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The Movie:
Apparently, people like Britney Spears. After reviews for three of her titles on DVD have been heavily read, I only figured why not continue with another title, only this time, one that has not been released on DVD. Yes, this is actually my first VCD (Video CD) review. Although they never really caught on in America, VCDs remain largely popular in other countries where they sometimes offer titles that aren't available in the US yet, such as this one. The downside is that the quality is defintely not as good as DVD and unless it's a title that one really wants, it seems like it might be almost better to wait.
Anyways, "No Place Like Home" has Spears going home to throw a concert for a giant crowd. I was rather suprised by the differences between this performance and the Live in Hawaii show. This concert seemed more straightforward and energetic, and here, there are no little segments between songs.
Songs include "Drive Me Crazy", "Stronger", "Baby...One More Time", "Lucky", "Oops... I Did It Again" and others as part of the concert. Videos for "Oops...I Did It Again", "Baby...One More Time", "Lucky", "Sometimes" and "Drive Me Crazy" are also included.
The DVD
VIDEO: For those who have viewed the recent "Live and More" DVD, this comes nowhere close to that. With the VCD format's limited capability, the picture quality isn't nearly as good as DVD. That doesn't mean that "No PLace Like Home" doesn't look unwatchable, though. The full-frame presentation generally looks about broadcast quality, if slightly less at times as sharpness is not always consistent. The picture has a bit of a "digital" look occasionally, but artifacts don't become irritating.
Colors remain bold and warm, if not always terribly crisp. The differences in image quality is especially apparent with the music videos, which looked breathtakingly sharp on the "Live and More" DVD, where they look very average here in comparison. The TV logo appears at the bottom corner of the screen during the concert, but I found this hardly noticable.
SOUND: The stereo sound again isn't going to compare at all to the DVD releases from Spears, but it at least sounds moderately enjoyable, full-sounding and generally crisp if not offering great clarity. Spears' vocals come through fairly well and generally, it's listenable if not impressive in any way.
EXTRAS: Videos for "Oops...I Did It Again", "Baby...One More Time", "Lucky", "Sometimes" and "Drive Me Crazy" are also included.
Final Thoughts: It's unfortunate that this concert has not yet been put out on DVD because, although I'm not much of a Spears fan, she really puts on quite a show here. The VCD quality isn't too bad, considering the limitations of the format. Hopefully, the DVD version will be out soon.
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