Pop: Never Looked So Good (2003)

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     I said in my review of the Aussies - Never Looked So Good title that it appeared at first glance that the whole compilation was a bit of a mish-mash, with no real pattern to either the selections or the track order. Again, this disc looks like someone said "let's make a compilation of our pop 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 does seem 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 early 1980s 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, rather the poorer quality of the source tapes.

    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.

    Bros' When Will I Be Famous is incredibly grainy throughout, while Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun contains quite a bit of noise and some other artefacts.

    Colours are not really a problem. There's a mix of vibrancy and depth across the videos. C'est La Vie from B*witched is very colourful and vibrant, while others such as Roachford's Only To Be With You is mostly filmed in black and white (and isn't really a pop song when you think about it - in fact neither is Jump by the little brat Kriss Kross).

    Nasties such as aliasing or compression artefacts are absent.

    Unfortunately there are no subtitles for the lyrics

    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 the 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 again 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

Main Menu Introduction-Sony Music Video

    A one minute overview (or ad if you like) of some of the titles in the Sony Music catalogue.

    This disc is unlikely to be available in Region 1.

    Pop - Never Looked So Good continues the series of video compilations from Sony Music, and again while this is 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. Remember, these discs are incredibly cheap. I have seen them retailing for less than $17 in many places, so 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, although the sync is a little dodgy at times.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall