Ricky Martin-The Ricky Martin Video Collection (1999) |
|
Ricky Martin-The Ricky Martin Video Collection (1999) |
|
|
| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Music |
Biographies-Cast Featurette-Behind The Scenes |
|
| Rating |
|
||
| Year Of Production | 1999 | ||
| Running Time | 39:29 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | Directed By | Various |
|
Studio
Distributor |
 Sony Music |
Starring | Ricky Martin |
| Case | Brackley-Opaque-No Lip | ||
| RPI | $24.95 | Music | Ricky Martin |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame |
English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0  (1536Kb/s)English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) |
|
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement | No | ||
| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.33:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | None | Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
However, after watching the music videos, I have learnt to appreciate Ricky just a little bit more. Well, for one thing, he is devastatingly spunky and handsome, even to my jaded eyes. Secondly, the selection of songs here does exhibit some emotional/melodic range. And thirdly, I think he sings a lot better in Spanish than he does in English. We are treated to both English and Spanish versions of two songs (Livin' La Vida Loca and She's All I Ever Had), and in both cases I found the Spanish versions to be far superior to the English ones.
Born in Puerto Rico, Ricky Martin shot into world-wide fame when his song La Copa de la Vida (The Cup of Life) was selected as the official song of the World Cup France '98. His performance of the same song at the 41st annual Grammy Awards was so electrifying that it quickly captured fans from around the world. In that same night, his song Vuelve won the Grammy for Best Latin Pop Performance.
Released in 1999, Ricky Martin, Ricky's English language debut album, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart and subsequently became the #1 album in ten international markets including the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Spain, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, and the pan-European Music Media chart. This collection of music videos feature selected songs from that album, including Livin' La Vida Loca which became the #1 single in five international markets including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Ireland.
I quite enjoyed watching the music videos. They are quite stylish and somewhat reminiscent of various films I like, including What Dreams May Come and Wings of Desire.
| 1. Livin' La Vida Loca (English) 2. She's All I Ever Had (English) 3. La Bomba (Spanish) 4. Perdido Sin Tí (Spanish) 5. Livin' La Vida Loca (Spanish) | 6. Vuelve (Spanish) 7. María (Spanglish) 8. Bella (She's All I Ever Had) (Span) 9. The Cup Of Life (Live Grammy Perf) |
| Title | Aspect Ratio | Comments |
| Livin' La Vida Loca (English) | 1.33:1 | This is quite sharp and colourful. No artefacts detected, but the source shows minor amounts of grain. |
| She's All I Ever Had | 1.66:1 | I quite like the video transfer for this, even though the colours are a bit unnatural. The effect is somewhat like a pastel version of the film "What Dreams May Come." There is some shimmering in the window blinds. |
| La Bomba (Spanish) | 1.33:1 | This transfer features rather vibrant colours, but the source shows a moderate amount of grain. |
| Perdido Sin Tí | 1.33:1 | This is in black and white, and occasionally exhibits minor chroma smearing. There is also minor posterization of the skin tones around faces. |
| Livin' La Vida Loca (Spanish) | 1.33:1 | The transfer is substantially the same as the English version. |
| Vuelve (Spanish) | 1.33:1 | The transfer for this appears a little soft, but it could also be due to the use of a soft lens. There is some shimmering evident at 23:42-23:47 and some evidence of haloing. |
| María (Spanglish) | 1.66:1 | This appears to be shot in a mixture of B&W and colour, but the black and white scenes show some vestiges of colour, notably blue and green. The colour scenes have slightly below average colour saturation. I'm not sure whether these "colour artefacts" and saturation are intentional. Again, the transfer is somewhat soft, with grain noticeable in some scenes. |
| Bella (She's All I Ever Had) (Spanish) | 1.66:1 | The transfer is substantially the same as the English version. |
| The Cup Of Life (Live Grammy Performance) (The Official Song of The World Cup, France '98 | 1.33:1 | This has desaturated colours, and also minor ringing and shimmering. It looks like it was probably upconverted from NTSC to PAL. The black levels in this transfer are also rather poor. |
| Sharpness |  |
| Shadow Detail |  |
| Colour | |
| Grain/Pixelization | |
| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
| Overall | |
The PCM track seems to be mastered at an extremely low level. I had to turn the volume control all the way to -3 dB - the highest I have ever turned it to ever for any audio source. It doesn't seem too bad once the volume is turned up, but seems somewhat lacking in extreme high frequency content.
In contrast, the Dolby Digital track is extremely loud (Dialog Normalization has been set to an offset of +4 dB). It appears as if the original stereo material has been put through some sort of surround processor, creating the usual over-blown and unrealistic surround ambience. Whether as a result of the surround processing or the encoding into Dolby Digital, this audio track seems to have a lot of sibilance in the high frequencies that becomes somewhat annoying to listen to after a while.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
| Surround Channel Use |  |
| Subwoofer | |
| Overall | |
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-626D, using Component output |
| Display | Sony VPL-VW10HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics 16x9 matte white screen (203cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
| Amplification | Denon AVR-3300 |
| Speakers | Front left/right: B&W DM603; centre: B&W CC6S2, rear left/right: B&W DM601 |