Janet Jackson-Live in Hawaii (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Booklet Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Janet Speaks All For You Gallery-Photo Featurette-Would You Mind (5)
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	114:46 (Case: 165)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (80:45)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	David Mallet
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Janet Jackson
Case	Click
RPI	$39.95	Music	None Given

    Filmed during her All For You concert tour, Janet Jackson recorded this HBO television special during the concert stop in Hawaii in late 2001. A massive stage setup with huge props, sets, and fireworks, colourful and wild costumes, and a band belting out the music make for a non-stop, action-packed performance. Backed by the obligatory dancers and singers, Janet Jackson moves through most of the hits of her career, while also providing many of the songs from her most recent album. There are a total of 26 songs presented in the near on two hour show, though a handful of her earlier songs are wrapped up into extended medleys. There is even some backstage footage included within the concert broadcast showing Janet going through several rapid-fire costume changes.

The following songs are performed:

Video

    Presented in a full screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Naturally enough it is not 16x9 enhanced.

    Filmed for HBO in the United States, this is a mostly sharp transfer throughout, though it does tend to have a television feel to it. There are no issues with shadow detail. There is a fair bit of grain, though not to the point of annoyance. There is no low level noise.

    Colours are solid and very vibrant. Some of the costumes would put Cirque Du Soleil to shame, they are that bright. They all come across marvellously. Some of the pink and red outfits suffer from mild posterisation at times, but this is expected. There are similar problems caused by the intense blue stage lighting, especially at 64:56 where the band becomes blue blobs against the giant screen. Again, this is pretty much expected in this sort of performance, and doesn't really detract from the experience.

    I noticed no MPEG artefacts. There are mild traces of shimmering (examples are the giant video screen, and a particularly noticeable case at 68:03 on the camera boom) but they are nothing to get worked up about.

    There are no subtitles on this disc.

    This is a dual layered disc, with RSDL formatting. The layer change occurs at 80:45, between If and Black Cat. Not bad placement, though noticeable nonetheless.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Continuing the trend of recent concert releases, this disc features a dts soundtrack (albeit encoded at the lower bitrate of 768 kb/s).

    There are a total of three audio tracks for your enjoyment. The dts track is joined by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and a Dolby Digital 4.1 (yes, there is no centre channel) soundtrack. I sampled the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack quickly, but listened to both of the others in full. Despite the dts having the extra channel, it is virtually identical to the Dolby Digital 4.1, with the centre channel remaining silent. This is primarily a stereo soundtrack with only mild separation of instruments, and obviously vocals share the channels. Both multi-channel tracks are clean and powerful soundtracks with very little, if anything, distinguishing them.

    Vocals are clear and well-pronounced in the overall soundtrack. There is no evidence of audio sync problems.

    There is plenty of surround use to fill in the enveloping experience. Not as aggressive as some concerts I have heard, it is mostly the domain of crowd noise.

    The subwoofer is supported well with a seamless presence.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Booklet

    Not really a booklet as it really is only a double page foldout and doesn't feature any text, just a picture of Janet.

Menu Animation & Audio

Featurette - Janet Speaks All For You

    A 10:18 minute featurette that showcases concert, back-stage, and interview footage with Janet Jackson. She discusses what performing means to her, and what sort of effort goes into the production of the show. Several songs are sampled, with everything presented in a full screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. There are no subtitles available in this featurette. This is pretty brief, with no startling new facts provided.

Gallery - Photo

    An automatic photo gallery that runs for 3:19 minutes. Presented full screen 1.33:1, it also features a backing soundtrack of Janet in concert. A decent selection of photos are presented, both black and white, and colour. The photos take up the full screen image which is nice to see.

Featurette - Would You Mind

    Now this is an interesting, though somewhat repetitive, feature. During the song Would You Mind, Janet hauls an eager male punter up on stage with her to 'help out' in the performance of the song. He basically gets strapped to a frame and effectively groped, fondled, and made to endure a moderately lewd act as Ms Jackson climbs and gyrates all over him (poor sod). This featurette shows five guys from five different concerts, with each of their acts played in full. Total running time is a healthy 37:50 minutes, though it does get a little repetitive. None of the guys seem to be complaining too much, though if they actually said anything other than "I love you soooo much" it would be a surprise. Presented in an aspect of 1.33:1, audio is from a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    The Region 1 disc is identical to the Region 4, which is not surprising considering this disc is coded for all regions. A draw, but the local product really wins out on price consideration if nothing else.

    I must admit that I've never been a great fan of any of the Jacksons. To be honest, though, watching this it has given me a better appreciation for Janet's talent. My wife loved every minute of it. She has been a Janet fan since her primary school years and I caught her singing along to many of the songs. She thought the set covered just about everything she wanted to hear, which pleased her no end.

    The video is above average, though not up to the very high standard I now expect from high definition concert broadcasts.

    The audio is quite decent, with clean powerful soundtracks, complete with dts.

    The extras are plentiful in duration, though the five repeated clips for the song Would You Mind get a little annoying and repetitive.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall