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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Mariah Carey-Around the World (1998)

Mariah Carey-Around the World (1998) (NTSC)

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Released 17-Sep-1999

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Music Biographies-Cast
Discography
Music Video-Butterfly, Breakdown, The Roof, My All
Rating Rated G
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)
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

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    I must say that this DVD has restored my opinion of Mariah Carey greatly, after the previous and rather disheartening session I had with Mariah Carey #1s. This disc shows Mariah as the talented singer she is.

    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.

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Track Listing

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

Transfer Quality

Video

    The transfer is presented in NTSC format, in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and is not 16x9 enhanced. This contradicts the packaging in which the review DVD arrived, which claimed that the disc was in PAL format.

    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.

Individual Video Clip Quality Ratings

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


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

Audio

    There are two English soundtracks on this disc; a Dolby Digital 5.1 448Kb/s soundtrack and a Linear PCM 48/16 2.0, 1536Kb/s soundtrack. The default is the Linear PCM soundtrack, incorrectly described on the Audio Mix menu as a Dolby Stereo soundtrack. I switched to the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack before I started reviewing this disc.

    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.

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

Extras

    There are four bonus video clips but I'm not sure that you could classify them as extras.

Menu

    All menus are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and are not 16x9 enhanced. Each menu is beautifully presented with a different picture. The Bonus Video Clips menu also has animated video clips, but no sound.

    The menu selections are; Chapter Selections (15), Audio Mix, Lyrics, Special Features and Resume.

Biography

    This section contains a good biography for Mariah Carey, including album information.

Discography

    This section has to be commended for its usefulness and its excellent presentation. Not only does it contain a picture of each album cover, but it also has a full list of the songs contained on each album. One album cover and song list is presented per page.

Bonus Video Clips (4)

    All video clips are of excellent picture and sound quality. See Video Clip Quality section for further details.
  1. Butterfly (4:45 minutes)
  2. Breakdown - featuring Krayzie Bone & Wish Bone (4:38 minutes)
  3. The Roof (5:35 minutes)
  4. My All (3:59 minutes)

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

     Since we get the exact same content as the Region 1 disc, I feel it will come down to where you can get it cheaper, here or overseas.

Summary

    I would definitely recommend this disc to any Mariah Carey fan that likes live music.

    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.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Paul Williams (read Paul's biography)
Wednesday, August 23, 2000
Review Equipment
DVDSony DVP-725, using Component output
DisplaySony Projector VPH-G70 (No Line Doubler), Technics Da-Lite matt screen with gain of 1.0 (229cm). This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to DVD player. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationOnkyo TX-SV919THX
SpeakersFronts: Energy RVS-1 (3), Rears: Energy RVSS-1 (2), Subwoofer: Energy EPS-150 (1)

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