There's a pulse but there's no soul.

Note - This is not intended to be a full review of this DVD. Only a warning to those who already know the group and the music and are wondering if the DVD is worth a purchase.


Intro - I've been a Pink Floyd fan for quite a while. Probably not as long as many who might read this. I'd say since sometime in the early 90s. Don't hold that against me. I've owned, listened to and enjoyed most any and everything Floyd I could get my grubby paws on. Most of it has been anywhere from decent to really good in the audio department.

Even in the areas where the sound quality wasn't so great, it could be forgiven because of the era in which it was recorded.

My Experience -

Like many Pink Floyd fans, I waited.........and waited.......and waited on the release of this DVD. I had the concert on VHS but you really expect a lot out of something that's considered worthy for release onto DVD.

Well, it was finally released and many raved about it. I bought it as soon as I could. I wasn't expecting a whole lot on the video end of things because I knew it was captured on video, rather than film in 4:3 format.

The sound, however, is where it's at for a concert. The video is just gravy. The video is halfway decent. The sound is where I find this release to be quite lacking. I was severely disappointed when I put this on. It has a choice between three audio tracks. A two channel stereo mix and two DD 5.1 mixes (one has a higher bit rate). I tried them all and was very disappointed in all of them. I don't know. Maybe it's my equipment. Imagine listening to a great concert with a nice, thick blanket over your head. I don't know what they did to the audio but I sure hope they don't similarly "remaster" the rest of the Floyd stuff. The sound on the VHS was actually much better than this to my ears.

I'm not going to delve into actually reviewing the music because most people reading this are probably already Pink Floyd fans (or at least know something about them and their music). If you're not a Pink Floyd fan already, I would advise you to skip this completely (at least for now) and check out "In The Flesh" by Roger Waters Or David Gilmour's "In Concert" DVD. Much better sound and picture quality. You can probably buy them both for around $30 and get a much better feel for Pink Floyd's music, IMO. This DVD is just shameful. Certainly not the kind of thing that I'd recommend to a Pink Floyd newbie.

I just wanted to write something on this because I wish I'd been able to find honest reviews before I bought it. I read a whole lot of rave reviews and I don't know what they were listening to this thing on. Maybe they have golden equipment or something. On average consumer equipment, I don't find it to be impressive...at all. It's barely acceptable. And that's as a collectible to someone who collects just about anything Pink Floyd. Fortunately, it only cost me $14.99. I'd have paid more because like I said, I'm a collector. But at least I wouldn't have been so disappointed. Only buy this if you really love Floyd and you must have it (in which case, you probably already have it).

So. Scale of 1-10

Video - 5

Audio - 3

Outside of that. I really didn't find the performances to be all that inspired, either. Comfortably Numb is spectacular (performance-wise). I have to give it that. The best thing this DVD has going for it (IMO) is that it contains the only official complete live performance (That I'm aware of) of Dark Side Of The Moon.

Unfortunately, this is one of only a couple of official Pink Floyd videos that are actually still in print. I guess some folks are rating it based upon the fact that it's all they've got. It took a very long time for the DVD release and was obviously very highly anticipated. There were also tons of bootlegs (Made from the VHS, apparently) flying around before the official release ever came through so that didn't help matters on the accuracy of reviews. Some people apparently bought bootlegs believing they were buying the official release. The sound may have indeed been different on some of the bootlegs.