Customer Reviews

Bad Company: Hard Rock Live [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I reserved and purchased this early. Big mistake...although the picture was good, I was very surprised at the sound. Paul's voice was too spread out, and there was a distinct lack of bass. Treble was, overall, "tinny." Bass was substantially lower than was present on my other Bad Company/Paul Rogers standard DVD's/blu-rays. I have never had to crank the feed to my sub from 0.0 to 6.5. on Bad Company material. I played a number of other DVD's during our Tuesday Night "Rock Show," and found that several standard DVD's sounded better...Echo and the Bunnymen for one. This DVD needs tweaking on the sound end. I will be checking [...] for reviews, BEFORE I buy, next time.

...after reading the other reviews. Don't get me wrong, it's not the greatest concert disc ever but it is very good. That being said, some of the comments about the audio and video are essentially correct (with some caveats).

The picture is grainy and black levels leave something to be desired, but it is sharp and the colors are nice. I didn't see any added edge enhancement and there are no encoding artifacts. Overall, not bad at all but not reference quality either.

The DTS-MA track has exellent resolution and is very clear. However, it is lacking any real bass and sounds too bright as a result. Also the mix suffers from (as others have mentioned) Ralphs' guitar being too loud in the mix and Rodgers' vocals being spread out to the rear channels too much. The stereo track lacked the bite of the DTS-MA track so after much fiddling I came up with a nice compromise. Because my Blu-ray player does the sound decoding internally (and passes the lossless sound to the receiver via analog cables) I was able to pass the core-only 5.1 DTS track over the digital optical cable to my receiver and play a bit with my usual settings. By increasing the crossover on the receiver from 60 Hz to 110Hz and increasing the subwoofer level a bit (about 3 dB), I was able to get a nice bass sound that wasn't boomy and had some definition to it. The other advantage of this method is that it allows you to use the 5.1 track and (surprisingly) Rodgers' vocals are not all spread out but are nicely locked up front with only reverb in the rear channels. Ralphs' guitar also seems less prominent.

Finally, after listening to it twice, I paid more attention to the music and really liked it a lot. The first time through I thought the concert got better as it progressed but listening to the first few tracks again, it really was good right from the beginning. I don't think Ralphs was that bad at all but the added guitarist does help. Rodgers and Kirke are excellent IMO and the added bassist moves things along. Overall a great collection of songs played very well by the three remaining members of Bad Co.

Definitely recommended

Update 4/23/11:

After some more fiddling with my receiver's and Blu-ray player's settings (i.e. setting my main speakers to small and boosting the subwoofer level a tad) the lossless audio track sounds much better. I still think the guitars are a bit too loud in the mix but the overall sound is definitely better than the core-only DTS 5.1 track. Still, both sound very good.

The return of Bad Co... top notch performance! however I don't think this blu-ray was all that great!
it had a lot of noise in the video and just didn't turn out that good! Audio gets about 9 video gets 7
hope this helps out...The best concert I have ever seen in blu-ray is The Moody Blues from the Greek !
in Los Angeles,Ca. That will blow your sox off!

I am so glad I rented this. Bad Co was one of my favorites back in the day.....but I haven't heard them in a very long time, so before I watched it, I was expecting the years to have taken their toll like it does on most of us.....my expectations were low. Needless to say......they blew my *** away. Unbelievable. In fact...they were great back in the day, but I think they're even better. Paul's voice, Mick's chops ans Simon's beat is still amazing.

I agree with T Short's review regarding teh video quality. The video quality is not great and is very grainy for a modern day Blu-ray. It almost looks like there's static in the video at times. That said, the performance by the band, especially Paul Rodgers, is fantastic. The sound quality is great, and the bonus audio CD of the performance is a big plus. It's hard to understand how such a modern HD recording ended up so grainy, but this Blu-ray is still worth buying if you're a Bad Co. fan. Paul Rodgers "Live in Glasgow" is a better recording. Too bad they didn't use the same production team for this release.

This is my first review that I've sent in, so go easy on me. I've bought several Bad Company & Paul Rogers Dvd's over the years & have generally been happy with all of them... except for one flaw- Mick Ralphs missing. I realize Mick was on the Wembley Dvd, but the amount he played was minimal and he didn't seem to have much life too him. I don't know if this was agreed upon within the group or that Mick maybe felt that he wasn't up too par on that particular night & decided too let Howard Leese have most of the axe time. D'ont get me wrong, Howard is a very competant player, but Ive been waiting years too hear these songs done just right & they were on the Hard Rock Dvd more than the Wembley one. Mick seemed too be so much more alive and on fire, strutting around and having the time of his life. He's the type of player that doesn't waste a note, and that quality seems too be missing from a lot of speedier players around. The three original players were playing like it was their last night too play and the other two players knew that they were guests in the band, and too let BAD COMPANY shine.
Both Wembley & Hard rock are excellent Dvd's- fairly similar set lists, all songs done with a lot of passion & fire, but I would have to give a slight edge too the Hard rock concert.

PS: If after viewing either of these Dvd's you don't come too the conclusion that Paul Rodgers is the most soulful rock singer since the late sixties and is at the top of his game at age 62, then please drop me a line and educate me.

The Blu Ray DVD also has a CD along with it-BUT-the CD is missing 'sweet lil' sister' I guess due to disc space-I would rather have them leave off 'simple man' instead on the CD.

The recording engineer should have understood how Bad Company rocked before in those hits. The sound quality is not satisfactory. Simon's drum beat sounded very weak and a pity as he used DW drum system but the recording spoiled his drum works particularly in the song ROCK STEADY. I should not have bought this if I know the recording sounds so bad. A waste of money.

As other review says "there was a distinct total lack of bass". I put in the title 5.0 because the subwoofer do not works with this bd disc. I do not like a rock concert without the bass sound.

Great band great sound, the Blu Ray picure quality is fantastic and the sound quality is excellent. I never got to see these guys play so this has to be the next best thing! The Blu Ray also comes with a CD of the concert so you can't beat the price, it would be nice if other companies would include a CD along with their Blu Ray's. You can't go wrong with this concert it is really good!!