Dixie Chicks-An Evening with the Dixie Chicks (2001) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Biographies-Cast Discography
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	91:10
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (91:08)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Joel Gallen
Studio Distributor	Sony Music	Starring	Martie Maguire Emily Robison Natalie Maines
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

    The Dixie Chicks derive their name from the "Dixie Chicken" brand, where the band's founders Martie and Emily first played for spare change on the streets of Dallas. While the duo were quite popular in the local arena they could never break through the music ceiling to find true stardom. In the early nineties the sisters recorded the independent releases Thank Heavens for Dale Evans, Little Ol' Cowgirl and Shouldn't a Told You That. In the mid-nineties, the duo reconfigured the band and found a lead singer by the name of Natalie Maines. And, as they say, the rest is history.

    For those not familiar with the band's history, here is a snapshot of their short but extremely illustrious career. By 1997 the band had signed with the Sony stable and released Wide Open Spaces a year later. With more than 11 million copies sold, it became the biggest selling album debut in country music history and gave the girls a mass of awards. When Fly was released in 1999 it shot to the number 1 position, making the band the first Country group to debut at this highest spot and gave them another two Grammies, amongst other awards. They are also the only female group to earn two RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) awards for shipments of 10 million copies in the U.S. Their list of achievements is too big to list here - I suggest you check out their official website to see the complete story.

    In An Evening With The Dixie Chicks we are given front row seats to a remarkable concert that was recorded in the beautiful Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles on the nights of the 15th and 16th of August 2002. This is as good as you can get without seeing the girls live and their open and honest personas are clearly evident and makes for a more personal show.

    This show was originally shot for an NBC special of the same name but includes an additional seven performances exclusive to this DVD. There are also some earlier fan favourites thrown in to give a well rounded show.

Video

    The transfer is presented in its original made for TV aspect ratio of 1.33:1, not 16x9 enhanced. There is footage from other sources that has been inserted into most songs and they are in varying widescreen formats that have been shrunk to sit letterboxed in a 4x3 frame.

    The transfer is clear but does tend to have a softer tone towards the edges of objects. The lighting appears to be causing this softness rather than any technical issues with the transfer. Shadow detail is well controlled and there is enough lighting to make out the crowd. The individual spotlights on each of the girls drapes them in enough soft light so as to give them a real concert look, such as you would see through your own eyes if you were actually there. There is no low level noise.

    The colours were also soft with no real examples of bold, bright colours. Natalie is the boldest dresser of the three and the red on her dress appears more like a deep rosé colour, which is about the best you will see. Some of the lights do throw some bright colours every now and then with blues and greens on display, albeit with no regularity. Again, this is not a transfer issue, just a combination of the clothing worn and the lighting used.

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen. Aliasing is very rare and very mild when it does occur. Film artefacts are non-existent, suggesting this show was captured directly on video rather than film.

    This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change placed in Chapter 10 at 51:08. It takes place during a scene change and is well placed to cause minimum disruption on slower players. There is audio during this section as the crowd is roaring from the last song, so this may cause an audio drop-out for some, but not in my case.

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. The default is an English PCM 2.0 soundtrack. There is also an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and this was the one that I listened to in its entirety. The PCM track was spot checked on each song.

    The lyrics/dialogue were clear and easy to understand at all times which is always great for music titles.

    Audio sync was not a problem at all with this transfer, and was completely spot on.

    The peaks and troughs of the music, along with the manner in which they have been mixed across the 5.1 channels gives a truly concert experience from your own home. The volume levels did not drown out the lyrics and dialogue at any point during the show.

    The surround channels were used well to give a level of depth and direction to each instrument. The crowd comes across well and you can hear the cheers, applause and laughter from all directions during the break between each song.

    The subwoofer was highly active during the whole DVD but deep bass was most evident on Long Time Gone. I feel that the bass could have been brought back a notch to make for easier listening.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Discography

Biography

Booklet

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

• Nothing

    As a reviewer of several Country music DVDs, there is no surprise in me saying that I am a fan of this style of music. But the thing that makes the Dixie Chicks special is their ability to pull in crowds from other music genres and expand the music base of millions in the process. You won't hear this on Triple J, but there is no reason you shouldn't give it a go.

    The video was in NTSC - in Region 4 we should be able to watch DVDs formatted in PAL. Alas, this was not to be so we will have to accept that this slightly above average recording is the best we can expect.

    The audio was of good quality and comparable to their other recordings as far as quality is concerned.

    The extras are satisfactory and with the booklet there is quite a lot of reading material. Personally, I felt that they could have included more photos and changed the brown background to something that made reading the fine print easier on the eyes.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall