Yes-Greatest Video Hits (1991) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	73:32
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Michael McNamara
Studio Distributor	ATCO Video Warner Vision	Starring	Jon Anderson Chris Squire Trevor Rabin Tony Kaye Alan White Steve Howe Rick Wakeman Trevor Horn Geoff Downes
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Yes

    This appears to be a collection of old music videos and concert excerpts, spliced together with more recent (circa 1991) interview segments captured of the band prior to a concert held at the Pensacola Civic Centre, Pensacola, Florida.

    I am assuming that the interview segments have been taken on the band's 1991 reunion tour, as it features an expanded list of band members spanning through the years. These include:

• John Anderson, vocals
• Chris Squire, bass
• Trevor Rabin, guitar
• Tony Kaye, keyboards
• Alan White, drums
• Steve Howe, guitar
• Rick Wakeman, keyboards
• Trevor Horn, vocals
• Geoff Downes, keyboards

    This collection of music videos was previously released on VHS, then subsequently on laserdisc, and now has been re-released on DVD. I suspect only the die-hard fan would really want this title. The interview segments, where various band members tell anecdotes regarding the songs and the music videos, are of some interest.

    The music videos are presented in chronological order, and it was interesting to see how the band line-up has changed over the years from the 1970s to the late 1980s. Some of the music videos - particularly Tempus Fugit, Into The Lens, Hold On and I've Seen All Good People - appear to be excerpts from concert performances rather than "true" MTV-style music videos. It was interesting also to see that the band's penchant for imaginative video editing in their music videos started early, as Don't Kill The Whale featured a video image of the band performing the song superimposed on film footage of whales.

Video

    Apart from the opening titles and Owner Of A Lonely Heart, which are 1.78:1 letterboxed, the entire video is in full frame. The video format is NTSC, as the feature was produced and edited in the United States.

    The opening music video, Wonderous Stories, appear to be sourced from a film print (presumably 16mm) and suffer from a number of film marks and scratches. The next two tracks (Don't Kill The Whale and Madrigal) contain video footage superimposed on film. The rest of the music videos appear to be taken from video sources, and the condition of the video ranges from poor to acceptable.

    There are numerous instances of video artefacts such as glitches due to analogue tape dropouts, a few combing errors (particularly for composite scenes that were edited by superimposing one video image onto another), microphony and overmodulation. These artefacts are most likely embedded in the source and not due to the DVD transfer, hence there is probably nothing much that can be done about them.

    The interview segments with the band members have a much cleaner image and appear to have been captured on a video camera.

    Interestingly, there is an English subtitle track available. It seems to be active for the interview segments but doesn't transcribe the lyrics of songs sung in the music videos.

    This is 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 on this disc: English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s).

    The quality of the audio track is probably about as good as you are going to get given the age of the video and film sources. Compared to a CD, the audio quality seemed to be midrange-centric, lacking extreme low and high frequencies.

    The audio for Track 3 (Madrigal) is rather poor and suffers from frequent drop-outs and distortion.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are no extras.

    The Region 1 and 4 releases appear to be similar.

    Yes - Greatest Video Hits is a collection of music video and concert excerpts together with interview segments with the band members.

    The video transfer quality is acceptable, however the source material ranges from poor to mediocre.

    The audio transfer quality is also acceptable, but again the source material is mediocre.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall