The Scorpions-Acoustica

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Making Of Music Video-When Love Kills Love Music Video-Send Me An Angel Music Video-Hurricane 2001 Featurette-When Love Kills Love Rehearsal Edit Featurette-The Early Days Featurette-Career Highlights Featurette-The Songs Featurette-The Acoustic Flying V Featurette-The Voice Featurette-Looking Back Featurette-The Future Discography Biographies-Cast
Rating
Year Of Production	?
Running Time	113:03 (Case: 157)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Klaus Meine Ralph Rieckermann James Kottak Rudolf Schenker Matthias Jabs
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$39.95	Music	The Scorpions

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English dts 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	German	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Unfortunately not a lot of the Scorpions excellent material has made it to Australian shores, which is very surprising given the quality of tracks presented on Acoustica. The songs that most of us will be familiar with, whether or not you have attributed the singing to the Scorpions, would be the aforementioned "Wind of Change" and "Send Me An Angel". I must admit that I was not a "fan" of this band at all, in fact the only song that I had credited to the Scorpions was "Wind of Change". With my limited knowledge in hand I was very surprised to find this band had a 30 year history and had released 19 albums.

    Acoustica was recorded live in Lisboa, Portugal. In fact the concert was performed in an ancient Portuguese monastery. Acoustica is a single live performance that was recorded and released in both DVD and CD format (just my opinion - get the DVD). The performance lasts for nearly two hours and covers songs from the entire career of the Scorpions. Moreover, all songs were given new arrangements for the live (unplugged) performances, incorporating additional musicians and instruments for a full-bodied sound. Klaus Meine has a very powerful, and unique, voice that rises above the music and lays the lyrics out for all to hear. The performance of the ensemble band is excellent throughout and is captured superbly by this DVD.

    The Scorpions are a very well-known band throughout Europe, the U.S, and (apparently) Portugal. It is unfortunate that their material has received limited airplay in Australia. Hopefully, this DVD can raise their profile somewhat. If you want a refreshing rock performance then don't hesitate, buy this DVD.

Video

    The video is presented in the 16x9 enhanced ratio of 1.78:1. This would appear to be another DTV recording judging by the lack of film artefacts.

    The sharpness of this transfer is a mixed bag. Close shots and most mid-range shots show a high level of detail. The same cannot be said for long shots - they are often quite poorly detailed. This is most noticeable in long shots of the audience where it is difficult to discern individual people. Long shots of the stage also have limited detail on display. Shadow detail is generally good, although in some of the long shots shadow detail does drop a little. I am uncertain if this is a fault of the transfer or the recording. I suspect that the transfer is at fault as some scenes have excellent levels of detail on offer.

    There are some problems with colour bleed evident in this transfer. Klaus Meine's feet are lost in a blue haze at 26:30 and 40:45 when the stage is illuminated by powerful stage lighting. Apart from the few instances of colour bleed, the remainder of the transfer has nicely saturated colours - just don't expect them to leap out of the screen.

    MPEG artefacts are fairly numerous throughout the transfer. Pixelization is obvious mostly in the audience (9:15 on a young lady's face is a good example) and a swinging stage light also causes fairly nasty pixelization at 71:26. Posterization is evident on Klaus Meine's face at 8:40, 10:39, and a few other occasions throughout the feature.

    Aliasing and interlacing problems occur frequently throughout this transfer. Aliasing is obvious on cymbals, instrument stands and even Klaus Meine's jacket. Interlacing artefacts are also obvious in some boom shots of the stage. These overhead shots show all the performers on stage and there are noticeable interlacing artefacts on legs, instruments stands and even a cello. One example of this can be found at 34:19 for a few seconds.

    There are limited subtitles available with the extras presented on this disc. However, they are only in German so I could not verify their accuracy.

    This disc is RSDL formatted. It is quite noticeable, occurring during applause, but not distracting.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The bass presence actually decreases as you move through soundtrack options. The PCM track has very impressive bass presence, the Dolby Digital a little less so, and the DTS less again. Be aware that the bass in the DTS mix is not poor, in fact the bass is very sharp, well defined, and makes it's presence felt. It just could have been a little better.

    There are three audio tracks available on this disc. A Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 track at 1536kbps, a Dolby Digital 5.1 track at the higher bitrate of 448kbps, and a DTS 5.1 soundtrack. I listened primarily to the DTS mix, sampling a number of tracks in Dolby Digital and briefly listened to the PCM track.

    I previously mentioned the slight distortion in the vocals on the Dolby Digital and Linear PCM tracks. I must emphasise that this is very minor and only made obvious by the crystal-clear DTS mix. Audio sync is fine throughout - there is no miming here.

    The music is what this DVD is all about and it is superbly presented. The 5.1 mix engineers have done an excellent job with an open soundfield, providing constant surround activity. You are placed right in the middle of the concert experience. The surround presence is well-suited to the music. Generally, percussion is placed in the surround channels, but it is done subtly. This is one transfer where switching to the PCM track really disappoints as there is simply no comparison to the 5.1 mixes.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Live | Songs Only

Featurette - Making Of (13:55)

Music Videos (17:48)

Featurette - Interview Bites (11:09)

Discography

Biography

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

• Everything

    The video quality is a little disappointing

    The audio quality is excellent, coming ever-so-close to a reference quality rating.

    The extras are very good but there is a little room for improvement.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall