Mariah Carey-Around the World (1998) (NTSC) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Music |
Biographies-Cast Discography Music Video-Butterfly, Breakdown, The Roof, My All |
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Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 1998 | ||
Running Time | 44:21 (Case: 60) | ||
RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | Directed By | None Given |
Studio
Distributor |
Sony Music |
Starring | Mariah Carey |
Case | Amaray-Opaque | ||
RPI | $24.95 | Music | Mariah Carey |
Video (NTSC) | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame |
English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) |
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Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | ||
16x9 Enhancement | No | ||
Video Format | 480i (NTSC) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 1.33:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles |
English French Spanish |
Smoking | No |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | Yes, during credits |
There are ten songs that are performed live from various locations around the world (hence the title), as well as an additional four bonus video clips. There are short sections, sometimes before and sometimes after a song, where Mariah talks about things that she did during her world tour or about her fans. These sections do not disrupt the flow of the programme at all, as Mariah talks over concert footage (fortunately not over her songs) or over footage of things that she did while on tour, such as swimming with dolphins. This a nice touch, as it really keeps the momentum of the disc going.
I would definitely recommend this disc to any Mariah Carey fan that likes live music.
1. Butterfly Intro 2. Emotions 3. Fantasy 4. Dreamlover 5. My All 6. I Still Believe 7. I'll Be There (featuring T Lorenz) 8. Hopelessly Devoted To You | 9. Whenever You Call 10. Honey 11. Hero 12. Butterfly 13. Breakdown 14. The Roof 15. My All |
The picture sharpness is excellent throughout, with only a couple of shots of the crowd being slightly softer, but this is probably due to the camera work, not the transfer itself. The shadow detail is also excellent, with smooth natural shading. No low level noise, edge bleeding or excessive edge enhancement was noticed.
The colour is perfect. Everything is beautifully saturated, and the skin tones are fantastically real. The colour balance is also spot on throughout the entire disc. This is something that struck me as particularly impressive, as it stayed consistent between all the different concert locations such as Hawaii, New York and Sydney, even when this footage was intermixed.
Grain is basically non-existent with just a couple minor occurrences, of which some were intentional.
No MPEG artefacts were seen. Aliasing is very rare and is always minor when it does occur. A minor problem with this transfer is that any object that moves reasonably quickly seems to suffer from an interlacing problem. This is not overly distracting, but is certainly noticeable on a 90” screen. There is one other trivial video artefact which occurs during chapter 3 at 1:13, where a video line drops out for one frame. You'll have to have good eyes to see this on a TV, though.
Any specific problems noticed with each clip are detailed later, in the Video Clip Quality section. In the absence of a comment on any particular aspect of the picture you can assume that it is of very good to excellent quality. I have also mentioned any stand-out or positive aspects of the picture quality on some video clips.
Title | Video Comments | Audio Comments |
1. Emotions | Nice skin tones Occasional slight pixelization | |
2. Fantasy | Trivial line dropout Most noticeable song where moving objects suffer from the previously-mentioned interlacing problem | |
3. Dreamlover | ||
4. My All | Crowd out of focus | Good surround use |
5. I Still Believe | Great detail & colour | |
6. I'll Be There (featuring Trey Lorenz) | Trivial grain in a few scenes | Great surround use Deep bass |
7. Hopelessly Devoted To You (with Olivia Newton-John) | ||
8. Whenever You Call (with Brian McKight) | ||
9. Honey | Great surround use Crisp dynamic sound | |
10. Hero | Crowd shots occasionally slightly soft | Deep bass Good surround use |
11. Butterfly | Deliberate soft blurry focus One trivial instance of aliasing A bit grainy at the start & end | Deep bass |
12. Breakdown (featuring Krayzie Bone & Wish Bone) | Vibrant colour | Very deep bass Good surround use |
13. The Roof | Deliberate grain Beautiful skin tones | Nice sound separation |
14. My All | Occasional minor grain | Deep bass |
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain/Pixelization | |
Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times. The vocals are extremely clear and easy to understand throughout the disc. Mariah's voice is beautifully distributed across the entire front sound stage, leaving the surround speakers to recreate the hall or stadium effects.
No audio sync problems were noticed with this transfer.
Surround channel use varies from good to excellent. The surround channels usually contain ambient effects such as crowd noise, but there are always subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle reverberations or echoes of the front soundstage present. This creates a nice soundfield that allows you to clearly hear Mariah's voice and the band while still retaining the ambience of the live performance. I found this balance to be excellent, and pleasing to listen to.
The subwoofer gets a nice work-out during a couple of songs, such as the Breakdown and My All video clips, but generally is only subtly adding bass during most songs.
I had a very short listen to the Linear PCM soundtrack. It did not sound as good as the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, probably simply because it is a stereo soundtrack, so I switched back to the 5.1 soundtrack.
Since the sound quality is so good on this disc you will only find comments in the Video Clip Quality section on the Surround and .1 LFE channel use. In the absence of a comment on any particular aspect of the audio you can assume it is of excellent quality. I have also mentioned stand-out or positive aspects of the audio track.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
The menu selections are; Chapter Selections (15), Audio Mix, Lyrics, Special Features and Resume.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Superb video quality. If it had been PAL instead of NTSC, it would have been absolutely stunning.
A clean and nicely detailed Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, with surround channel use varying from good to excellent.
There are four bonus video clips but I'm not sure that you could classify them as extras.
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Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Sony DVP-725, using Component output |
Display | Sony Projector VPH-G70 (No Line Doubler), Technics Da-Lite matt screen with gain of 1.0 (229cm). This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Built in to DVD player. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Onkyo TX-SV919THX |
Speakers | Fronts: Energy RVS-1 (3), Rears: Energy RVSS-1 (2), Subwoofer: Energy EPS-150 (1) |