The Rolling Stones: From the Vault - No Security - San Jose '99 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

The Rolling Stones: From the Vault - No Security - San Jose '99 Blu-ray Movie Review

Eagle Rock continues what has been a rather interesting set of releases culled from the video archives of The Rolling Stones, all of which have been branded as “from the vault” and all but one so far put out on so-called “SD BD” formats, meaning that video is upscaled and not always in great looking condition. So far this series has offered The Rolling Stones: From the Vault - Hampton Coliseum - Live in 1981, The Rolling Stones: From the Vault - The Marquee - Live in 1971, The Rolling Stones: From the Vault — Hyde Park Live, 1969, The Rolling Stones From the Vault: Live at the Tokyo Dome, The Rolling Stones From the Vault: Live at Leeds and The Rolling Stones: From the Vault - Sticky Fingers Live at the Fonda Theatre (this last, and perhaps not so coincidentally fairly recently performed, release is the one that's in "true" high definition). No Security - San Jose ‘99 is another high energy concert which finds Mick and boys marauding through a nice array of Stones material, and Mick especially seems to be unusually energized — even for him.

• 1. Jumpin' Jack Flash
• 2. Bitch
• 3. You Got Me Rocking
• 4. Respectable
• 5. Honky Tonk Woman
• 6. I Got the Blues
• 7. Saint of Me
• 8. Some Girls
• 9. Paint it Black
• 10. You Got the Silver
• 11. Before They Make Me Run
• 12. Out of Control
• 13. Route 66
• 14. Get Off of My Cloud
• 15. Midnight Rambler
• 16. Tumbling Dice
• 17. It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)
• 18. Start Me Up
• 19. Brown Sugar
• 20. Sympathy for the Devil

The Rolling Stones: From the Vault - No Security - San Jose '99 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Rolling Stones From the Vault: No Security - San Jose '99 is presented on so-called "SD BD" with an AVC encoded (upscaled) 1080i presentation in 1.33:1. This falls pretty much in line with many of the other upscaled archival Stones discs fans have been used to seeing from Eagle Rock over the past couple of years, and if there's one positive thing to say here, it's that the presentation probably looks at least a bit better in motion than some of the screenshots might indicate. That said, this is a pretty ragged viewing experience, one regularly hobbled by upscaling artifacts and aliasing and with a generally fuzzy appearance. Detail levels are further diminished by lighting choices which bathe the boys in deep reds and blues, to the point that facial features are hard to make out at times, even in relative close-ups. There's definitely a "video" look to the entire presentation, along with occasional chroma anomalies, hints of macroblocking and posterizing. In relatively "normal" stage lighting, things look marginally better, but this is one of those releases where it's the audio that will probably be more inviting to most fans.

The Rolling Stones: From the Vault - No Security - San Jose '99 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Rolling Stones From the Vault: No Security - San Jose '99 features LPCM 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks (and as tends to be the case sometimes with Eagle Rock releases, the disc is authored to default to the stereo track). I'm scoring this at 4.0, but I have to say this was one of the less pleasing sounding live performances in the From the Vault series I've personally reviewed, though I think at least some of what I'm hearing stems from the acoustics of the venue and not necessarily from the actual audio on the disc. The LPCM 2.0 track is pretty anemic sounding when compared to the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, but the surround track is really "boomy", with tons of reverb and sonics that almost sound like things are echoing at times. That gives the low end here a pretty overwhelming sound which can sometimes mask midrange instruments and even Mick's vocals. All of that said, fidelity sounds fine, without any brittleness or distortion.

The Rolling Stones: From the Vault - No Security - San Jose '99 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While there are no on disc supplements on the actual Blu-ray, Eagle Rock has also provided 2 CDs of the entire concert.

The Rolling Stones: From the Vault - No Security - San Jose '99 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Rolling Stones From the Vault: No Security - San Jose '99 is another fun and extremely high energy performance from the Stones, and one that should be welcomed by anyone who has been collecting the From the Vault series thus far. Video is once again pretty ragged looking, and there's quite a bit of arena reverb on the audio which may bother some fans, but overall for fans of the Stones if not for the public at large this release comes Recommended.