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Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Nine Inch Nails-Live: And All That Could Have Been (2000)

Nine Inch Nails-Live: And All That Could Have Been (2000)

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Released 9-May-2002

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Music Bookmark
Menu Animation & Audio
Multiple Angles-La Mer; The Great Below; The Mark Has Been Made
Calibration Signals
Gallery
Featurette-Bill Viola
Easter Egg-7
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2000
Running Time 85:35 (Case: 129)
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered
Dual Disc Set
Cast & Crew
Start Up Audio Format Select Then Menu
Region Coding 1,2,3,4,5,6 Directed By Rob Sheridan
Studio
Distributor

Universal Pictures Home Video
Starring Trent Reznor
Danny Lohner
Jerome Dillon
Charlie Clouser
Robin Finck
Case Gatefold
RPI $59.95 Music Nine Inch Nails


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English Titling Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes

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Plot Synopsis

    And All That Could Have Been is a live performance from the band Nine Inch Nails during their Fragility 2.0 tour.

    This two-disc set was designed by bandleader Trent Reznor in an effort to try and capture the atmosphere of a live Nine Inch Nails concert. The footage presented is from the band's Fragility 2.0 tour throughout the United States during the summer of 2000. During their performances, the band kept a very structured set list with little changes between shows and this lack of variation allowed footage from different concerts to be integrated while still preserving the feel of a single concert.

    During the tour, the band shot a large amount of footage for each concert on Sony and Canon consumer miniDV cameras. During each show, the band had at least eight cameras recording images from fixed locations and from within the crowd and just off stage. Consequently, a large percentage of this footage is slightly shaky and reveals its hand-held origins.

    Trent Reznor and Rob Sheridan, the band's webmaster and designer, decided that they would like to produce the DVD release of the tour themselves. After the band had finished recording the tour, they had over 200 individual tapes and around 60 different versions of each song. This large amount of footage was transferred to a Macintosh and edited using Final Cut Pro and the final DVD was produced with DVD Studio Pro.

    Despite being provided on dual layered discs, the concert footage is split over the two discs and this is very disruptive to the flow of the show. Due to the short running time, the complete concert and the extras could have been easily included on a single disc. If you are a fan of Nine Inch Nails you will find this live performance very entertaining and there is a range of interesting extras provided.

    The first twelve tracks are included on the first disc, while the remaining six are included on the second. The following tracks are presented during the performance.

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Track Listing

1. Terrible Lie
2. Sin
3. March of the Pigs
4. Piggy
5. The Frail
6. The Wretched
7. Gave Up
8. La Mer
9. The Great Below
10. The Mark Has Been Made
11. Wish
12. Complication
13. Suck
14. Closer
15. Head Like A Hole
16. Just Like You Imagined
17. Starf***ers, Inc.
18. Hurt

Transfer Quality

Video

    The footage presented during the transfer does reveal its consumer grade origins and amateur camera work but luckily due to the large amount of footage shot, the producers were able to select the best footage for the final product.

    The image is presented at its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

    During the transfer, the image is rather soft and numerous shots are out of focus with few fine details visible at various points throughout. As you would expect, the majority of this transfer is poorly lit with dark shots of both the crowd and the stage area. Due to the original source material, the transfer displays a relatively poor level of shadow detail with only a small amount of information often visible in the dark sections of the image. Luckily, during shots with a relatively high light level, the image improves considerably and in general these problems pose no significant problems for the viewer.

    The transfer displays a colour palette containing a range of yellows, blues, whites, purples and blacks. This varied palette is able to accurately capture the stage lighting design and costumes worn by the band members.

    A number of small MPEG artefacts may be seen during the transfer. A number of minor macroblocking artefacts may be seen at 6:48, 6:54, 9:15 and 22:32 on the first disc. A number of minor posterization artefacts may also be seen on the first disc at 11:49, 12:57 and 31:16. All of these artefacts are relatively small and are only slightly distracting.

    A small number of aliasing artefacts can be seen during the transfer. Some examples of these artefacts may be seen on the first disc at 3:20, 22:44 and 32:57 on the first angle. All of these artefacts are minor and are only minimally distracting to the viewer.

    As this production was shot on miniDV, no film artefacts are present during the transfer.

    A single subtitle track is included on this disc to provide track names at the beginning of each song. These song titles often do not fit onto the screen and they commonly have parts of the name cut off.

    Both discs appear to have the main concert footage and extras presented on separate layers and consequently a layer change is not visible to the viewer at any point.

    During playback, the performance often jumped from the end of track nine, La Mer to the beginning of track twelve, Wish, but the skipped tracks could be easily accessed by advancing to the relevant chapter. This jump in the program was obvious and slightly disruptive.

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

Audio

    A Dolby Digital 448 kbps 5.1 track and a Dolby Digital 448 kbps 2.0 soundtrack are provided on this disc.

    Both tracks are of high quality and the lyrics were always clear and easy to understand.

    An occasional minor problem with audio sync was visible but this is due to the integration of footage from different concerts and is never distracting to the viewer. No dropouts were detected at any time during the transfer.

    In the 5.1 mix, the surround channels were used effectively throughout. During the majority of the transfer, the surrounds were used for crowd noise and to slightly reinforce the soundstage but during occasional trackd, such as The Great Below and Closer, the surrounds are obviously used for various instruments.

    The subwoofer is used extensively during the surround mix for tracks such as Terrible Lie and La Mer.

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

Extras

Menu

    A number of different animated menu designs are randomly selected. They are all presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Alternate Angles

    Alternate angles showing a different shot of the stage are available during the clips for La Mer, The Great Below and The Mark Has Been Made. These views may be accessed by pressing the angle button during the relevant tracks in the main program on disc one.

Still Gallery

    This is a large collection of around three hundred and forty stills and stage designs from the band's tour.

Featurette: Video Sequence (16:07)

    This is an interesting featurette with artist Bill Viola discussing the video segment he created specifically for the band's tour. This clip is presented with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Audio Level Adjustment

    A basic test tone is presented to allow the user to set the correct level for each channel. Both 5.1 and 2.0 stereo versions of this test are provided.

Video Configuration

    A basic PLUGE pattern is included but unfortunately as this pattern is designed for the NTSC video system it is of no real use for PAL viewers.

Easter Egg: Alternate Angle - Gave Up (4:26)

    At 27:03 during the track Gave Up on Disc 1, press the Enter key to view an alternate clip for the track. This clip is presented with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Easter Egg: Television Commercial - Ninetynine (0:31)

    This television commercial is presented with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. To access this clip, select the main menu option on the Supplemental Content menu on Disc 2, then press left, up and Enter.

Easter Egg Menu

    This is a hidden menu that provides easy access to the Easter eggs found on Disc 2. To activate this menu, press 6 on the remote at 11:17 during the performance of Head Like A Hole. Once activated, this menu may be accessed via the key sequence previously used to display the Ninetynine commercial listed above. The following Easter eggs and the Ninetynine commercial are accessible from this menu. Note: No timecode information is available for any of these Easter eggs.

Easter Egg: Reptile (6:25)

    This is a live clip of the band performing the track Reptile. This clip is presented with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Easter Egg: The Day The World Went Away (6:38)

    This is a music video clip of the track The Day The World Went Away. This clip is presented with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Easter Egg: Television Commercial - The Fragile (0:31)

    This television commercial is presented with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Easter Egg: Television Commercial - Things Fall Apart (1:01)

    This television commercial is presented with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Easter Egg: Marilyn Manson with Nine Inch Nails at Madison Square Garden (6:25)

    This is a live clip of the band performing the tracks Starf***ers and Beautiful People with special guest Marilyn Manson at their New York concert. This clip is presented with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

R4 vs R1

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 Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

    In Region 1, this disc was released as separate Dolby Digital 5.1 and dts versions. With the exception of the surround mix, the content presented on both discs is identical. As the dts version reportedly has slightly improved channel separation and bass response, my slight preference would be for that version but both mixes are apparently very similar. It is disappointing that both surround mixes were not included on the same disc.

Summary

    And All That Could Have Been is an excellent reproduction of a live NIN concert that should be appreciated by all fans. Unfortunately, the formatting of the transfer disrupts the flow of the performance and this is annoying for the viewer.

    The video transfer displays a number of small problems but the majority are due to the original source material.

    Both audio mixes included on this disc are of high quality and should appeal to all fans of the band's music.

    The minimal standard extras are heavily supplemented by the numerous Easter eggs, but accessing these features is annoying for the viewer and they should have been included in the standard extras menu.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Anthony Kable (read my bio)
Thursday, August 29, 2002
Review Equipment
DVDToshiba 2109, using S-Video output
DisplaySony KP-E41SN11. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationFront left/right: ME75b; Center: DA50ES; rear left/right: DA50ES; subwoofer: NAD 2600 (Bridged)
SpeakersFront left/right: VAF DC-X; Center: VAF DC-6; rear left/right: VAF DC-7; subwoofer: Custom NHT-1259

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