Peter Gabriel's Secret World Live is widescreen (1 Viewer)

[RaulR]

I just got the DVD and won't have time for a proper viewing until tomorrow evening. I have watched a couple of numbers, though, and I can make the following comments (in comparison to my VHS copy):

The good news: video quality is very good, and the sound is terrific.

The bad news: They've definitely cropped the top and bottom of the original image to get the widescreen picture.

Edited to add: I've just viewed the whole disc, and I have to amend my "good news" to "bad news." I've seen the pixelation problems noted below (although I still think the video quality at its best is more than acceptable). As for the sound, it's very clean and nicely separated, but it's way different from the original mix, as if they did new overdubs.

 

[Clint B]

Wow. I guess I'm still going to have to read more opinions about this DVD before I buy it, but if they've screwed with the OAR of 1.33:1 for some misguided notion of "widescreen" then I'll pass. It's a shame, too, because I was looking forward to it. While I can't believe I'm saying this, there's always the VHS. :frowning:

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Letterboxed was very popular on LD. If the original intended ratio was widescreen, they certainly could have released it wide on LD.

I'm extremely skeptical that a shot-for-video concert from 10 years ago would have been composed widescreen and released open-matte. There has been no indication that this was intended for theatrical viewing like 'Stop Making Sense', it is a video film.

 

[Yumbo]

just to clarify, that it looks poor on my 50" plasma.

it would look 'better' on a smaller screen, no doubt.

But proof above says it has been matted.

have faith people.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Well, if it was shot on film, it could be matted and look absolutely stellar. Terminator 2 is 'matted'.

Let's not automatically mix up the matting/composition and the picture quality issues, because there is not necessarily a relationship.

 

[MikeM]

I just picked this up at Best Buy today and I have some bad news for those who haven't purchased this DVD yet.

1. The video quality is absolutely horrible. I understand that this is dark concert footage, shot about 10 years ago, but the artifacts and overall video noise is beyond distracting, it's awful. (Viewed on a 57" widescreen tv for reference)

2. The DTS sound is slick, and sounds way too polished for a live audio track. Sounds good, just way too remixed in my opinion.

3. Major lip sync issues with the DTS track on my Panasonic RP82. The video is glaringly off from the DTS audio.

I was sooooooo looking forward to this DVD, and unfortunately this is the worst presentation I've seen on DVD in a long time.

...even the contents/case were upside down! Weird! (When opened correctly, the disc/art were upside down....nothing big, just strange.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

MikeM,

Disappointing. How is the stereo track? What is the format and does it sound more natural to you?

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Can anyone who has the disc confirm severe pixilization at the end of Solisbury Hill, and some during Kiss That Frog (look at Tony Levin's face in the 49th minute)?

Bad video...goes back to store for replacement unless someone else sees it.

Good audio. The DTS track is 1509Kbps.

- Steve

 

[Yumbo]

Mike,

we must be watching the same disc!

yup, the DTS track sounds a bit 'fake'. Instruments coming from behind you - that's not live.

 

[MikeM]

Disappointing. How is the stereo track? What is the format and does it sound more natural to you?

There is a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio option as well. Both the 2.0 and 5.1 mix seem a bit more 'real' and toned down. The DTS mix is STRONG, and although it rocks on its own, all three mixes to me seem totally apart from the video footage. It makes you think they are mouthing the words and none of this is live, in my opinion. Sad.

 

[Ken Seeber]

The picture quality of this DVD really is offensive, given Gabriel's track record of caring about quality.

Comparing the DVD to my old VHS copy, the cropping is entirely noticable --- it's the old framing with matte applied, with no care whatsoever given to reframing (as if that would make it any better), and the compression artifacts are awful.

Reading the closing credits revealed that "Secret World Live" was shot on film, and from watching the making-of doc, it appeared to be 35 mm Arriflex equipment, so we can't blame the problems on an old NTSC video source. Surely the elements exist to do a much better job.

I also couldn't help noticing Universal's catalog inside the case, trumpeting that all their music videos are in widescreen. I can't help but wonder if some idiot in the marketing department didn't just make a blanket decision to release music DVDs in widescreen without regard to OAR.

 

[Yumbo]

could Philip Hamm care to comment now?

are we all speculating?

do our opinions not have credibility?

:b

 

[Philip Hamm]

Your original comments, Chris, were obviously speculation. It's unfortunate that the ball was dropped on the DVD release of this fantastic video concert. I'm happy I have the excellent LaserDisc.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Peter almost always overdubs his live work. I didn't find the Laserdisc particularly objectionable. Perhaps even the new stereo mix is more 'cooked'.

As far as surround goes, I'm rarely a fan of instruments behind me on studio discs, and never on live discs.

I wonder if the special effects for the 'title cards' that introduce each song were created on video. Perhaps due to this and/or out of sheer laziness they cropped/scaled the video into fake widescreen?

I'm going to make a wild guess that the disc is a DVD-5 to boot.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

The disc is DVD-9.

- Steve

 

[Michael English]

Yup, I can confirm that I see heavy pixilization at 49:26 on the closeup shot...

What about 58:32? Anyone see extreme pixilization at this time?

 

[MikeM]

What about 58:32? Anyone see extreme pixilization at this time?

Yup, I see it there as well.

I can't imagine ever watching this DVD due to the video quality alone from this DVD. It's probably the worst DVD I've seen since I popped in the Manhunter Disc 2 from the LE 2-DVD set.

It's an absolute shame. I'm returning it.

 

[Yumbo]

Phil,

My original comments were observation.
My follow-up was deduction.

Have you seen the disc - no.

You'll always be speculating. :b

Shall I send you the DVD?
It still looks horrible, like I first said.

End of story.

 

[Wayne W]

I went ahead and opened my copy last night and I'll agree that the video leaves something to be desired, but it didn't look that bad on my 27" TV. One of the very few perks of not having the $$ for a nice system. The only other copy I have of this concert movie is on VHS and I haven't had a working player in years. I doubt I could track down a laserdisc copy so I'm going to keep it. The reason I picked up the disc is because I love the concert. I enjoy a top notch transfer as much as the rest of you and would probably be bitching a lot more if it was a movie DVD. I just can't see missing out on the great content of the DVD because I'm not happy with the transfer.

If they go back and do a better transfer I'll pick that one up as well.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Some guy at the Hoffman forums said this:

I have the DVD and it does suck. Big time. The picture is cropped top and bottom, and the image frequently goes soft and actually breaks up into pixels a couple of times. As for the sound mix, I've only listened to the two-channel mix so far, and it sounds _way_ different from the VHS. I almost think they did some new overdubbing; I could do an A/B comparison to be certain, but frankly I'm so disappointed and pissed off with this release I'd rather return it and forget about it.

Maybe they just downmixed the new surround track into stereo!