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(About Our Ads) DVD REVIEW FOR "CNN MILLENNIUM 2000" (2000) (CNN Footage of Millenium Celebrations) (Not Rated) Length Screen Format(s) Languages Subtitles Sound Sides 120 minutes Full Frame English None Dolby Digital 2.0 1 INFO: Chronological highlights of millennium celebrations from around the world as covered by CNN. VIDEO: (B) Even taking into account that this program consists of a quick compilation of broadcast TV feeds from around the world (meaning that high quality probably wouldn't be synonymous with its appearance), the picture here is uneven in quality (differing levels of sharpness and color balance throughout) and clearly isn't as sharp as other DVD titles consisting of/displaying video footage that we've previously seen. AUDIO: (B) Certainly nothing spectacular or particularly noteworthy, the audio here sounds like a standard TV feed (meaning that it's dynamically flat). The most notable result of that is that the various fireworks displays unfortunately don't have any aural pizzazz. EXTRAS: Jump to any particular time zone/city. COMMENTS: Few events of recent were bigger or more covered than the turn of the millennium this past New Year's Eve. Beyond all of the related Y2K fear and predictions that didn't amount to much, cities around the world entered into an unofficial contest of sorts. That's where each tried to put on the end all, be all, of festive celebrations to ring in the New Year, decade, century and millennium in one spectacular show. As remarkable as those efforts, the announced plans of Time Warner to release a DVD compilation of those worldwide events - only a scant few days after they occurred - was, and perhaps is, even more impressive considering the technical, marketing and temporal obstacles involved. Unfortunately, the finished result is a bit like the Y2K commotion in that it doesn't completely live up to its billing and what many people probably imagined it would be like. Presented in a chronological fashion, the disc offers bits and pieces of the various celebrations, but does so in an often irritating split screen window. With the DVD format offering the option of showing multiple angles/simultaneous events, it's unfortunate that such an option wasn't offered here. Of course, doing so might have added extra days of production time (and thus missing a crucial early street date to capitalize on the event), but probably would have resulted in a better disc. As it stands, the many segments, along with a decent concluding compilation (the best bit on the disc), only serve as appetizers for those wanting to see the full festivities that each city offered (such as that from Honolulu that's only momentarily seen). In the end, the disc will serve as a bit of nostalgia in years to come - not to mention a decent sampler of fireworks effects - but ultimately isn't as good as it could and should have been. Perhaps a "special edition" version will be released one day with more footage and greater accessibility options. As far as the technical merits of the disc itself, the audio isn't particularly noteworthy (such as the fireworks having no kick to them) and the program's video portion is of standard broadcast TV quality as if seen through an average but uneven cable system. Buy CNN: Millennium 2000 on DVD Today!