Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
FINALLY ON DVD!! , December 1, 2005
Just watched my copy of this and have a few thoughts for anyone considering purchasing this dvd.
1. This is the "holy grail" of the commercially released visuals of Bauhaus back in the 80's on 2 vhs tapes. Since then, after going out of print long ago, they have been a mainstay on Ebay, etc. in copied versions for a good reason - this was a visual band and these tapes caught them at their zenith. An absolute must-have for fans and those curious about what the fuss is all about.
2. For the fans, like myself, who have owned the original vhs tapes since whenever, don't expect a major upgrade in visual quality. This stuff was originally shot on videotape and it shows. This is the best it will ever look, which is great, but not a LOT better than the original tapes. The sound is excellent, however - I noticed no tape hiss and distortion, and there are a few audio options on the menu page.
The band had nothing to do with this dvd release, so gripes about the artwork, etc. are redundant - Beggar's Banquet has sole rights to this footage and tried to get extras, like UK TV spots, etc. but were foiled by the owners of the rare footage. Bauhaus do not benefit financially from this dvd whatsoever, which is sad.
Bauhaus were a truly original and fascinating band, and this dvd captures them at their absolute best. A true classic rock/performance dvd. Highly recommended.
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23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Content (the band and their videos) superb: Quality (resolution and sound) TERRIBLE!, December 19, 2005
If you're a fan, I know nothing will stop you from owning this official DVD release. You wouldn't have beeen able to talk me out of buying it either. But expect to be disappointed.
This is an inexcusably bad DVD from Beggars Banquet.
The AUDIO is extremely poor; muffled, all the highs and lows flattened out, it sounds like you're listening to a third generation analog cassette dub of an album.
The VIDEO is extremely poor; highly noticeable digital pixilation and aliasing in the image (in other words, the image looks like its made up of big blocks and jagged lines as opposed to a proper DVD which has tiny digital pixels so small that you only notice a sharp image instead of the blocks the image is made of). Colored moving pixilation in the image which disrupts the original color palette of the videos. In a word, grainy, but not just grainy, the grains have colors! And they move!
I compared my VHS tapes, my Japanese Laserdisc, and this new DVD;
>Original VHS: Higher resolution, less grain, true colors, and great mixed and separated stereo sound!
>Original Japanese Laserdisc: Extremely high resolution, no pixilation, very little grain, no colored grain vibrating around the image and superb compact disc quality stereo sound.
>And this travesty of a DVD: Terrible picture, terrible sound.
The only possible explanation I can see for the horrendously poor quality of this DVD is that Beggars lost the master tapes and so gave the DVD authors a STORE BOUGHT HALF INCH VHS TAPE to master the DVD from! Play the video for "Largatija Nick" on your old VHS tape, if you took care of your tape there should be no tracking problems, a clear image, and great sound. Play "Largatija" from your old Laserdisc, sharp image, superb sound. Now, play "Largatija Nick" on the DVD: the image is blurred and grainy and you can see analog tape tracking fluctuations at the opening of the video! In other words, the people who converted from TAPE to DVD actually recorded bad tracking onto the DVD! Even if Beggars isn't responsible for such an amateur and unacceptable mistake, they are responsible for accepting the final product from the DVD authors, and distributing it to us.
You would think if Beggars lost the master broadcast quality tapes of the videos, they would have, at the very least, tracked down the 80's Japanese Laserdisc issues of these two videos, hooked up a pro Laserdisc player with a Digital Output, and done a direct DIGITAL TRANSFER of the supreme quality Laserdiscs to DVD. Then there would have been; no generation loss, no grainification of the image, no bouncing colored grain across the screen, no muffling and flattening out of sound. In the early days of DVD's many MAJOR studios did this very thing when they weren't yet ready to fork over the cash for a new direct-from-negative remaster of the film.
5 stars for content (the band and their videos) 0 stars for quality: Average, 2.5
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In an effort to make more space for other reviewers I've deleted my detailed review of the videos "Shadow Of Light" and "Archive" from this page. However, you can still read them on my "other reviews" page, or check out the "Shadow Of Light" VHS listing for both reviews.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Shadow is Cast!, April 29, 2006
To begin, let me say that I'm giving this product a full 5 stars. I do so not because the DVD version is any better than the original VHS, but because this is a definitive product from a band that all fans must own. Having your very own copy of "Shadow of Light/Archive" was a bit of a quest before now. It had long been out of print on VHS (and apparently laserdisc) and I was never fortunate enough to own an original. Thanks to the internet and Ebay, longtime Bauhaus fans could---if they were willing to pay the price---own a copy of their own. Still, one probably had to wait with bated breath when they first played the tape in anticipation of its quality. Is it faded? Will it even play? Has some idiot recorded an episode of "Dynasty" on it?
Thanks to the new DVD, these are all moot fears now. But let me warn you, that old VHS copy just might surprise you in its quality compared to this. Now don't get me wrong, I'm very delighted to have my own DVD copy of these essential Bauhaus videos and concert footage. Chances are you will too. Now, we no longer have to fear that the VCR will chew up the tape or that it will gradually lose its sonic and visual playback (as all tapes do). Essentially, we all can own a piece of history recorded on a reliable and durable format. But despite all of this, I am a bit disappointed that the overall sound and visual quality aren't any better than they are. I mean, my 15 year old dubbed COPY of the original VHS is almost as good as this!!!!
Now I'm no fool. Indeed I do understand that these are nearly 25 year old video footages, but does someone not have an original master tape somewhere? Truthfully, all Bauhaus fans should own this, but be ready to accept a few pops and crackles and slight fade outs in the sound now and then. Grainy video is par for the course here, but what Bauhaus videos weren't a little grainy anyway? You will no doubt relish and delight in every second of this footage since it is very much Bauhaus in their prime. You will not, however, gain one little thing in video or sound quality from that of the original VHS.
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