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With a whopping 40 songs, the Main Event has hit DVD and is sure to please fans Australia Wide.

John Farnham, Olivia Newton-John and Anthony Warlow banded together to deliver a knock out convert. 

I knew I'd like it, but I didn't realise how much fun it would be (Anthony Warlow is quite a funny guy it turns out :)

Each go solo, as a twosome and as a threesome to delivery over 3 and a half hours of musical entertainment..and here's what's on offer

OPENING 1. Overture 2, Age of Reason 3. Phantom of the Opera 4. A Little More Love 5. Age of Reason ANTHONY 6. Prologue 7. Music of the Night 8.  What Kind of Fool Am I / World on a String/I've got You, Under my skin 9. This is the Moment OLIVIA 10. Magic 11. If you Love Me 12. Precious Love 13. Hopelessly Devoted to You JOHN 14. That's Freedom 15. And I Love Her 16. Burn for You 17. Everytime you Cry 18. Have a Little Faith OLIVIA 19. Don't Cry for Me Argentina OLIVIA & JOHN 20.  Please Don't Ask Me 21. You're the One that I Want 22. Two Strong Hearts	OLIVIA & ANTHONY 23. Not Gonna Give In To It 24. The Long and Winding Road 25. Country Roads 26. I Honestly Love You 27. Love is a Gift JOHN & ANTHONY 28. Help 29. That's Life / Bad Habits 30. Granada FINALE 31. You've Lost that Loving Feeling 32. Summer Nights 33. If Not For You 34. Let Me Be There 35. Touch of Paradise 36. Raindrops 37. Banks of the Ohio 38. Jolene 39. Hearts On Fire 40. Don't You Know It's Magic ENCORE 41. You're the Voice SPECIAL BONUS 42. Backstage At the Main Event

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VIDEO
Shot on Video this DVD comes to us in it's original broadcast format of 1.33:1
While the Transfer is overall quite nice, it does on occasions push the limits when it comes to low compression MPEG artifacting.  I should point out there are no blatantly obvious nasty MPEG blockings to speak of, but at times you can see the image juuuuust start to loose it. Even so, at the end of the day I didn't find this too much of a bother as it kept itself together for the most part.

Black Level is often quite good, however as this is not only a live concert, but one shot on Video, light levels cause this to go up and down throughout (so let's just say it adds to the authenticity of it all :)
Colour Saturation is quite good as is the level of sharpness.  (The pin stripes in Johnny's suit come through very nicely, and without any really bad signs of that ghastly moire patterning /..aka the flashy stripey wobbly thingy)

With a massive running time of 159 minutes (and having 2 Full Bitrate 5.1 audio tracks)  The Main Event has been spread over 2 layers of an RSDL DVD.  The Layer Change occurs at Chapter 21.  You'll probably see a very quick pause, but it's not too bothersome. 
My biggest complaint is that this chapter change point has been given it's own chapter encoding, and so from this point on, the "encoded" chapter numbers DO NOT match the "song" chapter listings on the inside of the DVD Slick.
If you go use the slick listings and want to go to "song" 30 (Granada...a terrific song on this DVD :) you actually get song 29 "That's Life/Bad Habits".   So from the DVD Slicks Listing 22 through to 42, add 1 to each to find the correct song. 

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AUDIO
A short while ago Roadshow decided it was time to start including DTS audio on selected DVD releases.
Se7en was suppose to be the first (and with DTS-ES 6.1), but The Main Event ended up being their First DVD to carry a DTS track.

First and foremost, in most areas, there is a significant improvement in the sound quality of the 1509kilobits per second DTS5.1 track over the 448kbps Dolby Digital 5.1 track

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track in it's own right is also quite good, but the vocals sound harsher and lack the separation you get with the DTS track. 

Unlike MANY Dual Audio format Encoded DVDs, the Dolby And DTS levels on this DVD actually Match!!!!!!  So there's no need to turn your amp up and down to try and hear the Difference between each format...


Okay now we get down to some nitty gritty of the audio quality.
In terms of vocal reproductions, it's first rate.  Other than the fact Oli's voice has lost it a bit over the years, all vocals are incredibly clean with excellent detail and clarity, the sound level between the music and vocals is a little more than I personally like, and so vocals overpower the music throughout. 
As I mentioned before, the DTS track really shows its superiority, notibably with the Vocals.   This is most evident when 2 or 3 of the singers are at it at once, I found there to be far more openness and distinction between each voice.  (and DTS leaves each vocal sound much richer in tone)

As for the music itself, hmmmmmm.  not so great to my ears :(  For a live concert recording, it's sounds far too muffled like someone stuck a few too many socks over the instrumental microphones.  Musically, the high end detail is lacking, resulting in limited musical scope (the violins and pianos don't sound as they should for a live recording).
When you hear something like The Eagles when Hell Freezes over, or Fleetwood Mac on DVD you're getting a gorgeous live recording, you really feel like you're there.   Unfortunately, The main Event, musically, sounds very flat in comparison.  The Vocals are so well recorded (and somewhat louder than the music levels that they do help cover it up to some extent, so it's not a total loss.

I decided to play around a bit to determine IF it was my imagination and simple desire for DTS to be the superior sound format :) OR IF there really is a difference between DTS and Dolby with the Music Side of things. 
So I disconnected my centre channel leaving only the Main Left and Right Channels audible across the front (the surrounds kicked in now with ambience only effects and seeing as the centre channel is the dominant channel in this mix, it wasn't as obvious for this "test".

(Roadshow have also configured the audio selection to be changeable on the fly with the remote's audio button, so A-B comparisons between DTS and Dolby Digital is a breeze....yay!!.)

So, doing the "blind Test"  I pressed the Remote AUDIO button a gazillion times while my eyes were closed and I had no clue which audio format I had selected.   I Then sampled a song in 1 Audio Format and then replayed it in the other (I promise I didn't peak until I had happily sampled and determine which audio format I was currently listening to :)  

Two of the samples I listened to were Ch 6 instrumental opening (Prologue) and Ch 16.  Guitar Solo intro (Burn For You)
Ch 6 has a decent amount of orchestrated music whereas Ch 16 starts with just a Guitar Solo.
Each time I played around, I was able to pick DTS over Dolby, AND as the better sound format (I know I know gloat gloat :))

But seriously, with Ch 6 there was definitely better definition with the music instruments, it did sound as though there were more violins, etc playing within the orchestra as the spread across the front channels was wider and each instrument did sound a little more natural with better control of the said sound.
As for Ch 16.  the Plucking of the guitar strings was that much more prominent on the DTS track with an added richness to the sound, and an added resonance. 

If I had to grade the improvements using DTS over Dolby as a percentage, I'd say no more the 20 to 30% better.  But hey, any improvement is worth it...right :)

EXTRAS
Ummm there's probably wasn't too much room for extras with the 2 1/2 + hour concert and 2 audio tracks already laid down :)

There is a behind the scenes extra tailed onto the end of the concert (which makes up the 2 1/2 + hours ).

Plus depending on which Audio Format you select (Dolby or DTS) you'll get either the Dolby Digital RAIN trailer, or the DTS Piano Trailer.

One MAJOR omission on this DVD is English Subtitles.  Pity

The Main Event is a fantastic Concert and would be incredible to see Live.  The DVD is good and will no doubt please many (I've watched it a few times now and will be sure to do again, as it's a fun concert with great interaction between the 3 stars), but the audio was [musical quality wise] a bit of a letdown for me.  (I doubt your parents would notice though :))  

Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T50W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Pioneer DV717  (using RGB outputs)
Receiver : Denon AVC-A1SE THX Ultra (Dolby Surround EX, DTS-ES Discrete)
Speakers:-
     Mains: Quadral Amun
     Centre: B&W CDMC-SE
     Surrounds Left/Right: M&K SS500 (Dipole)
     Surrounds Back : Polk RT/fx (Diplole)
     Subby: M&K V125 

- Reviewed 17th July 2001

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