Lil Bow Wow-Beware of Video (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Anim & Audio Biographies-Cast-Lil Bow Wow Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	39:45
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	So So Def Sony Music	Starring	Lil Bow Wow
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$34.95	Music	Lil Bow Wow

    To most of us, he is known as Lil Bow Wow, but to his mum his name is Shad Moss. This 14 year old started singing when he was only 6 years old and his first appearance was on stage with Snoop Dog on the Chronic Tour.

    Lil Bow Wow made such an impression on Snoop Dog that he was asked to continue the rest of the tour with the band and do the opening act each night. It was also Snoop Dog that gave Shad the nickname that has stuck to this day. His first single shot to number 1 in September 2000, selling 2 million copies in the USA alone. His more recent hits have also done extremely well in the charts.

    Lil Bow Wow has also gone on to feature in other famous rappers' videos, namely Will Smith's Wild Wild West and Jermaine Dupri's Big Momma's House.

    Obviously, I am not within the target audience of this DVD. Personally, I found Lil Bow Wow hard to understand, but for his many fans there is technically little to complain about with this transfer.

Video

    The transfer is presented in various aspect ratios ranging from 1.33:1 to 1.85:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The video transfer of this DVD varies from generally very good to average for outside shots done with a hand-held camera. The video footage and behind-the-scenes camera work were always clean. The shadow detail was also quite good, again testament to the quality camera work done during the filming of each film clip. There was no low level noise.

    The colours were bright and true to form and I didn't detect any irregularities. As with most music clips, there is a mixture of both dark scenes and others containing strong vibrant lighting. There were no problems caused by the transfer and it fits with the style for most rapping videos.

    There were some very mild MPEG artefacts seen, but they were not specific to any area. Aliasing is very rare and very mild when it does occur. Film artefacts are visible but rare and not distracting.

    There are no subtitle tracks present on this disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio transfer provided little directional sound and my overall impression was that the music was fed at equal levels to each speaker.

    There are two audio tracks on this DVD; an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track and an English Linear PCM Stereo track. I listened to the 5.1 track in its entirety and then listened to sections of the PCM track.

    The dialogue was not clear, but it is Lil Bow Wow's mumbling that is at fault rather than a problem caused by the transfer. There was some hiss apparent during the PCM Stereo track but I didn't detect any in the Dolby Digital 5.1 track.

    Audio sync did not appear to be a problem with this transfer.

    The surround channels were very aggressively used for the music. They were mixed more to use all of the available speakers rather than mixing to provide directional placement for the different instruments.

    The subwoofer was highly active during all songs. During the song Jumpin' Jumpin', the sub was used excessively and I ended up reducing the bass in order to enjoy the song.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu design is themed around the content in a ratio of 1.33:1.

Biography

Photo Gallery

    There are only 5 posed photos in this gallery, and I think that a lot more should have been included for fans.

    The Region 1 release is the same as the Region 4 except for standard NTSC/PAL formatting differences.

    Lil Bow Wow made no big impression on me, purely based on personal music tastes.

    The video quality is acceptable.

    The audio was mixed purely to use all speakers rather than providing good directional music.

    The extras are lacking.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall