gimme a DVD-A to buy (1 Viewer)

[Aaron Reynolds]

I have a nice gift certificate for my birthday that I'd like to sink into a DVD-A. I'm looking for recommends on something two channel and gorgeous-sounding. (I don't mind if the disc has a 5.1 mix on it -- I just won't listen to it.)

I had my eyes on a handful of titles and would appreciate opinions on 'em:

Crowded House (self titled debut disc)
One of the Talking Heads dualdiscs
David Bowie - David Live

I have fairly wide-ranging tastes in music, though I'll probably get something that I feel like listening to today, y'know? I like Bowie, Dire Straits, New Order, Lyle Lovett, Neil Finn/Crowded House, Toots and the Maytalls, the New Pornographers, Van Morrison, Aimee Mann, Electric Light Orchestra, Nat King Cole, Stevie Wonder...

So I guess any recommendations of anything are appreciated.

 

[Mikael Soderholm]

Well, apart from the two Bowie DVD-As, I only own one more, Seal - Greatest Hits, not only are all his its on it, it also has acoustic versions of most of them, which are really great. Hightly recommended!

 

[Chris Gerhard]

I own and like the Seal "Best 1991-2004" DVD-A but have only listened to it in 5.1. The only high resolution stereo, non SACD disc, I listen to a lot is Neil Young "Greatest Hits" DVD-V 96kHz/24-bit LPCM and it is not DVD-A and I can recommend it if you would like a Neil Young compilation.

Chris

 

[Felix Martinez]

The Neil Young stereo-only discs may be of interest. I did not like the Crowded House DVD-A. Excessively dynamically limited in the mastering. My venerable CD sounds better.

 

[ElevSkyMovie]

Toy Matinee

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

I have a couple of Neil Young DVD-As -- On The Beach and re-ac-tor. Heard bad stuff about the other two albums (not about sound quality). I'll have to see what's on the Greatest Hits disc.

I'm a big fan of Seal, especially the second album. Are the versions of the songs the long ones from the albums or the cut-up single edits?

That's too bad about the Crowded House disc. It's off the list, thanks.

Who/what is Toy Matinee?

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

!

 

[PaulT]

Steely Dan - Gaucho

here's a couple of Toy Matinee reviews:
http://www.audioholics.com/productre...eeDVD-ADTS.php
http://www.avrev.com/music/revs/toymatineedvda.shtml

FYI I have 3 of the Talking Heads discs (CD/DVDA from Europe) and they are excellent. Won't buy DualDiscs myself.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

I have a DualDisc that hasn't caused trouble in my player, so I'm not so concerned about them playing -- do the European DVD-As not have a PAL-NTSC or region coding issue?

 

[gene c]

I would have said Dire Straights-Brothers In Arms but this dual disc is 5.1 only in DVD-A (but 48K/24-bit on the cd side) so how about The Beach Boys/Pet Sounds or Donald Fagen/Nightfly? Steely Dan's Everything Must Go and Fagen's Kamakiriad are also quite tasty.

 

[PaulT]

Not the Talking heads ones at least. There is no region code on the discs.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

I'll second that one.

Chris

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

But is there a PAL - NTSC issue?

 

[PaulT]

Not that I am aware of - at least playing on my Pioneer 59AVi. All menus show just fine and the extra videos play as well.

I checked one of the discs with DGIndex and it shows the video and menus are NTSC 29.97 frame rate so it looks like they have taken the Dual Disc material and done a direct transfer.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I highly recommend Toy Matinee. Clever and accessible pop with a good prog-rock vibe to it. (Comparable to stuff like It Bites or Peter Gabriel's more interesting solo work.) I have a 5.1 DTS CD of it (it came out long before DVD-A), which is spectacular. I think there's a DVD-A or SACD of it now.

They only did one album because one of the duo died (Kevin Gilbert, who did some cool solo stuff as well), but there's another disc called 3rd Matinee which involved the other guy and, IIRC, the singer from Mister Mister. It's decent, but not nearly as good.

 

[Rich Malloy]

No PAL>NTSC issues on the Talking Heads imports. These double-disc sets are fantastic, but it really sticks in my craw (craw?) that I have to pay to import them. Ah well, beats the hell outta dualdisc. BTW, the label has conceded that the shortened runtime on the so-called "CD" side of a dualdisc is the reason why so few extra tracks are included.

I would definitely recommend the Heads discs, and would suggest you get your favorite. I like their first two albums best ("'77" and "More Songs about Buildings and Food").

I would also recommend Flaming Lips "Yoshimi...", which gets much praised for its surround mix. I, however, prefer the two-channel mix, and particularly for the opening track "Fight Test" which has a truly wonky and unsatisfying surround mix (IMO of course). Definitely do not avoid this one simply because you might think it's not phenomenal in stereo. It is.

Someone mentioned Neil Young's Greatest Hits DVD-A, and depending on how you feel about greatest hits compilations - generally I avoid them - this is a good one. I'm glad to have it.

 

[John Garcia]

Porcupine Tree's Deadwing is worth a purchase. Excellent mix and I've enjoyed most of the tracks thus far. In Absentia is a bit darker and somewhat heavier, but is also very well mixed. They have a very interesting almost classic rock flavor to them that I enjoy.

 

[gene c]

The OP seemed pretty adamant about not listening to the m/c mix and since In Absentia comes without hi-res stereo I didn't mention it. But I'm glad someone did! Excellent all around disc. I would also like to add Jeff Beck's "Sea Change" to the list.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

I mentioned it and I agree, it is very good but it is not a DVD-A. It is a DVD-V with 96kHz/24-bit LPCM and will play on any standard DVD player that can handle that and most can.

Chris