Recorded live at New York’s Madison Square Garden in August, 2008, the DVD and Blu-Ray include the entire show from beginning to end and feature 25 career-spanning hits from Neil’s phenomenal four-night sold-out run at the fabled concert hall.
Also includes the exclusive bonus feature “Welcome Home Neil,” a behind-the-scenes look at Diamond’s pilgrimage to his childhood home in Brooklyn.
Blu-ray features full 1080p High Definition Picture, LPCM 2.0 Stereo, and Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround Sound (48kHz/24 bit) Track listing: 1.Holly Holy 2.Street Life 3.Beautiful Noise 4.Love On The Rocks 5.Play Me 6.Cherry, Cherry 7.Thank The Lord For The Night Time 8.Home Before Dark 9.Don’t Go There 10.Pretty Amazing Grace 11.Crunchy Granola Suite 12.Done Too Soon 13.Brooklyn Roads 14.I Am…I Said 15.Solitary Man 16.Kentucky Woman 17.Forever In Blue Jeans 18.Sweet Caroline 19.Sweet Caroline (Reprise) 20.You Don’t Bring Me Flowers 21.Song Sung Blue 22.I’m A Believer 23.Man Of God 24.Hell Yeah 25.Cracklin’ Rosie 26.America 27.Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show BONUS FEATURETTE: “Welcome Home Neil”
Buy “Neil Diamond: Hot August Night/NYC – Live from Madison Square Garden “ For Only $15.43
January 9, 2006
#1
The best improve to be expected will be on the Audio track if you have a top system be prepared to be right on stage with Neil,if of course the mix is done by great pro,so cross your fingers let’s wait February the 23rd.
January 10, 2006
#2
Finally, they decided to bring out a Bluray copy of Neil Diamond and its great that it is being initiated with the MSG concert in 2008. I have a copy of the newly released DVD and the picture is great to start with. I get a fantastic quality from my Panasonic Bluray player, but some sections like those showing the crowd reactions seem to be full of whitish grains !! cannot understand why. Hopefully, this will be resolved in the Bluray disc.
Will write my final review once it comes out !
January 10, 2006
#3
First of all I am a lifelong Neil Diamond fan. I saw this exact concert here in Denver. The great thing about this DVD/Blu-ray is that it is the only video I am aware of where we have a complete Neil Diamond concert. So I will rate in 3 categories.
Performance – Neil has been around for some time now. It has been awhile since the first Hot August Night. But luckily, he was in great voice for this concert. Much better than when I saw him live in Denver. Fans will not be disappointed. Full length concert in hi-def, does not get much better for fans.
Video – I would rate a little lower than I was hoping for here. Not quite as sharp as the best concerts, and some cameras were not as focused as others. But on most TVs, this will be a very pleasant picture.
Audio – again I have some minor issue here. Another review indicated the sound on the true 5.1 track is mostly center channel and almost no rears. Not sure how his system is set up, but that is not the case. The Blu-ray and DVD 5.1 tracks seem to be mastered about the same. The center channel is actually barely used. Vocal comes out of both left and right mains. Sound stage is all in front. Rears are fully engaged but used for arena ambience and crowd noise. Overall the sound is good, but vocals should be in the center channel, and overall sound is not quite as dynamic as the best concerts videos.
All said…a must for Neil Diamond fans.
January 10, 2006
#4
What do you buy a blu ray musical performance for? Good video? yes, but you probably get it for the lossless audio track. The TrueHD track on this disc is very poor. It is more like 3.0 rather than 5.1. And the center channel is carrying at least 80-90% of the 3.0. The rear channels are non-existant. The stereo mix is brighter and has a better mix out of the front 3 channels. If you like Neil just get the DVD.
The video is good and the concert is superb like all of his concerts are. It is just that the disc is bad. I have over sixty blu-ray and HD DVD concert discs. This audio mix is one of the worst, similar to some of the first to come out 4-5 years ago. Rating purely on the audio. I would have given it one but Neil is outstanding.