Beyoncé: The Beyoncé Experience Live Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Beyoncé: The Beyoncé Experience Live Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Sir Terrence December 17, 2008

In the last ten to fifteen years record companies have been turning out acts that rely more on looks than actual talent. As long as you keep them in the studio, the flaws and weaknesses of these acts remain hidden. As long as you pre-record their concerts vocals and all, keep them dancing and moving, all is well. Then there are those like Jennifer Hudson who have a big voice, but do not move much, but quite frankly are still a great talent. Beyonce is one of coveted few that sing and dance well, even if she has to lip-sync some of her concert because of the dance moves she must perform. She is one of the sexiest female artists of her generation. She actually lives up to the hype she generates, and that will be totally solidified once you see this video.

Unlike a lot of artists who do big arena size concerts, Beyonce does not rely on a lot of pyrotechnics, quick edits or pans to hide weaknesses. You actually get to see her performance, every dance move, every flip of her hair. every vocal run and scat. She is well supported by three tight backup singers, hot dancers, and an very talented all woman band. The level of talent in her band is astounding. There is a lovely Asian woman playing keyboards who did a solo that just dropped my jaw to the floor. She has some serious skills. The percussion section featured two drummer playing separate kits, both have some serious chops. Everything was perfectly staged, transitions from set to set where nearly perfect. The back drop behind the band was a state of the art LED video screen that was used perfectly in this concert, washing the entire production with great colorful images. This extended to the floor of the set, which had LED lights in it as well.

Filmed live at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on September 2, 2007 this concert features guest appearances by Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child on the cut Survivor, and Jay-Z joins her on the hit Upgrade U . This concert was shown to Digital Cinema Theaters all over the United States on November 19, 2007. Beyonce just released her latest album on November 18, 2008, the same day this Bluray was released. I am looking forward to reviewing her future concerts on the Bluray format.

1. Intro (The Beyoncé Experience Fanfare)

2. Crazy In Love (Crazy Mix)

3. Freakum Dress

4. Green Light

5. Baby Boy (Reggae Medley)

6. Beautiful Liar

7. Naughty Girl

8. Me, Myself And I

9. Dangerously In Love (He Loves Me Mix)

10. Flaws And All

11. Destiny's Child Medley (Cops And Robbers Intro)

12. Independent Woman Part 1

13. No, No, No Part 2

14. Bootylicious

15. Bug A Boo (H-town Screwed Down Mix)

16. Bills, Bills, Bills

17. Cater 2 U

18. Say My Name

19. Jumpin’ Jumpin’

20. Soldier (Soldier Boy Crank Mix)

21. Survivor (Destiny's Child Reunion)

22. Speechless

23. Ring The Alarm Intro Skit (Jailhouse Confessions)

24. Ring The Alarm

25. Suga Mama

26. Upgrade U (feat. Jay Z)

27. Bonnie And Clyde (Prince Mix)

28. Check On It

29. Deja Vu

30. Get Me Bodied

31. Welcome To Hollywood

32. Deena/Dreamgirls

33. Listen

34. Irreplaceable

35. Beyoncé B’day Surprise

Beyoncé: The Beyoncé Experience Live Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Beyonce Experience Live grooves on to the Bluray format with a 1080p/AVC encode framed at a generous 1:78:1 aspect ratio, and is quite frankly spectacular. Shot using high definition digital camera, it is free of film related pops, speckles and quite frankly grain. This is one of the most even musical productions in that no matter the camera shot; all cameras are consistent in terms of contrast, blacks, focus, and HD capture. Overall black levels were inky deep, but never crushed or murky. Contrast is spot on, and there are no visible signs of compression artifacts, edge enhancement, or pixilation. Colors are extremely vivid and well saturated, whether we are talking clothing, LED stage lights, backdrop, or colored house lights. Detail and micro-detail are excellent and skin tones, whether dark, or lighter are captured true to the source. Overall picture quality is very dynamic from bright lit stages, to the dark un-lit crowd. There is no doubt, this is a first rate production, and no complaints can be found in terms of video presentation.

Beyoncé: The Beyoncé Experience Live Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The sound on this release comes in three audio flavors, all presenting a significant sonic picture of this concert. The featured audio format is the PCM 5.1 24/48khz encoded track, followed by a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 640kbps, and lastly a PCM 2.0 stereo track. I will get into the spatial differences between these tracks a little later. I chose the PCM 5.1 tracks as the reference for this review, because quite frankly, it is superior by a pretty wide margin. This is a true 5.1 recording, as both the LFE and the center channel are consistently active throughout the entire concert. This represents one of the best captures of live sound I have heard in quite a long time. There is no dialog intelligibility issues like the other concert video's I have reviewed. Beyonce vocals are tightly locked center, with a slight bleed into the left/right mains. This gives superior dialog clarity, while providing a nice sense of the arena's acoustics as well. Background vocals are nestled left of center, as a phantom image. Musical instruments are basically in the left/right mains with just a bit of spill into the surrounds, with a nice natural decay. The Staple Center's acoustics are nicely captured without muddying the overall sound. This can be directly attributed to The Staples Center's ability to move low frequency baffles around to cut down on low frequency reverberation in the building. The LFE is consistently active with tight, articulate bass that is never muddy or indistinct. Overall the sound is open, and wide, with terrifically accurate instrument and vocal placement, which keeps the mix squeaky clean and extremely spatial. There is a very palpable sense of transparency in the overall sound stage, as the mix is laterally wall to wall wide, and extends all the way back to my front wall. The surrounds have that same wide and deep characteristic which makes this mix feel relaxed, uncramped, and spatially very engaging.

I level matched, and compared the other audio offerings on this release and I found some rather significant differences with all of the formats. The Dolby Digital track (when compared to the PCM 5.1 track) sounded closed in and just didn't have the spatial depth and width of the PCM 5.1 track. It also lacked the transparency of the PCM 5.1 track. The PCM 2.0 track sounded slightly better to these ears than the DD 5.1 track, but the DD 5.1 had the advantage of envelopment over the PCM 2.0. Audio wise, this is a first rate production, with first rate sound to boot.

Beyoncé: The Beyoncé Experience Live Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only extra material on this disc is an interactive juke box, which allows you to set the order of songs the way you want to see them. You can design your own concert in effect. There are no other extras found on this disc.

Beyoncé: The Beyoncé Experience Live Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In spite of the fact this disc does not have any extra material; I highly recommend this concert video for the concert itself. This concert video is so full of songs that I never felt cheated even in the absence of extras. To see two hours of Beyonce in full effect was hot all by itself, so once the concert was over, the fine lady had already sung. The total package was so satisfying that I cannot wait for the next time I can get my hands on her live concert videos. Don't walk, run the mouse to the Bluray.com Amazon link and get this title. You will not be sorry that you did as this is worth the price easy.