the space of a DVD-5 format DVD? I could instead fork out $5.95 to buy the CD-Single which stretches to nearly 40 minutes of music...

    Even allowing for the fact that it is New Order, the second greatest band to ever walk the face of the earth, the entire package here is hardly a winner.

    Of course, the famed New Order aversion to wasting time with video clips actually involving themselves is well known, so what we get here is a fake band called The Killers lip-synching their way quite poorly through the subject song. So basically we get four and a half minutes of someone else doing a video clip of the song? Someone will really need to explain to me what the point really is!

    Fans of the band will probably not even want to indulge in this, for it really comprises little more than audio tracks, with a poor video accompaniment for one of those tracks. Indulge in the CD-Single instead - at least you will get a load more audio to listen to than here.

Video

    The content might be poor, but there is nothing wrong with the transfer itself. Presented in a fake aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (I am guessing that this is really matted full frame given the composition of the shots), the transfer is not 16x9 enhanced. The presentation is really quite excellent with sharp detail and plenty of definition, especially considering the background to the "band". Nothing at all wrong with the clarity here, nor with shadow detail. There are no problems with low level noise.

    The colours are very nicely rendered, with plenty of vibrancy and saturation. There is nothing approaching over saturation or colour bleed in the transfer.

    The transfer appears to be without blemish as far as MPEG artefacts, film-to-video artefacts and film artefacts are concerned. Given the recent vintage of the material - being specifically shot for promotional purposes such as this - this is hardly a great surprise.

    This is a single sided, single layer DVD. There are no lyric subtitle options to accompany the song.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is just the one soundtrack on the DVD, being an English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 soundtrack. It is basically terrific.

    The music comes across very well and there are no problems understanding the lyrics. Whatever minor issues with audio sync are here are the result of the lip-synching fake band...

    There really is absolutely nothing wrong with the soundtrack at all. Obviously it would have been nice to have at least one surround sound option but what the hey: if all soundtracks were as good as this, we would have nothing to b**** about. The sound is really open and clear.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Not an inspiring collection at all. Given the capability of the format and the material that is around.

Menu

    Nicely tying in with the DVD cover and the album cover, the presentation is pretty good.

Audio Only Track - Behind Closed Doors (5:24)

    Another track off the album Get Ready, the bummer is that it is audio-only in some respects: the still it plays over is not exactly great stuff. The audio is Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 and sounds great.

Teaser Trailer - Live Excerpts

    Calling these short live extracts from songs appearing on the previously reviewed 3 16 DVD a teaser is probably the most appealing way of describing them. By any other measure they are nothing more than a waste of space. Here you have a format that can store up to 100 minutes of audio and video and all we get is three 30 second excerpts from the tracks Temptation, Isolation and True Faith from the 3 16 DVD. If they want to promote that DVD, surely the full tracks would be the way to go? The video extracts are presented in a full frame format that is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 sound.

Credits

    A bit of a stretch to call them extras but never mind.

Booklet

    A waste of time and paper, rehacking the credits.

    It would appear that this DVD has been released in Region 1 in a version with two different mixes of Crystal and nothing else. The choice is therefore between a local release with at least some variety or the Region 1 version with two mixes of the same song. Think I would favour the Region 4 release.

    If the purpose of the DVD-Single is to promote the Get Ready CD release and/or the 3 16 DVD release, then I am guessing that it has not really done its job as I cannot recommend the DVD to you. If the purpose is to entertain, then it certainly has not done its job. A pathetic extras package in general hardly offsets a disappointing (in performance) video clip of Crystal, although it has to be said that the transfer is in all respects quite excellent. Still, fans of the band should have no real trouble finding this in the bargain bins at a considerably reduced price (which is of course where I got mine from). Oh, and it defies any sort of logic that this has garnered an M rating - bureaucracy gone ridiculous once again.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall