Helloween-High Live (1996) (NTSC) |
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Helloween-High Live (1996) (NTSC) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Music |
Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Review Audio Commentary DVD Credits |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1996 | ||
| Running Time | 91:20 (Case: 90) | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | None Given |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Warner Vision |
Starring |
Andy Derris Uli Kusch Michael Vikat Roman Grappau |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip | ||
| RPI | $34.95 | Music | Helloween |
| Video (NTSC) | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 480i (NTSC) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | Unknown | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | None | Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Sadly for the members of the band, their leader Ky Hansen quit the band shortly thereafter and massive disputes with their record label left them in the wilderness for many years, robbing them of their 15 minutes of fame.
Not all was lost for the members of Helloween and their fans, though, as after a few more line-up changes and a few more years, Helloween had built up another strong following and had released some more mildly successful albums.
It is on the Time Of The Oath Tour tour in 1996 that we meet up with Helloween during the European leg of the tour. Captured over 2 nights in both Italy and Spain, this performance would no doubt send fans of Helloween into hysterics. Unfortunately, I know very little of the band post 1990 and struggle to get too excited about them.
Nevertheless, Helloween's show seems tight enough and the crowd are into it. Just try to turn a blind eye to many of the abhorrent stage raps and guitar tricks on stage....this is the sort of stuff that Eddie Van Halen made cool in 1983!
| 1. We Burn 2. Wake Up The Mountains 3. Sole Survivor 4. The Change 5. Why 6. Eagle Fly Free 7. Time Of The Oath 8. Future World | 9. Dr Stein 10. Before The War 11. Mr. Ego (Take Me Down) 12. Power 13. Where The Rain Grows 14. In The Middle Of A Heartbeat 15. Perfect Gentleman 16. Steel Tormentor |
This transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.
Because of the way this title is authored, with each song encoded as a separate title without time coding, it is difficult to give exact time references, so I have presented each artefact with an approximate time reference from the start of each track.
The sharpness of this transfer is marred by large amounts of grain and noise. Almost every shot that has some sort of darkened area has plenty of low level noise throughout. Grain is the most significant offender on this DVD with plenty of instances worth a mention; 00:01 in We Burn, 4:19 in Wake Up, 00:30 in Why, 00:44 in Time Of The Oath and 1:52 in Perfect Gentleman. Along with the ridiculous amount of grain, there are some fine instances of low level noise at 1:04 in We Burn, and 4:19 in Wake Up. Chroma noise appears at 1:23 in We Burn, 2:04 in Wake Up The Mountains, 2:34 in Why and 2:51 in Dr Stein.
The colours in the concert are all over the place and hard to grasp due to the amount of stage lighting apparent. There are a couple of instances of colour bleed - at 00:27 in Why and 3:59 in Time Of The Oath.
There was a touch of posterization at 00:01 in Why and at 2:32 in Steel Tormentor. There were no film to video artefacts and no film artefacts noticed.
There are no subtitles recorded on this disc.
This disc is not RSDL formatted.
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| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
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There are two audio tracks on this disc- both are English 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtracks running at 448kb/s, with the only difference being that one is the "commentary" track by Malcolm Dome. More on that later.
As the concert is taken from two different concerts, it is hard to tell if the audio sync is out. From time to time it is, but it is impossible to tell whether this is a problem with the DVD or just the editing of the source material.
The music itself mainly comes from the front stage with very little coming from the rear speakers. The music sounds very congested and stuffy. There is no refined sound available to put the viewer 'in the stadium' which is what I would have been looking for from this disc.
The subwoofer hardly gets called into action, and when it does, it does not really do too much.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
| Surround Channel Use | |
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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 transfer is pretty terrible.
The audio transfer does not use its full potential.
I did not find the extras to be very useful.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Sony DVP-S525, using Component output |
| Display | Loewe Xelos (81cm) 16:9. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to DVD player. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Onkyo TX-DS797- THX Select |
| Speakers | Jamo X550 Left and Right, Jamo X5CEN Centre, Jamo X510 Surround |