Post by Dave on Dec 8, 2010 20:17:24 GMT
Hi all, I too received my copy today and I am sure some of you will post reviews of Hayley's actiual performances, to add to the earlier reviews by those who were actually there. So I'll limit my initial thoughts to the technical quality of the DVD production itself - warts and all.
The Good The Bad and The Ugly
First, the Bad News...
As indicated above, this is very much an amateur production. They obviously had a struggle to squeeze all 2 hours 15 minutes of it onto one single layer DVD+RW and to help them to do this, they decided to lower the resolution to 352 x 576 (which is the lowest possible for a DVD and less than half horizontally what you normally get = 720). So the picture is very 'soft' for a DVD.
This unusual resolution, coupled with the 4:3 aspect ratio that was set, has an unfortunate side-effect on my main DVD player and widescreen TV combination of expanding the sides to the edges of my TV screen, chopping off some of the top and bottom (but luckily, none of Hayley's head!). Normally a 4:3 DVD will display with pillar boxes at the sides, so the entire video frame shows at the correct aspect ratio but on one of my DVD player/TVs that is impossible to achieve. I know all this because I can get it to play correctly on my computer and the cheapo DVD in my daughter's room.
And especially in the second part of the recording, it was filmed from a handheld or shoulder mounted video camera which *may have* been in the audience, and which is far from steady at times - though almost always providing a clear uninterrupted shot of Hayley or the stage (no heads popping into shot!).
There is no DVD menu and no chapters, yet there are two separate videos on there, parts 1 & 2, and you have to work out for yourself that there is indeed a part 2 (though it does play automatically after part 1 has finished).
The audio levels are all over the place, as also mentioned by others - they ought to have evened it out before release. There are a few slight audio glitches too on one or two of the songs, but nothing serious. And in some places, you simply could not hear the band at all at times when Hayley was singing - even though you could tell that they were accompanying her. That isn't necessarily a bad thing though for avid Hayley fans, so read on... i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif
Now for the good news!
Having said all that, and I hope I was not being over-critical (it's because I do care about video quality), the intrinsic audio quality of Hayley's voice on this DVD is superb. They seem to have had a direct feed from Hayley's microphone via the mixing desk, so the quality of her voice throughout is the best that I've ever heard from what we must remember is an amateur video production, albeit using more than one camera. The audio levels were recorded low, which means there is no digital distortion at all, no dynamic compression, nothing is taken away. The soundtrack uses AC3 (Dolby) digital encoding at 256 kbps/2 channel, which is better than the BBC uses on their HD TV channel audio, so I love it!
Because the audio mixing is biased towards Hayley when the band is playing (though it's OK for the solo piano), she sometimes sounds like she is singing a cappella even when she isn't, so we get to hear more of the real Hayley and this alone is, for me, worth the price of the DVD. This would never be allowed to happen on a commercial production or TV show but I don't care, Hayley sounds great!
Back to the video side of things, luckily they do show Hayley in close-up for most of her performances, so that does overcome to some extent the low video resolution used on the DVD - although their zooming-in made it hard for them to keep the picture steady at times.
Verdict
Slightly disappointing from the production point of view, there were things that should and could have been done better - but for me it's worth the money just to get the closest that we may ever do to hearing Hayley sing in a live concert setting at a very high recorded audio quality - and unprocessed! Unsuitable for commercial release as it is, but for most Hayley fans who can take the downsides mentioned, it's a 'must have' (if still available) so recommended, for Hayley fans who can get it. A big big 'thank you' to the Underhills for producing this.
Dave
PS It's a PAL DVD with an "ALL" region code setting and is nicely presented, disc and case alike.
The Good The Bad and The Ugly
First, the Bad News...
As indicated above, this is very much an amateur production. They obviously had a struggle to squeeze all 2 hours 15 minutes of it onto one single layer DVD+RW and to help them to do this, they decided to lower the resolution to 352 x 576 (which is the lowest possible for a DVD and less than half horizontally what you normally get = 720). So the picture is very 'soft' for a DVD.
This unusual resolution, coupled with the 4:3 aspect ratio that was set, has an unfortunate side-effect on my main DVD player and widescreen TV combination of expanding the sides to the edges of my TV screen, chopping off some of the top and bottom (but luckily, none of Hayley's head!). Normally a 4:3 DVD will display with pillar boxes at the sides, so the entire video frame shows at the correct aspect ratio but on one of my DVD player/TVs that is impossible to achieve. I know all this because I can get it to play correctly on my computer and the cheapo DVD in my daughter's room.
And especially in the second part of the recording, it was filmed from a handheld or shoulder mounted video camera which *may have* been in the audience, and which is far from steady at times - though almost always providing a clear uninterrupted shot of Hayley or the stage (no heads popping into shot!).
There is no DVD menu and no chapters, yet there are two separate videos on there, parts 1 & 2, and you have to work out for yourself that there is indeed a part 2 (though it does play automatically after part 1 has finished).
The audio levels are all over the place, as also mentioned by others - they ought to have evened it out before release. There are a few slight audio glitches too on one or two of the songs, but nothing serious. And in some places, you simply could not hear the band at all at times when Hayley was singing - even though you could tell that they were accompanying her. That isn't necessarily a bad thing though for avid Hayley fans, so read on... i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif
Now for the good news!
Having said all that, and I hope I was not being over-critical (it's because I do care about video quality), the intrinsic audio quality of Hayley's voice on this DVD is superb. They seem to have had a direct feed from Hayley's microphone via the mixing desk, so the quality of her voice throughout is the best that I've ever heard from what we must remember is an amateur video production, albeit using more than one camera. The audio levels were recorded low, which means there is no digital distortion at all, no dynamic compression, nothing is taken away. The soundtrack uses AC3 (Dolby) digital encoding at 256 kbps/2 channel, which is better than the BBC uses on their HD TV channel audio, so I love it!
Because the audio mixing is biased towards Hayley when the band is playing (though it's OK for the solo piano), she sometimes sounds like she is singing a cappella even when she isn't, so we get to hear more of the real Hayley and this alone is, for me, worth the price of the DVD. This would never be allowed to happen on a commercial production or TV show but I don't care, Hayley sounds great!
Back to the video side of things, luckily they do show Hayley in close-up for most of her performances, so that does overcome to some extent the low video resolution used on the DVD - although their zooming-in made it hard for them to keep the picture steady at times.
Verdict
Slightly disappointing from the production point of view, there were things that should and could have been done better - but for me it's worth the money just to get the closest that we may ever do to hearing Hayley sing in a live concert setting at a very high recorded audio quality - and unprocessed! Unsuitable for commercial release as it is, but for most Hayley fans who can take the downsides mentioned, it's a 'must have' (if still available) so recommended, for Hayley fans who can get it. A big big 'thank you' to the Underhills for producing this.
Dave
PS It's a PAL DVD with an "ALL" region code setting and is nicely presented, disc and case alike.
I hope others have better luck.
