Shawn Colvin-Live in Bora Bora (Music in High Places) (2002)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Music	Featurette-Behind The Scenes TV Spots Featurette-Location Footage Music Highlights Biographies-Cast
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	52:39
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Alan Carter
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Shawn Colvin
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$39.95	Music	Shawn Colvin

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	French German Spanish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, the Music In High Places self-adverts.
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, the final song plays over the final credits.

    The Music In High Places series, of which this is an entry, presents the artist or artists performing in some exotic location. As can probably be guessed by the title, Shawn Colvin visits Bora Bora. The actual presentation is known as Shawn Colvin: Live in French Polynesia, and that is a more correct title, as she also visits Tahiti. The 52 minute presentation is gentle, and very laid back, as Shawn plays a selection of her tunes located in some of the most idyllic scenery known to man. While the music is relaxing, and quite enjoyable, the surrounding material is not as good. The discussions and interviews are not very interesting, are quite patronising to the local population, and are often cringe-worthy.

    Overall, there is little in this presentation to recommend it to any but hard-core Shawn Colvin fans. Certainly the music is good (and the music only option will really come in handy), but the remainder of the material is enough to put off all but the hardiest.

Video

    Presented for the most part at 1.85:1, this transfer is not 16x9 enhanced. I say for the most part, as the opening credits, and the odd self-promo for Music In High Places fit the 1.33:1 ratio. If you are capable of zooming your display device, have no fear, for you will miss absolutely nothing of interest.

    The sharpness of the transfer is stunning. There is absolutely no detail that is hidden, and the definition is superb. The shadow detail is just as good, although as the transfer is almost uniformly brightly lit, there is no real effect either way from it. There is no low level noise.

    Colours are rich and bright. The deep greens of the tropical forest contrast brilliantly with the pale blues and whites of the beaches. Any clothing or other highlights are excellently represented.

    The only real problem with the transfer are a few instances of background pixelization and posterization, such as at 25:59 and 42:08. These are only caused by the extremely fine detail in the background when panning close-ups are taken of Shawn Colvin, and they are not at all distracting. There is also some minor aliasing, such as on the roof at 12:04, and the guitar at 24:14, but it is both limited in effect, and very infrequent. There are absolutely no film artefacts of any sort thanks to the video source.

    There are no English subtitles on this disc, although it is fully subtitled in a few non-English languages.

    This is a Dual Layered disc with the main feature on one layer, and the extras on the other.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are two audio tracks present on this disc, being the original English audio in both Dolby Digital 5.1 (at 448 Kbps), and Dolby Digital 2.0 (at 224 Kbps).

    Dialogue is generally passable. There are a few occasions, such as at 15:22 where it is so unintelligible as to be impossible to make out regardless of the number of repeats, but these are not common. There are also numerous occasions where low recording levels, background noise, or mumbled dialogue are difficult to make out. Fortunately, and importantly, none of these problems effect the vocals during the singing. The music itself is nicely presented, although the decision to keep the background noise (wind, waves, etc) is somewhat of a double edged sword, setting the location well but detracting from the clarity of the music. For the most part, when nature's influence is not undue, the music is clear, with individual notes easy enough to pick out.

    Audio sync is spot on throughout and never causes any issues.

    The surround channels are used for ambient noise and to reflect back a little of the performance, however these are generally kept at low enough levels as to be almost unnoticeable. As such, there is little difference between the 5.1 and stereo tracks, with the 5.1 being the slight winner as the atmospheric nature is an advantage.

    The subwoofer is virtually never called upon and remains dormant for the majority of the presentation.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Featurette - Behind The Scenes (5:54)

Promo Spots (0:50)

Location Footage (9:56)

Just The Music

Biography

    The video quality is exceptional. Only some mild aliasing and compression artefacts let it down.

    The audio quality is serviceable, but there is little done with the original recording.

    The extras are mostly filler, although the music only option is very welcome.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall