Santana-Supernatural Live (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Behind-The-Scenes Rehearsal Footage Featurette-Supernatural Featurette Music Video-Maria Maria Music Video-Corazon Espinado Music Video-Smooth Music Video-Put Your Lights On Audio Interview-Cast-Carlos Santana + stills Song Lyrics Notes-Program and Album Credits Biographies-Cast Notes-Fan Club Information and More
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	87:41 (Case: 84)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (62:53)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Joel Gallen
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Carlos Santana Dave Matthews Carter Beauford Sarah McLachlan Everlast Lauryn Hill
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$39.95	Music	Carlos Santana

    Besides the megastar Carlos Santana, the concert features no less than eleven guests that include Dave Matthews, Sarah McLachlan, Everlast, Lauryn Hill and Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20 fame. Most of the concert is very entertaining, especially the first few songs, although there are a couple of relatively boring songs later in the program. One disappointment is that Eagle Eye Cherry is not featured in the concert.

    Overall, Santana: Supernatural Live is a great disc. I have been watching it quite consistently over the last few days and will continue to watch it in the future.

Video

    It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is a little on the soft side, but only a little. Detail is very good for the most part. The shadow detail is exemplary - the concert is set in dark conditions with low lighting, and shadow detail really shows up. No low-level noise or edge enhancement was apparent.

    The colours are amazing. Saturation is perfect, skin tones are natural and the backdrop of the stage is quite vibrant. The colours are made up of reds mainly,  although some blue is used as well. Normally, this would present problems with colour bleeding and chroma noise, but none of these problems are exhibited by this transfer.

    No MPEG artefacts were present in the transfer, and I did not spot any aliasing anywhere. There were no flecks nor marks shown since this transfer has been sourced from video, which also explains why no telecine wobble was apparent. The only problem in this transfer was the appearance of some horizontal lines for a frame or two (a tape tracking error) at one point.

    This disc is RSDL formatted with the layer change occurring at 62:53. The layer change is rather obtrusive, occuring in the middle of Rob Thomas's sentence. One of the many fade to blacks would have been more appropriate.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are two audio tracks on this DVD; an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track and an English DTS 5.1 track. I listened to both tracks.

    The soundtrack is very much a front soundstage mix, with little to no directional effects from the front speakers.

    Vocals and dialogue are very clear at all times, except when Carlos Santana is speaking, as he tends to drift off a little.

    Even though the two audio tracks are both 5.1 channel mixes, the mix sounds more stereo-oriented which is definitely better for a concert as it sounds more realistic and natural, unlike The Eagles: Hell Freezes Over in DTS, which sounds like you are in the middle of the band as they play around you. In this concert, the music is projected from the front soundstage with ambient effects being produced from the surround speakers. Their main usage is for backing the percussion instruments and also for some crowd effects. This has been mixed very well and nicely creates the effect of being at a concert.

    The subwoofer is constantly active, but is never pushed into overload. This is due to none of the musicians forcing it to be so driven, except occasionally for the bass guitarist.

Dolby Digital vs DTS

    The DTS track gives a slightly more detailed sound, with the differences between the instruments being able to be made out more, while the Dolby track merges more of the sounds together, creating a more blurred effect. This is only apparent when directly comparing the two audio tracks. Without direct comparison, this wouldn't be apparent.

    The LFE channel is a lot more controlled in the DTS track - it hums along nicely, never interfering with the higher frequencies of the percussion section or Santana's finely-tuned guitar work. In comparison, the Dolby LFE channel is a lot more bloated and loose.

    The only other difference is in the surround usage. The DTS track sounds less like sound emanating from speakers and more like sound coming from people all around you. The Dolby Digital track sounds slightly less realistic than the DTS track.

    I declare the winner in this case to be DTS over Dolby Digital, but it would come down to personal preference as the tracks are so alike. If you cannot hear DTS on this disc, you are not missing out on too much.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Behind-The-Scenes Rehearsal Footage (6:27)

Featurette: Supernatural (8:34)

Music Videos (4)

• Put Your Lights On (4:29)
• Corazon Espinado (4:44)
• Maria Maria (4:26)
• Smooth (4:21)

Audio Interview: Carlos Santana (19:00) with photo gallery (19)

Text-Based Extras

• Song Lyrics
• Program and Album Credits
• Carlos Santana Biography
• Fan Club Information & More

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall