The Secret Policeman's Music Edition (Disc 8) (1999) |
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The Secret Policeman's Music Edition (Disc 8) (1999) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Comedy |
Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Notes-Background Trailer-What's Up, Tiger Lily?; The Natural History Of The Chicken Trailer-Malcolm; The Secret Policeman's Balls Featurette-Amnesty International DVD Credits |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1999 | ||
| Running Time | 56:05 (Case: 55) | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | Directed By | David Hillier |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Umbrella Entertainment |
Starring |
Tom Jones Sting Phil Collins Pete Townshend Bob Geldof Eric Clapton Jeff Beck Nik Kershaw Lisa Stansfield Spinal Tap Seal Daryl Hall Morrissey |
| Case | Click | ||
| RPI | $29.95 | Music | None Given |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame | English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement | No | ||
| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.33:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | English Information | Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes, Credits roll beside Morrissey | ||
The Secret Policeman's Music Edition is a compilation of performances from all the shows. This means the performances were captured anywhere between 23 years and 11 years ago. There are some remarkable performances, including Sting, Phil Collins, and Pete Townshend. This is classic music captured on film. Some of the other acts include the lead singer of the Boomtown Rats, Tom Jones, Eric Clapton, Seal, and many more.
All in all, this DVD has a lot of great music, but it could have had a whole lot more. The running time comes in at a meagre 56 minutes - not much by any standards. I would be hesitant to fork out too much of your hard-earned cash on this DVD. Having said that, if you do decide to buy this DVD you will not be disappointed by the acts on offer. I know I found them very satisfying.
| 1. Can't Turn you Loose 2. Roxanne 3. in the Air Tonight 4. Pinball Wizard 5. I Don't Like Mondays 6. Farther Up The Road 7. Message In a Bottle | 8. Wouldn't It Be Good 9. All Woman 10. Won't Get Fooled Again 11. Big Bottom 12. Hey Joe 13. What's Going On 14. We Hate it When Our Friends Are.. |
Presented in the non-enhanced aspect ratio of 1.33:1 this transfer preserves the original recorded aspect ratio.
Sharpness ranges from terrible to reasonable depending on the source. The film from the 1987 performances is particularly bad, especially in long shots of the artists (22:50). Fortunately, the transfer cannot entirely be blamed for this as the newer acts show significantly improved sharpness. Surprisingly, I found the original footage from 1979 to be better than that from 1987. Shadow detail is reasonable for the newer film but very poor for old materials. Again, the transfer is not to blame entirely for these problems.
Colour was reasonable for newer sources and almost non-existent for the older sources. A real mixed bag here.
There were no obvious occurrences of pixelization throughout and aliasing is very well controlled. The lack of sharpness in the transfer would definitely minimize aliasing, but even the newer material did not alias, even when the exact same aliasing-prone segments as seen on other discs was presented. Film artefacts were present but not at all intrusive.
The "subtitles" available on this disc include artist, song, year of release, and album information. No lyrics unfortunately. This is a single layered disc so there is no layer change to negotiate.
| Sharpness |  |
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| Colour | |
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| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
| Overall | |
There is one audio track available - being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track encoded at 224kbps. The package incorrectly states that the feature is only mono - it is most definitely stereo in segments. The performances from 1979 and 1987 are mono (same signal through the left and right channels), while the 1991 recordings are in stereo.
Dialogue quality is quite good for the newer recordings. However, the 1979 recording of Pete Townshend shows a fair amount of distortion at around 38:20. The 1979 recordings suffer most from distortion, but again this is not caused by the transfer. Audio sync gets a little out for some of the performances but is generally pretty good.
The surrounds are not used and the subwoofer rests throughout the feature.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
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| Overall | |
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The video quality is quite poor.
The audio quality is quite poor.
The extras are limited.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer 106S DVD-ROM with PowerDVD 4.0 scaling to 864p, using RGB output |
| Display | Mitsubishi VS-1281E CRT front projector on custom 16x9 screen (270cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Onkyo TX-DS787, THX Select |
| Speakers | All matching Vifa Drivers: centre 2x6.5" + 1" tweeter (d'appolito); fronts and rears 6.5" + 1" tweeter; centre rear 5" + 1" tweeter; sub 10" (150WRMS) |