Cliff Richard-The 40th Anniversary Concert (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Menu Animation & Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	137:40
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (70:40)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Ian Hamilton
Studio Distributor	VCI Warner Vision	Starring	Cliff Richard Barrat Waugh Michelle Wolf Vincenzo La Scola Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	None Given

    Cliff Richard: The 40th Anniversary Concert is a celebration of the career of one of the most enduring Rock and Roll era performers.

    The concert was filmed at The Royal Albert Theatre Hall in 1999. Cliff Richard delivers his performance in the round surrounded by his adoring (and sometimes elderly) fans. With the support of his band and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, the audience get a chance to hear one of the most professional performers in the business.

    Sir Cliff performs a wide selection of his material, with songs from the 60s to the 90s. His fans would have been even more satisfied if the program had been weighted to the 60s era. Throughout the concert, Sir Cliff attempts dance moves to the songs - most of the time these look odd and out of place. At best, the dance moves make him look like he is in pain.

    During the concert, Sir Cliff is joined on stage by guest performers Barratt Waugh, Michelle Wolf and Vincenzo La Scola. They perform creditably, but are not in the same league as their host.

    The DVD is well produced and offers Cliff Richard fans the chance to experience the concert atmosphere without actually being there.

Video

    The only way in which this video transfer could have been improved is for it to have been captured and presented in widescreen. Instead, the transfer aspect ratio is 1.33:1 (full frame).

    The video transfer to DVD is faultless. The amount of detail visible in the shadows is excellent. The blacks are very black, except when affected by the concert lights. There was no noticeable low level noise to be seen, even through the manufactured smoke haze.

    There is not a hint of grain, MPEG artefacts nor any film-to-video artefacts in sight.

    There are no subtitle options available on this DVD.

    The RSDL layer change occurs at 70:40 at the end of a song and is barely detectable.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

     The audio transfer on this DVD is more than acceptable.

     The disc has two audio tracks. The first, and also the default track, is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 kbps. The second track is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 192 kbps.

    There are no obvious audio sync problems.

    After listening to both tracks, the 5.1 mix is by far the superior, as it offers extra ambience via the surround channels. Although the surrounds are not used extensively, they do add to the overall experience. The addition of a dts track would have been appreciated.

    There was little use for the subwoofer given the style of music on offer - there's no head banging here!

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu Animation & Audio

    The menu system has excerpts of Cliff Richard singing from the concert as background video and audio. The menus only offer audio selection and scene selection.

    As far as I can ascertain there is no other version of this DVD in any region.

    If you are a fan of Cliff Richard then this DVD is a must. It has a near flawless video transfer and a more than acceptable audio track. However, if you are a casual listener, one of his other offerings with more of his classic hits may be more to your liking.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall