R&B Lovesongs (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	DVD Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	99:03
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Various
Studio Distributor	Sony Music Sony Music	Starring	Various
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$24.95	Music	Various

    This is a disc full of music videos meant to accompany the 2 CD compilation album of the same name, and it looks like the release date was timed for Mother's Day.

    If your idea of "R&B" include artists like James Brown or Ike/Tina Turner or maybe even George Benson, well I'm sorry - you are the wrong target audience and the wrong age group for this compilation. Even if you thought Babyface or Peabo Bryson was R&B - you are still too old. This seems to be "R&B" for the Generation Y dance club, featuring artists like Destiny's Child, Toni Braxton, Macy Gray, R. Kelly, Ginuwine and the late Aaliyah.

    I was surprised at how many songs I recognised whilst watching these - songs I've heard quite a few times on the radio. Still, I think it's a bit of a stretch to label these as a collection of "love songs" - some of them are fairly upbeat although some of them undoubtedly would go well with a candlelit dinner.

    The videos are pretty much what you would expect for a "post-MTV" generation - lots of prancing around and the vague semblance of a storyline which typically has nothing to do with the lyrics.

    The list of songs included is a subset of the tracks on the 2 CD set. However, there are a few songs on this disc that are not on the CD set, including Tracks 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, and 22.

Video

    As this is a collection of music videos, the transfer aspect ratio varies from full frame to various letterboxed ratios.

    Most of the tracks are in full frame. The following tracks appear to be in 1.78:1 letterboxed (actually, these vary from 1.76:1 to 1.81:1 but I attribute that to frame cropping decisions):

• Track 1 (Fill Me In)
• Track 3 (Unbreak My Heart)
• Track 4 (I Try)
• Track 24 (I Will Survive)

    The following tracks have non-standard aspect ratios and are letterboxed:

• Track 2 (Say My Name): 1.27:1 window boxed
• Track 10 (No More): 1.98:1
• Track 13 (Dear Me): 1.55:1
• Track 18 (Cowboys & Kisses): 2.26:1

    In general, the transfer quality is pretty good, although looking slightly soft compared to reference quality. Colours are fairly vibrant, except for clips that have intentionally muted colours or are in black and white (such as Track 14 - You Gotta Be).

    Compression artefacts seem to be limited to the occasional pixelization and Gibb's effect.

    I noticed an analogue video glitch around 16:31 in Track 4 (I Try).

    Unfortunately, there are no subtitle tracks on this single sided single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only one audio track: English Dolby Digital 2.0 (384Kb/s).

    In general, the quality of the audio transfer is very good - probably fairly close to CD quality apart from a slight "brittleness" or "edginess." Both extreme high and low frequencies are well represented. The sound is reasonably dynamic and full-bodied, and the soundstage is reasonably well articulated.

     I noticed a number of minor clipping distortion artefacts, notably in Track 6 (If You Love Me) and Track 15 (No More). I suspect these are present in the mix rather than transfer issues.

     I did not notice any audio synchronization issues.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    This is a fairly bare bones disc.

Menu

    There is an animated menu introduction, and animated menu transitions, but otherwise the menus are static. The aspect ratio is full frame.

DVD Credits

    This is a single still crediting the labels from which the song selections have been taken from.

    This title has yet to be released in Region 1.

    R&B Lovesongs is a collection of music video clips for a compilation of songs from various artists.

    The video transfer quality is okay.

    The audio transfer quality is also okay.

    Extras are almost non-existent.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall