Lou Reed-Transformer (Classic Albums) (Rajon) (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Bonus Interviews (9) - Expanded from the main feature
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	49:31 (Case: 80)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Jim Smeaton
Studio Distributor	Rajon Vision	Starring	Lou Reed David Bowie Mick Ronson Herbie Flowers Dave Stewart
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$19.95	Music	Lou Reed

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	French German Dutch Italian Spanish Portuguese	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, sound grab from Lou Reed

    From the Classic Albums series of rockumentaries, this is a made-for TV documentary about the production of Lou Reed's classic second album Transformer. Running track by track through the album, weaving in the story behind the production of the album together with the story behind each track, primarily through recently recorded interview. Prominent interviewees include Reed himself and album producers David Bowie and Mick Ronson.

    Lou Reed fans will find this to be essential viewing. Anybody else interested in rock history will find something to enjoy in this well-made documentary.

    This documentary has been previously released by Warner Vision (we reviewed it back in 2002). This reissue by Rajon Vision is identical to the Warner release in terms of content (right down to the video transfer itself), save for the different distributor logos and different style ratings label on the cover slick. The RRP for this re-release is half that of the original release, however.

Video

    The present day interviews are of superb quality video and the following comments apply principally to these segments which make up the majority of the feature. Archival film and video material is, understandably, of inferior quality.

    The feature is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    Sharpness, shadow detail and absence of low level noise are exemplary.

    The colours are a little muted due largely to the subdued lighting of many of the home and studio venues.

    There is aliasing throughout the feature of a minor nature and this only becomes really noticeable, as is usual, on string shots of guitars (13:37) or the edge of mixers (12:25).

    The archival footage contains a smorgasbord of film artefacts with dirt, grain, scratches and film fading aplenty.

    As there are no English subtitles on this disc.

    The disc is a DVD 5 and hence has no layer transition point.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Overall, the audio quality is excellent. There is a 5 second burst of mains hum at 45:42 but the track was otherwise clean and clear.

    There feature has one English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 Kbps), surround encoded, audio track.

    The dialogue is clearly audible throughout the feature. Audio sync was not a problem with this feature.

    The surrounds are used very inconspicuously in Dolby Prologic Surround mode with low volume instrument reverb. There is no noticeable subwoofer usage.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Bonus Interviews

    About 20 minutes of bonus interviews are included as extras. These interviews are clearly outtakes from the documentary and probably would have worked better if they had been edited back into the main feature.

    The Region 1, Region 2 and Region 4 versions are all identical save for Pal/NTSC differences.

    A must own disc for any Lou Reed fan. An interesting doco for anybody else interested in rock history. Thankfully, this isn't just a puff-piece for Reed.

    Video is very good. Audio is great. Extras are fair.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall