DVD (Live at The Summit, Houston, TX, – December 29, 1982, Previously Unreleased)
01 Controversy
02 Let’s Work
03 Do Me, Baby
04 D.M.S.R.
05 Keyboard Interlude
06 Piano Improvisation
07 How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?
08 Lady Cab Driver
09 Automatic
10 International Lover
11 1999
12 Head

Can someone please provide a review on this DVD? I am really interested in the audio and video quality. Thanks!

I heard the DVD used a inferior tape copy of the show. Some traders have this show in better picture quality, but honestly they compared there own copy with the youtube stream of 1999 that the estate posted. There seems to be a copy in the hands of a select few that is sharper and doesn't have the video 'noise' that the youtube stream (and then probably the DVD also) has.
I don't mind, I'm glad to have at least something.

^ Most fans/collectors have a partial video of the Jan. 2nd show in Houston and not the one that is released officially with the album remaster.

The Houston Summit was one of the first arenas to actually have their own in-house video production team. So most likely the tape that comes from Prince's vault was a copy from their own master, which was probably some sort of Umatic tape format, which was common at that time.

jmfd said:

^ Most fans/collectors have a partial video of the Jan. 2nd show in Houston and not the one that is released officially with the album remaster.

The Houston Summit was one of the first arenas to actually have their own in-house video production team. So most likely the tape that comes from Prince's vault was a copy from their own master, which was probably some sort of Umatic tape format, which was common at that time.

I'm not talking about the circulating jan. 2nd show but this upcoming release that some traders have.
One of the traders did a side-by-side comparison with the youtube stream of 1999 and said his copy was sharper and clearer, this was also confirmed by some more who have this copy and a notorious orger who also seems to have it.

-

In one of those late official podcasts concerning the new package release of 1999,

I heard a snippet of Prince live during that famous Rolling Stones concert...

with some commends by Lisa and Dez etc,

Is (are) this (these) concert(s) included in the package ?

-

JorisE73 said:

LoveGalore said:

JorisE73 said:

I'm not talking about the circulating jan. 2nd show but this upcoming release that some traders have.
One of the traders did a side-by-side comparison with the youtube stream of 1999 and said his copy was sharper and clearer, this was also confirmed by some more who have this copy and a notorious orger who also seems to have it.

Unsurprising. Prince has thousands upon thousands of copies of thousands of things. There is a weird smug superiority that comes from a select few who act like the people working on these estate projects are wizards and experts. They're doing the best they can though and they have a clear love for the material. Who knows if certain notorious orgers love the material because you never hear them say anything but negative shit.

I don;t think it's negativity towards the material itself but the bullshit or 'half-assed' way they are presented or actually 'not presented' when they should be, if you know what I mean.
I think it's more negativity towards The Estate's ignorance and failure to work with people that know better and have material and such to proove it and are willing to help out to represent Prince in the best way possible.

I'm just glad they're releasing at least something, but it's frustrating to hear The Estate is just trying to reinvent the wheel when there's 40 years of research aleready done that they could use.
It would be nice if they would do some Beat the Boots kind of series like Frank Zappa did, but presented in a better way by releasing all the bootlegged material on corresponding projects, they could have easily done this for the 1999 and Purple Rain reissues.

JorisE73 said:

LoveGalore said:

JorisE73 said: Unsurprising. Prince has thousands upon thousands of copies of thousands of things. There is a weird smug superiority that comes from a select few who act like the people working on these estate projects are wizards and experts. They're doing the best they can though and they have a clear love for the material. Who knows if certain notorious orgers love the material because you never hear them say anything but negative shit.

I don;t think it's negativity towards the material itself but the bullshit or 'half-assed' way they are presented or actually 'not presented' when they should be, if you know what I mean.
I think it's more negativity towards The Estate's ignorance and failure to work with people that know better and have material and such to proove it and are willing to help out to represent Prince in the best way possible.

I'm just glad they're releasing at least something, but it's frustrating to hear The Estate is just trying to reinvent the wheel when there's 40 years of research aleready done that they could use.
It would be nice if they would do some Beat the Boots kind of series like Frank Zappa did, but presented in a better way by releasing all the bootlegged material on corresponding projects, they could have easily done this for the 1999 and Purple Rain reissues.

I actually thought to ask you if there is any precedent to this "consult the bootleggers" thing. Zappa WOULD be the artist they do that sort of thing for, lol.

.

I don't know how much these folks have put themselves out there for use by the estate, but I can just as easily see why the estate wouldn't bother with that route.

.

I probably take more issue with the fact that bootleggers/traders/whatever they're supposed to be called sort of act as if it is someone else's responsibility to consult them at all. And if they don't consult them, it's garbage. I don't think bootleggers know better how to present Prince's legacy. It's the smugness I referred to. Bootleggers actually don't have a clue about what the vault contains beyond the tapes they have themselves - which is definitively not the majority of the vault's contents.

.

The estate has already presented things that the bootleggers had no idea existed. I think that should underscore just how huge this process truly is. Should the estate rely on others for "help"? That is up for debate. The bootleggers don't actually know what the plans are for Prince's legacy. They don't know what's in the pipeline or what might come to fruition by this time next year. They don't know a lot.

.

Unfortunately, this stuff isn't going to be conducted in the vision of the trading community - and I am not convinced it should be. Fact is, beyond talking about owning copies of stolen material, they haven't ever presented something that suggests they SHOULD be consulted or part of the process at all.

LoveGalore said:

JorisE73 said:

I don;t think it's negativity towards the material itself but the bullshit or 'half-assed' way they are presented or actually 'not presented' when they should be, if you know what I mean.
I think it's more negativity towards The Estate's ignorance and failure to work with people that know better and have material and such to proove it and are willing to help out to represent Prince in the best way possible.

I'm just glad they're releasing at least something, but it's frustrating to hear The Estate is just trying to reinvent the wheel when there's 40 years of research aleready done that they could use.
It would be nice if they would do some Beat the Boots kind of series like Frank Zappa did, but presented in a better way by releasing all the bootlegged material on corresponding projects, they could have easily done this for the 1999 and Purple Rain reissues.

I actually thought to ask you if there is any precedent to this "consult the bootleggers" thing. Zappa WOULD be the artist they do that sort of thing for, lol.

.

I don't know how much these folks have put themselves out there for use by the estate, but I can just as easily see why the estate wouldn't bother with that route.

.

I probably take more issue with the fact that bootleggers/traders/whatever they're supposed to be called sort of act as if it is someone else's responsibility to consult them at all. And if they don't consult them, it's garbage. I don't think bootleggers know better how to present Prince's legacy. It's the smugness I referred to. Bootleggers actually don't have a clue about what the vault contains beyond the tapes they have themselves - which is definitively not the majority of the vault's contents.

.

The estate has already presented things that the bootleggers had no idea existed. I think that should underscore just how huge this process truly is. Should the estate rely on others for "help"? That is up for debate. The bootleggers don't actually know what the plans are for Prince's legacy. They don't know what's in the pipeline or what might come to fruition by this time next year. They don't know a lot.

.

Unfortunately, this stuff isn't going to be conducted in the vision of the trading community - and I am not convinced it should be. Fact is, beyond talking about owning copies of stolen material, they haven't ever presented something that suggests they SHOULD be consulted or part of the process at all.

Bootleggers can suck a dick in my opinion and they're useless, watering down material to scam fans etc.
Traders on the other hand who have uncirculating material and had access to recording logs are another story.
In the 90's there was a group of traders who compiled a 10th anniversary set to present to WB and Paisley PArk for a release of Purple Rain that fans would like to see which consisted of (still) not bootlegged material they had to no response from either of them.

JorisE73 said:

LoveGalore said:

JorisE73 said:

Bootleggers can suck a dick in my opinion and they're useless, watering down material to scam fans etc.
Traders on the other hand who have uncirculating material and had access to recording logs are another story.
In the 90's there was a group of traders who compiled a 10th anniversary set to present to WB and Paisley PArk for a release of Purple Rain that fans would like to see which consisted of (still) not bootlegged material they had to no response from either of them.

And that's the sort of thing I would expect them to present to other fans. May sound selfish, but I'll never have sympathy for the trading community who shrugs their shoulders at the wider set because it's "not [their] responsibility to share" the music. I guess that is why I would make for an awful inside-trader because, hey, there's no honor among thieves and I don't think anyone's fake entitlement over music that was stolen is a good enough reason to hoard it. . Furthermore, there is an element of cluelessness to Michael Howe a bit - namely when he said that the fans would consider Colleen a glaring ommission had it not been on the set. If the wider community had greater access to the music, perhaps misconceptions like that wouldn't arise. . Ah well, I'm quite happy so far with the progress the estate has made and with the future plans they've discussed. It is certainly a bit of an eyesore to see the same ol same ol from people crying about how the releases so far aren't up to snuff. From the general public's perspective, there IS no snuff. And if they want to cry about how shitty the releases are compared to whatever playlists they can make with music and videos they have in their stashes, they should do it in a group text with each other. . IMO.

I'm partly in agreement but I don't think it's fair to call every trader a thief, there are some traders who have material that wasn't stolen and are hoarding it for obvious reasons which I partly get.

And sadly enough most of these traders have already abandonned Prince.org and other sites and are sharing info, samples and tracks among themselves including said notorious orger who only shares info now with other traders/fans in some closed circuit and refuses to do it here anymore or any other public forum. I really wish to have more info and insight on this release

[Edited 11/29/19 5:40am]

The problem i saw day one with stuff coming out was the constant "Oh i already have that, that's not new, thats been bootlegged for years". Thing is the estate and who is working on it, has no desire to start digging into all that. I think you also have to remember what are they working with, what condition are things that PRINCE did, how did he store things,etc... Prince kept everything but he was not big on tech stuff we know that, he did not really care if things were properly mic'd or sounding etc... One of the reasons i shyed away from this giant 10LP $200 box set was because I dont really know what quality of the demos, its one thing to get that original album because of the source that they have to work with, but as far as Prince demos, i mean, what are they working with, scratchy tapes in some cases. As for the video concerns, yes PRINCE recorded everything but he again was NOT a wizard with this stuff, the sources are alot of video tape in most cases, which is why the Purple Rain show looks that way, it was from a VHS master, also because it was a poorly lit show to begin with, that is going to be a problem here too, transfers poorly lit stage etc... But at this point the estate is doing what they are going to do, like it or not.

Happy April Fool everyone!!

I wonder when the real DVD will be sent out!

if the estate/ WB knew what booteggers have ...they should release THAT stuff to eliminate the elitists and bootleggers

On one hand, I expect the quality of this DVD is the best found in the vault, and realize that there is a limitation as to how much WB are willing to spend on remastering in relation to the profibility of the set.

That said...

The quality of the DVD is comparable to the better bootlegs I've seen, which is poor by the standards of most official releases. I can get over that and just be happy to have it, but...

The audio is noticably out of sync with the picure. Before anyone tells me to check the settings on my equipment, I watch movies on the same system almost every single day... it's set up right.

This may seem like a small thing, but for me it completely ruins the experience, making it almost unwatchable and it's a real shame because I'm sure it would be an easy and inexpensive fix.

It's bad enough that I'll probably contact WB about it.

djThunderfunk said:

On one hand, I expect the quality of this DVD is the best found in the vault, and realize that there is a limitation as to how much WB are willing to spend on remastering in relation to the profibility of the set.

That said...

The quality of the DVD is comparable to the better bootlegs I've seen, which is poor by the standards of most official releases. I can get over that and just be happy to have it, but...

The audio is noticably out of sync with the picure. Before anyone tells me to check the settings on my equipment, I watch movies on the same system almost every single day... it's set up right.

This may seem like a small thing, but for me it completely ruins the experience, making it almost unwatchable and it's a real shame because I'm sure it would be an easy and inexpensive fix.

It's bad enough that I'll probably contact WB about it.

Tried to complain, couldn't find contact info to complain to WB.

Solved it myself by changing my lag time on my system to an incorrect setting that fixes this disc, while making every other disc out of sync, and then just going back to correct settings after watching this disc.

Pain in the ass!

[Edited 11/29/19 13:28pm]

FragileUndertow said:

DaddySmooth said:

This is not the same Houston show, it’s a different show. The song head at the end is TOO FUNKY!!

Head is the highlight for me. Awesome Encore

DaddySmooth said:

JorisE73 said:

I heard the DVD used a inferior tape copy of the show. Some traders have this show in better picture quality, but honestly they compared there own copy with the youtube stream of 1999 that the estate posted. There seems to be a copy in the hands of a select few that is sharper and doesn't have the video 'noise' that the youtube stream (and then probably the DVD also) has.
I don't mind, I'm glad to have at least something.

I am happy as well with what we got, but I would love to know if they sound identical, or if they have added a fake stereo tweak to this release.


EG

Watched the DVD today. It leaves a lot to be desired.

Executive Producer for the DVD Restoration was Duane Tudhal.

The video sucked, couldn't tell what color he was wearing half the time, fuzzy, and lines running thru it also cut out at about the 15 minute mark.

jazzz said:

For all the hipsters who bought the 1999 superdeluxe vinyl set: pity that WB didn’t include the Summit concert as a video tape... that’s retro-hip too! Much cooler than the dvd

And same quality.

PennyPurple said:

Watched the DVD today. It leaves a lot to be desired.

Executive Producer for the DVD Restoration was Duane Tudhal.

The video sucked, couldn't tell what color he was wearing half the time, fuzzy, and lines running thru it also cut out at about the 15 minute mark.

it begs to ask ..is this the ONLY pro-shot they could release from this tour??

PennyPurple said:

Watched the DVD today. It leaves a lot to be desired.

Executive Producer for the DVD Restoration was Duane Tudhal.

The video sucked, couldn't tell what color he was wearing half the time, fuzzy, and lines running thru it also cut out at about the 15 minute mark.

Be thankful for what you get.

luv4u said:

PennyPurple said:

Watched the DVD today. It leaves a lot to be desired.

Executive Producer for the DVD Restoration was Duane Tudhal.

The video sucked, couldn't tell what color he was wearing half the time, fuzzy, and lines running thru it also cut out at about the 15 minute mark.

Be thankful for what you get.

Yeah, I'm thinking there are not many shows in the vault that are multi-cam, and that WB won't spend much to remaster lo-quality video tapes. I'd rather get what we can than not.

luv4u said:

PennyPurple said:

Watched the DVD today. It leaves a lot to be desired.

Executive Producer for the DVD Restoration was Duane Tudhal.

The video sucked, couldn't tell what color he was wearing half the time, fuzzy, and lines running thru it also cut out at about the 15 minute mark.

Be thankful for what you get.

And PAID for.