jarrepaul wrote:I have this guys. It's exaxtly the same as the VHS. Someone has just copied the video onto disk.
No it's not. The Australian China DVD is not a transfer from the original mastertape, but from an Australian TV broadcast, and features one additional minute of footage on Magnetic Fields 1, not present in the 1991 VHS release from Polygram (and other minor differences).
It was an official pressing from Australia's largest independent recordcompany, Shock. However they didn't receive the final permission for release from the copyright holders (FDM/JMJ), and they were forced to remove this title from distribution:
"I confirm that only Disques Dreyfus /Jean Michel Jarre, co-producers of the concert, have the rights to DVD exploitation.
After investigation, it appears that some copies of the DVD were sold in Australia during a very limited period despite a ban but this violation has been denounced and the distribution stopped."
About the Houston DVD:
This was planned (and pressed) by FDM but JMJ did not give his permission:
"it is important to underline that Jean Michel Jarre was not consulted or informed of the release by Francis Dreyfus Music, this in itself is sufficient to oppose it.
Jean Michel Jarre takes too much pride in his work and care in his creation, to allow it, and you, to be exploited, without the necessary investment of offering the best standard possible. A mere DVD copy of the VHS format, where no Bonus nor Extras are proposed, would have led to a less than mediocre product sold at normal price. The DVD, as Francis Dreyfus Music planned to release it, would have done more harm than justice to what remains a milestone event. Due to the evident poor quality of the film, which has not been restored or upgraded to today's digital standards, is at all a level of a product that Jean Michel Jarre could be artistically satisfied with."
However possibly a very limited number of disks may have been shipped through Amazon.co.uk, as a fan posted pictures on a forum (a Dutch guy named Jerome if I remember, see earlier mentioned topic
).
However that must be a fake according to Francis Dreyfus Music:
"We had to hold this release for contractual reasons but do hope this issue will soon be solved. However that some fans have received the DVD before cancellation is impossible because not one single copy of the DVD was shipped out of our office in Paris to our foreign distributors, at the time the DVD release was put on hold. The stock is locked up. Amazon.co.uk confirmed to us in writing that they had not sold any DVD to any customer who had ordered it, for the simple reason that they had no stock. So either the fans are lying, or the DVD they have purchased is a pirate recording. As you can imagine, a pirate recording is a very serious copyright infringement and its quality is certainly very poor."