BUY

General		Extras
Category	Music	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	2000	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	62:22	Other Extras	Web Link
RSDL/Flipper	Dual Layer	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Movie
Region	2,3,4,5,6	Director	L.A. Johnson
Studio Distributor	Warner Reprise Video Warner Vision	Starring	Neil Young
Case	Super Jewel
RPI	$39.95	Music	Neil Young

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Dolby Digital	5.1
16x9 Enhancement		Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 448Kb/s) English (Linear PCM 48/20 2.0, 1920Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	No
Subtitles	English	Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, credits roll during the closing song

    Neil Young is not particularly animated during this program. In fact, he remains more or less static unless he is moving between instruments. The audience clearly loves him, although the repartee between himself and his audience is extremely limited indeed. He just basically sits there, plays his guitar and harmonica and sings. I guess that's his style, however it does mean that in order to really enjoy this program, you would need to be a die-hard fan of the man to begin with - casual fans need not apply.

    One particular thing that I found a tad odd about this programme was the fact that one of the camera operators seemed to have an unnatural fascination with Neil's harmonicas, as we get lots of close-up shots of Neil wetting and cleaning them. Still, I guess it's better than being in the front row and being covered in spittle.

    The tracklisting is as follows;
 

1. Intro 2. Looking Forward 3. Out Of Control 4. Buffalo Springfield Again 5. Philadelphia 6. Daddy Went Walkin' 7. Distant Camera

8. Red Sun 9. Long May You Run 10. Harvest Moon 11. The Great Divide 12. Slowpoke 13. Good To See You 14. Silver & Gold

Video

    The transfer is very sharp and very detailed. In fact, it is often too sharp, giving this transfer a very harsh look. Edge enhancement has been used a little to excess in this transfer, and in combination with the very stark and basic lighting scheme employed, the resultant look is often quite harsh and unpleasant. Having said that, the upside of this is that there is a great deal of detail revealed in the foreground of this transfer. Shadow detail is essentially non-existent, with everything but the starkly lit foreground being more or less completely black. This is clearly a deliberate design choice on the part of the lighting designers of this live show, but it does get a bit much on the eyes at times. There is no low level noise in the blackness, fortunately.

    The colours were generally very basic, with only a few examples of extreme blue, purple and red lighting on offer. Generally, Neil Young was lit in white, so the foreground image generally was quite natural-looking colour-wise. There was a very small amount of chroma noise evident when the rear cyclorama was completely blue-lit, but generally the transfer was free of this artefact. In fact, the definition was remarkably good when monochromatic lighting was used. Notable in this regard was Out Of Control, a heavily red lit song which is nonetheless extremely well-defined. No colour bleeding was apparent at all.

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen in this transfer. Aliasing was a minor problem, mainly as a result of the excessive sharpness inherent in this transfer, and many objects shimmered subtly throughout the transfer. There were a number of disappointing momentary lapses of focus throughout this program, and one jump in the image at 19:54 which looked like it occurred because the offending camera had been hit accidentally.

Audio

    The 5.1 soundtrack was encoded at a very high level, and I listened to it at 5dB below my normal listening level. It was very bright and somewhat harsh sounding.

    Neil Young's vocals were always clear and easy to understand, within the limitations of his laconic style of delivery. There were no audio sync problems. There was, however, a considerable amount of hiss to be heard in the soundtrack, which significantly distracted from it at times.

    The surround channels had little to do. This was very much a front hemispheric mix, with even crowd noises predominately mixed into the left and right front channels rather than into the rear channels. As such, it was not at all an enveloping soundtrack.

    The .1 channel also had little to do during this transfer other than during one song involving the organ, where it contributed a little support to the bottom end of the soundtrack.

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    The video quality is passable, albeit a little harsh and oversharpened.

    The audio quality is acceptable.

    There are virtually no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna (read my bio)
27th July 2000