Queen: A Night At The Opera - Now THIS is what DVD-A should be! (1 Viewer)

[Philip Hamm]

Of course, an original modern 96/24 or higher resolution recording would be best, but I'm talking about the whole product.
First of all the tracks are perfect.

• A 96/24 5.1 PPCM track
• A 96/24 DTS track for 5.1 compatability that actually sounds great. Forget the DD5.1 it's not worth the trouble.
• 96/24 stereo PCM track that is available to all DVD-V players.

Perfect! All on one side. And the music video is a nice touch, particularly with its own DTS 5.1 track.
This is absolutely everything I want to see in a DVD-Audio. DTS Entertainment has raised the bar on DVD-A production and I hope all other companies follow.
Plus I made a digital copy of the 96/24 track using my computer and it sounds fantastic on CD for portable use (I've never owned this CD). As a matter of fact it's now playing!

 

[Paul Boyle]

Philip ...
I must agree - A superb disc all round - I have a DVD-A player so can enjoy the full DVD-A mix which is (IMO) up there with the best - I hadnt heard the album for nigh on 20 years & had forgotten how many great tracks were on it ...
A great extra feature which I hope becomes the norm is that the lyrics "turn the page" by themselves keeping up with the audio ...
On the downside when are some more "classics" going to be given this treatment - Queen "Sheer Heart Attack" would do for starters & dont get me started on PF Rush etc ...
Paul

 

[Mike Broadman]

Of the rock DVD-As I own (Paul Simon- You're the One, Metallica- Black, Steely Dan- 2 Against Nature, The Doors- LA Woman), this is by far my favorite. The choral-style vocals benefit from the surround sound get-up beautifully.

The Prophet Song is just fantastic!

NP: John Coltrane, Africa/Brass, CD

 

[Brian L]

Philip,

Regarding you comment on DD5.1, I don't seem to have a DD5.1 track on my disc. Since I don't have DTS in my rig, I would love to be able to play a 5.1 mix, even if it is considered inferior to the DTS 5.1 mix.

Since I lack DVD-A, and DTS capability, my DVD-V player is only able to play the 96/24 PCM track (which sounds nice, IMHO,a nd was the reason I bought the disk).

Also, how did you use your PC to copy the 96/24 PCM track to a CD? I have a DVD drive, but I seem to be unable to identify the PCM tracks. I also guess that you had to convert from 96/24 to 44.1/16 for standard CD?

Excuse my ingnorance, but I would like to do a digital dub of the PCM tracks if I can.

Best Regards,

Brian

 

[Michael Allred]

Wait, even though my DVD player and receiver CANNOT play DTS, I could still listen to this disc? It has a stereo track on it?

 

[Doug_H]

Great disc in all but one aspect. I prefer the high resolution stereo track to surround. They did a great job with the mix on this one though so I forgive them but the additional clarity the HR tracks offer leave me wanting more from this disc.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Great disc in all but one aspect. I prefer the high resolution stereo track to surround. They did agreat job with the mix on this one though so I forgive them but the additional clarity the HR tracks offer leave me wanting more from this disc.

So you want a 192/24 track, 96/24's not high enough resolution for the stereo tracks? I personally don't think 192/24's necessarily any better than 96/24, but I suppose that you can make an argument for that. I think the 96/24 track is perfect. I'd rather have 96/24 and DVD-V compatability than 192/24 PPCM but we all have different priorities.

This disc is everything that my Barenaked Ladies Maroon disc should be. The Maroon disc has no extras and only a 5.1 PPCM (DD compatability) mix, no stereo at all. The CD sounds like crap and I bought this disc largely for the stereo track that is documented all over the album. Plus there's a DVD with two music videos, they could have put this material on there also.

NP: WBWC 88.3FM Joe Jackson Marathon

 

[Brian L]

Great Info Philip, Thanks.

Although you did not say so directly, there is in fact no DD5.1 track on the disk, correct?

As for your methods of making dubs for personal use, I will be SOL as my PC is a laptop, which, to my knowledge lacks a Digital In for the sound card. You are correct about the Digital Out being down converted to 48/16 on the Digital Out of most (all?????) DVD-V players. I guess the software owners don't want the unwashed masses to make bit perfect 96/24 dubs.

Lastly, on that subject (making audio dubs from DVD's and DVD-A's), I noticed something that really ticked me off.

I connect the digital out of my DVD-V (a Sony carousel) to the Digital In of my Pioneer Audio CD Recorder. On almost every DVD and DVD-A that I have tried, the CD Recorder (when in monitor mode) indicates CAN NOT COPY. The only way that can happen is if the SCMS flag is set in bit stream. I tripped over this when trying to dub the audio of the Madonna video (Beautiful Stranger) on teh Austin Powers II DVD.

For those that don't know, SCMS is supposed to prevent me from making a digital dub of a digital dub; it should NOT impead first generation copies.

I suspect that the royalty scheme that takes some of the price of my audio recorder and audio blank media and sends it to the artists does NOT include DVD software, and therefore the labels that produce the DVDs feel it is appropriate to set the SCMS flag.

I even spoke with the folks at the HRRC (Home Recording Rights Coalition) on the subject, and while they were surprised about this abuse of the SCMS system, they had bigger fish to fry at the moment.

In any event, I found this to be quite annoying. At present I have made a dub of the Quessn 96/24 PCM track through the analog outs to my audio CD-R, but its a PITA to get the track numbers set right. Digital would be so much better.

Thanks again for the info.

Brian

 

[Doug_H]

I agree right down the line Philip. I much prefer the surround tracks in my car where the speakers just can't handle the 192 tracks but when the HR tracks are on a disc there is a huge difference over the 96 tracks on my home system.

This is a great mix and I will not fault the tracks the disc provides, I am damn glad to have it. When it comes to DVD-A I am in it for the music only. Just different priority...

 

[Christian Behrens]

Brian,
That problem has been there since the beginning with DVDs. I cannot make a digital copy of DVD tracks with my MD recorder, even though theoretically I should be able to.
SCMS should only be there on MY copy, but I am unable to record from DVD to my MD
-Christian

 

[Frank_S]

I noticed that S&V reviewed this disc and the reviewer said that he preferred the 2 channel version better, at least I think that's what he said, anyone else read it?
I have yet to hear a surround music disc I like over 2 channel , in fact I played that Queen album(record) last night, great record.

 

[Brian L]

I think the S&V reviewer came away thinking that the 5.1 remix was somewhat of a mixed bag. I look forward to getting either a DVD-A deck or a DTS capable pre/pro so I can hear for myself.

Speaking of that review, I panicked slighly when I noticed that my DVD packaging (purchased just one month ago at Best Buy) was of the original, non-Brian May release.

Fortunatley, as pointed out in another thread, the DVD itself has a 2002 copyright date, and in fact, if you check the credits on the DVD, it does list Brian May as co-producer. I guess DTS was trying to use up their old packaging. There may or may not have been a note on the shrink wrap indicating that Brian May was involved. Its long since been tossed.

Of course, May's involvement may or may not be a plus depending on your take on th re-mix, but I prefer to know that the original artist had a hand in any remix of such classic material.

I am pretty light on 5.1 music, but two titles that I do have (DVD-As but with a DD 5.1 mix) are Big Phatt Band (Swinging for the Fences) and ELP (Brain Salad Surgery).

BFB is very well recorded (IMHO) and great fun to listen to. Very solid drums (Greg Bissonette from the original David Lee Roth solo band, no less!) and bass.

As for ELP, I never really liked them in my youth, and never really listenned to BSS on a decent 2 channel rig, but its my view that this sort of synth based prog-rock does lend itself well to 5.1 remixes. YMMV!

Regards,

BL

 

[KeithH]

The stereo DVD-Audio track is certainly better than any CD version I have. However, with the higher resolution of DVD-Audio comes greater distortion. Overall, A Night at the Opera is great on DVD-Audio, but the flaws in the recording are plainly evident. :frowning:

 

[JimChan]

The stereo DVD-Audio track is certainly better than any CD version I have.

Does this disc contains a dedicated DVD-A stereo track?
From the 1st post, it looks like it doesn't.

 

[KeithH]

Jim, the Queen DVD-Audio disc does have a dedicated stereo track (24/96).

 

[Alex Shk]

But it does NOT contain a dedicated DVD-A (hi-rez) stereo track. It DOES contain a 96/24 PCM stereo track that is can be accesed with a DVD-V or a DVD-A player. I find the high sampling rate make for a much smoother and dynamic sound than the standard redbook CD. There was some comment on another board about the lack of bass on the stereo track, but I pointed out that since many were using their DVD-V players to hear it, they should re-adjust their speaker and subwoofer settings to prevent their equipment for looking for a dedicated subwoofer channel on the stereo mix. I find there is plenty of bass in the stereo version.

 

[KeithH]

Alex, thanks for the clarification. I've only played the 24/96 stereo track on the Queen disc on my DVD-Audio player. I never play DVD-Audio discs on my DVD-Video player since most of the time, you are dealing with the lower-resolution Dolby Digital and DTS tracks there.

 

[Michael_T]

But it does NOT contain a dedicated DVD-A (hi-rez) stereo track. It DOES contain a 96/24 PCM stereo track that is can be

There would really be no difference whether there is a dedicated DVD-A stereo track, as a 96/24 PCM uncompressed track would be tantamount to including a 96/24 PPCM (DVD-Audio) track.

So in pure semantics, maybe there really isn't a true dedicated DVD-A track - but a 96/24 LPCM is still a hi-rez track (similiar to what is found on a DAD (Digital Audio Disc).

 

[Ryan Spaight]

Yes, a "dedicated DVD-A 24/96 stereo track" is one of three things:
1) A PCM stereo track compressed with MLP (which DVD-V players can't deal with)
2) An uncompressed PCM stereo track which is for some unknown reason made inaccessible to DVD-V players via authoring
3) A misleading label
I've been happy to see on recent Warner releases (such as Randy Newman and The Band) the hi-res PCM stereo tracks have been clearly labeled as being playable on DVD-V machines. Good for them. I might actually pick some of those up, since I can enjoy them on my Sony N500-V DVD/SACD player.
Ryan

 

[Greg Br]

Regarding this disk, is there anyway of telling if I am getting the second recording of this album, as most know the first mix was so bad they never released it and remixed it again, but that does not mean Best Buy does not carry the wrong copy. Is there any markings on the second mix of this album. Thanks

Greg