Foreigner-Feels Like the Very First Time: The Foreigner Story (1991) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	59:46
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Paul Justman
Studio Distributor	Delilah Music Picts Warner Vision	Starring	Mick Jones Lou Gramm Ian McDonald Dennis Elliot Al Greenwood Ed Gagliardi Rick Wills
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Foreigner

    As you may have gathered from my review of the Foreigner DVD-Audio release, their debut eponymous album, I have something of an interest in one of the great AOR bands of all time. This is one seriously good band in my view and they turned out some great music that to this day still holds up well in comparison to other music of its era. So naturally enough the release of a DVD looking at the band was bound to attract my reviewing interest.

    That is exactly what we have here - one hour of the story of the formation of the band and its justly famous debut album, most of it from the people involved. Mick Jones was the driving force behind the band and so he garners the bulk of the interview material, but nearly everyone has their input too, including Billy Joel of all people. The interview material is interspersed with some live performances of some of the bigger hits from the band.

    The result, albeit way too short for my liking, is a rather interesting programme. Whilst I have seen it somewhere before thinking about it - and don't ask me where as I cannot remember - the passage of time ensured that I brought no preconceptions to the review session. Accordingly, to have the band history recapped so concisely was a worthy spending of an hour of my time.

    Whilst this really is only for fans of the band in many respects, it is interesting for those with a deep interest in popular music to see where the influences of the band came from. From a programme point of view this is well worth checking out. Unfortunately, there is not just the programme to consider with respect of the DVD...

Video

    This is another NTSC formatted DVD which of course means that if you do not have the equipment to handle the signal, you will not be able to see anything worthwhile. Given the state of the transfer however, it is debatable that you would see anything worthwhile even if you could handle the signal.

    The show is presented in a Full Frame format and it is not 16x9 enhanced.

    It seems rather ironic that having indulged in a new widescreen television the first two DVDs to be viewed for review are two definite throwbacks to the days of VHS tapes in quality. Whilst this is somewhat better than Pat Benatar - Live In New Haven overall, it is still a long way from being pretty. The transfer again suffers from softish definition, with the odd instance of definition that would have been poor for a VHS tape (check out around 9:30 to see how bad a DVD can actually be). The transfer is also compromised somewhat by a lack of creditable shadow detail. Note that these comments apply to the live performances only - the interview material is of a generally much better quality, although still not terrific. There is a constant presence of grain to be dealt with to some extent and it gets just a bit wearing when the lighting emphasises it. This is nothing approaching a clear transfer at all, and flaring is an occasional problem.

    The colours tend towards the underdone side of things, a combination of stage lighting and poor quality source material. The colours also tend to be rather flat looking. Admittedly some of the time the colours actually come up very well (such as at 17:30) but this is the exception rather than the norm. At times there is an overall reddish tinge to everything, probably as a result of the source material being video rather than film. Blacks are woefully short of the full deal in terms of depth and this really is not pretty to look at in general. Thankfully there is no obvious low level noise, but the saturation could have been a lot better throughout.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. Film-to-video artefacts were also rather insignificant in most respects, with just the odd aliasing being noted (such as at 53:51). There is, however, a constant problem with horizontal banding in material that I suspect is sourced from video rather than film, and it gets a tad ugly at times. The banding crawls down the screen making the obviousness all the more noticeable (10:02 and 14:40 are good examples of the problem). In the film source material there are plenty of obvious film artefacts with big white specks and hairs being the main offenders. Examples of these can be found around 10:40 and 22:30 amongst others.

    This is a single sided, single layered DVD so there is no layer change.

    There are no lyric subtitles on the DVD, something I am finding more annoying the more often I don't see them.

    One interesting quirk regarding the video transfer - the interview material with Mick Jones seems to be vertically stretched a little and does not look "quite right". Sticking the television into 16:9 mode makes the material look more natural and "right". It is probably just me, but I make the point just in case it isn't just me.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is just the one soundtrack on the DVD, being an English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 soundtrack.

    This is by no means the best example of Linear PCM sound that I have ever heard but it thankfully does enough to carry the interview dialogue well enough. The music itself is not so well handled. There did not appear to be any real audio sync issues with the transfer.

    Whilst I would not really describe the soundtrack as muddied, it is fair to say that it lacks the usual clarity that an uncompressed Linear PCM sound usually possesses. This sounds as if it has been taken straight from a VHS tape without any real work having been done to the source material. As a consequence, it sounds a little flat with no great dynamic at all. At times it is also blessed with some fairly obvious and mildly annoying hiss, such as at 24:02 and 30:20. There were also a couple of times that the sound seemed to be clipped a little, suggesting that the original mix had not been very well equalised. There are a couple of hints of drop-outs here and there too, although nothing serious and mainly just occasional blips in the flow of the sound. This could really have done with some clean up work and remastering.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Once again a glorious waste of an opportunity with absolutely nothing on the DVD.

Menu

    As far as I can ascertain, this programme has not been released on DVD in Region 1 - yet. It apparently is available in Region 2 in PAL format - although this has not been confirmed.

    Another example of a decent enough programme let down by some rather average video that at times borders on VHS standard. The audio does not exactly shine either, particularly in comparison to other Linear PCM soundtracks I have heard over the past twelve months. All in all, another slapped-onto-DVD effort that really represents poorish value for money. Fans will probably find plenty to enjoy here, as the interview material is really quite interesting. However, the performances are not up to the mark in presentation, leaving Foreigner - Feels Like The Very First Time one that really is for fans of the band only.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall