Gloria Estefan-Evolution Tour, The-Live in Miami (1996)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1996
Running Time	116:21
RSDL / Flipper	FLIPPER (59:57)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	David Mallet
Studio Distributor	Sony Music	Starring	Gloria Estefan
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$24.95	Music	Gloria Estefan

    I enjoyed watching this disc as it made me realise just how talented Gloria Estefan really is. At various stages throughout the concert people came up to the stage and offered her small gifts, which she always accepted graciously. What particularly struck me about this was how she could keep singing whilst accepting these gifts. With about 20 minutes to go, Gloria picks up the pace and the concert really comes to life.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, which I imagine was the aspect ratio of the original footage.

    The transfer is extremely clear and sharp at all times.

    There is no low-level noise present and the shadow detail never wavers from perfect. It is worth mentioning here that a lot of the background blacks are lighter than what we are used to seeing in movies. I feel this is not so much a fault of the picture balance but an effect of the stage lighting, and it does not detract from the picture quality at all.

    The colours are always rich and vibrant, and never appear washed out. As expected there are halos present around some people and objects when the spotlight(s) are focussed on them, but as every concert-goer knows, this effect occurs in real life. Thus, I did not deduct any marks from the video quality on this point, as it actually adds a certain realism to the picture. This halo effect is most noticeable when Gloria Estefan is wearing a white dress.

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen. Aliasing is rare and very mild when it does occur. The subject material and the sharpness inherent in this transfer would lend itself to aliasing being a problem, but this artefact is well-controlled.

    Something that was more of a problem with this transfer, in fact, is the only problem that I consider worth complaining about is some strange flaring that occurs mostly on the top of the on-stage background frame structure. It does get rather annoying at times. You can clearly see misaligned bits that create a checkerboard pattern, which in turn makes up the effect. I checked some of the worst scenes on my trusty 68cm TV using a composite input, and the problem is definitely still there but it becomes so small it almost vanishes - it was only really noticeable because I knew when and where to look for it. As a final check, I viewed these same scenes again on my projector, but this time using the Component and Composite inputs instead of the S-Video input. Unfortunately the problem is just as noticeable on all three types of input when using the projector. So, how noticeable this problem is on your setup will basically depend on what size screen you have.

    No film artefacts were seen, which is to be expected since this was never shot on film.

    This disc is a Flipper, with the break coming at 59:57. For some strange reason it did not bother me to get up and flip the disc over, but really it should be on an RSDL disc.

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; an English Dolby Digital 5.1, 448Kb/second soundtrack and a Linear PCM 48/16 2.0, 1536Kb/s soundtrack. I listened to the Dolby Digital soundtrack, with a quick comparative listen to the Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 soundtrack.

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

    The sound was always clear and clean, but I was a little disappointed with the Dolby Digital mix, as Gloria Estefan’s voice only appeared to be coming from the centre speaker, which for me made the sound seem centre-heavy. To confirm this, I stuck my ear up to the left front speaker, to my surprise her voice is definitely there too, but it is much softer and is more of an echo than anything else. I guess this is to give the effect of a stadium soundstage in your living room, which by the way does indeed happen! The band is split up across the three front speakers with the rear surround speakers predominantly filled with crowd noise, plus an echo of the band and Gloria’s voice. Limiting Gloria Estefan’s voice primarily to the centre channel allowed her voice to remain clear and unchallenged at all times. I also tried the Linear PCM 48/16 2.0, 1536Kb/s soundtrack briefly in an effort to expand the sound field a bit, but it just sounded dead when compared to the Dolby Digital soundtrack.

    The subwoofer was used quite a bit, which added a beautiful depth to the music. I listened for a while without the sub, as an experiment, and came to the conclusion that the music definitely sounded much better with it on.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The video transfer of this disc is very good indeed, with only one problem that tarnishes an otherwise superb transfer.

    The audio is very good, but to me, the sound seemed a little centre-heavy.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall