INXS-Live Baby Live (1991)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	92:14
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (56:44)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	David Mallet
Studio Distributor	PolyGram Video Int Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	INXS
Case	?
RPI	$36.95	Music	INXS

Video

    Considering the age and nature of the source material, I was reasonably surprised by the quality of this transfer.  It has its problems, most notably excess grain and several other video artefacts, but overall this is a quite watchable video effort.

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

    Shot using some 17 cameras, the transfer is of only average sharpness, with some shots particularly well rendered and others that have a certain muddiness pervading the image. Whether this is because of the lighting or is caused by the excessive grain is difficult to determine, however it's not overly distracting.

    Grain is a bigger problem. Present throughout, it does become distracting at times, mostly when dark blue lighting is used. There is also frequent low-level noise present when the lights drop right off.

    Colours are the highlight of the otherwise average video. All too often, concerts play havoc with oversaturation and bleeding, but these have been tamed here to such a level that only Kirk Pengilly's red jacket cops only the slightest hint of colour bleed.

    I didn't notice any distracting MPEG artefacts. Video artefacts were slightly more noticeable with a handful of minor shimmers on some straight edges and another artefact that appeared as a vertical black line down the screen at 85:13 lasting for over a second.

    There are no subtitle tracks on offer.

    This DVD is a dual-layered, RSDL-formatted disc, with the layer change placed at 56:44, directly between Suicide Blonde and What You Need. It is rather well-placed.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Given my good fortune in having my last two concert DVD reviews feature dts soundtracks, I was slightly disappointed to learn that this disc only featured Linear PCM 2.0 and Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtracks with the PCM track as the default. I listened to the whole concert twice in order to make a full comparison of both tracks. I must say that I favour the Dolby Digital 2.0 track over the PCM by quite a considerable margin.  There is a definite difference in the vocals on the Dolby Digital track that provides a wider dynamic range and more oomph at the lower end. The Dolby Digital track is also mastered just a little louder than the PCM track.

    Dialogue is fair. Michael Hutchence doesn't communicate a great deal with the crowd, though when he does it is difficult to understand (mostly due to mumbling). The vocals are pretty clear, though again, at times it can be difficult to work out what he is actually singing. There are no audio sync problems.

    There is no surround use and the subwoofer use is limited to its usual capacity for a 2.0 stereo track. You could happily listen to this concert with it switched off.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio

    Hardly qualifying as an extra these days, this is a 40 second snippet from the concert version of Mystify and plays in Dolby Digital 2.0.

    I can't find any reference to this title being released in Region 1. It is available in Region 2 with exactly the same specification as the Region 4 DVD.

    INXS-Live Baby Live is a fairly bare bones disc with no extras at all, but don't let that dissuade you. Fans of INXS will lap this up no end, as video concerts featuring the band are a rare commodity. The fact that this concert runs for over an hour and a half should persuade many others to take a look, since a large number of recently reviewed concert titles have been of quite short duration.

    The video is better than I was expecting given the age of the source, and aside from grain problems is watchable.

    The audio is average but I couldn't help but think what a remixed dts 5.1 soundtrack would have sounded like.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall