Concert dvd recommendations - Page 39

I'm off to Walmart tomorrow.

Anyone who's been waiting on some good prices on concert DVDs, the DeepDiscountDVD 20 percent off sale is a good way to get them- I know I'll have to pick a few things up .......

" althought Tommy Lee took sick and was not in it. The chick for Hole filled in and I must say did a very good job."

Tommy lee was not in the band at the time Lewd Crued and tattooed. The hole drummer was replacing some other dude who is not worth mention.

I agree the new crue dvd sucks.

Anyone have The Who - Quadophenia? How is it and, in particular, the audio quality?

Ed

i totally agree with you. the vhs taped concert was every bit a groundbreaker as the talking heads much later release.
i don't understand why they don't relize that we need him on dvd before we lose the option.
every concert he plays in the usa is a sellout before you can get online.
for the last couple of years i've tried to go ANYWHERE to see him but no tickets available.
ever read robbie robinson's take on VAN THE MAN role in the last waltz
we need some dvd's over here!

Great review, John. Even though my kids scream bloody murder anytime I try to put anything Beatles related on, your review makes me want to pick this one up anyway. Obviously you've watched other McCartney live DVD's, and this one is best?

I was really impressed with the way he belted out "Sgt Peppers' Lonely Heartsclub Band" on the Live 8 disc.

van morrison cardiff coal exchange, there is a region free version it plays on all dvd players according to my information on ebay.This item location is in Nottingham, england.There are 9 available. http://cgi.*********/van-morrison-in-concert-dvd regards grassy

I've been trying to decide between this DVD and the "Secret World Live" concert. How do these two discs differ? Is there a significant difference in SQ, PQ and general performance? Thanks for any input.

I think that is OK

"Paul McCartney In Red Square"

Well I went out and dropped $20.00 on this concert DVD after reading a review on this thread.

I sure hate to waste $20.00 like that, I could not even make it through one song, the video was terrible, all I could think of was this must be a bootleg DVD that someone shot with there Walmart camcorder. This video was shot in 2003, you would think they could have at least made it watchable. This DVD reminds me of some of the concerts they throw together out of film that has been kicking around on the cutting room floor.

The audio had nothing going for it either.

Do not waste your money.

And please no more reviews from someone that watched the concert DVD on a 13" TV

Deron.

The video quality is good for a live rock concert, and IMHO the music and energy makes up for a little grain, the camerawork is top notch ...

If "movie-quality" video is a requirement, your gonna be highly disappointed watching most historical rock shows on DVD out there ... I watch 10-20 shows a year, and only a few of them are HD-like ....

The DTS and Dolby tracks were excellent, the guitars and drums really jump out at you, what are you playing it on, a Bose Lifestyle?

Here is a quote from DVD Talk:
"The Dolby and DTS 5.1 tracks are lush, with nice separation between the surround speakers and the center channel. Audience noise is pushed to the exteriors, along with some of the band and vocals, while Paul is dead center, with some bleed to the surrounds. The DTS track has a slight lead in terms of the depth of sound, but it's not as dramatic a difference as it can be on other DVDs. "

I thought Paul in Red Square was a great show & I'd have bought it had it been anamorphic WS. I had no complaints at all with the sound.

I just can't fathom why such a recent release was done with a 4 X 3 aspect ratio. Is an anamorphic disc, when displayed on a 4 X 3 display, wide screen or full screen?

John

What type of display did you watch it on?

The video quality was piss poor compared to most of the concert DVD's that have been shot in the past few years that had any type of effort put into them. The image being 4X3 tells alot, not being geared towards higher end displays.

Having the Eagles concert mentioned in the same thread is really quite misleading, as the eagles concert is 9 of 10 and the Paul concert is no where near that.

To me it is just a huge dissapointment as the technology is there to produce a top notch presentation. This is more on the lines of what I would expect to see from some budget band that does not have two pennies to rub together.

This DVD will end up with the other unwatchable DVD's that I give to my friend. He could care less about image or audio quality, he displays them with his LCD light cannon on his concrete block wall in his studio and everyone gets drunk and has a grand old time

Deron.

I watched it on a 54 inch Panasonic RPTV, about 3 1/2 years old, using component 480P.

I may edit it down to a 6 in video quality, I know theres videophiles on this forum that will probably shred my "8", but honestly I was blown away by the whole multi-camera spectacle ... and the video was never bad, it just wasnt top notch.

Remember this is an outdoor, uncontrolled light environment, and the Eagles always do their shows in a highly controlled lighting environment. This is a much more spontaneous show. Yes Paul could have used HD cameras like the Eagles do.

I said something like this DVD was NOT Eagles A/V quality, I was trying to avoid comparisons, but anyways, your probably right, it probrobably should be a 6 or a 7 for video... and a 10 for content.

The band had so much more energy than the lethargic perfectionism of the Eagles, that I actually prefer this show in many respects.

It's widescreen.

Ed

My system always stretches 4x3 disks unless I tell it not too.

This disk looked pretty good stretched

I edited the video down to a 6, reluctantly hah

I heartily recomend the new u2 live in chicago dvd.

Do you have Live from Boston? I'm wondering whether the audio quality is much better on the Chicago. I find Boston almost unlistenable.

Ed

The two shows, like the two discs, are night and day.

Secret World Live was shot at a time when VHS ruled, and the best you could hope for was Laser Disc. I bought the Laser Disc when it came out, and it has been a perennial favorite in my house at parties and get togethers. It is a great show theatrically, staged and shot in Italy at the height of Peter's success following So and Us.

Paula Cole is amazing, Tony Levin is excellent as always, and the sets and staging make for a great visual experience, even if the PQ is not to todays standards. After listening to the Laser Disc all these years, I was anxious to hear the 5.1 audio when the DVD finally came out. The show was originally mixed for Stereo CD and Video, and I was told that PG spent almost a year in post-production back then doing overdubs and tweaking the audio.

Knowing that, and enjoying the stereo mixes for 10 years I have to say that the 5.1 was a disappointment compared to the original mixes. Perhaps they used the TC Electronic faux-surround processor rather than re-mix in 5.1 from the multi-track masters (as Brian May and Roy Thomas Baker did for the excellent Night At The Opera 5.1 DVD-A release), and the DSP algorithm in the TC made choices that come across a little flat.

But the show itself, and the performance of the band, and the set list and a younger Peter Gabriel all add up to a great experience IMHO and a worthwhile purchase.

The Growing Up Live disc is very different in style and content. Peter is older, wiser, yet no less theatrical and in this case actually a little more risk-taking in terms of pushing the envelope. Since the show was shot more recently, he takes full advantage of the new technologies and the PQ is far superior, and the audio was designed from the get-go for a 5.1 release.

In lieu of Paula Cole we get Melanie Gabriel, singing with her Dad in a poignant rendition of "Don't Give Up" and a hair-raising (well, lowering actually) version of "Downside Up". Melanie is not a strong singer, and filling Paula Cole's and Kate Bush's shoes would be a daunting task regardless. But the fact that Peter chose to do the tout with his daughter, in what very well may have been his only opportunity to do so, is sweet and touching and makes their performances together very compelling.

Sonically, Growing Up Live is a great disc to show off your system, or to remind yourself why you set up a home theatre in the first place (indeed, I use it to demo Focal studio monitors at trade shows). Visually the disc is stunning - well shot, dark when it should be (the shows are at night and the stage is gray and black) and bright when it makes dramatic sense.

There are 3 mind-blowing set pieces that never fail to amaze my guests when they watch this concert, and I always get the same response - "that's incredible - I wish I'd seen that tour when it came around".

My 2 cents - buy them both. If you can only buy one, and you are a fan of Genesis and Peter's older material and thought Sledgehammer and Steam were dope on MTV, then buy Secret World Live and just remember it's from 1993.

If you are a stickler for PQ and more modern recording techniques, and like your 5.1 planned from the inception of the show, then grab Growing Up Live, or wait for the new "Still Growing Up Live and Unwrapped" to come out.

Thanks John.

I'm always on the lookout for top notch concert DVD's, a few reasons the Red Square concert was such a dissapointment was, it was done by a major artist, I had just bought and watched the Eagles latest (I would give that DVD a ten for video and audio but that would leave no room for improvement), I'm in a dedicated theater with a 9" CRT and a 161" screen (sitting close to a screen that big reveals all the good, the bad and the ugly), it was done recently (seems the bar has been pushed up the past few years by us demanding better quality) and I wanted it to be excellent as I had always liked Paul's music.

Oh well, Paul is not dead yet and I'm sure he will come up with some HD concerts

Deron.

GilWave,

Excellent Review !!! My thoughts exactly. I have both discs and love them both for what they are, I wish Peter would put out on dvd his POV Concert that I rented years ago on VHS at BLockbuter. I remember It being a great concert. You obviously know your audio, I'm curious, how did you find out that peter used the Finalizer (TC Electronics) as opposed to other outboard gear?

Greg

GilWave,
Thank you for the breakdown of Peter Gabriel DVD's. This is exactly the information I was looking for. I saw a clip of Sledgehammer on the new PG "Still Growing Up..." on the digital bits site and it looked a little wierd. I will probably go with Growing Up Live based on your excellent information. Thanks again.

If you're a Gabriel fan, it's a no brainer to have both. Sheesh - I have the Secret World Live Cassette, CD, LD, and now DVD. I went to see the Growing Up tour rev 2 last year, it was amazing. I missed it the first time around, so I was thrilled to have Rev 1 come out on DVD to see what I missed.

Since Peter didn't release a live CD of the shows (other than the authorized 2-trach bootlegs), I took the audio from the Growing Up Live DVD and made my own, and stuck it in my iPod as well.

As for the POV show, I wonder why he hasn't udated and released it - perhaps he wasn't happy with some asect of it - video, audio, performance - he is a perfectionist.


I'm in the business. BTW, I didn't say he used the TC algorithm (which isn't in the Finalizer but in their high-end studio processor, the 6000. The algorithm is called "UnWrap", details here: http://www.tcelectronic.com/UnWrap), only that it MAY have been used, which may then explain why I don't like the 5.1 of that show as much as I thought I would.

It is an ongoing debate in the recording industry whether to trust the DSP decisions made by programs like UnWrap and SRS' Extract, or to go through the trouble (and expense) of baking old multi-track master tapes, dumping the audio into a computer (using Pro Tools or Nuendo, typically), cleaning up the noise and any other anomalies, and doing a proper 5.1 mix from the ground up.

The easiest comparison at the moment is to listen to the DVD-A of Night At The Opera, especially the centerpiece track "Bohemian Rhapsody", and then listen to Queensryche's "Empire" DVD-A (which was done with UnWrap) and compare the depth and articulation of the instruments and the air (space) between them.

Then, (if you have it) go back to the original Stereo version of "Empire". You'll notice that the songs from the Queen DVD-A and the Queensryche CD engage you musically and emotionally, whereas the DVD-A of Empire leaves you cold - especially on killer tracks like Silent Lucidity and Della Brown.

The sq on the new u2 dvd's very close to soundboard quality btw.

I have seen a good Frankie Valli that was recorded at a Casino. A real good one would be the new Elvis Aloha Special DVD. This is a must have or at least view once.Most Elvis fans agree that this was his all-time best show from the 70's anyway(maybe career). Even the NBC show and 68' Comeback are great. These have both been recently redone by respectable record companies and are for sale most anywhere.(assurance of quality) Roy Orbisons B&W is also along these lines.The movie/musical Give My Regards to Broad Street (Paul McCartney) is pretty decent for a movie but the music tracks and sound in it are really good though. VH-1 played a double concert one time that included The Moody Blues and Yes right after. I have not seen this show put out on DVD yet, but I was so impressed with the show, I watched it every time it aired for the month. Journey's 78-97 DVD is really great for their MTV music videos and live footage. Sound is awesome on it in 5.1. Only bummer is no Chain Reaction Video. Available now is the 81 Houston Concert by Journey.This is the show that gave some of its tracks to the 78-97 live videos .But this is the whole show. Judging by what I saw in 78-97 performances from this show, I would get it YESTERDAY. And if you like great movies with great soundtracks and your are stuck in the 70's like me, rent or buy The Virgin Suicides. This movie will bring you back in time with plot melo-drama and music that just puts you back in time remembering how you felt growing up during the 70's.

Is soundboard quality supposed to be good? Seems that if they have the dynamics compressed to hell at the soundboard, we don't want soundboard quality.
Ed

This has been a great couple of weeks for concert DVD's. I bought these three and I'm thrilled with all of them:

"Bullet in a Bible" - Green Day (my review)
"Live 8" - various; and
"Concert for Bangledesh" - George Harrison et al

I'm wondering what other gems come out before Christmas?

Pink Floyd - Pulse was due out 12/6/05 but checking in at brain-damge I see it has now been pushed back to ~1/16/06 So, if anybody was expecting this before x-mas it looks like you are SOL

They'd better hurry up and release this before all their fans are dead

I would also like to give a big thumbs up for the Peter Gabriel growing up and a thumbs way down for the Paul 4x3 aspect ratio concert. I love Pauls music but this concert recording just didn't capture the event as it should have.

I viewed it on a TAW STEALTH projector through a rock pro scaler. Poor picture quality. Peters' picture quality was very nice.