6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 2.6 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
The pop superstar captured live in performance at London's O2 Arena. The tour, in support of Rihanna's fifth studio album 'Loud' (2010), featured an elaborate stage show and saw the singer perform hits including 'Only Girl (in the World)', 'California King Bed', 'Umbrella' and 'We Found Love'.
Starring: RihannaMusic | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-2
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
2.0- Track is 128 KBits, 5.1 track is 228 KBits, No DTS as logo on back art says.
None
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 2.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Quite often in the contemporary world of entertainment a star’s private life will completely subsume actual career accomplishments. Take the recent case of the ill-fated Lifetime television film Liz and Dick for just one potent example. I defy you to find a review of this made for television outing that didn’t at least touch upon star Lindsay Lohan’s troubled personal life. In fact several feature articles in some trade papers and magazines were built up around that very aspect of the production. Something at least somewhat akin to that situation tends to often happen with Rihanna, due to her hyperbolically publicized relationship with Chris Brown, a relationship that has quite infamously included charges of domestic violence and assault. Rihanna’s on again, off again relationship with Brown has provided lots of fodder for the tabloids, and many have questioned the still very young singer’s choices, at least with regard to Brown. With all of the hoopla surrounding Rihanna’s private life, it’s sometimes hard to focus on her actual musical (and now nascent acting) accomplishments, but her string of platinum albums certainly is manifest evidence of her continuing popularity (even if her most recent album, the not so accidentally named Unapologetic, hasn’t yet attained that status). This new Blu-ray featuring Rihanna in concert (as well as Rihanna backstage, Rihanna arriving at various locations and Rihanna doing pretty much everything you’d expect a superstar to do) may well give at least a little indication of her obvious allure and talent, but it’s a middling release at best, one hampered by barely acceptable video and the mind boggling decision to only include lossy audio options.
Rihanna: Loud Tour Live at the O2 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Def Jam with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. MPEG-2 compression is in and of itself a bad thing, but this transfer has several problematic elements, including some really unusual banding, something that doesn't regularly turn up in live performance videos, at least in my experience. There's also consistent moiré that crops up on the pointillistic light display upstage, including a couple of times that almost look like the image is warping it's so severe. Contrast is spotty, and the image is often kind of fuzzy and ill defined. (Ironically some of the best looking elements are actually the confessionals and backstage sequences). Colors are nicely saturated and fairly robust, but overall this is a middling video presentation at best.
Rihanna: Loud Tour Live at the O2 features only two lossy Dolby Digital mixes, in 2.0 and 5.1, certainly one of the more bizarre decisions for a Blu-ray release by a major artist. Adding to the weirdness is that the DTS logo is firmly emblazoned on the back cover of this release. The audio here is okay, nothing more, nothing less, though there's simply not much oomph to anything, despite the propulsive nature of many of Rihanna's tunes. The low end is generally pretty anemic sounding, only occasionally rising to really aggressive levels. The mix is decent, however, with a good balance between vocals and band. The 5.1 mix does reveal more of the ubiquitous audience noise.
There are no supplements whatsoever on this Blu-ray disc.
Maybe one of Rihanna's Los Angeles fans, whom the artist herself has now gone on record as identifying as "friends", can drop by the singer's house for some coffee and tell their new best bud that in this day and age Blu-ray releases really ought to have more contemporary video codecs and certainly should come with lossless audio, especially when they're music related. This may have been an absolutely fantastic set of concerts, but this Blu-ray is a total disappointment.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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