Rating: Summary: As It Began Review: Having seen Queen 21 times, every American tour from 1974 to 1982, This is a must have.Videos such as Liar and Keep yourself Alive have not been seen in its entirety in the U.S.until now. Hopefully the powers that be will release many more DVDs of concert footage of the theatre years and early arena years( A day At The Races) which has been available for the U.K.market and some of which have been previously available as Japanesse imports on laserdisc .
Rating: Summary: Awesome state of the art sound and video Review: I agree with the other reviewers. I happen to have a DTS and the sound is JUST phenomenal and perhaps a good excuse to get one. This has in my opinion, become the industry standard, such as previously Hell Freezes Over or the James Taylor's Beacon Theatre concert (5.1 only on the latter, though). The remixing efforts and video enhancements are such a joy. Congratulations! I enjoy this disc WITH or WITHOUT the TV monitor on! This quality makes the analog CD irrelevant. I wonder how Vol 2 can really top over this one! The 2002 standard for others to follow.
Rating: Summary: Queen is King of DVD Production Review: I am not a big fan of any band or musician who lip sync to their music to promote their songs, but since Queen is a proven LIVE band I gave this DVD a shot. Once again Queen managed to make me forget the negatives about Music Videos by overwhelming me with the awesome marriage of their multi layer recordings and 5.1 DTS surround audio. Queen production came through in royal fashion with this DVD. Bohemian Rhapsody rightfully opens this video with awesome display of sound like I never heard before. The multilayering of this song is broken down as well as can be for 5.1 that you can hear instrument sections not heard in stereo format. Moving on, this DVD has other great classics that really shine in this format such as, Another One Bites the Dust, Killer Queen,Tie Your Mother Down,Don't Stop Me Now, and my personal favorite, Somebody to Love. Freddie's voice is so clear on Somebody to Love that you can feel him sing it with the same conviction and power as when he sang this song live on the We Will Rock You concert video. Anyone who has a surround system and loves to hear Freddies voice will love this DVD. Not to say the PCM Stereo sound on this DVD sounds bad,but to buy this for stereo sound sort of defeats it's purpose. Disk two is in stereo only but has a lot of great features such as extra tracks of Now I'm Here (live),Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy (from Top of The Pops),Keep Yourself Alive, Liar, Love of My Life (oddly videoed in Japan but the audio recorded during a concert in Frankfurt) and finally the fast version of We Will Rock You (Live recorded in Texas). My favorite feature of Disc 2 is a truly interesting walk through of how Bohemian Rhapsody was made. This was done by Brian May inside a recording studio. Brian explains how the the songs instrumental sections were recorded starting with the entire piano section, followed by some bass, guitar and drum sections. It was interesting to learn how some of the guitar sections were actually Freddies ideas. Brian of course explains how the Operatic section was recorded to sound like many voices were used. This part of the video really showed the musical genius of Freddie. Another feature on disk 2 show Brian and Roger being presented with the award for the #1 song according to the Guiness Book of World records! Anyone who wants to hear a great sounding Music Video and who likes Music Videos should definately give this DVD a shot. This is truly a well produced DVD.
Rating: Summary: Extraordinary Review: I bought this DVD as a birthday gift for my cousin in the first place, played it once and bought another for myself the next day.It`s totally awesome, a wonderful archive for anyone who is interested in Queen music.
Rating: Summary: Best DVD to show off your system? Review: I have many movies I use to show off my DTS theater system, but this DVD is now the one. The DTS sound is immaculate. The surround placement of voices and instruments are intense. I didn't expect much from a video quality standpoint because the music videos were filmed back in the 70's and 80's. It was nice to see the original videos for some songs. I usually crank the DVD with the TV off. Bottom line, if you have DTS and you like Queen, then this DVD is a must for your collection.
Rating: Summary: Shivers Down My Spine Review: I was blown away by the quality of the DTS tracks on this DVD. The audio recording is three dimensional, spacious, clear, and resonant. If you were looking for an excuse to buy a DTS equipped receiver you've got one now. The strength of the bass and drums will rattle your teeth. The guitar is crystal, diamond clear. The video quality is not very good despite the remastering but this must be a fault of poor source materials. Anyway, buy this for the sound alone. It will give you an opportunity to rediscover a truly great band. It's going to get a lot of play at my house.
Rating: Summary: Try to check this out if you are a Queen fan Review: If you are expecting music videos like you see on MTV today, you won't be getting what you are wanting. Most of these videos just show footage of Queen performing live, and only a few have any concept beyond that. That's not a band thing though, since the footage and sound is very good. Queen were even better live than in the studio, and you will be able to witness their amazing live talent here.
On the second disc, you have several more videos, and live performances of "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" and "Now I'm Here". You can also watch a documentary that's all about "Bohemian Rhapsody" which is just as entertaining as the videos themselves. It features new interviews with Brian May and Roger Taylor, and also has Brian in the studio demonstrating how each bit of "Boh Rap" came together.
I would definately recommend this to anyone who is at least a casual Queen fan. These videos are fun to watch, even if you already have the song on an album, and it's great to see Queen from different eras.
Rating: Summary: New Vids & "Rhapsody" Documentary Make This Worth The Money! Review: Just bought this DVD, and the quality is outstanding. Of course one would expect this from a DVD. But the remix of the classic Queen sound makes it all the more valuable. The videos are great, too: including an all-new "Bicycle Race" video, using rarely-seen performance footage of the band. Also included: never-before-seen performance of "Liar", a rare "Top of the Pops" performance of "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy", and "Now I'm Here" at the legendary Rainbow Theatre from Queen's first British headline tour. A wonderful "extra" for anyone who enjoys "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a step-by-step documentary hosted by Brian May. Brian takes each "piece" of this opus, and shows us how the band put it together. Though he is just sitting at a sound board, May explains in detail how the music "bed" was laid for the song, the overdubs and guitars added, and he even tells us where to listen for some technical "oops" moments that made it into the final cut! Greatest Hits Volume 1 is fantastic--Queen has a tough fence to hurtle for Volume 2! Fans can hardly wait!
Rating: Summary: Can't see why they would want to "widescreen" it Review: Ok, listen. I am one of the biggest Queen fans around. I've waited patiently for EMI/Hollywood to put out a DVD compilation of all of Queen's videos. Imagine my delight when I learned of a "DVD Collection" to be released. And "Greastest Video Hits Volume 1" just sounded like the perfect start to this collection. (sigh!) Ooh boy. I have to say I wasn't completely satisfied when I recieved it in the mail yesterday. Sure, I wasn't expecting the video remastering to be Criterion quality (most of those videos were filmed in the 70's, after all) but why the widescreen? I mean, Queen's videos were filmed on full-screen. Was there really a need to make them "trendy"? Look, I am a firm believer that if something was film in widescreen, one should buy the widescreen DVD. But this really wasn't needed. Some of the image is taken away from the top and bottom of the screen all the way through. It's plainly obvious when viewing the openning video "Bohemian Rhapsody". Also, some of the videos have been replaced with "rarer" stuff (the charming original video for Bicycle Race with all the pop-culture bits like Darth Vader 'n stuff has been replaced by a stage performance/nude race one, for example). It's a shame because it's otherwise an excellent DVD. The sound is awesome and the extras (especially the Brian May-in-the-studio thing - is he really getting misty-eyed listening to the original tracks?) are priceless. I would highly recommend this DVD for die-hard fans like me, though. It's worth it for the extras and the sound. And just the overall packaging. Great booklet and cover. Thanks anyway, EMI/Hollywood. You guys get an "A" for effort. One can just hope for slightly better with future volumes of the collection. :)
Rating: Summary: BUY THIS! Review: Ok. I'm gonna make this really easy for you. Queen has been my favorite band since I was in 4th grade and first heard "Killer Queen". Brian May is THE reason I play guitar. I've seen them live twice. This DVD is the coolest thing a psycho Queen fan like me could own. Not only is the quality of the remastered videos incredible, but you get to see videos that were never aired before in the USA like Queen's performance (albeit lip-synched) of "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" on a European TV show. Even though it's lip-synched, it's a different version than what's on the album. It's got a different guitar solo, some different lead vocals, and some missing back ground parts. I won't even go into how cool the "Behind The Rhapsody" section of the DVD is. Let's just say my prayers have been answered. Buy this!
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