Music Videos

Title: The 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Concerts
Release Date: 2009
Genre: Rock

Production/Label: Time Life Records
Duration: 01:50:05 + 02:18:50
Quality: Blu-ray
Container: BDMV
Video codec: VC-1
Audio codec: DTS
Size: 35.42 + 39.97 GB

Disc 1
Video: VC-1 Video / 30025 kbps / 1080i / 29,970 fps / 16:9 /
Audio #1: DTS-HD Master Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3020 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Audio #2: DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2291 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)

Disc 2
Video: VC-1 Video / 25026 kbps / 1080i / 29,970 fps / 16:9 /
Audio #1: DTS-HD Master Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz / 2974 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Audio #2: DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1815 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)

BDRip 1080p

Size: 22.08 GB + 17.05 GB
Format: MKV
Video: 1920×1080 at 29.970 fps, [email protected], ~ 19500 kbps avg
Audio # 1: English: 48 kHz, DTS, 3/2 (L, C, R, l, r) + LFE ch, ~ 1536 kbps avg
Audio # 2: English: 48 kHz / 24bit, FLAC, 2.0, ~ 1659/1006 kbps

On October 29th and 30th, 2009, rock ‘n’ roll royalty held court at Madison Square Garden for what have been called ‘the best concerts ever,’ where ‘rock ‘n’ roll history was made.’ Recorded live with 30 camera angles plus state-of-the-art recording, we captured the sights and sounds from these electrifying and historic concerts in New York City.

Now, this critically-acclaimed and highly-rated HBO special is available on Blu-ray for the very first time! ‘THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME CONCERTS’ features all 51 performances from the acclaimed HBO special, plus 16 performances not seen on HBO, all in a 2-disc Blu-ray set.

In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, the concerts featured a who’s who of rock from the ’50s to the ’90s and included artists performing together in unique combinations that will most likely never be witnessed again.

Highlights include:
-Mick Jagger and Fergie in a blistering version of the Stones’ classic ‘Gimme Shelter,’ with U2 as the backing band.
-Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel on-stage for a rollicking rendition of ‘Born to Run.’
-Sting joins Jeff Beck for the Curtis Mayfeld classic ‘People Get Ready.’
-Paul Simon, David Crosby and Graham Nash join together for a spine-tingling ‘Here Comes the Sun.’
-Ozzy Osbourne sings with Metallica on the Black Sabbath classics ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Paranoid.’
-John Fogerty & Bruce Springsteen share vocals on Roy Orbison’s ‘Oh, Pretty Woman.’
-Plus Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Simon & Garfunkel, U2, Dion, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, John Legend, Annie Lennox, Smokey Robinson, B.B. King, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Jackson Browne and more.

Review

‘5 STARS. Jaw-dropping.’ –Rolling Stone
‘The big mother of all rock concerts.’ –Philadelphia Enquirer

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Title: Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music
Release Date: 2009
Genre: Rock
Production/Label: Warner Bros.

Duration: 03:44:19
Quality: Blu-ray
Container: BDMV
Video codec: VC-1
Audio codec: Dolby TrueHD, AC3
Size: 36.73 GB

Video
Codec: VC-1 (17.24 Mbps)
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.41:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1

Audio
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)

Subtitles
English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Thai (less)

This director’s cut of Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music, released to coincide with the 40th anniversary of that legendary concert event, has to be one of the most impressive Blu-ray releases of 2009 or any other year–and that’s even before you put the discs in your player. The box is designed to resemble a faux fringe jacket (with an iron-on patch attached), and inside are all manner of shiny bells and whistles, including a lucite paperweight with images from the event, a reprint of LIFE Magazine’s original festival feature, and reproductions of various Woodstock memorabilia, right down to notes left by concertgoers (“Please meet me in front of stage. I have your insulin pills”) and a three-day ticket to the event. And hey, if you’re looking for subtitles in Finnish, Thai, or Polish, you’ve come to the right place.

The movie itself now weighs in at nearly four hours long, and is presumably the way director Michael Wadleigh wanted it in the first place. The Blu-ray transfer is definitely an upgrade, as is the soundtrack, which was originally recorded on 8-track tape under less-than-ideal conditions. (Using modern digital technology, audio engineer Eddie Kramer, who was hunkered down in what passed for a recording booth at the Woodstock site, has painstakingly restored the soundtrack–even bringing in some of the musicians to re-play their original parts, as on Santana’s “Evil Ways,” one of the previously unreleased bonus performances. Considering that the event is something of a sacred cow by now, this trick may strike some as blasphemous. Then again, this is hardly the first time that a live concert recording has been sweetened, re-recorded, or otherwise enhanced. In fact, it’d be hard to find one that wasn’t. And the additions would have gone largely unnoticed if we hadn’t been told about them.) In the end, though, there’s only so much improvement possible, and Woodstock was never about technical brilliance anyway. Nor was it mostly about the music, either. Nor was it mostly about the music, either. There are some terrific performances, from acoustic numbers by Richie Havens and Crosby, Stills & Nash to powerful electric contributions from Santana, Sly & the Family Stone, and Joe Cocker. But the truth is that Monterey Pop, which happened two years earlier, was the more exciting concert, and of the several artists who appeared on both bills (including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Who, Jefferson Airplane, and others), all of them made better music at the California festival. But Woodstock was always less a concert than an overall cultural happening, and Wadleigh and his crew, often employing an effective split-screen technique, do a superb job of corralling and conveying the remarkable atmosphere and spirit of it; you didn’t have to be there to recognize that this was the zenith of the Age of Aquarius (it was also the twilight; with Altamont looming, things would never be this peaceful and idealistic again).

Of principal interest on the second disc will be two hours of additional musical performances, including both additional tunes by those who are in the main feature and appearances by five artists who for various reasons (ego, money, quality, time) never made it into the film at all; of the latter, Creedence Clearwater Revival is excellent, Paul Butterfield and Johnny Winter are good, Mountain is mediocre, and the Grateful Dead, with an interminable (38 minutes!) “Turn on Your Love Light,” are awful (a special Blu-ray-only feature lets users organize this material as they see fit). Meanwhile, “From Festival to Feature,” a new, hour-long look at the making of the movie, is absorbing and minutely detailed. –Sam Graham

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