The Beatles: 1 (Blu-ray Audio/Video) (1 Viewer)

[ShellOilJunior]

This is a must. Although, the drum will still bang until all Beatles properties are on blu-ray.

 

[Tony Bensley]

No mono or stereo re-release. If you want to immerse yourself in the various one offs that Giles Martin will not be re-doing for this release check of the Steve Hoffman forum. Probably a 100 pages by now.


Not that anyone is but I would not hold your breath on LIB, ever.

IMO, Yoko and likely Paul will never agree to a release as there are some fairly low moments.


Anthology far more likely and may be in progress now. This release took a long time to finish and Anthology has a lot more content.


FWIW, I previewed some of the restored video in HD and even over the internet they looked killer.

Also looking forward to what Giles did with the older "stereo" mixes as they have uniformly been hideous and not really stereo.

Hi Douglas!


I agree that it seems pretty unlikely we'll see any LET IT BE Movie Reissue in Paul & Yoko's lifetime!


THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY, on the other hand, was a far more agreeable, well balanced project, that I would love to see issued to Blu-ray!


Regarding the original BEATLES 1 CD, it always seemed to me the echo reverb was somehow stripped from I FEEL FINE, and slapped onto DAY TRIPPER, instead! Absolutely hideous, indeed! Thankfully, both tracks sound right (To my ears, at least!) on their respective PAST MASTERS CD Volumes!


CHEERS!


Tony

 

[Douglas_H]

The original Beatles 1 cd was not very well received and kind of rightfully so, imo.

The mid-60's Beatles releases on Capitol had reverb applied by Capitol personnel so if these LPs or CDs are your reference for Beatles output then you surely heard them this way originally

 

[mikeyhitchfan]

Deluxe version ordered. Take my money, please.

 

[Tony Bensley]

The original Beatles 1 cd was not very well received and kind of rightfully so, imo.

The mid-60's Beatles releases on Capitol had reverb applied by Capitol personnel so if these LPs or CDs are your reference for Beatles output then you surely heard them this way originally

Hi Douglas!


Truth be told, insofar as the I FEEL FINE and DAY TRIPPER tracks, I'm more familiar with how they sounded on the Red Album compilation LP, and much later, The Beatles Reissued to CD Stereo Version, UK Catalogue LP's. For what it's worth, these collectively sound proper to my ears!


It'll be interesting to see/hear how the new sets turn out!


CHEERS!


Tony

 

[AnthonyClarke]

I'll order the deluxe version IF I can find any evidence that it includes HD audio.... ie Pure Audio on Blu ray of the audio tracks.

If only the films are on Blu ray and not the original audio singles, then this is a wasted opportunity. It seems impossible to discover just what is going on .. .having a CD of the audio tracks is pretty pointless!

 

[bigshot]

The 5.1 track is DTS-HD audio. And this is a disk of films, not a Blu-Ray audio disk. The advantage of the deluxe version is that it has a second blu-ray with more videos, not just the ones that were on the original 1 CD. The CD consists of the stereo remixes done specifically for this release. If you want the original tracks, you can get them on the original 1 CD.

 

[davidmatychuk]

The Apple Blu-Ray audio standard for their Beatles releases has been PCM stereo, with DTS-HD and Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks, to cover most home theatre set-ups from basic to high-end. I'll probably watch these new videos with the surround audio, as the 5.1 mixes of the Beatles songs on the Beatles Anthology DVD set (in DTS and Dolby Digital to go with a PCM stereo track) were tremendous fun, and a real plus compared to the plain PCM stereo on the 8-laserdisc box set, which remains a magnificent Beatles product in its own right.

 

[zoetmb]

$60, though. Ouch. As a Beatles fan, I'll bite the bullet, of course, but it's going to really hurt. I really enjoyed the new mixes on the Yellow Submarine Songtrack (except for the weirdly out-of-sync Eleanor Rigby) so hopefully these new mixes will be similar. I know it's blasphemy, but I'd be interested in new mixes of all of their albums; not to supplant the original mixes, which were genius, but as an alternative. Modern audio technology can do so much more than the limited 4-track tape that was used on many of their albums. The Beatles and George Martin layered so much sound when creating the original songs that modern mixing really lets you clearly hear instruments and sounds that may have gotten buried in the original mixes. Like I said, I would never want the new mixes to replace the originals; I would just love to have them as an option.

Frankly, I don't see how. The source is four track. If instruments are buried on one track of the four track, they're still going to be buried, even with digital manipulation. I'm not sure how I would feel about new mixes - it seems to me that the George Martin produced mixes - at least the mono ones up to and including Pepper and the stereo mixes after that - are canon. They didn't actually pay that much attention to the stereo mixes until the White Album because in '66, stereo wasn't really happening yet in the UK and I think they actually misread the U.S. market. There's a lot of fan stuff about wanting Steve Wilson to do mixes, but I dunno. The latest releases of anything usually wind up being the ones that get played on radio and streaming services and they would wind up replacing the originals. (I wonder how many of the fans calling for Steve Wilson or other alternate Beatles mixes are the same people who decry George Lucas for changing the OT.)

It seems like every few years there is a "confirmation" that Let It Be is coming. Most recently, I think it was in 2010 when the director said it was coming in 2013. Ringo also commented somewhere along the line that it was coming.


As for Anthology, no mention that I am aware of - ever - of it coming to blu-ray, beyond fans' asking for it. The show is 20 years old, and the DVDs are 15 years old.


At a time when artists like Dylan and Springsteen are putting out high quality archival releases on a regular basis, the Beatles should really step up their output.

All I've ever heard is that Paul McCartney won't permit Let It Be to be released in his lifetime because he's embarrassed over the fight he has with George Harrison in the film. I think it's silly because fans who grew up in that era already have seen the film and know about it.


Would love to see both remasters of the Anthology CDs as well as a Blu-ray of the Anthology TV show, but if the TV footage was recorded on video, there's not much they're going to be able to do with it. The remaster of Live at the BBC (as well as the quality of BBC 2) is fantastic and they should be able to apply the same type of restoration to the Anthology CDs


The original version of "#1's" was highly level compressed. I attended an AES Convention after it was released and at the Producers panel, a question was raised as to whether the Beatles would have been as initially popular as they were if that's how all their releases sounded. The general consensus was that they wouldn't have been because it would have been tedious to listen to all there songs over and over, although fans didn't seem to care as "#1's" originally sold quite well. I'm hoping #1's have been restored to the way they were supposed to sound originally, although much of that early material was never even supposed to be in stereo, never mind 5.1. I have a feeling some of those tracks, especially the early ones, are actually going to sound quite ridiculous in 5.1, with probably just echo return in the surround channels.


If this had just been a remastering of #1's, even as a Blu release, I don't think I would have gone for it, but with all that video as well? I think I have to buy it. But it's too bad it doesn't contain ALL of the Ed Sullivan show appearances as well as their pre-recorded appearance on Shindig! where they cold opened with Kansas City.

 

[davidmatychuk]

There's an interesting tone to the posts so far on this thread; thrilled, but dazed. These are good, solid, thoughtful comments from Beatlemaniacs who are wondering "am I dreaming or is this actually happening?". That's definitely where I'm coming from, anyhow.

 

[Mike Frezon]

It looks to me like all of the songs on the 1 disk are both video and stereo/5.1. It appears that most of the songs on the second disk are stereo/5.1 as well. I don't think there is an audio only option, but you can just turn off your TV

Yeah...but it doesn't really work that way. On screen navigation is the way to go. I'd like to be able to select various songs on the fly and audio options on the fly as well. Possible with the TV off? Sure. But it makes it more complicated for me.


I would prefer these to be Blu-ray audio discs with the video cuts treated as a bonus.


But that's just me and I don't want to be raining on any Beatles fan's parade. I LOVE Blu-ray audio and this would have been an ideal way-to-go with this particular title.


Here's a promotional video on the restoration work:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=7&v=q-dJAC2tybE

 

[Mike Frezon]

And the promotional video for the release itself:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=1-h9qvPrTeE

 

[Alan Tully]

Oo, I must say that trailer looks very good.

 

[Tony Bensley]

I agree that the trailer looks great, but I FEEL FINE is still missing the echo reverb, as it also does on the original BEATLES 1 CD issue, and DAY TRIPPER sounds to my ears like it still has it, instead!


Great overall presentation, nevertheless!


CHEERS!

 

[bigshot]

Frankly, I don't see how. The source is four track.

The Love album will give you an idea of what can be done with the earlier Beatles songs. It isn't going to sound much like the original mixes, but it will sound good.


One thing I noticed on the Love album is that they used a verse on one of the White Album songs that isn't on the record. I wonder if they'll be diving that deep into the alternate takes with the 1+ disks. The Love disk is something completely separate from the original releases. I hope this will be too. I'll be disappointed if they don't use the 5.1 to its fullest.

 

[Ruz-El]

Would love to see both remasters of the Anthology CDs as well as a Blu-ray of the Anthology TV show, but if the TV footage was recorded on video, there's not much they're going to be able to do with it.

I would hope on Blu-ray that we got more complete performances, which were on the CDs. Include the complete Shea Stadium show, things like that. Actually, I'd love to see them copy what Neil Young did with his Archive Blu-ray boxset, which hasn't been matched by any other artist. Include hi-res audio of the albums in Stereo and Mono, with the Anthology footage/promo vids that matches the period.

The Love album will give you an idea of what can be done with the earlier Beatles songs. It isn't going to sound much like the original mixes, but it will sound good.


One thing I noticed on the Love album is that they used a verse on one of the White Album songs that isn't on the record. I wonder if they'll be diving that deep into the alternate takes with the 1+ disks. The Love disk is something completely separate from the original releases. I hope this will be too. I'll be disappointed if they don't use the 5.1 to its fullest.

It's a good idea to be sure, and I'm all for it provided that the original promo vids are offered as originally released, including any Mono soundtracks were applicable. I don't see any mono mentioned in any of the press release stuff though.

 

[bigshot]

The reason they are remixing is probably mostly to create alternate surround and stereo mixes, but also because they probably have to conform the songs to sync up with the videos. Just dropping the song on off the CD probably won't always line up. Likewise, there are probably formatting issues in the videos related to the way they were originally aired that they are probably having to edit out and create clean ins and outs for them.


This is a disk of videos with brand new stereo and surround mixes. It isn't a music disk of already released Beatles tracks. They are restoring the videos, but they won't have the same soundtracks that went with them originally. They're being repackaged into clean music videos... edited and remixed.

 

[Dee Zee]

As a first gen Fab fan, I'm all in on this, preordered the deluxe 2 blu-ray set. I have all the videos on a boot DVD but they are in poor quality.

A few of these promos have unique mixes or versions such as Hello Goodbye which runs slower, and Hey Jude and Revolution that have live vocals mixed with prerecorded backing tracks.

 

[davidmatychuk]

The first two LP's I ever bought were "Beatlemania With The Beatles" and "Twist And Shout", the first two Canadian Beatles LP's, on the same day in 1964. With all the talk lately about Blu-Ray being on the way out, I just thought I'd mention the ancient, obsolete vinyl record format. I mean, who'd want a mono Beatles LP in 2015?

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B005NJ9CHK/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1442627921&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=beatles+mono&dpPl=1&dpID=4160-67mhXL&ref=plSrch#

 

[Mike Frezon]

A few of these promos have unique mixes or versions such as Hello Goodbye which runs slower, and Hey Jude and Revolution that have live vocals mixed with prerecorded backing tracks.

Tom: I get the feeling we're not gonna know if they'll be using those mixes...or all-studio tracks for those particular videos.


I'm getting the sense that maybe these releases are designed to have the videos accompany the re-mixed audio tracks rather than the other way around.


On the one hand you've got stereo and surround re-mixes of the audio (that's significant). But, on the other hand, you've got extensive restoration of the video clips (also significant). And it sounds as if the two are going to be married together (also significant).


So the "live" video performances are going to have a re-mixed studio track underneath.