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Rating: 
Summary: Very good and visual but...
Review: Being a true Depeche Mode fan and having seen all their concerts since "Music for the Masses" I was excited to find out about this Devotional DVD and promptly bought it. I think the album "Songs of Faith and Devotion" shows the darker side of Dave and this truly reflected on his stage presence during this concert. Although the visual of the concert footage is stunning, I was very disapointed with the audio and video synch. Being a musician myself, I hate to see a concert where the drummer (Alan Wilder) pounds away and there is an obvious delay between the beat you see and the beat you hear... This is very dommage...
Rating: 
Summary: Unwarranted whining once again
Review: How many times did people post "why isn't this on DVD?!" or "I can't wait for this to come out on dvd." Now that it is available on dvd, people are complaining about that. What a shock! It just never fails. No wonder musicians and entertainers don't have much to do with the internet.
This is a simple to navigate dvd with excellent picture and great sound quality, especially if you have a real home entertainment system with surround features. They even included 99% of the set (I think maybe 1 track was missing, "Get Right With Me"). As for the two bonus tracks, for continuity it would be ok to have them during the concert film, but is it really so hard to go the extras section and play them? BTW, on the picture quality, have you seen a dvd mastered from vhs? Believe me, if they had done that, then you would really have something to complain about. If you want to complain, you could make the case that the versions of these songs don't hold up to previous concert versions.
One thing I will say is that the bonus disc did not add much to the overall package. I mean, who is going to sit and stare at the screen projections for several minutes? The MTV documentary is worth watching but brings back bad memories of a train about to derail.
Most basic fans will be pleased with this release. The others will at least have something else to complain about once they buy this. And I thought I was a pessimist.
Rating: 
Summary: Wasted opportunity to transfer greatest concert film ever
Review: I have always believed that this film achieved the pinnacle of concert cinema, even rivaling Jonathan Demme's "Stop Making Sense." Anton Corbijn's direction was totally meticulous, contemporary and cinematographic. As for the group, what can you say? Alan Wilder was always the true creative genius, and as fans know, "Songs of Faith and Devotion" (the material behind this film) was Wilder's experiment and his urgency basically broke up the band. This was Depeche Mode's last and best achievement. Also, Dave Gahan wasn't quite as nerdy as he's become in live performance now (yes, it's ironic).
OK, so here's the problem: The transfer sucks, and adding to the comments that the manufacturer didn't go back to the original prints for a quality transfer, the big problem here is one that should have expired years ago in the DVD world: It's not in anamorphic widescreen format. Rather, the full-screen image contains black bars on the top and the bottom.
What this means is that all modern televisions (i.e., HDTVs) will display the film as a small box inside their full, widescreen frames. Isn't that great? Good job, Mute (or whoever performed the transfer). The DVD is totally worthless, especially for the future.
Rating: 
Summary: DM's best video
Review: I highly recommend this dvd. I owned this same concert on VHS video for several years and so I was excited to see it come out on DVD. However, when I read some of the other reviews here about "grainy" video, I held off. Finally I bought it and I am 100% happy with it, and I don't understand what this talk of "graininess" is all about. I find the video to be very sharp and clear, and better than the VHS video. But the DVD also includes a number of extra features - such as an MTV special with interviews with DM, and the original video that is on the screens.
I think this concert captures DM at their peak - and I saw them live in both 1988 at the Rose Bowl concert, and on the most recent Exciter tour and have the dvd's of those concerts too, so I can compare. And their series of videos for their individual songs is too abstract and boring for my tastes. THIS dvd from 92 or 93 is the one to have!
Rating:
Summary: I expected more
Review: i really expected more than just the concert. Well, it has extras but :
The anton monologue give us not too much info. The lights reflects on the tour books when he shows them to the camera.
The tour books has no zoom option (a dvd, with all the technology that sorrounds could have).
There is no animation nor sound in the menues. Just the devotional-type font with the menu options. Have you seen movies-dvd? Have you see the menues?. That's what I mean. It looks like the simplest interface a programmer can do.
The film is grainy. The sound is great. But the center-channel is not dedicated uniquely to the voice as it does in the A night in Paris dvd.
Why separate Policy of Truth and Halo in other option????? They should be in their original order. There is no time-limit as with the Laser Disc edition.
I am a devotee fan of DM, but I really expected more. At least some animation in the dvd menues.
Ah! one more: the projection for Never Let me Dowm Again. Was it intended to be ajoke what appears at the first 4 minutes of the projection???? about the mummy and what it says!!!
sorry the grammar errors, I'm peruvian.
Rating:
Summary: 4.5 Stars.... Depeche Mode at its peak
Review: I saw Depeche Mode a couple of times on the "Faith and Devotion" tour, and also bought the "Devotional" VHS when it came out all those years ago.
DVD1 of "Devotional" is a transfer of the original VHS movie, and the great improvement is of course the sound, which is exceptional. The performance of the band is outstanding, and the song selection rightly focuses on the "Faith and Devotion" album, but other nuggets include "World in My Eyes", "Never Let Me Down" and "Enjoy the Silence". DVD2 brings some extras which, frankly, I don't really care all that much for. I do wish that they had added the 2 bonus tracks (including a superb "Halo") on DVD1.
In retrospect, we can now say without much of a doubt that DM era-1993 was DM at its peak. Once you can over the fact that Dave Gahan desparately seeks street-cred (tattoos, long hair, etc.), you have to admit that his voice was better than ever. Adding live drums was a stroke of genius. The songs rocked. Last but not least the stage design by Anton Corbijn was superb. This is a thoroughly enjoyable DVD, and a must for any DM fan. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome performance, and enthralling film.
Review: I saw Depeche Mode live in Copenhagen in 2001, and I was quite dissapointed in their performance back then. The Paris 2001 DVD wasn't much better - Dave's voice simply wasn't as good as it had been (not to mention that the Exciter material wasn't the best the band had done). This concert, however, is superb - Dave's vocal performance is really amazing, and the full band is at their best.
The set-list is great, featuring a nice ballance of newer songs from the Faith and Devotion album, mixed with old classics. Of course we'll all have some favorites which we would have liked to see included (I, personally, sorely miss One Caress and Strangelove, and would have preferred A Question Of Lust rather than Stripped or Behind The Wheel, but that's a detail). The song arrangement is great, and the song order works very well, even though I was quite supprised to find the song Fly On The Windscreen in the encore - I'm only a casual DM fan, and have never heard this song before - and found it very dull - so I think it would have been much better to either leave out this track or place it earlier in the setlist, and take in a greater hit in the encore.
The sound is great, and makes the music a real pleassure to listen to. Also, the sound editing is fine.
As to the visuals - the filming is a bit dark, but this is done intentionally to emphasize the visuals on the 9 smaller screens along the seperation of the upper and lower level of the stage, and this works great. Even though the lighting from the lights over the stage is limited, the overall visual result is great, and fully captures the live atmosphere. The somewhat unusual stage layout also works very well in my oppinion, and I think it's a pity that they discarded this one the second leg of the tour.
As to the extras, I think they are great. The two extra songs from the set ARE on disc 1 in my region 2 version of this release - I'd like to have them re-edited back into the set, but they haven't done that. The documentary and the interview with Antoni Corbijn are very interesting. The promotional videos are nice extras, even if they have been released elsewhere.
All in all, this is a release everybody with some interest in DM should own - it features the band at their very best, and is among the strongest live recordings I own.
Rating: 10/10
Rating:
Summary: truly, a great concent film but needs a tweak
Review: i was frustrated on the video quality, like on the other review it truly is "grainy", i even own the VHS devotional and watched like 20 times and i never complain on the video quality
audio is the best part of the DVD (PCM & 5.1)
i'd rather turn-off the TV and just listen to the tracks (that's how bad the video is)
Rating:
Summary: almost perfect, but a little lacking.....
Review: I was hyped when I read about this release. I got it last night, and watched it all the way through. The good news: the sound is great, most of the songs use alternate arrangements ( or mixes, if you prefer ) which is a nice change from listening to the Faith and Devotion cd ( I especially like the revamped "Everything Counts", it has a funk, a grit, that it never had before ). The visuals are spare, they enhance but do not distract from the concert. Dave Gahan is in strong voice ( wailing like a bluesman, he sings the heck out of Condemnation, one of my all time favourites, unlike the newer version on the One Night in Paris dvd, where he croons Condemnation in a slow, more controlled, almost "lounge-act" kind of way .) Now the bad news : the "extras" one disc two are just not that special. The videos are most all available on "the Videos 86-98 +" DVD. The projections I can already see on the regular part of the concert on disc one. The interview with Anton Corbijn is of little or no consequence. The two bonus concert tracks should have been put on the first disc, where they belong. The only thing I really enjoyed is the documentary, although it is too short. I would have liked to have seen more behind the scenes things, like in the "101" DVD, but I didn't direct or put this film together, so griping about it is futile. And as I never had the original Devotional VHS, I cannot comment on other reviewers saying the film itself looks "grainy". A few minor gripes aside, this is an outstanding release, showcasing Depeche Mode at their performance peak.
Rating:
Summary: Visually one of the best concerts ever!!
Review: This performance was shot during the height of Depeche Mode's creativity. Visually this concert is fantastic. It was shot by Anton Corbijn, the bands long time photographer and video director. The colours are super saturated and it has that distinct grain you'll find in most of Anton's works. The audio is also very good. It features both 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo mixes. There is also second disc which has tons of goodies on it. Even if you're not a huge Depeche Mode fan, I highly recommend this DVD.
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