DCC Archive Eric Clapton Live In Hyde Park on DVD (Highly recommended)

For Christmas I received Eric Clapton Live In Hyde Park on DVD. Since this is a “music” board, I’ll limit my review to the audio portion of this DVD. I would just like to say that the video of this 1996 concert is very good.

Now, regarding the audio. The audio is presented in either Dolby 2.0 and 5.1 or DTS 5.1. The Dolby 5.1 audio is exceptional, probably because Bob Ludwig did the mastering. The music presents itself as a very wide soundstage with Eric’s guitar seamlessly coming from all front speakers. The surrounds add a nice “outdoor concert” ambiance and place the listener in the front row of the performance. The quality of this audio is far, far, far better than any of the Rolling Stones’ DVD’s. In fact, the audio is so good, that one could turn off the video and just enjoy the audio! Due to multiple microphones on the stage, the instruments are clear, crisp and well defined. In addition, the voices, especially Eric’s, are very clear. It is obvious that Eric is enjoying himself on stage and his guitar playing is superb! It is much more inspired than on the “24 Nights” DVD. Of course, Eric was either drinking or doing drugs when the 24 Nights concert was recorded. He looked like a zombie.

This DVD includes two additional songs that were not included on the VHS version from 1998. The two songs are Hoochie Coochie Man and It Hurts Me Too. Eric does a great slide guitar on It Hurts Me Too. The only negative to this DVD is the rapid, quick edits of the audio. It seems that every 5 seconds the viewing angle changes. It seems that a number of recent concert DVD’s employ this feature. I highly recommend this DVD.