No Doubt-The Videos 1992-2003 (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-A Video Conversation With No Doubt Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Behind The Scenes Vignettes Music Video-Bathwater (Invincible Overlord Remix) Music Video-Don't Speak (Alternate Edit) Trailer-Rock Steady Live Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	89:29
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Interscope Records Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	No Doubt
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$31.95	Music	None Given

    I am something of a dinosaur when it comes to music. Being a child of the 60s I like The Kinks, The Who, The Beatles and then in the 70s listened to Elton John, The Eagles, Supertramp and the like. I somehow managed to miss most of the 1980s, though I have begun collecting U2 discs, amongst others. All of this is by way of explaining that I had never heard of No Doubt, in spite of the fact that they have had a number of albums go multi-platinum. Before you start thinking that I shouldn't even be reviewing this disc, I should add that I have over 800 CDs and more than a hundred music DVDs, so I love music across a range of styles. When I watched this disc I recognized one or two tunes, and have been humming Bathwater ever since.

    So what do we have on offer here? Well, the meat of the disc is a collection of 16 video clips from the band, interspersed with a series of vignettes, usually behind the scenes footage shot on poor video but most likely of interest to fans. The group came out of California and their most distinctive element is bottle blonde lead singer Gwen Stefani who has a great voice and is a girl of many guises. The band play rock music with a reggae influence and the collection here is pleasant, though I found most of it unremarkable. If you follow the band you will notice that the videos are presented in reverse chronological order, so we can watch the band return to their musical roots (and also watch the video quality get worse as the disc goes on). While I would have preferred to move from the earlier clips to the later ones, at least they are in order. More annoyingly, it is not possible to view the clips without the vignettes between each song. It would have been great to have had a menu option to play the songs without interruption, as you can already choose to watch all of the vignettes in sequence off the extras menu.

    As usually happens with this sort of collection the clips vary in quality and imagination, though I must say this one is pretty good overall. As a caution there is some swearing and the odd use of the f... word which gives the disc its "M" rating, though "PG" would have been more appropriate (oh, and the drummer seems to like baring his bony butt for some reason - what is that all about?). Fans of the band should add a star or two to my rating and buy this now (if you haven't already). The first track is only available as part of their "Greatest Hits" CD and on this DVD, the final track features Stafani before she discovered the peroxide bottle. I am still unconverted and frankly felt I had heard a lot of this sort of thing before .... though I am still humming that song.

Video

    The video transfer on the disc varies a lot in quality, as it is sourced from a variety of materials which included hand held amateur video cameras shooting in low light through to professional production equipment. With this in mind the overall quality is good.

    The aspect ratio of the transfer is 1.37:1 and it is not 16x9 enhanced. Most of the material here would have been shot at 1.33:1 so that the disc is just about spot on. Some of the clips are presented at other aspect ratios as originally broadcast, up to 2.35:1, but none are 16x9 enhanced.

    As mentioned the picture varies a lot based upon the source material. You will see vignettes shot in virtually no light on poor quality equipment through to sharply focused video clips presented with excellent shadow detail.

    The colours vary in quality, and are very good at times (see the excellent use of poster-like colours at 12:24). Some of the clips and vignettes are in Black and White.

    Most of the damage apparent on the transfer is found in the vignettes, though some of the clips have the odd negative or positive artefact or minor aliasing. Some of the older clips have some grain, while Hella Good is shot in grainy Black & White, but deliberately.

    There are no subtitles and I did not notice the layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio transfer is fair to good, though it would have been nice to have had a 5.1 remix as an option.

    The only audio track on the disc is a Dolby Digital 2.0 track encoded at a bitrate of 448Kb/s. This sounds as good as most music CDs so does justice to the clips on the disc.

    The songs are clear, and Stefani has a nice clear singing voice, so you will be able to listen to the lyrics without too much trouble in most songs. The quality of dialogue varies in the vignettes, but you can generally make out what is being said. Audio sync is OK, though on some of the tracks the lip-sync is not the best.

    The music comes across nicely here, and is a pleasant mix of rock and ballads, with reggae and occasional punk influences. Most of the songs are by the band, and they write well, incorporating a lot of personality into their music.

    Surround presence is fairly limited, though good use is made of the stereo sound on a number of the songs. For one example listen to the nice separation at 7:36 during the Running track. The subwoofer adds some nice bass but is not engaged otherwise.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    The extras package is small but of good quality, which is a pleasant change for a music DVD.

Menu

    The menu is animated with audio. From it you can choose: Video Selector, Bonus Features, Play All Videos or view Credits.

Featurette - Video Conversation with No Doubt

    This is an excellent feature which runs for 21:04 and has the band giving some quite insightful comments about most of the videos on offer (only Oi to the World is not covered). It left me wondering whether they will record another album in the future - it seems Ms Stefani has taken a break to see if she can be the next Madonna. No doubt there will be another album if she fails (poor pun intended).

Featurette - Behind the Scenes vignettes

    This feature repeats all of the vignettes which are inserted between the songs on the main program, so is redundant in one way, but can be viewed here in one sitting if desired, which is fair enough. This goes for 26:36 which means that the songs run for around 60 minutes without these additions.

Music video - Bathwater (Invincible Overlord Remix)

    I guess that no modern music video is complete without a remix track. This one is quite good.

Music Video - Don't Speak - Alternate Edit

    The same song with slightly different video. Hmm.

Trailer - Rock Steady Live

    A short (runs 0:30) ad for a live DVD of the group.

Credits

    Yes, the credits are an extra as they don't run after the main feature. There is a short jam session after they scroll, so I suppose that almost qualifies for "Action In Or After Credits", except they are not at the end.

    The Region 1 and Region 2 versions of this DVD are the same as the Region 4 release, so preference is purely a matter of price and availability. The DVD is also a part of the "Boom Box" collection, but apparently without the extras.

    This is a pretty good collection of video clips, which should be a big hit with fans of the band. I found it quite enjoyable, and it has reasonable sound, good video, and a nice collection of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall