Pompeii DVD

Director's cut was crap. The planets in the beginning are so cliche and boring. While it was cool to see the extra Paris footage, this just doesn't make up for the original version with the regular Abbey Road footage.

At least the original concert is on there (with an excellent transfer). That alone makes this worth the buy.

I agree. I got extremely bored with the planetary garbage. I also got pretty upset when footage of the performance was replaced with helicopter shots of old Pompeii. However the sound and video quality is enormously improved, which is my entire reason for buying the DVD. I just wanted to see/hear the same performance in the best quality possible. So, in all actuality, I got what I paid for.

Yeah, sorry, I never went back far enough. As the original material was lost and they can only work from a cropped print, I guess putting it in 4:3 is therefore better then 16:9. It's just a shame you get excited waiting for a title like this, only to find it's not 100% once you're watching the thing... still, a lot of people on here seem happy with it.

So I'll mainly be watching the 61 minute concert-only version. then flicking over to the "directors cut" to watch the interviews as "extras". But as the interviews are (gasp!) not chaptered !!! it means a load of FF and RWDing just to get to them!!

I know, moan, moan, moan...

Yeah, I too was rather disappointed with this DVD. While the original concert film looks and sounds great, there's no 5.1 mix (though that's just from a lack of master tape, I think), the screen format's all screwed up on the Director's cut (part of the movie's actually cut off!!) and the haphazardly put in space stock footage was "film abuse," to put it in lament terms. Though some of the CGI stuff was kinda interesting, how they had the sweeping camera moves in the temples and stuff. While I give the film the usually full 5 star rating, the DVD is around a 3. (maybe even a 2 and 3/4).

Final verdict: don't throw away your VHS/laserdisc/VCD copies of this yet, folks!!

I think if you have a widescreen television (like I do) then this isn't really a problem as you lose top-and-bottom when watching full-frame material anyway. Unless you set the TV to 4:3 mode and watch it with black borders either side, but I've never got used to that!

I also noticed that for some reason, the sound quality on Echoes seems to be not quite as good as the rest of the concert.

I don't think I'll waste any money on this. Gilmour said don't bother with it.

And then of course there's that stupid Mademoiselle Nobs dog popping up in the photos section and screwing up the navigation. Anyone else had the misfortune of slipping upon this?

Yeah, the dog icon is some sort of "hyperspace" thing... amusing but a little pointless!

Where did Gimour say "don't bother" with the DVD?

Unfortunately, yes.

i'm thinking of skipping it too.

The DVD was definitely not what it could have been . Had I been in charge of the production of this thing, I would've seen to it that the tape speed was corrected so that the songs were no longer pitched almost a semitone too high. The fact that Maben left it this way really shows that he did not care.

I bought it because of the new interview footage (and the fact that I had some gift money, else I wouldn't have made the purchase!), and THAT was good stuff. Too bad the rest of the DVD didn't measure up. Oh well, that's OK, because I still have a VHS copy I got when I started to hear rumors that the DVD was going to be substandard.

Probably because he has such a hard time singing on key--this creates the slight deviations that make the two vocal lines stand apart from each other.

And yes, someone asked, is that Mr. Gilmour doing that bit on "Set the Controls"? I think that on Pompeii, he is.

Like my new avatar?

yeah.