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Abba - The Definitive Collection

Abba - The Definitive Collection

List Price: $24.98
Your Price: $19.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: They almost got it right.
Review: The menus are neat, the sound is great and most of the videos are terrific. I have the Laserdiscs, Gold, More Gold, and the Discovision release of ABBA. A few clips on the Laserdiscs are superior visually to this DVD. It looks like some of the "shot on video" clips have been transferred to film and then remastered for DVD. They lose their "live" look and gain film grain. As noted in some of the other reviews there are a few sync glitches but they are not too serious. I got my copy for under ($) CAN before tax which I consider excellent value. The random play feature is a nice touch too. Something that I would like to see on more music video DVD's. Overall I can recommend this to both ABBA fans and music lovers of all ages.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Horrible Quality
Review: As an ABBA fan I am pleased to see the videos put together, however the quality is really bad, it's probably the worst DVD I have seen! I guess Universal does not go for quality!!!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Money Making off ABBA fans
Review: I'll admit I'm fan enough to buy anything ABBA related. But as the viewer from Denmark states this disc is really poorly put together.

Most annoying for a *music* DVD: the audio tracks should have been uncompressed PCM tracks but instead we get poor quality "Dolby Digital" tracks that sound like you're playing every song with the treble all the way up.

The video is pixelated and soft. It certainly seems they skimped on the bitrate. Obvious flaws in the original videos have been left intact instead of being "digitally restored"

Best feature had to be the slide-show. Although they repeated many of the pictures the music and images set quite a mood and had me reminiscing.

Overall though a shameful effort. It should have included more of the TV show videos featured on "The Winner Takes it All" DVD. Definitive collection my foot. It gets two stars only because of the music itself.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Slobby left hand job from Universal
Review: I wonder what went wrong when Universal put together this dvd? It has loads of little and major errors that should have been corrected before the release:

1. Starting off with Waterloo, someone totally ruined this clip by inserting the wrong piece of film at around 1:52 where the girls lip synch while the music is an instrumental piece!

2. Ring Ring - the original clip had the UK 1974 remix as soundtrack, however on this dvd, Universal took the US 1974 remix and used as soundtrack.

3. A lot of the clips are out of sync - take for instance On and On and On - scandalous. Universal did however use the long version of this song, albeit only in mono as the stereo master reportedly is lost.

4. Some clips that were originally taped on video have been mastered from film - take for instance Chiquitita, Eagle, Head Over Heels, Thank You For The Music which are so blurry that the previosly available clips on the Gold and More ABBA Gold VHS tapes are of better quality. Scandalous!

5. Pixelation. Throughout the dvd, a lot of compression artefacts are present which is not Universal's fault but the compression company's. The clips are blurry and grainy and do not give the excellent picture quality that they could have, had they been given professional treatment.

Reportedly a lot of people have problems watching the disc. Their players lock up - obviosly the disc is not compatible with industri standards.

I cannot recommend this disc before Universal have corrected all the above problems. It's a slobby job which is a shame since the dvd COULD be absolutely fabulous and live up to the name of the greates pop band in the world: ABBA.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: When is the Abba "In-Concert" DVD going to be released?
Review: First, there was documentary film about Abba: "The Winner Takes It All". The next release is the outstanding all music-video DVD: "Abba-The Definitive Collection". Since Abba is NEVER to going to reunite and perform again as a group; shouldn't their next DVD be an "In-Concert" movie? I am sure that there must be enough film footage to make a truly good DVD. For an act that was offered One Billion Dollars ,(U.S.), in 2002, to get back together; I would think that they should be working on it right now. "The Definitive Collection" DVD is excellent, has recieved high praise from the people who've seen it, and is selling very well. It's a music-video DVD that sets the standard by which all other music-video DVDs should be compared to. Abba would be making a BIG mistake not to release an In-Concert DVD next.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must have for the ABBA Fan
Review: Finally, we get all those videos on one DVD without interruptions! It is great to see the videos from the group that used this media to the best advantage. It is interesting to see the progression and quality as the groups money and promotion experience allowed them to spend more money on the video offerings. The picures, in the bonus section, gives a rather large slide show of the group's costumes and history. I wish that they had included a few more with their manager, the late Stig Anderson, but I guess that legal tensions that were created later after the group's split may have caused some of the many photos with Stig to be excluded. Overall, a must have. Long live ABBA!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: This DVD arrived yesterday and I am thrilled because I received a video as well in the mail called "Abba Classic" which has on it the TV Special they made in Sydney in March 1976. A year later in march 1977 I was fortunate enough to see Abba live at the Sydney Showgrounds and they were fantastic.
The "Best of Abba" TV special was watched here by more people than the moon landing and was repeated a week later by public demand....Their music is timeless and this DVD is the perfect example of the true pioneers of music that made ABBA simply the best.....Enjoy!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Collection of Videos...
Review: This is Abba's finest collection of videos on DVD.

The viewer can really see their changes over the years - visually and audioly.

My favorite videos: Waterloo, Dancin Queen, SOS, Take A Chance On Me, Super Trouper. But they are all great.

It also has a few tracks that aren't on the Definitive Collection CD set such as Bang A Boomerang, One Man One Woman, That's Me, and Happy New Year.

The set also has Spanish Videos for the songs Happy New Year, I Have A Dream, and When All Is Said and Done.

This is the ultimate video/DVD set for the hardcore fans as well as new fans who want to see what made Abba so unique.

Although I wish it was also on videotape so I can play it on my VCR as well - that I have up in my room.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: For hardcore fans and new fans alike
Review: For those of us who remember ABBA at the height of their chart topping career to those who have been caught up in the revival of the last 10 years...this DVD is a must. Yes their are a few glitches...check out Waterloo...who ever cut that together had a few synch problems...that aside this is really as the title says the definitive collection. Every clip is a joy to watch in it's full crisp DVD format...the sound is wonderful and the bonus/extras on the dvd are great. The photo gallery is a great collection of shots of the group and individual pics set to music. The 3 bonus clips have been around on bootleg formats for awhile but with their release on The Definitive Collection, they are sparkling clear. So if you are an Oldie, a Goldie or just a music nutter who wants to have a piece of history from a group that helped define pop...do yourself a favour and buy the Definitive Collection.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Well...darn...I have to admit when I'm wrong.
Review: I was so happy to have all of ABBA's videos finally on DVD that I really blew it on my original review of this disc. I hate eating crow, but at least I can admit when I'm wrong. And I apologize to anyone I may have misled-not that my opinion is important anyway, but you know what I mean.

I have just about every laserdisc (LD) released for ABBA and after reading the negative reviews I sat down and seriously A/B compared the LDs with this DVD. I have a Pioneer DV-09 DVD player and a Pioneer LD-8000 LD player which I viewed through my 36" Sony Trinitron XBR television for the comparison. I also ran the audio through my Magnepan speakers. After my comparison I'll never trust my failing memory again.

This DVD's video is severely pixilated in some places with lots of compression artifacts. Whoever did the mastering used a low bit rate which resulted in digital video that looks muddy. The "Chiquitita" track is probably the worst offender here: Combining a poor original source with the extra-lossy video compression, the producers of this DVD created something here that is too painful to watch after comparing it with the "ABBA Gold" LD.

The audio, in general, sounds better on this DVD then on the LDs. Since the analog audio output on my LD player is not as good as my DVD player I cannot trust the comparison to be accurate. Both, of course, have digital audio tracks.

There are several places on this DVD where the audio / video synchronization leaves much to be desired. There are also a few places where the audio and / or video skips or locks up-I am not talking about the DVD layer change pause. A spot in "When I Kissed the Teacher" is one of the worst. ARRGH!

On the positive side, this DVD has all of ABBA's "music videos" crammed into a single disc which also includes their previously unreleased Spanish versions. Additionally, if all you have of ABBA are VHS tapes then the DVD is a step up in quality.

I enjoy watching this DVD on my computer, but I'll stick with my old LDs when I want to see ABBA on my television. This is certainly not a definitive edition. Even if it must be broken up into two DVDs to improve the video quality, would ABBA please release a truly definitive edition of their videos! Your fans would eagerly buy it.


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