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Sarah McLachlan - MirrorballRating:
Release Date: 12 October, 1999 Retail Price: $19.98 OUR Price: $17.98 You SAVE: $2.00! Cast: |
Sarah McLachlan - Mirrorball Reviews
Performance overcomes the poor production
The performance captured here is tremendous as I think every would agree.
I didn't mind the visuals either, even though I was reluctant to get a 4:3 aspect ratio concert DVD. It scaled onto 16:9 not that badly. I liked the grainy film look but I suspect the visual quality and sync errors people are reporting are probably due to the DVD production house cramming 90 minutes of A/V plus extra angles into the stream. I appreciated being able to focus on an set angle on some of the tracks but I think they used 4 angles for the entire duration of the concert. I'm basing this on the fact my player was able to detect 4 angles at all times through the disc, even if those weren't 4 distinct angles. That excess material probably steals bandwidth from the overall visual quality.
Audio is another story though. I first came back here to check if my DVD was defective though because the 5.1 audio track sounded absolutely horrible - all boomy and full of echoes as if it had been recorded in a rink. It was bad enough that I had to double-check my equipment and then search here to confirm the source is the DVD itself.
I suspect the people not complaining about the audio are maybe not audiophiles or more probably they are listening to the 2 channel track, which is excellent. To my surprise and against my better judgement I find the only way I can listen to this disc is to use the 2 channel track and then let the receiver add the ambience - not a normal practice on my part and one which would ordinarily degrade the audio rather than improve it.
How does one rate this then? I'd want to give it a 5/5 based on the great peformance and the length. But a concert DVD like this needs to be rated against some of the standard bearers and I was very disappointed in how the audio stacks up. Not that it would have to exceed say Eagles DTS, but a concert DVD should not attract negative attention because of its poor sound.
I'd want to chop at least a couple of points for the poor audio and 4:3 AR, but since the stereo track serves as an OK substitute in this case I'm going to go with a 4/5
If you heard the CD first, you may be dissapointed...
The DVD does not contain the same audio tracks as the Mirrorball CD. The DVD tracks were recorded on the last performance of the tour, while the tracks on the cd are from earler performance dates. There is a noticeable difference in quality. Sarah's voice sounds worn out and tired during her DVD performance and it really shows. My voice would be tired and worn out too on the last show of a tour. She is still great, but my favorite track, "Sweet Surrender", sounds much better on the CD version than the DVD. I can say this for almost every other track on the DVD compared to the CD.
Still, just watching her perform all these tracks live, makes up for the lackluster show.
I wish this DVD was recorded during her earlier shows on the tour instead of the last show of the tour.
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