Gloria Estefan-Que Siga la Tradicion (2000) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Menu Animation & Audio Discography Biographies-Cast-Gloria Estefan Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	72:11
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Mo Fitzgibbon
Studio Distributor	Sony Music	Starring	Gloria Estefan
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$24.95	Music	Gloria Estefan

    I am just about losing track of the number of Gloria Estefan DVDs that have graced the Region 4 release sheets. Not that I am complaining mind you, since she produces some great music that really gets the old body moving. Indeed, this Cuban-Caribbean beat is so intoxicating that it is very hard not to make a fool of yourself and get up and dance, which was one of the overriding impressions I had of my one and only visit to Miami: such is the heavy preponderance of Cuban and other Latin American people in that city that the music there is heavily-based upon the sounds of the Caribbean. None shone more brightly in that city than Gloria Estefan, and every time you went to a bar or turned on the radio, there she was blaring out at you. If I remember nothing else of Miami, I certainly remember that great music everywhere.

    Que Siga La Tradicion sees the lady moving back into her native tongue to bring us some of the music from three of her albums: Mi Tierra, Abriendo Puertas and Alma Caribeņa. Most of the performances are videos, with just a couple of live performances thrown in for good measure. Whilst I might not be able to understand much Spanish, that really does not matter when you just listen to the music. Music overcomes any language and you don't need language skills to dig that great Latin beat. Just crank the volume up and enjoy that music. In this incarnation of a Gloria Estefan DVD, the music videos are split by behind-the-scenes footage from the likes of photo shoots, video shoots and public appearances.

    If you cannot enjoy this sort of music, then I really feel sorry for you. This is music to get the heart pumping. The actual tracks on the DVD are as follows:

Video

    The transfer is presented in a Full Frame format that is not 16x9 enhanced. You should note that this is an NTSC formatted DVD and therefore you will need to have a display device capable of displaying this format in order to see anything worthwhile.

    It needs to be remembered that the bulk of the programme is comprised of music videos, which means that they have all the usual artistic effects that generally act contrary to the aim of nice clear and sharp transfers, and that is precisely what we have here: a rather eclectic mix of video styles that range all over any given spectrum of reference. Generally, the videos are quite sharp, but some are definitely shot in a very soft manner. Detail is generally quite good, with just the odd video being anything but owing to artistic use of extreme light or over exposures. Clarity is excellent throughout and there is nothing really obvious in the way of grain. Shadow detail is usually quite decent too. There does not appear to be any low level noise infestations in any of the videos. All-in-all I would say that this is an excellent transfer of some interestingly-varied music videos, with only the inherent lower resolution of NTSC formatting to destroy the quality.

    The videos generally feature nice, bright colours that have come up very well in the transfer. Even those couple involving black and white look pretty darn good indeed. The colours are generally quite vibrant and there is nothing much here that is indicative of oversaturation, other than that inherent in some of the brightly-lit videos. Colour bleed does not appear to be an issue in the transfer.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There are just a few indications of aliasing in the transfer such as at 1:25, 1:48, 3:33, 13:46, 14:17 and 38:27 amongst others. None of these instances are really that bad but are just a tad noticeable. The NTSC formatting may also influence this aspect of the transfer, which of course no one has much control over. Otherwise, there is nothing here in the way of significant film-to-video artefacts. There are no obvious film artefacts in the transfer.

    The DVD is apparently a Dual Layer effort. I did not note a layer change. I have to say that for such a shortish programme, the use of dual layer formatting seems rather unusual.

    There are lyric subtitles on the DVD, but since my Spanish is not anything to write home about I would not be able to say how good the English subtitles are. They are however presented quite well and are quite easy to read.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are two soundtracks on the DVD, being the default English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 soundtrack and one of those dreaded Sony Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks in English. Since the songs are all sung in Spanish, with only some incidental English dialogue from Gloria Estefan, the English moniker is very much a notional one only.

    The dialogue and music comes up very well in the transfer and is easy to understand. There are no apparent audio sync problems in the transfer.

    The Linear PCM soundtrack is another good example of this uncompressed format. Nice and clear, open sounding and a worthy alternative if you cannot handle full Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

    I have to confess to approaching any Sony Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack with some reticence nowadays, in view of my recent experiences with them. This one is still not perfect, but does seem to be somewhat better than the more recent efforts. Whilst the bass channel still gets a tad too resonant at times, most notably during Con Los Anos Que Me Quedan, it does not really overwhelm the vocals as has been a recurring problem in past Sony DVDs. Indeed, this one is so much better that I would not mind hearing this on DVD-Audio. The only time that the vocals get overwhelmed in this transfer is during Cuba Libre, where the vocals are noticeably lower in volume. Other than that, this soundtrack has a wonderful presence through the surround channels and the result is a nicely encompassing sound that would rank as one of the best I have yet heard from Sony. There are no other issues with the soundtrack at all.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Well, the slick cover proudly proclaims that this has a bonus documentary and interview footage. Buggered if I can find it...

Menu

    Nothing really spectacular, although they have some minor audio and even more minor animation enhancement.

Discography

    This provides a complete listing of all albums and videos released by the lady, with each accompanied by a cover shot and complete track listing. After the albums and videos, there is then a listing of the release dates of each album, followed by a listing of the lady's Top 10 singles. We finish off with another listing of the home videos. Pretty good, even if catalogue numbers for easy ordering are not included.

Biography

    This is a complete misnomer in my view. This really is ten pages of notes relating to the Alma Caribeņa album, including notes about each song it seems. Whilst interesting enough, where is the biography we were promised?

Gallery - Photo

    Sounds exciting right? Well, four photos hardly constitutes exciting and hardly rates any worthwhile mention. They are presented in an automatic manner so no pushing buttons is required to see this extensive collection...

    Since this is an NTSC formatted all-region DVD, it seems reasonable to suggest that this is identical to the Region 1 release.

    Que Siga La Tradicion is another nice collection of songs from Gloria Estefan, this time in Spanish mode. There is nothing really wrong with the DVD other than it is too short and certain indicated extras are apparently not included on the DVD. Another essential purchase for fans.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall