I struggled for a non-hostile way to start this review, but I eventually
caved in:
In software circles, the term "Shovelware" refers to a piece of media
(usually CD-ROM) that is full of whatever free software the publisher could
find to fill up a disc. Nettwerk definately drew inspiration from this
concept when releasing these piles of trash.
First a history lesson: When Nettwerk/Capitol released "Last Rights" in the
US, there was a pressing error causing the entire disc to be shifted 39
seconds... Well, masters of ineptitude, Nettwerk has managed to do it again
with their DVD release of "Ain't it Dead Yet?", completely skipping the
entire intro and starting the video well into the song "Anger"... Nettwerk
has admitted the error and recalled the defective discs. In addition, the
cover art for the disc is stolen directly from the video, INCLUDING an error
("God's Gift Maggot" is REALLY "One Time, One Place", funny that they
remembered to fix it when they reissued the CD...)... Beyond these clear
examples of quality control mastery, this disc is as bare-bones as they
come... Nettwerk literally pressed play on their VCR, and record on their
DVD Mastering software, and added a menu screen. The video quality is less
than superb, with definate compression artifacts and no attention to
cleaning up the masters at all. The audio is two channel, and I am not even
sure if it is up to par with the CD release of this show... Very
disappointing.
The Video Collection disc is just that, 8 SP videos, shoveled onto a disc
with a single menu as the "Special Feature". Again, this DVD is identical
to the VHS release of the same name. Both the DVD and VHS are missing the
video for "Worlock", but that is probably due to the fact that the video was
almost entirely comprised of clips from various horror movies, and Nettwerk
couldn't afford/didn't feel like expending the effort to acquire the rights.
It also would have been nice for them to get the videos from "The Process",
that aren't that difficult to get ahold of, but would have definately
rounded out the disc. The video quality isn't too bad considering the age
of some of these videos, and the sound is stereo, but a decent stereo...
Christ, even shoveling some video of their performance at Doomsday last year
would have been throwing a bone to their consumers. But Nettwerk has again
shown that they really don't care about their consumers or their artists...
If you own the VHS versions of these two videos, don't waste your money on
the DVDs unless you want to eliminate the scourge of VHS from your
collection...
Skinny Puppy, "Ain't it Dead Yet?" & "Video Collection" DVDs
- Written by: Sean Graham
- Parent Category: Reviews
- Category: Home Theater
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