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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.
The Offspring-Huck It

The Offspring-Huck It (NTSC)

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Released 13-Apr-2001
Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Music Video-The Kids Aren't Alright (Live) Featurette-Meet The Crew Outtakes-Random
Rating
Year Of Production	?
Running Time	39:13 (Case: 55)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Paul Cobb
Studio Distributor	Sony Music	Starring	Dexter Holland Noodles Greg K Ron Welty Jim Rippey Noah Johnson Oog Omar Hassan Brian Patch Jake Brown Flush Fernandez Collin Winkleman Robbie Miranda
Case	Brackley-Opaque-No Lip	Starring
RPI	$24.95	Music	The Offspring

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	Miscellaneous
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes, By Noodles while playing Bach.
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

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

Plot Synopsis

Normally a music DVD would be something along the lines of a concert, or a collection of video clips linked via short documentary-style segments. After watching The Offspring - Huck It, I was slightly confused. There are a total of four live performances in the feature, and that's it! The rest of it is made up of extreme sports action (featuring some of the members of the band), accompanied by The Offspring's music. The four live performances are: 1. L.A.P.D. 2. Staring At The Sun 3. All I Want, and 4. Gone Away.

The main problem with these performances is that they aren't live. Well, actually, they were, but have been touched up in post-production to match the studio counterpart, but more on that in the audio section.

Now I am only a casual fan of The Offspring, so don't expect a detailed report on how well the band performs in this short film (if you could call it that). It's pleasant enough to watch, especially the Noodles segment, and the music is perfectly fitting, but I'm really not sure whether they were trying to make a musical feature promoting themselves, or an extreme sports video with some loud and ideally-suited music to go along with it - you decide. Either way, it's a good watch for someone interested, as I was.

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Transfer Quality

Video

This disc has an acceptable transfer with no major problems to speak of, besides ones introduced by the content of the disc.

Huck It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

Although by no means a highly-defined transfer, the transfer does show acceptable amounts of sharpness which are only limited by the lacklustre recording devices that some scenes have been recorded with. The opening scene featuring Greg K lacks resolution simply because of limitations inherent in the source material. Most of the feature has been shot on handheld camera (especially the interview scenes), although the extreme sports shots, e.g. skydiving and base jumping, have used specialised cameras that aren't the highest in technical quality. These limitations unfortunately show up on the DVD. Shadow detail, most apparent in the live performances, especially The Rain Festival ones, is surprisingly decent for a performance that was only haphazardly recorded.

The feature has somewhat of a documentary look about it, which mutes the colours a little. Otherwise, colour saturation is good but fairly boring as some of the longer scenes consist of desert scenes (mostly brown), the snow (mostly white) or fields (mostly brown and green). The live scenes are all very dark and only show varying shades of black or blue.

I did not notice any aliasing at all throughout the feature. Grain was apparent at times but was hardly noticeable. No film artefacts were seen, suggesting that none of this was shot on film at all.

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

Audio

"Was that a CD or a live performance?" That was my reaction after first watching the disc. The "live" tracks have been touched up in post-production to be identical to the studio versions of the songs - this is most apparent in the bonus clip of The Kids Aren't Alright.

There are two audio tracks present on the DVD - a Linear PCM Stereo mix and a full Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. I listened to the PCM mix entirely and sampled the 5.1 mix in the musical sections.

Dialogue in non-performance sequences is completely understandable at all times. Audio synchronization is fine except for the songs that have been touched up, as you can obviously tell that what you are hearing is not the actual sound of the artists.

Some distortion in the left channel is heard in the scene featuring Ron Welty. This seems to be as a result of the poor quality audio recording device used in that segment.

The PCM mix is basically like listening to a CD. The 5.1 mix is very subdued, and doesn't have the kick that the PCM mix has. The surround usage by the 5.1 track is also quite ordinary. I suggest that you stick with the Linear PCM mix when listening to this DVD as it is higher in fidelity and sounds more natural.

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

Extras

A small selection of extras accompany the disc, all of good quality.

Menu Animation & Audio

The fully animated menus are bright and easy enough to navigate. They do take a while to load at times unfortunately.

Music Video-The Kids Aren't Alright (Live) (2:55)

Another clip from The Rain Festival, the quality is on a par with the main feature though this clip does exhibit the highest number of lip-sync problems on the disc.

Featurette-Meet The Crew (6:28)

A fun little featurette that shows you some of the behind-the-scenes people who work for The Offspring. Especially useful for finding out who that guy is in the background of "Gone Away".

Outtakes-Random (5:27)

Not really outtakes as such but small snippets that didn't make it into the final feature. This extra is most memorable for the massive bike crashes that happen constantly throughout. Quality is similar to the main feature.

R4 vs R1

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

The R1 version of this disc is identical, even down to NTSC formatting.

Summary

The Offspring - Huck It is a fun DVD, especially for fans. Even if you don't like the band all that much, the other content on this DVD would be acceptable to extreme sports fans. The video quality is acceptable as is the audio (great in stereo but mediocre in full 5.1). The extras are satisfactory considering the type of DVD this is.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment
DVD	Pioneer DV-626D, using Component output
Display	Toshiba 34N9UXA. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder	Built in to DVD player. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
Amplification	Yamaha CX-600 Pre-Amp, Yamaha MX-600 Stereo Power Amp for Mains, Yamaha DSP-E300 for Center, Teac AS-M50 for Surrounds.
Speakers	Main Left and Right Acoustic Research AR12s, Center Yamaha NS-C70, Surround Left and Right JBL Control 1s

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