The Gathering

If you watch this on a computer monitor or a not so huge full screen Tv, picture is ok.
But this concert was shot in Widescreen format 1.85:1.
And there is NO reason to NOT master this DVD in anamorphic quality, so that people who have a widescreen tv can enjoy this DVD and not have to zoom it up to fill the screen and have a very bad quality then.
The Gathering have shown that they can produce a good quality anamorphic DVD when they made "A sound relief", and I think it is the fault of the people who mastered the new DVD that it became such a mess.

And I am glad that I am not the only one seeing that the mastering of this DVD went wrong.

Again, do not understand me the wrong way, the concert itself is magical and I love it, the sound is good too.

oh yes
when i play it on the big tv u need to zoom in to fill the screen. thats bad but oh well

yeah I noticed that by resizing the window of my computer... normally the window automatically adjust to the size of the video... here the black bands on top and bottom are part of the windows and cannot be removed... bit weird.. but well, I dont own a 16/9 TV so I dont care lol

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Maybe i'm paranoid, yeah that's my problem
You almost have to be when you look like me

I agree with both of you, but what really pisses me off is the Direction. The camera angles and its constant change are a drag.

The quality of the pictures on the outer sleeve are also poor resolution... overall I dont like the looks of it.

Good show, good sound quality, poor editing and direction.

A disappointment, really.

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... even nature reacts on me


Quote: "bullshit"

the editing ain't bad at all... you may not like it but it is not bad... if you dont like the frequency of shot change, dont look at the Muse hullabaloo DVD then... I will fully watch the gig with 5.1 and beamer on wednesday I hope.. then IF there is something wrong with it I will tell...

But I still see this as the yang from ASR... And I think this is how it should be seen, it's 2 years the bands says so.

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Maybe i'm paranoid, yeah that's my problem
You almost have to be when you look like me

The quality and mastering of a DVD has nothing to do with ying and yang.

The directing is a matter of taste, I do not have a problem with that, as this is the harder more raw site of The Gathering,
so I am ok with the constant angle changes and stuff.

But the quality of a DVD itself is NOT a matter of taste. It is a fact that the people that mastered this DVD have no clue how to do their job correctly, if one of the huge bands in this business would have put out such a DVD , it would be immediately called back, be newly mastered and then newly released.

I can understand that The Gathering will not have the money to do this, maybe next time they should let people do the job who know what cameras they have to use when shooting a Widescreen concert and who know how to deinterlace a DVD.

Ah well, nothing can be changed anymore, but maybe The Gathering take a lesson out of this.

my last comment was more a reaction on dragffys' post...
if you see ASR was soft, long shots and all, ANS is the opposite..

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Maybe i'm paranoid, yeah that's my problem
You almost have to be when you look like me

I just hope this is not changing angles like the Cranberries DVD Beneath The Skin Live In Paris! That is the worst directing-editing concert DVD I have ever seen! I can't watch my copy, period. It's freaking terrible.

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The Gathering pics

Why do you want to watch a DVD by the Cranberries voluntarily??

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Het zal wel weer off-topic zijn...
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I'm not obsessed, it's an hobby

lol@shrink!

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Maybe i'm paranoid, yeah that's my problem
You almost have to be when you look like me

Non-anamorphic dvds are fullscreen movies with bars at the top and bottom.
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/ ... 5demo.html
They suck.I mean c’mon…non-anamorphic DVDs are ancient history, they only look good on an average 4:3 TV.Even if you don’t have a widescreen TV now you will have in the future.
Oh well...at least its not a VHS

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bye...

Dear all,

Thanks for all the reactions!
I feel I have to give some comments concerning the technical aspects of this DVD.
We recorded this DVD in Santiago de Chile, on NTSC. If it would have been superb quality (PAL) and
top notch equipment that we were after, we would have recorded in Amsterdam or another big city in Europe.
But that's what we've already done with 'A Sound Relief'.
We decided to go on an adventure and had a dream; recording in Chile, where we always have
a great, warm audience and a superb atmosphere. We knew the technical standards are different
than in Europe, but, as I said, it was never our goal to make a second 'ASR'.
This doesn't mean that I think we have a mediocre technical recording. It is just not like 'A Sound Relief',
which was technically a highlight. It was our choice. Besides, the mastering studio we used is
the best one in the Netherlands, and I can assure you that we and the people at the mastering-studio spent a lot
of time and effort. We are very satisfied and proud of the results.

Cheers,
Hans

while i agree that the picture is not as good as compared to A Sound Relief, I must say I personally prefer this concert to the one on A Sound Relief... It is alot more lively...

the directing is actually reasonable i think, i have seen much worse editing; could have been "slower" in succession of shots in "atmospheric" moments... but it is definitly watcheable and completely within the "norm" for concert DVDs...

the picture contrast, well, i actually thought it was quite nice since i often turn down contrast and brightness on my LCDs (why? because i get tired more easily with anything higher and when i need to code all day...)

nah really the only problem i see with this release is just the deinterlace and even though i feel abit annoyed by it it wont stop me from enjoying this otherwise great concert.

Here I go !

1. This is to all of the fans of the gathering that haven't recieved their copy of the DVD. If you have read some of the comments about it you may be like I was & wondering whether it is worth getting it. Take it from me, there isn't an official release, (maybe HTMAP) from ANY band that would be any MORE worthwhile getting.

I recieved my full pack in the post today. I turned the TV on & put the DVD straight into the player. I was watching for about 1 minute before I knew that I wasn't going to be getting much work done for the rest of the day.


2. To Hans & the rest of the band. Thankyou so much this truly amazing release & thankyou for your words about the technical aspects of the DVD. However, I think they were totally unnecessary & I find it a complete insult that you need to defend anything involved with it. As far as I'm concerned, it is PERFECT.

3. To the people who made the negative comments, (...Always... in particular) I would like to make an offer to you. If the DVD was such a huge disappointment to you, I would love to take it from you. Simply return it to the gathering's web shop so it can be forwarded to someone who will appreciate it. The band can do with them what they want but I feel very strongly that you people are not worthy of such a beautiful thing. Maybe my 42 inch plasma screen tv is not up to your very high standards but I think it looks absolutely perfect on it. All you need to do is PM me your bank details or a paypal account number & I will send you 20 euro. If you don't think i'm serious, send the message !

Finally. One real regret that I have is that I didn't see the gathering perform (with Anneke) live more than I did (living in Australia or England hasn't helped much). Sadly, it was only twice but I believe that this DVD is the very next best thing.

Setlist- 100 out of 100
Band's performance- 100 out of 100
Atmosphere- 100 out of 100
Extras- 100 out of 100
Picture & Sound quality- 100 out of 100
Anneke's performance & presence 500 out of 100

Verdict- MANDATORY !!!!!

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This is the magic that a name would stain.
MY MUSIC COLLECTION AT METAL ARCHIVES

I actually think Annie is not at her top level on that performance... I saw/heard better during the 2006 tour.
But it remains more than correct. just I wouldnt give 100% score on that particular point

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Maybe i'm paranoid, yeah that's my problem
You almost have to be when you look like me

[quote="Hammer"]
3. To the people who made the negative comments, (...Always... in particular) I would like to make an offer to you. If the DVD was such a huge disappointment to you, I would love to take it from you. Simply return it to the gathering's web shop so it can be forwarded to someone who will appreciate it. The band can do with them what they want but I feel very strongly that you people are not worthy of such a beautiful thing. Maybe my 42 inch plasma screen tv is not up to your very high standards but I think it looks absolutely perfect on it. All you need to do is PM me your bank details or a paypal account number & I will send you 20 euro. If you don't think i'm serious, send the message !

quote]

To Hammer:

It seems you are the typical fanboy, that accepts and praises everything that your beloved band does.

I probbaly know the Gathering longer than you do and I've seen them several times live and they are one of my favourite bands.

If you cannot accept that the new DVD is a total mess technical wise, then you have no knowledge about DVD authoring and mastering (I am doing this as my job , by the way).

And many others besides me have recognized all the technical flaws of the new DVD, as you can see if you read thru all the posts here.

This is not negotiable, the DVD does not fit modern standards, period!

And to Hans, PAL or NTSC has nothing to do with a quality of a DVD, PAL is the European and Australian standard, NTSC is the American and Asian standard of DVDs.
The problem were the cameras used to film this concert, they were probbaly ancient and if you have such a poor equipment , only the mastering studio is able to fix this a bit, which also did not succeed.

And why should I give this DVD away, Hammer ? I said several times that the concert itself is awesome and the sound is very good too.

Its just, I am not a brainless fanboy who accepts everything, if there is something to criticize, I am doing this.

cheers

Is there anyway The Gathering can sell the DVD/CD combo over in American sites like Amazon.com? I can't afford the webshop prices just because I live in America. I'm not paying $60-70-80 dollars for a DVD/CD combo. I'm not rich That's how much it would cost me if I order a Noise Severe on their webshop.

They need to sell this on Amazon.com for god sakes.

Pity I would have bought it on the day it was released like I always have with The Gathering. This is the first time I can't buy something of theirs.

I hate the dollar to be so fucking weak... that's not gonna help indeed for North American fans...

@...alway...
You speak about hammer being a fan boy but you don't really do better with "I know the band longer than you blablabla"...
You made your point about being very disappointed over the images... But if someone is satisfied with it, dont come back to whip his/her ears and say this is not to be believed... hammer loves it, that's cool, you don't that's also cool...

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Maybe i'm paranoid, yeah that's my problem
You almost have to be when you look like me

I sent Hans a question about this on PM. It's really a pity. The shipping and handling for the US is insane and just the cost of a CD in the UK/Europe is alot more then here in America. I know I am not the only one suffereing. If it was sold in Amazon.com the price would be put in dollars over here and it would be extremely lower then ordering it in the webshop.

@ ...Always...

I'm guessing you weren't being complimentary when you referred to me as a brainless fanboy. Seeing as I don't have a brain, I can't know for sure, but what I do know is that Hans must have been lying when he said. "The mastering studio we used is the best one in the Netherlands, and I can assure you that we and the people at the mastering-studio spent a lot of time and effort. We are very satisfied and proud of the results". Or, the people at that studio need to call on you for some advice.

I just thought that you in particular would have jumped at the chance to get your money back on what you described as a total technical mess that does not fit with modern standards but don't forget, I have no brain.

I would like to congratulate you on the fact that you probbaly know the Gathering longer than I do. I really feel terrible now I realise that I am not the first to discover them. Since 1999 I was convinced that I was the one that put them on the map when I bought a copy of How to measure a planet.

Anyway, one thing I do know is that arguing & making silly sarcastic remarks towards you isn't really a great way to spend my evening. I wouldn't mind betting that you are a nice person who is very good at what you do & that if I met you one day that we would chat about things other than the visual quality of a DVD. It's hardly a reason to make an enemy.

All the best.

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This is the magic that a name would stain.
MY MUSIC COLLECTION AT METAL ARCHIVES