Aussies: Never Looked So Good (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	None
Rating	?
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	82:31 (Case: 89)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Various
Studio Distributor	Sony Music	Starring	Men At Work Noiseworks Dragon Redgum Mi-Sex Black Sorrows Daryl Braithwaite Margaret Urlich Rick Price Skunkhour Ammonia Eurogliders Wa Wa Nee
Case	PUSH-DV-17
RPI	$19.95	Music	Various

    Aussies - Never Looked So Good is one of six newly released video compilations from Sony Music featuring some of the artists in their catalogue, in this case Australian artists. It is somewhat interesting to note though, that a significant proportion of the artists featured on this disc are actually New Zealanders. Artists like Dragon, Margaret Urlich, and Sharon O'Neill are all proud Kiwis, but much like Crowded House, Russell Crowe, and Phar Lap, we Aussies like to claim them as our own.

    As mentioned, Sony have released six different DVDs based around their "Never Looked So Good" tagline, with others in the series focusing on such genres as R&B, pop, disco, and, heaven help us -- ballads. You can expect reviews of those titles soon. This disc is certainly nothing flash. No extras. No fancy menus. Just pop it in the player and select play all or select the clips individually. That's about it.

    Various years and styles are covered here, from the late 70s with the likes of the late Marc Hunter and Dragon with Are You Old Enough, 80s offerings from Men At Work, Eurogliders, and Wa Wa Nee (remember them - they were supposedly Australia's answer to Wham!), and 90s selections from the likes of Ammonia, Skunkhour, and Things of Stone and Wood. At first glance the whole compilation is a bit of a mish-mash, with no real pattern to either the selections or the track order. It really does look like someone said "let's make a compilation of our artists", and these are the first 20 that popped up.

    Still, while some may question the value of a compilation such as this, with its seemingly random selection of tracks and artists, I find these discs a simple way of building up a collection of music videos quickly and cheaply. I spotted this disc at my local retailer for less than $17, so you certainly can't complain about the price.

Video

     It seems a little pointless going into too much detail in terms of the video quality, since as you can well imagine, there is a significant variety on offer. Clips ranging from most years between the late 1970s to quite recent are going to offer up varying degrees of colour, grain, artefacts, and other assorted nasties. As long as you don't purchase this disc expecting pristine miracles for each clip, then you won't be disappointed. None of the problems with the video can be attributed to the mastering of the disc itself. Two of the older clips, namely Dragon's Are You Old Enough and Men At Work's Who Can It Be Now? exhibit plenty of grain and are the worst culprits for this problem on the whole disc.

    Almost all the videos are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. There are a couple that feature widescreen ratios, but none of them are 16x9 enhanced.

    Nasties such as aliasing and MPEG artefacts are absent.

    Unfortunately there are no subtitles for the lyrics. I hate that.

    This is a single layered disc only, so there's no layer change with which to contend.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only one audio soundtrack on this disc. It is a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at a bitrate of 448 Kb/s. Much like the video, there is a range of quality on offer as a result of source material, but the remastered tracks perform more than adequately, with some of these songs sounding about as good as they ever will.

    Vocals are prominent, though the audio sync is problematic at times due to the original video source and the use of re-dubbed and better quality audio.

    There is no surround channel or subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are no extras.

    With a title like Aussies - Never Looked So Good, I'd imagine this disc will not be making an appearance in Region 1.

    While not the greatest video compilation I have ever seen, there is substantial variety on offer here such that everyone should at least find one or two songs they are fond of. For the bargain price of $17 or thereabouts, you certainly can't complain about the cost.

    The video quality is all that can be expected from a diverse range of styles and ages.

    The audio quality is actually quite good, though the sync is a little dodgy at times.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall