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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.
Connick Jr., Harry-Now See Hear (NY Big Band Concert DVD/We Are in Love CD) (1992)

Connick Jr., Harry-Now See Hear (NY Big Band Concert DVD/We Are in Love CD) (1992) (NTSC)

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Released 22-Sep-2003

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Music Biographies-Cast
Discography
Notes-Videography
CD-We Are In Love
Booklet
Rating Rated G
Year Of Production 1992
Running Time 59:58
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 1,2,3,4,5,6 Directed By Jill Goodacre
Studio
Distributor

Sony Music
Starring Harry Connick, Jr.
Case Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI $34.95 Music Harry Connick, Jr.


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 Smoking Yes, cigar
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes, end titles over band fanfare

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

Plot Synopsis

    This is a Harry Connick, Jr. DVD+CD set (released as part of Sony Music's Now ... See ... Hear catalogue) combining a DVD of a concert performance entitled The New York Big Band Concert with one of Harry's first big band CDs, We Are In Love.

    Harry Connick Jr. was born in New Orleans, moved to New York City, and has had a diverse musical career spanning jazz trios, piano solos, big band, funk and even Christmas songs. In addition, he is also a minor film star, including parts in Memphis Belle, Copycat, Hope Floats and Independence Day.

    Both discs in the package capture Harry singing a combination of slick and witty songs together with some soulful ballads, accompanied of course by a band augmented by various brass instruments.

    The band in the concert consists of:

    The feature starts with Harry discussing the concert details with the band members and rehearsing, interspersed with shots of New York City gripped by Harry-mania. Then we get the concert itself. Harry starts off with an instrumental, Sweet Georgie Brown, followed by Don't Get Around Much Anymore.

    After that he sings a song from his album We Are In Love (Recipe For Love), followed by Bare Necessities (from the Disney film The Jungle Book).

    Leroy Jones plays trumpet lead in He Is, They Are. The next song, With Imagination, features some additional band members with solo spots such as Lucien Barbarin, Craig Klein, Louis Ford, Leroy Jones and Shannon Powell. Harry even takes a bit of time playing the drums on this song.

    Of course, Harry has to sing It Had To Be You, from When Harry Met Sally, plus a few songs from the Blue Light album as well as additional songs from We Are In Love.

    This seems like a fairly short concert, which ends with Just Kiss Me. Harry returns for an encore: All Of Me.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Track Listing

1. Sweet Georgia Brown
2. Don't Get Around Much Any More
3. Recipe For Love
4. Bare Necessities
5. They Can't Take That Away From Me
6. You Didn't Know Me When
7. He Is, They Are
8. With Imagination
9. We Are In Love
10. It Had To Be You
11. Just Kiss Me
12. All Of Me
13. Paramount Fanfare

Transfer Quality

Video

    The video transfer is full frame, which is presumably the intended aspect ratio.

    The overall look of the transfer is slightly on the soft side, although colour saturation is okay. The video source appear to be inherently interlaced.

    I did not notice any obvious compression artefacts, not even posterization when the camera is looking directly at a bright light.

    There is an English subtitle track which is used to transcribe song lyrics and on stage dialogue. The accuracy of the transcription is good.

    This is a single sided single layered disc.

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

Audio

    There are two audio tracks on the disc: English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s), and English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s). Note that the menu and back cover indicates that we get a "Dolby Stereo" track, but they are wrong.

    Given that the video was awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing in 1993, I would have expected to be impressed, but I wasn't. The sound is somewhat brittle and glassy, but on reflection probably no more so than typical early 1990s CDs. Therefore, I would rate the sound consistent with the quality of digital recording around that period.

    The PCM 2.0 sounded slightly thin, but with good dynamics. It is mastered at a low level, about 3-6dB softer than a typical CD.

    The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track had a slightly fuller sound and the surround mix may be artificially processed. It is quite front centre focused although the soundstage is still relatively wide and not collapsed.

    The surround channels are mostly used for ambience. The subwoofer is only lightly used to support the low frequencies.

    I did not notice any issues with dialogue synchronization.

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

Extras

    The extras on this disc are fairly minimal and primarily stills.

Menu

    The menus are full frame and static.

Biographies-Cast

    This is a set of 6 stills providing a biography of Harry Connick, Jr.

Discography

    This is a set of 13 stills with album covers and track listings.

Notes-Videography

    This is a set of 5 stills with cover art and track listings.

CD- We Are In Love

    I own this on Super Audio CD, but it's not one of my favourite titles. Although the songs are decent enough, the recording itself seems somewhat flat and lifeless, and lacking in involvement. The good news is that for once the CD is not inferior to the SACD. Indeed, I can hardly tell them apart. The bad news is that it sounds just as lifeless.

    In this album, Harry is joined by some of the same musicians as on the DVD with the addition of Branford Marsalis on tenor and soprano saxophones:

    The track listing for the CD is:

Booklet

    There are two booklets: one for the CD and the other is a Sony Music Entertainment DVD Catalogue.

R4 vs R1

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

    The Region 1 and Region 4 versions of the DVD and CD are identical, although I am not sure the packaging of the two is available in Region 1.

Summary

    This is a packaging of the "Big Band" sound of Harry Connick, Jr., featuring The New York Big Band Concert on DVD and We Are In Love on CD.

    The video transfer is acceptable.

    The audio transfer is acceptable.

    Extras are minimal.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Christine Tham (read my biography)
Saturday, November 08, 2003
Review Equipment
DVDCustom HTPC (Asus A7N266-VM, Athlon XP 2400+, 512MB, LiteOn LTD-165S, WinXP, WinDVD5 Platinum), using RGB output
DisplaySony VPL-VW11HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics 16x9 matte white screen (254cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum/AVIA. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationDenon AVC-A1SE (upgraded)
SpeakersFront and surrounds: B&W CDM7NT, front centre: B&W CDMCNT, surround backs: B&W DM601S2, subwoofer: B&W ASW2500

Other Reviews NONE