To start, these remarks are not an indication of Prince's musical ability or recent compositions. I have thoroughly enjoyed NEWS and ONA Live (3 CD). His new directions IN MUSIC are wonderful. With that said...

I just received the new ONA Live DVD and I really am quite alarmed at the quality. The encoding is UNACCEPTABLE (VHS would be better). The concert itself appears to be shot with no concept of composition. The editing is the best it can be considering the material provided, but the cheesy editing techniques (i.e., photographic transitions) really indicate no professional training whatsoever. I comment because the performance itself was obviously worthwhile in attempting to capture. I hate to rain on the parade, as I'm a big fan of Prince's work, but why does it seem his quality control standards in regards to art direction have plummeted to new lows ever since the release of the ONA voice & piano demo. As creative/art director at a major marketing firm, I feel I can make these remarks as it's hard to take the sit-back-and-watch approach to a great artist's poor decisions.

What makes this sadder still is the fact he doesn't realize the degradation of his packaging and product quality control lowers his stock with every release of this nature. I'm assuming this scenario because if I do not want to consider the alternative: Prince realizes the poor nature of his packaging and releases it anyway.
Again, I stress, his musical releases are brilliantly interesting and WELL-ENGINEERED (which is my main comparison between the audio vs. visual).

Jeremy Gavin, I realize may be less expensive than, say, Steven Parke, but I really believe Mr. Gavin should be in a position of apprentice vs. that of an art director for one of the greatest artists of our time.

I'm not recommeding a specific course of action. However, spending hard earned money on these releases and seeing the consistent depreciation is a compelling reason for me to immediately offer my talents instead of just complaining about it, as I feel this is the extent of my abilities.

I would love to know what other orgers think.

Prince does things on the cheap.

Geez, it's not that bad. It's way too short, but the performance is great.
I watched it the other day with a couple of friends and we enjoyed it. And seeing some of the people I saw at last years Celebration brought back loads of good memories.
I do agree with the sound complaint, but all these long winded posts about 5.1 or whatever are beyond me.

thetruth, I must put in my two cents and suggest that you send Prince a schedule of fees for the work product you offer. It's apparant that he does not look at the whole product as being one entity comprised of a number of important factors (e.g. Music: with packaging, promotion, pricing, etc.). Being an indie artist, it seems that the costs of production are higher on the priority list than with major releases.

It does appear that this DVD idea was an afterthought. It looks like it was filmed with a hand held digital camera. There were a few "creative" bits, like changing to black and white to simulate and old news reel during "Family Name", but I must agree, the transitions where they cut (yes, CUT) footage were laughable! And I mean, I was laughing out loud in the theater last night.

I totally agree with this post. The source material is phenomenal, why not put more thought into capturing it? The art direction looks like it was done by a 5 yr old. I have only seen it on the big screen, so I'm not sure what it will look like on TV (i'm not currently planning to buy it, even for $14.99 w/free super saver shipping!), but compared to RAVE (I didn't like the slo mo bits from that one, but at least the quality was good) it was bad.

P's apparent ability to listen to no one but himself is showing. The promotional packaging makes bootleg packages look professional by comparison.