| Dire Straits was one of the most popular and
successful rock bands ever to come out of England. They enjoyed immense success right
throughout the 1980's with massive hits such as 'Money for Nothing', 'Brothers in Arms' ,
'Your latest trick' and so on.Now luckily for the legion of Dire Straits fans Universal
has brought the ultimate collection of their hits to DVD. The collection on the DVD
consists of their music videos and a couple of songs recorded 'live' in concert. The
tracks on the DVD are:- 1. Sultans of
Swing
2. Lady Writer
3. Romeo & Juliet
4. Tunnel of Love
5. Private Investigations
6. Twisting by the Pool
7. Love over Gold (Live)
8. So Far Away
9. Money for Nothing
10. Brothers in Arms
11. Walk of Life
12. Calling Elvis
13. Heavy Fuel
14. On Every Street
15. Your latest Trick (Live)
16. Local Hero - Wild theme (Live)
So How Does This Transfer Hold Up??
As far as the transfer goes it is quite good, some of the later music videos are well
reproduced on DVD considering the age of some of the songs. I did not notice any
artifacting of sorts and the transfer is free of film grain. However some of the older
videos look a little average with a bit of nicks, dust etc on the film transfer which is
what to be expected really.
Okay, let's talk audio. This is where the money counts, no
point buying a music DVD if the audio is garbage, upon reading the back cover of the DVD I
noticed that the audio track consisted of only a 2 channel linear PCM stereo, no Dolby
Digital mmmmm I thought. After recently watching another PCM only DVD (REM - Road Movie)
where I thought the audio was nothing short of dreadful it was with some sort of
trepidation when I slipped this one into the player. But yes, you can breath a sigh of
relief for the audio is generally very good, the two channel mix is clean, with crisp,
clear vocals & detailed instruments. I did not notice any harshness at all to the
recording and thought the overall clarity of the songs was very good.. Listening to
Mark Knopfler work his magic with the guitar on 'Brothers In Arms' and that famous drums
intro to 'Money for Nothing' brought a pleasing smile to my face. Although to be honest I
remembered that drums intro having a little more dynamics and punch to it the last time I
heard it, admittedly a long time ago. A few songs are recorded 'live' and they also are
very well recorded and reproduced.
Extras, extras.....included on the disc is also a audio
only interview with Mark Knopfler where he talks about the band and each track
individually. Also included is a 31 page glossy booklet, (only 5 pages are in English, the
rest is the same but written in various languages, however it is filled with numerous
photographs of the band in action). The DVD is divided into 16 tracks (chapters).
So if you are a fan of Dire Straits do yourself a favour,
don't buy the CD, run out and buy the DVD you won't be disappointed. Recommended.
| PICTURE QUALITY |
6/10 |
| SOUND QUALITY |
8/10 |
| FEATURES |
4/10 |
Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T43W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Toshiba SD2109 (Region Free & S-Video)
Receiver: Yamaha RXV995
Speakers:-
Fronts: Polk Audio RT55's
Centre: Polk Audio CS350
Rears: Polk Audio AB705's (Ceiling mounted)
Subwoofer: M&K V125
- Reviewed 15th December 1999 |
