Music DVD's - What do you recommend? (1 Viewer)

[Jeffrey N]

Hello everyone.

Mostly a lurker here...

I have recently purchased my HT system and I am currently watching a lot of movies. I was watching "O Brother Where Art Thou" and there were a few scenes that blew me away sound-wise: The scene where the preacher was baptizing the people in the river to the sounds of the chorus and the scene with the three women washing clothes and the river while singing. I was very impressed how beautiful that these songs sounded in 5.1 and I was inspired to look into other DVD's where they are either live performances or the music is the main element of the DVD.

While I realize that "good music" is a very subjective thing, what DVD's do you own or have watched/heard that really impressed you with both the performance and the quality of sound that you could recommend to me? I do enjoy a pretty wide range of music from classic rock, punk, hard rock, pop, alternative, blues, even a little metal now and again. I was thinking along the lines of live performances, maybe a documentry of a band or artist which features studio or live performances, but my requirement is that it must be encoded in Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS.

Would "Hell Freezes Over" by The Eagles be a decent choice for my requirements?

Step up and help someone who is just discovering how cool that a decent HT system really is. :-D

I hope that I have inspired a lively discussion.

 

[MatS]

I'm pretty sure there are many threads on this topic that already exist....

but here are some suggestions

Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Live In New York City
The Band - Last Waltz
The Cure - Trilogy
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Live at the El Mocambo
Led Zeppelin - S/T aka How The West Was Won
The Blues Brothers movie

 

[Craig]

In The Flesh - Roger Waters - excellent audio (and video).
The Last Waltz - The Band - great documentary. Live concert footage, a lot of guest appearances and interesting interviews interspersed throughout.

 

[Tony-B]

I haven't seen this, but Slipknot's Disasterpieces DVD is supposed to be excellent.

 

[Nick Senger]

Hell Freezes Over is a superb choice for a first music DVD - it was my first and it blew me away. It also makes for a great demo dvd because so many people are familiar with the Eagles' tunes and they appeal to just about everybody. I've shown it to my father-in-law who loves opera and my brother-in-law who's a diehard Scorpions fan and they were both in awe.

The video quality is decent (except for the opening interviews where it is sub-par), but the music is just gorgeous.

 

[Cary_H]

I have a growing collection of music DVDs.
I've been disappointed a number of times when I've sprung for one without having asked beforehand how decent it was from the folks on-line. It's real rare for me to buy anything now without a fair number of others who've vouched for the one I'm looking at.

With that said, I'll recommend Diana Krall's "Live in Paris", Ozzy "Live at the Budokan", and Roxy Music's "Live at the Apollo".
Despite being a mondo Zeppelin fan, I was extremely disappointed with "How the West was Won".

 

[Todd Durham]

Some of my favorites are Peter Frampton Live in Detroit, Diana Krall Live in Paris, James Taylor Live at the Beacon, Paul McCartney Back in the USA, and for pure fun....Sammy Hagar and the Waboritas kicks a$$.

 

[Skyler]

I am addicted, badly. Some are 4:3, but don't let that stop you, most concerts are.

Eagles Hell Freezes Over - DTS version ONLY
Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense
Sting - All this time
The Corrs - Live in London
Portishead - Roseland NYC
Santana - Supernatural Live DTS
Sarah Mclachlan - Mirrorball
Diana Krall - Live in Paris
Norah Jones - Live in New Orleans
Metallica - S&M (not clean version)
U2 - Elevation 2001 Live from Boston
Stevie Ray Vaughn - Live at the El Mocambo in Toronto
Stevie Ray Vaughn - Live in Austin, TX (better than above)
Nine inch nails - And all that could have been (DTS ONLY!) (has Marilyn Manson hidden performances)
Depeche Mode - One night in Paris
Cranberries - Beneath the skin V2 ONLY! ( has audio fixed)
Dave Matthews Band - Live at Folsom Field
Dave Matthews Band - Listener Supported
Sade - Lovers Live
Korn - Live
The Last Waltz
Family Values Tour 1998 - the original
Faith Hill - When the lights go down
Pearl Jam - Touring Band 2000
AC/DC - Stiff Upper Lip
Queen - Live at Wembley Stadium
Blue Man Group -Audio (actually video, lol)

 

[Jeff D Han]

Hey Skyler, I've been thinking of getting a
Dave Matthews concert DVD. Which one is better
in your opinion- Listener Supported or Folsom
Field? Thanks.

 

[Louis C]

Fourplay - An Evening With Fourplay

 

[WadeB]

Jeffery,

If you enjoyed that scene from O Brother and any of the other music in the movie, then you might like the DVD DOwn From the Mountain, which is a concert featuring the musicians from that soundtrack. Of course ALlison Krauss is the vocalist from the scene you mentioned, and her new DVD, ALlison Krauss + Union Station Live is also very good. Yet another O Bother musician, Gillian Welch has a nicely photographed (in B&W) Concert DVD called The Revelator Collection.

On a different note, I'll second DIana's Krall's Live in Paris, the best music DVD I've heard, and nominate Norah Jones' Live in New Orleans which is good but too short (and only 4:3).

 

[Skyler]

It's hard to pick which DMB concert is better. They are both excellent! Listener Supported has some of the older, lesser known stuff. It's also MUCH more intimate. The Folsom Field show is BIG, & has almost ALL the popular songs. I would not trade either one, as they are so different.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Premonition - John Fogerty - great mix of CCR and his solo material.

It's DD only and you have to choose it from the menu as it defaults to 2.0.

 

[RickGr]

ELO "ZOOM" reference quality and both 5.1 and DTS mix

 

[Terry Hickey]

"Woodstock" and Talking Heads "Stop Making Sense".

 

[Sergio Z.]

k.d. lang "live by request" - her cover of Crying rocks!
sade "lovers live" - perfect easy going groove
portishead "roseland new york" - somber but sincere
shakira "mtv unplugged" - before she crossed over, red hair

 

[GlennH]

What Wade said. If that particular scene in "O Brother" struck you then you need to get the recently released Alison Krauss + Union Station - Live on DVD. That song plays over the closing credits of the concert DVD, by the way.

The concert was shot in Hi-Def and the sound is very good. I've become a big fan of them as a result -- I had no particular affinity to Bluegrass/Newgrass/Folk, but Alison's voice is tremendous and the entire group are top-notch musicians and I appreciate their talent.

I recently bought the SACD hybrid disc of the concert too (even though I don't have SACD capability yet, I can play the CD in the meantime).

I also have Eagles HFO and like it quite a bit, but wish the video was better -- it's not bad, just not as good as some of the Hi-Def shot ones are.

 

[Runar_R]

Madonna - the drowned wourld tour
Roy Orbinson - An evening in Black and White

Both have DTS

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think the "Listener Supported" DMB video boasts a much better production; I get dizzy with Folsom Field, I think it's one of the worst shot concerts ever.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Live In New York City is an amazing double-disc set; over three hours of music, and it's all beautifully shot, and sounds great. I saw the concert they filmed for the DVD in person, and as usual, the sound quality at the show was terrible (Springsteen is known for consistently using the worst possible sound equipment), but the sound mix made for the home is incredible. It was shot 16x9, and the photography is great.

U2: Elevation Live From Boston 2001 is a nice set if you're a fan, not so much if you're not. I think it was nicely shot, has good audio, but not one of their best performances. Still, it's a nice set.

The Who: Live at the Royal Albert Hall has an amazing DTS 5.1 mix, and the 16x9 widescreen video is good enough; certainly not the best direction of a music video I've ever seen, but more than adaquate.

Depeche Mode: The Exciter Tour has a great performance, nice sound mix, and some beautiful concert photography.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: High Grass Dogs has a wonderful, intimate performance, and it sounds great too. There's a new Tom Petty DVD set containing all of the performance that was used to make the recent PBS Soundstage special, but you can only get that by ordering from PBS over the phone. I haven't recieved mine yet, but if the TV special is any indication, it'll be a great set.

Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live I recommend with reservations; it was a very good DTS 5.1 mix, and the actual concert direction is great, but it's one of the worst transfers I've ever seen.

If you just want some films that have music sequences in them, you can't go wrong with the excellent "Untitled: Almost Famous" set that includes a brilliant director's "bootleg cut" of the film in addition to the theatrical release. The longer bootleg cut is in Dolby Digital 5.1; the theatrical cut is in both DD 5.1 and DTS.

I also can't recommend Disney's three disc "Fantasia Anthology" set enough. Fantasia is a great film, Fantasia 2000 has moments of greatness and is at the least very entertaining, and they both have very good DD and DTS mixes, in addition to a plethora of insightful special features.

 

[Devin U]

After flipping though channels one night, I came across a wonderful concert by a guy named Josh Groban. Im not the kind of guy who listens to opera or show tunes, but his show blew me away. He also has some great guests like John Williams on with him. You can get it on DVD along with a cd of some of the tracks from the concert. I wasnt super impressed with the way it was mixed, but the DTS track was the better of the 5.1 tracks (alot of it has to do with my setup being in a much smaller space from a recent move). You could probably see a rerun on PBS sometime if you arnt into buying it blind.
I also recently picked up a copy of Ben Folds live, which had a dvd along with the cd. The sound is fantastic pure PCM! The only drawback was it is only 7 or 8 songs.