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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Marvin Gaye-Live in '76: Greatest Hits (1999)

Marvin Gaye-Live in '76: Greatest Hits (1999)

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Released 20-Jun-2002

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Music None
Rating Rated G
Year Of Production 1999
Running Time 51:51 (Case: 60)
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Programme
Region Coding 4 Directed By Charles Leeuvenhanp
Studio
Distributor

Umbrella Entertainment
Starring Marvin Gaye
Florence Lyles
Al Wilson
Case Click
RPI $29.95 Music None Given


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 2.0 (384Kb/s)
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

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Marvin Gaye is world-renowned for his smooth and soulful music. More recently, two of his songs were voted into the top 10 best "soundtracks for sex". A British radio station asked their listeners for their lists of the best songs to play while having sex and "Sexual Healing" and "Let's Get It On" ranked at #1 and #2 respectively. The list also included tracks from artists such as Enrique Iglesias, Robbie Williams and Eric Clapton.

    Marvin Gaye loved to shock. His first concept album in 1971 focused on the issue of Vietnam and his personal feelings on the war and also racism. He was also troubled with his religious beliefs, no doubt due in part to his Christian no-nonsense up-bringing that forbade dancing and drinking but strangely observed Jewish High Holy days as well as the traditional Christian celebrations. A few years after this concert was filmed he even considered giving up his music and becoming a monk, a threat that Cat Stephens actually carried out.

    Tragically, Gaye was shot by his own father in 1984 after the two got into a fight because he caught Gaye Sr. verbally abusing his mother. This ended the life of an artist that had seen more ups and downs than just about anyone from the same era. Here we have the man preserved for us all to see in his prime and where he loved it best, on stage.

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Track Listing

1. All The Way Round
2. Since I Had You
3. Come Get To This
4. Let's Get It On
5. Ain't That Peculiar
6. You're A Wonderful One
7. Stubborn Kind Of Fellow / Pride ...
8. Little Darling (I Need You)
9. I Heard It Through The Grapevine
10. Hitch Hike
11. You
12. Too Busy Thinking About My Baby
13. How Sweet It Is (to be loved by ..)
14. Inner City Blues (make me wanna ..)
15. What's Going On
16. Save The Children
17. You're All I Need
18. Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing
19. Heaven Must Have Sent You
20. It Takes Two
21. Ain't No Mountain High Enough
22. Distant Lover

Transfer Quality

Video

    The video transfer of this DVD is absolutely dismal. There is almost every possible artefact contained within these 51 minutes of film.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and therefore not 16x9 enhanced.

    Lately I have reviewed a few movies that are 40 years older than this feature and in considerably better shape that what you will see here. The original was either archived with little regard for maintaining quality, or the original presentation was filmed with poor equipment. The image is not clear and sometimes quite blurry with 45:47 being the worst when the camera loses focus on the subjects. Shadow detail is poorly handled with poor delineation between objects. At 23:45 you will see the worst example, with all other areas on this disc appearing a lot worse. There is low level noise throughout the feature.

    The colours were dull and suffered a great deal from colour bleeding like what is shown at 18:58. There are moments when the lighting drapes the band with bright light which helps to bring out the colours in Marvin's green silk suit. There was chroma noise throughout.

    There were MPEG artefacts to be seen throughout the feature, but by far the most common problem throughout was microphony. This form of artefact is caused when the mechanics of the video pickup tubes from the camera pick up vibrations from loud noises and drape the image with a banding pattern. The worst appears at 44:03. Aliasing is common but usually mild when it does occur. There were also frequent blotches in the image which appeared inherent in the source material.

    There are no subtitle tracks on this disc which is always a shame on music titles

    This disc is a single sided, single layered disc.

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

Audio

     Unfortunately, the sound also suffers from poor quality with a lot of bass giving it a flat sound.

    The dialogue was clear and Gaye's voice can always be heard clearly through the duller-sounding background. Audio sync did not appear to be a problem at all.

    The soundtrack was not surround encoded, so the rears were not used at all.

    The subwoofer was also not specifically used but there was too much bass apparent in the sound.

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

Extras

     The extras mentioned on the cover do not exist on the disc.

Menu

    The menu is a still image of Marvin Gaye overlaid with the menu choices.

Propaganda

    According to the cover there should be 4 trailers from other music releases, but here you are only shown the DVD cover image with no way to select the trailer. Even scanning through the tracks failed to find them.

Random Playback Feature

    Like the trailers, there is no random playback feature. You will need to rely on the one in your DVD player instead.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

     The Region 1 version suffers from the same video and audio limitations as the Region 4 version.

Summary

    The video quality of this disc is problematic, which is a shame.

    The audio is mostly flat and bassy but good vocals can be heard from Gaye.

    Personally, it was a disappointment that this is about the best we can see of the man live on stage. I will be directing my money towards his music on CDs which are actually clearer and better mastered than what you will hear on this disc. Rabid fans may still lean towards this title, simply to see him performing "live".

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Peter Mellor (read my bio)
Thursday, December 19, 2002
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-533K, using S-Video output
DisplayLoewe 72cm. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationDenon AVR-2802 Dolby EX/DTS ES Discrete
SpeakersWhatmough Audiolabs Magnum M30 (Mains); M05 (Centre); M10 (Rears); Magnat Vector Needle Sub25A Active SubWoofer

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