Tina Turner-One Last Time Live in Concert (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Booklet Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Backstage With Tina (17:50)
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	121:15 (Case: 120)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (70:40)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	David Mallet
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Tina Turner
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$39.95	Music	Tina Turner

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.0 (448Kb/s) English dts 5.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    And so we get to the third Tina Turner DVD in something just on twelve months I believe. Now far be it for me to complain about this fact, for I would rather one hundred DVDs of this lady than even one of most of the pretenders around today, but it does tend to result in something less than a balanced DVD catalogue of female talent. Still, I suppose that we can all live with that fact when the concert is as good as we get here. Well and truly demonstrating that at 60 she can still generate enough energy to power a small city, and as a result can bury all the pretenders to her crown as queen of rock, the concert also serves to remind us of what we will not get the chance to see live again. Recorded at the famed Wembley Stadium in London, itself now but a memory, during her retirement Twenty Four Seven world tour in 2000, this is a heck of a good souvenir of one of the best in the business. Assembling an impressive visual show with an equally impressive collection of dance talent (with special mention for Ivona Brnelic and Claire Louise Turton), this is a tour de force par excellence.

    Sure, we get a fair duplication of songs from the earlier two DVD releases, but this was something of a special occasion as far as performances go and therefore I am happy to live with the duplication. After all, England was pretty much the country that really made Tina Turner a huge solo artist, and there is nothing quite like hearing and seeing her perform in front of a capacity crowd at the most hallowed football stadium in the world. Perhaps just starting to show the effects of this sort of mega-stage production on her, this remains a terrifically enjoyable concert for any number of reasons.

    Whilst still awaiting the absolute definitive concert performance, where sound and vision are perfectly matched, there is nothing here to really prevent true fans of the queen of rock from indulging in this DVD.

Video

    Whilst I do get fed up of mentioning it, in this instance I feel that the inherent problem of live concerts viz. a viz. video footage must be mentioned here. Intense stage lighting tends to play havoc with the inherent quality of the video, and when I say that this concert has really, really intense stage lighting, you can be forewarned that the quality of the video here is going to be very problematic at times. Basically, the stage lighting here looks like it needed the output of a major nuclear power plant to keep it lit, and the result is some exceedingly washed out detail at times.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    For a change there does not appear to be anything much in the way of lapses in focus during this concert video, although that is sharply contrasted by the significantly greater impact that the stage lighting has on the detail. So what is fundamentally a very sharp and detailed transfer is partially obscured by intense stage lighting that at times renders all detail virtually invisible. I suppose that is the price we have to pay whilst still awaiting the absolute perfect concert record of Tina Turner. However, when the stage lighting does allow, it is fairly clear that this transfer has enormous detail that shows up the intricate stage rather well. Unfortunately that level of detail does create some issues with respect of the giant video screens. Naturally, with such intense stage lighting, there is not much of an issue with shadow detail here - indeed, you might well be hard pressed to find a shadow at times. Clarity is fundamentally very good and there is nothing here really indicative of any grain issues in the transfer to speak of. There did not appear to be any indications of low level noise in the transfer.

    The colour palette here is fundamentally excellent, although naturally suffering the dire effects of wash-out at times owing to the intense..... It is a lovely vibrant transfer and apart from a little lack of depth in the black tones on occasions (although not during the portions where all the girls are kitted out in black vinyl), I have little problem at all with what is offered here. There are a few indications of oversaturation in the red and blue lighting at times, but that is again regrettably to be expected in a concert video. The only issue that really bothers is a ghostly sheen that occasionally rises to noticeable during predominantly blue-lit sequences. This, however, I am more than willing to bet is inherent in the source material and nothing much could be done about it. Good, but not spectacular. Certainly generally very vibrant, the usual problems of stage lighting introduce their little effects of occasionally washing out the colours a little. Perhaps there could have been a little more depth to the colours at times, but in general the whole show had a nice saturation to it. There are no readily apparent problems with colour bleed in the transfer.

    There does not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. However, as with prior releases there is something of an issue with film-to-video artefacts in the transfer. Foremost amongst these are some rather grotesque aliasing issues, most notably early on in the video and most noticeable during the shots taken from the blimp over the stadium. The stage and crowd aliases pretty badly and at 5:23 and 9:39 are good examples of how grotesque this can be. As night falls and the ambient light becomes less and less, the issue seems to resolve itself but the damage really has been done by then. There are also the almost obligatory minor examples in the likes of microphone leads and the keyboards. The other major problem with artefacting is the constant presence of moiré effects in the large video screens, which tend to get rather noticeable at times. They are sometimes accompanied by some cross colouration issues too. I can honestly say I do not recall an instance of a film artefact in the transfer, so it seems reasonable to suggest that this is as clean as we can get.

    This is an RSDL formatted DVD and the layer change comes during the applause between songs at 70:40. As usual with concert performances, this is rather noticeable but since it is during the applause it is not really disruptive to the show.

    Somewhat annoyingly, there are no subtitle options on the DVD. I suppose asking for at least a lyric subtitle option is asking far too much.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Long term readers of this site will no doubt recall that when I had the opportunity to review one of the first two dts DVDs in Region 4 back in July, 2000, one of my immediate requests was for Tina Turner in dts glory. What very few know is that I had the chance to listen to the Region 2 version of the DVD courtesy of Warner Vision Australia three months earlier than the published review. That is how long I have been waiting for the lady in the best sound format for this sort of music. So when I got this DVD out of the envelope and saw that the DVD contained a dts soundtrack, you can pretty much guess that I was overjoyed. Apart from the fact that the soundtrack is only a 5.0 effort, and not a full blown 5.1 effort, was it worth the wait? You betcha!

    There are three soundtracks on offer on the DVD, being English efforts in Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded, Dolby Digital 5.0 and dts 5.0. I listened to the dts soundtrack, as well as making large samples of both of the Dolby Digital soundtracks. Choose your format and I would suggest that you are not going to be disappointed, other than by the lack of the bass channel in the two five channel soundtracks. Mind you, given the devastating effect of the loud explosions during two portions of the concert (20:30 to 20:50 and 77:47 to 78:27), it is probably wise that there was no bass channel. Had there been a bass channel, I fear the house would not have survived the sonic blast that would have resulted.

    There did not appear to be any audio sync problems in either of the soundtracks, and the vocals and the music came up pretty well throughout. You should note however that the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is transferred at a lower level than the other two soundtracks, and unless you crank the volume up by about 10%, you are going to be disappointed with the way it sounds. Until you push the volume up a decent whack, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack will sound a little congested and underwhelming. You should also note that there is a glitch in the master audio track that is noticeable in all three soundtracks at 2:34. It is just a slight glitch in the sound that is not really that bad but just made me double-take on what I heard.

    The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is a very good effort, with a clean, bright sound that is reminiscent of a well recorded DVD. Whilst conveying no real audience participation, it is a nicely balanced effort and there is nothing really wrong with it at all. There did not seem to be much in the way of surround encoding based upon my sampling, but I cannot say I really missed it that much in the nice open sound.

    The Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack might miss the bass channel, but really it is soon adjusted for as you listen to the concert. The need to crank the volume up a little here is paramount otherwise you will be very disappointed with the sound. It is not congested per se but there is a lack of real presence to the sound that makes it sound just a little lacklustre at the lower volume levels. There is some good surround channel use here, orientated more towards the front channels than the rear channels, and the result is something that actually sounds quite reasonably natural without the big bass thump of the concert venue added.

    The dts 5.0 soundtrack is a pretty awesome sounding effort in general, even without the bass channel. It has significantly more presence in the surround channels than the Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack, and this is probably a good example of the relative strengths of the two formats. The rear surround channel use in particular is really good, and with a gorgeous soundscape spread across the front channels, this is a really excellent concert sound without the annoying over-thumping bass that would be part of the normal concert experience. Plenty will miss the bass channel, but I really enjoyed not having it present in this instance, especially when the explosions arrived. They still have some serious force without the bass channel and did more than enough to scare the cat silly, and get the shelves rattling.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    After the storming concert, the extras package on offer is a rather staid one in comparison. Still, I doubt too many would really complain about that fact.

Menu

    Reasonably well handled, not quite plain Jane but with some nice enough class about them to make them just a little bit distinctive. They are all 16x9 enhanced and come with quite reasonable audio and animation enhancement.

Featurette - Backstage With Tina (17:50)

    A little bit of a misnomer really, as this is mainly backstage footage taken during the lead up to the concert and really includes very little "with Tina". Still, at least an effort is made and some of the scope of the enormous task of putting on the show can be gleaned, as can the devotion of her fans. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, it is 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. It has been given an artistic treatment and so is predominantly presented as a blue-toned picture. Nothing technically wrong with this at all.

Booklet

    Hardly qualifies for the title really. Just a track listing and a forty year career summed up in one hundred words or less....

    This appears to be identical to the Region 1 release, so the only substantial difference is NTSC formatting as opposed to PAL. Well not really. It seems that the Region 1 release has a Dolby Digital 4.1 soundtrack and a dts 4.1 soundtrack, at the same bit rates as our soundtracks. Now that's an interesting choice - take our five channels without the bass channel or take their four channels with the bass channel. Further complicating the issue is that whilst the usually reliable Widescreen Review has nothing really negative to say about the transfer, apart from some aliasing issues, the reviewer on DVD Empire really lays into the transfer as an almost disaster. If we accept Widescreen Review as the more authoritative source, then it sounds like there is little different between the video transfers, making your preferences regarding the audio transfers the determining factor.

    Tina Turner - One Last Time Live In Concert is another terrific concert from the lady and once again demonstrates how much better she is than all the little pretenders that run around trying to be something they will never be. There is considerable overlap of titles with the other available Tina Turner DVDs, but I suppose that is almost inevitable given the nature of this concert performance. The intense stage lighting does create significant problems at times, but that is an inherent problem with the source material and not a mastering issue. It is also a pity that we miss out on the bass channel in both five channel soundtracks. However, what we have got is generally excellent and only the rather grotesque aliasing issues early on, plus the consistent moiré problems in the video screens, mar what would otherwise be a terrific DVD. Still, for all its faults and omissions, I am very glad that we finally have Tina Turner in dts sound and I would heartily recommend this as an addition to the collection unless you demand perfection in your packages. Mind you, I am very disturbed that this DVD turned up in a transparent soft Brackley case - I trust that Warner Vision Australia are not going to do something silly with their choice of DVD cases....

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall