Disco de Sara Evans: “Video Collection”

I saw the reviews warning that the sound was screwed up on this DVD, but I also saw a couple of reviews where no problem with the sound was mentioned, or that it sounded fine.

I hated to think about possibly getting stung, and all the hassle of trying to return a defective product, even if the seller would agree to take it back.

(After all, if you bought a used item, chances are that the seller only had that one copy of that particular DVD.)

Also, you'd be stuck for shipping, probably going and coming, so most people just write it off as not being worth it.

However, I really wanted this DVD, and I wanted it to be good, so I took a chance.

Alas, I did in fact get one where the sound was screwed up. As I've seen in other reports, it sounded like the two channels were reversed - what should be the background channel was loud, whereas the primary channel was muffled, or so soft you could hardly hear it.

And so I fired off an email to the seller, telling them of my problem.

In the meantime, I went back and looked at it again, and in the opening portion, where you select whatever (Play all - song selection, etc) there was also an audio selection choice.

I clicked onto this, and you could choose between Dolby 5.1, or Dolby Stereo.

I tried the Dolby 5.1 and got the terrible sound. But then I tried the Dolby Stereo. Not only was the sound OK, the sound was great! Crisp, and loud, and distinct, and terrific.

I was thrilled, because all I wanted was a good DVD of the beautiful and amazing Sara, and that's what I got.

But it answered a couple of questions I had - I've had to return two other DVDs for the same problem, and now, in retrospect, I may have been able to simply use the Audio Select to alleviate the sound problems, and save myself a lot of hassle.

But Sara sounds great, and, of course, she also looks great, and I'm very happy.

Disc #1 -- Sara Evans: The Video Collection

1. Born to Fly [3:47]

2. I Could Not Ask for More [4:07]

3. Perfect [3:58]

4. Suds in the Bucket [3:45]

5. A Real Fine Place to Start [3:58]

6. Cheatin' [3:27]

The reviewers criticizing the sound are right: there is a real goof-up with the sound that makes it sound like Sara is singing inside of an echoing cave, especially on the first 2 songs. The situation seems to get better on the latter 4 songs. Anyway, the DVD allows for selection of sound: Dolby 5.1 or Surround. When I chose the one that isn't the default setting, the sound was just fine, completely normal.

Once you get over the sound issues, the DVD is excellent. 6 of Sara's good songs and Sara looks awesome in all of the videos. One could complain that there's only 6 songs, but possibly she just didn't make any more than that. What is here is excellent. Definitely worthwhile for Sara fans to have.

The songs are: Fly, Could not Ask for More [from Fly album], Suds in Bucket and Perfect from the Restless album, and Cheatin [yeah, it's ironic, sure] and Real Fine Place to Start from the Real Fine Place album. Good show, Sara!

The 5 star rating is because Sara is so HOT and this is the only DVD of some of Sara's videos. Yes, granted the DTS audio on this DVD is poor but still listenable and the 2.0 audio sounds just as good. And yes, granted this is just a budget DVD of only 6 videos but it's better than nothing, and right now there is still nothing but this DVD to enjoy the beauty of Sara strutting that stuff on my widescreen. I didn't become a fan of Sara until Sara's "Born To Fly" album. It was the song "I Could Not Ask For More" that got me hook on Sara. I love Sara's version of this song to this day. The way Sara sounds in her sweet beautiful voice makes this song like her own. So when this song was on this DVD I knew this was a must have. The 6 videos on this DVD is awesome, the songs are great, and of course, not only is Sara blessed in her voice, but also blessed in her "body" of work (if you know what I mean), so it's so hot to watch Sara in her videos, Sara is just so sexy!

"2000: Born To Fly"

01. Born To Fly (#1 Country)

02. I Could Not Ask For More (#2 Country)

"2003: Restless"

03. Perfect (#2 Country)

04. Suds In The Bucket (#1 Country)

"2005: Real Fine Place"

05. A Real Fine Place To Start (#1 Country)

06. Cheatin' (#9 Country)

I thought this was a pirated DVD - and still wonder if it's really a Sony / BMG product. I'm taking it back.

Where to begin: on "Born to Fly" the video has visible rough edges on the right side of the screen where the copy it was mastered from is literally worn out, like an old film movie where it's been played too many times.

On other tracks the videos are alternately distorted, like wide angle video shot through a too-small sun shade or otherwise improperly framed.

The color is off, it's red hue, and the audio fades in and out. I'm using a Klipsch speaker system, and the faults are stunning. On the all videos there are noticeable faults where the volume goes up and down, like someone was manually adjusting the gain as recording to avoid clipping - and clipping is still noticeable. Think criminal in a trench coat trying to film a movie with a cheap hand camera and microphone.

I love Sara Evan's music, and she deserves far better. If Sony and BMG authorized this DVD, I hope Sara sues them for negligence.

If this is pirated and somehow got into major US distribution, then hopefully the RIAA or whoever will actually do something useful and chase down the criminals.

In any event, this is criminal treatment of Sara Evans and her talent.