Queen "The Game" - DVD-A at Best Buy

Michael_T · 04-15-2003, 11:48 AM

Well unexpectedly I found Queen's "The Game" on DVD-A at the Best Buy in East Hanover, NJ. I was under the assumption that this disc's release date was 4/29 (which it still might be). It seems though that Best Buy has this item in their ad for DVD-A discs that are on-sale this week and "The Game" is one of them. It was marked $16.99, but rang up at the sale price of $14.99.

So those that were waiting for this DVD-A disc might want to mosey on down to their nearest Best Buy and see if they placed it in the racks. If not you can probably get a "raincheck" for the sale price of $14.99.

I will listen as soon as I can - which I can't do now since I am at work.

Dan Joy · 04-15-2003, 12:44 PM

Strange, I went to my Best Buy (yes I own it

) and "The Game " was nnot there! But I did get Fleetwood Mack DVD-A!

Bill_Mis · 04-15-2003, 02:51 PM

I also picked up The Game in Carmel, IN today and gave it a brief listen and found that the lyrics must be manually advanced to follow a song, unlike A Night at the Opera which did it automatically. Kind of strange to do it manually and have the option of reverse. Beware Best Buy recently rearranged the dvd-audio discs in with cd's instead of near the music dvd's.

Michael_T · 04-15-2003, 03:29 PM

After looking at the liner notes for the DVD-A I noticed something very curious.

I quote from the liner notes:

"The original 1980 24-track analogue master recordings were transferred to a Pro Tools HD digital audio workstation at 192kHz 24bit."

But when they give us the stereo PCM track (which is most likely 96/24 LPCM) it is 96/24 and not PPCM 192/24.

Granted for compatibility issues they are providing a 96/24 LPCM track, which doesn't require a DVD-Audio player - merely a DVD player. Considering that they had 192/24 available you would think they could have provided a 192/24 DVD-Audio stereo track?

Oh well.

KeithH · 04-15-2003, 11:57 PM

Michael, thanks for the tip. I didn't expect this disc to be out yet either. Nice surprise! What is not a nice surprise is that there is no 24/192 stereo track. Perhaps they could not fit it on the disc with the multi-channel track and any extras. Are there a lot of extras on this disc?

How does it sound?

**HTF Ads**

Bill_Mis · 04-16-2003, 10:01 AM

Well I had an opportunity to listen a couple of times to this album and although I am a long-time Queen fan I can say for most people this will be a minor letdown in comparison to A Night at the Opera. Of the large Queen library this is really not a great album to show off multi-channel audio.

The Game was sort of a stripped down, simpler version of the usually multi-layered complex Queen sound. Many of the tracks are straight forward songs with the first appeearance of a synthesizer on any of the Queen albums to that point. One of the tracks by Roger Taylor "Coming Soon" I believe even has a different vocals track on parts presumably because of some missing master tapes. I think the real reason The Game was chosen second as a dvd-adio was the fact that they had already mixed Crazy Little Thing and Another One Bites the Dust for Greatest Hits One and so a portion had already been done.

I'm not saying this is a bad effort. It's great that we get a 96/24 DTS track and dvd-audio to choose from. Its makes for alot more playback options when you move around to different people's theaters. Dragon Attack seems to be the best track in this format as lots of cool effects and John Deacon's bass gets more noticed. All in all, a good effort but I would love to have Queen II done in this format for a real showcase.

Justin Lane · 04-16-2003, 12:27 PM

Quote:

All in all, a good effort but I would love to have Queen II done in this format for a real showcase.

Me too, and I think our hopes will be answered. Brian May has announced on his website that they are working on getting the entire Queen catalog on DVD-A, but it will take some time. Maybe we will get another title by years end. Now if only DVD Planet would ship my order.

J

Felix Martinez · 04-16-2003, 01:39 PM

Anyone notice in the notes that the ProTools mixes from the 192/24 master tape transfers were printed to 2 inch 8-track analog tape before DVD-A mastering at 96/24?

Interesting intermediate analog step...

Cheers!

Jim_C · 04-17-2003, 02:58 PM

Well, I'll pick this up as soon as I can. The Game is a favorite of mine.

As for others, I'd love to see A Day at the Races and Sheer Heart Attack get DVD-A treatment next.

Alan_Horner · 04-17-2003, 04:40 PM

After reading the posts, I hopped over to the local Best Buy -- not known for having new hi-rez releases -- and was able to pick up The Game on DVD-A. Treat!

I agree with the others: not the best choice for a follow-up Queen release, but other than the so-so nature of the songs, I think they did a good job with it. Some folks might feel they were really pushing the discrete m/c effects in portions of the mix, but I was pleasantly surprised myself. Very little in the way of extras (handful of stills, no video), though.

And really: did the original LP cover look as bad as the image used here? This thing looks like a lo-rez video grab!

If you head over to Best Buy, keep in mind that the sticker price may not be the right one. Mine was stickered $16.99 but it rang up as $14.99 (part of a DVD-A push for certain titles, according to some posts).

Zack Scott · 04-17-2003, 11:44 PM

YOu guys are sooo lucky...I've been to two Best buys in my area and have retuned Queen-The Game-less. I've got one more to try before I give up and wait for the official release date.