Roy Orbison – Black & White Night (HD-DVD/Image Entertainment)
Picture:
B Sound: A- Extras: C- Concert: B+
The
legendary Roy Orbison is one of the true pioneers of American Music, whose
influence spans several decades, several genres, can still be heard in film
& TV and offers a legacy that continues to be inarguable. When the site began, one of the best discs we
covered and early popular reviews was for the DTS DVD version of the all-star
concert Roy Orbison – Black & White
Night with Orbison as great as ever and the result was a concert title that
remains one of the biggest, most popular and well regarded in all of home
video. You can read about that initial
release at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/76/Roy+Orbison+-+Black+&+White+Night
It was
then reissued in double sets with the high definition audio formats. One set added a DVD-Audio, the other a Super
Audio CD and only The Eagles – Hell
Freezes Over was as phenomenally successful during the entire DVD era. Now, the classic concert comes to HD-DVD and
Image has yet another winning version on their hands. I cannot agree more with Nate Goss’ very
thorough coverage of the show and you can read more about that aspect of it
too, so I will move on to the performance of the disc.
Though
the concert was filmed in Super 16mm and 35mm film, the presentation here is in
1080i 1.78 X 1 and is likely the decent HD master that has surfaced on
cable/satellite HDTV for years. It is
passable, but a new 2K or 4K transfer would have yielded even more detail and
depth. As it stands, the image is still
rich in Video Black and looks good, but it can also be a tad flat in
detail. It also surpasses the previous
DVD versions and is much better than seeing it on cable/satellite.
The best
part of the disc is the amazing Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix, rivaled only by Nine Inch Nails Live – Beside You In Time
as the sonically best concert release in either HD format and NIN is available in both. Elliot Scheider remixed this and Bob Ludwig
remastered this; two legends in the business delivering an articulate
soundfield that puts most film soundtracks to shame. This is a demo quality track, though I can
hear some slight limits versus how great this would potentially sound in
DVD-Audio’s MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing) format and SACD’s DSD (Direct
Stream Digital) format, but neither have the concert in HD, so this is a
terrific combination indeed. As good as
the DTS was at the time with the DVD, it is now trumped by the Dolby TrueHD
here.
Though it
is not available yet in Blu-ray (Image has not issued in the format yet, but
are about to), we wonder if that is not far behind. Hope they try DTS MA for this mix down the
line as well, but Roy Orbison – Black
& White Night is now one of the top sound HD discs on the market and
serious fans should deem it a must for any serious collection.
- Nicholas Sheffo
