Deep Purple – California Jam 1974

Despite all the negative comments I read about the 2016 remaster of this legendary performance i read
nothing quite prepared me for how wierd and just plain bad the “remastered” video quality is.
Every angle seemed to have its own unique artefacts and flaws.
It started off just irritating but quickly became unpleasant and jarring.
If I had to use just one word it would be “unnatural”
David Coverdale looked like he’d been green screened on to a picture of the audience.
I think there’s a bit of the uncanny valley principle going on and that’s why it’s so off putting
It looks like it was generated by AI.

The original edit included as a bonus feature is much more normal looking but the encoding is horrible , if I had a DVD with artefacts like this it would be unacceptable, let alone on a Blu Ray.

I wouldn’t have thought it possible that a show that had a 5.0 mix for the 2005 DVD release could be back down to 2 channels for a Blu Ray release 11 years later but sadly it’s true.

Mercifully the audio is enjoyable so It’s not a complete waste of money

Everyone interested in live Rock ‘n’Roll needs to see the finale of this show at least once , you can see it on YouTube and it will probably look better than this release.

This is a shoddy product, someone should have stepped in to fix or cancel it before it hit market.
The audio commentary has the nerve to passive aggressively dig at fans who criticise the picture quality “be glad it exists at all”.

I don’t mind rough quality footage but i do mind unnecessarily degraded footage.

The actual choice of angles is mostly excellent, good views of each musician.
The crowd is very distant so you can’t really expect too much

There is a wierd edit during the destruction
Where it cuts from the front angle to the back view and you see Richie throw the same metal plate twice from both angles
It looks more like a mistake than an artistic choice because most of the time the 2 angles are overlaid or put in a split screen.

I recommend nobody pay more than £5 for this 2016 Blu ray pressing.