The Main Event (1999) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Music |
Menu Audio Dolby Digital Trailer-Rain dts Trailer-Piano |
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Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 1999 | ||
Running Time | 158:51 | ||
RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (83:23) | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Mark Adamson |
Studio
Distributor |
Worldstar Roadshow Home Entertainment |
Starring |
John Farnham Olivia Newton-John Anthony Warlow |
Case | Soft Brackley-Transp | ||
RPI | $34.95 | Music | Various |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (1536Kb/s) |
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Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | ||
16x9 Enhancement | No | ||
Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 1.33:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles | None | Smoking | No |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
Opening 1. Overture 2. Age Of Reason 3. Phantom Of The Opera 4. A Little More Love 5. Age Of Reason Anthony 6. Prologue 7. Music Of The Night 8. What Kind Of Fool Am I / World On A String/ I've Got You Under My Skin 9. This Is The Moment Olivia 10. Magic 11. If You Love Me 12. Precious Love 13. Hopelessly Devoted To You John 14. That's Freedom 15. And I Love Her 16. Burn For You 17. Everytime You Cry 18. Have A Little Faith Olivia 19. Don't Cry For Me Argentina Olivia And John 20. Please Don't Ask Me 21. You're The One That I Want 22. Two Strong Hearts | Olivia And Anthony 23. Not Gonna Give In To It 24. The Long And Winding Road 25. Country Road 26. I Honestly Love You 27. Love Is A Gift John And Anthony 28. Help 29. That's Life / Bad Habits 30. Granada Finale 31. You've Lost That Loving Feeling 32. Summer Nights 33. If Not For You 34. Let Me Be There 35. Touch Of Paradise 36. Raindrops 37. Banks Of The Ohio 38. Jolene 39. Hearts On Fire 40. Don't You Know It's Magic Encore 41. You're The Voice Special Bonus 42. Backstage At The Main Event |
While the concert is good, there are a couple of annoying problems with this disc. The first is that the track numbering goes out by one after the layer change (82:23) at track 22. While this is used to place the layer change in a convenient place in terms of the content, the packaging should have been updated to reflect the actual track ordering on the disc. The second, and far more serious problem is that the disc would not play in my Pioneer 535 unless the disc was placed in the player, the player powered down and then up again and the menu manually activated. Just inserting the disc would cause the player to hang when attempting to access the menu.
The concert is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. As this was originally filmed for television in Australia in 1998, chances are good that this was the original ratio.
This transfer has excellent shadow detail and is very sharp except for a short period at 131:10 when Anthony Warlow is completely out of focus, but this is almost certainly done on purpose as part of the presentation of the concert and would hence have been recorded this way.
As with most concerts, there are a veritable plethora of stage lights moving at all conceivable angles, and covering the entire colour spectrum. Unfortunately, this sometimes causes problems for the transfer with particularly ugly incidents of severe oversaturation occurring at occasional intervals, such as on Olivia's face and shoulders at 30:00. This is a real pity, because the rest of the concert is handled very well with lighting and skin tones being represented in a very natural manner.
The only artefact that this title suffers from is aliasing. Due to the sharpness of the transfer, there is constant aliasing throughout the concert on items such as the edge of the stage, the edges of the microphones and many other items. Usually it is light and not noticeable unless explicitly looked for, but there is one instance at 52:10 on a violin that is very noticeable.
This disc has no subtitles at all.
This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change placed between Chapters 21 and 22, at 83:23. It is relatively noticeable coming very shortly after the end of a song while the audience is still applauding, however there is really no good location to place a layer change in a live concert. In the end, having over two and a half hours of concert without having to even stand up more than makes up for a layer change.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain/Pixelization | |
Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
There are two audio tracks available on this disc, a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and a dts 5.1 soundtrack. This is in fact Roadshow's first release with a dts soundtrack, and it is a good one at that. Those with only Dolby Digital capabilities needn't fret either, as the two soundtracks are indistinguishable.
The more dts DVDs I listen to, the less I believe that the higher bitrates really make a difference when Dolby Digital AC-3 compression is used properly, and this disc is yet another example where the two soundtracks are impossible to tell apart. A factor to take into account however is that the Dolby Digital soundtrack is recorded at the higher bitrate of 448kbps. It is nice to see dts available on Australian DVDs, however.
Dialogue and singing were clear at all times throughout the transfer, although some singing appeared to be mixed at too high a level. Anthony Warlow was the major culprit here, most likely to do with the power of his voice, but the mastering of the soundtracks could have brought it down somewhat as he tended to overpower the music at times.
There were no problems with audio sync during the transfer.
The surround channels received plenty of use, although mostly for crowd interaction, both during general applause and the times when the audience were clapping along with the band. The only slightly disconcerting factor was that the applause was in general louder than the performances, which just seemed a little jarring.
The subwoofer was quite disappointing. A decent amount of bass is sent to the front and centre channels, but the subwoofer barely raises a whimper, even with bass guitar and kick-drum in action. Fortunately, it isn't really missed to a huge degree, as the songs do not really call for a thumping bass track.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;
The video quality is generally very good, but is let down by aliasing and occasional oversaturation of colours.
The audio could have made better use of the subwoofer, but is otherwise perfectly suited to the concert. The dts and Dolby Digital tracks are indistinguishable.
There are no extras aside from a dressing room sequence that plays after the concert.
Read our interview with Michael Brooks of Roadshow Home Entertainment and Michael Costa of Stream AV, who were responsible for the production and re-mix of this DVD.
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Extras | |
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Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Pioneer DV-535, using S-Video output |
Display | RCA 80cm. 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) |