Janet Jackson - Velvet Rope Tour

The Jackson family is probably one of the most succesful musical families in History. I guess the each ride the wave of success caused by each other and it just builds from there. Janet is always producing a variety of different styles of music and always adapting to change.

Her latest concert showcases a wide variety of her greatest and latest hits. The problem here is that she is becoming more and more a mould of her brother Michael.

How so you ask? Well, her moves, he voice, her whispering talk and her slight plastic surgery make you think your watching a more feminine version of Michael and at times it gets annoying to see.

The Velvet Rope tour is the same concert that was screened on TV a while ago. This disc was initially scheduled to be released early than the TV screening but circumstances arose and we are only seeing this disc now.

Janet fans will find all her greatest hits on this disc, simply take a look at the back cover and you'll see them all listed. For those without access, here's the entire list:

• Velvet Rope
• If
• You
• Let's wait awhile/Again
• Control Medley
• Control
• The Pleasure Principle
• What Have You Done For Me Lately
• Nasty
• Throb
• Escapade Medley
• Escapade
• When I Think Of You
• Miss You Much
• Runaway
• Lov Will Never Do Without You
• Alright
• I Get Lonely
• Anytime, Anyplace
• Rope Burn
• Black Cat
• What About
• Rhythm Nation
• Special
• Thats The Way Love Goes
• Got til It's Gone
• Go Deep
• Together Again

Phew, a fair few there. All are performed with a great supporting dance cast and amazing set designs with 2 huge screens as the main attractions.

The video could do with a little more attention to detail. Don't get me wrong its a good transfer and most people won't notice a thing wrong with it but on a standard TV without any proper calibration you'll notice MPEG artifacting in the dark scenes. I only came across this as I had the TV on a standard TV setting and had forgotten to switch over to the dvd preset. Once I switched, the image looked fine.

The disc is presented in a dual layered format. I'm not sure how it is utilised as I didn't notice any layer changing of any sort and since the duration of the disc is not long enough to warrant RSDL formatting anyway so it's baffled me. Either way, it's good to see Warner Vision now using the dual layered format in their latest batch of discs.

I was disappointed with the sound on this disc. It is stated on the cover as being Dolby Digital, the display on the dvd player states Dolby Digital 5.1 as does the amp, yet in the intro to the dvd a logo appears on the screen stating Dolby Surround. So what is it?

Well, from the sound of the disc, it doesn'y seem to utilise a 5.1 surround mix as you'd think it would. In fact it does sound more like a simple surround track.

The rears pretty much reflect the sound from the front rather than complementing it.

There are also passages where the sound drops a few db, a few db more than that experienced on the Bee gees disc, and you have to adjust the volume to compensate, then adjust it again when the sound slowly creeps back up again.

I can't tell if this is the equipment or the disc but it is there somewhere.

You get the cool animated menu with Janet blasting in the background which is a nice change. You get a little "Background Info" aswell which is a simple step through with the remote.

As always, the Jackons produce some great concerts and if you're a fan as my wife, my sisters and I are, then you'll enjoy this disc. The dancing is great, the songs are classic and the dvd is the best way to have it. Cheers.