Genesis-The Genesis Songbook (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Anim & Audio Featurette-11 Discography
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	98:57 (Case: 100)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Bob Smeaton
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$39.95	Music	Genesis

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	German French Spanish Portuguese Italian Dutch	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Genesis is a band that had been around since the late 1960s until it called it quits in 1997 (not discounting a comeback of course). This documentary is a journey through the history of the band, from when it was composed of Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Chris Anthony and Jonathon Silver, through the various incarnations of band members. It uses the release of various Genesis albums as marker points in its history. The band itself was rather different than most in that they rarely sought to create or release material that was considered Top Ten until well into their history. Their first half dozen albums are an eclectic mix of synthesiser and guitar that was quite unlike anything else at the time.

    The band members talk about their initial influences when the group first formed, from being a collection of songwriters determined to write songs as a group rather than as individuals to the need to perform their own material when they discovered that nobody else was interested in what they were writing. After an uninspiring first album, Genesis began to find its place with the release of Trespass. Around this time, the first of many personnel changes occurred with Jonathon Silver and Chris Anthony leaving, being replaced by Phil Collins and Steve Hackett. After three more studio albums, each a little more obtuse than the previous (Foxtrot/Nursery Cryme/Selling England by the Pound) their creative output as a unit culminated in the release of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and the departure soon thereafter of Peter Gabriel. The rest, as they say is history, because with the departure of Gabriel, there was a shift in the band towards shorter, more commercial music and they went on to become one of the most enduring groups of their time.

    For Genesis fans, this might be a little on the lightweight side, although it moves along at a brisk pace and the hour felt a lot longer with the amount of information it disseminated about the band members, their feelings towards the music and towards each other. The bonus material pads out a lot of the sections of the main documentary and adds additional detail that is left hanging to some degree. Interviews are presented with all the main band members, including tour members, the band's manager Tony Smith, journalist Chris Welsh and others who followed the progress of the band and its music through almost 30 years. I found the disc moderately interesting from the standpoint of being a fan of early Genesis music, but much of the information I already knew without the detail.

Video

    A fairly standard documentary format is used by this DVD, with interviews of various band members interspersed with music videos and stills.

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

    The interview footage is exceptionally good in most regards. The overall sharpness, whilst not exemplary, is very decent. There was no evidence of any edge enhancement and there was substantial fine detail,  giving a feeling of crispness to the transfer. Shadow detail was similar, with the studio settings used to conduct the interviews offering good depth with substantial detail on offer. The grain is also minimal and noise never presents itself as a problem. The video clip excerpts are the opposite for the most part. Highly grainy and often exhibiting blooming both in the whites and blacks, many of the film clips were blurry, indistinct and obviously shot on inferior stock and showing their age.

    As above, the colour can be separated out according to what is on offer. Apart from the interview with Peter Gabriel in which the background was overly lit, the colours exhibit an excellent palette with a wide colour range. They are not saturated but are vivid and bright without bleeding. Film footage often exhibits heavy colour bleed with a poor colour display, often showing nothing but blues and purples with oversaturation of these colours and little variety.

    Apart from a slight shimmering on Tony Bank's keyboard at 25:46, the interviews are free from almost all visible film-to-video artefacts with no MPEG artefacts noted at all. There are a few flecks and blemishes here and there that you can see, but nothing that distracts. On the other hand, the filmed concerts and video clips exhibit plenty of artefacts from hairs on the camera lens to dirt marks, constant black and white flecks, scratches and even the odd bug on the lens from the look of it (27:04).

    The subtitles are annoying at times, placed in the lower third of the screen but up from their normal position at the bottom of the screen. Often, they overwrite the name of the person on-screen which is a nuisance. They are readable but badly placed

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Considering this is mostly a documentary-style offering, the two audio tracks on offer were an interesting contrast. Both tracks are in English - the first in Dolby Digital 5.1 with a bitrate of 448 kilobits per second and the other a Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 at 224 kilobits per second. To be honest, apart from some minor surround work, listening to this in Dolby Stereo wasn't a major problem although you do miss out occasionally on what little envelopment there is when the surrounds finally kick in. For those of you with ProLogic systems, you will find the 2.0 track exceptionally good, but I chose to listen to the Dolby Digital 5.1 for the most part.

    The dialogue is excellent and very clean. No audio sync problems were detected.

    The music consists mostly of excepts from various tracks by the band and some minor pieces by Banks, Hackett and Rutherford, except for the acoustic versions of the songs listed in the Extras section. There is also some music from various videos on offer which is often a little distorted because of age and the medium they were recorded on.

    There is some surround activity on this disc although it only really stands out on rare occasions. Being mostly dialogue driven or acoustic, only the odd excerpt from a music video adds noticeably to the sound envelope from the rears. If you listen closely you can tell there is some redirected music being channelled through them, but it has little volume or value for the most part.

    The .1 channel is poor. There is absolutely no value in turning your subwoofer on at all since all it does is sputter every now and again. The music is basically not bass driven, so you aren't missing a lot. If your front speakers are equipped with semi-decent woofers, you will find that the disc sounds much better with no subwoofer active and all .1 activity being redirected to your mains.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio & Animation

Scene Selection Animation & Audio

Featurette

Discography

    Although listed as a Region 0 disc, no mention of this being available in Region 1 has been found (so far). Region 2 (http://www.blackstar.co.uk) has the disc available for sale but the details of the DVD look the same.

    The Genesis Songbook is very much for fans of the band. The video is fairly reasonable without being exceptional, with the audio being of similar quality. Extras are fairly light-on, including some additional material to flesh out the initial documentary with a couple of acoustic numbers.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall