DualDiscs - making music buying fun again

Jay_B! · 10-19-2005, 05:56 PM

I keep seeing hate for dualdisc this and that here predominantly from "rock snobs" who think anyone who doesn't have SACD is beneath them... I honestly think it's the same snob mentality that Laserdisc owners had towards DVD, they don't want "Joe Six Pack" discovering high end quality.

I won't lie, my "normal" CD purchases of the past year have for the most part been Greatest Hits cd's, I find very few CD's out these days that are worth the cost to press the discs... however, with DualDiscs, I really like them. To me, it's a way of rediscovering the love of purchasing music. I have revisited two favorites from the 1980's (Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet and Barbra Streisand's Guilty, yes you can like both) as well as checking out more recent albums by David Bowie, Franz Ferdinand, Carly Simon and Nine Inch Nails. I think the problem most people have is that it won't play on older stereos, but you know, CD-R's won't play on older stereos either.

I hope DualDisc continues to grow in popularity because they are one of the few things out in this heavily crappy music environment that are actually worth the cost, I hope more and more classic albums get the DualDisc treatment considering how fantastic Slippery When Wet sounds and is treated.

Craig S · 10-19-2005, 08:38 PM

The disdain you're seeing about DualDisc has very little to do with "snobbery" and much more to do with real and potential compatibility problems with people's hardware. DualDiscs often will not play in computers and car stereos. They are thicker than CDs, and do not adhere to the CD standard. Many manufacturers warn against using them in their equipment.

If you like 'em, and they work for you, cool (they work in all my equipment as well). No need to slam folks who have legitimate problems with and concerns about the format.

Kevin C Brown · 10-19-2005, 08:57 PM

I still hate 'em, but if it's DualDisc or nothing, I'll take DualDisc.

But ... I am seeing the same problem as with SACD and DVD-A: no content!

I have the Nine Inch Nails one and one other one, but nothing else that is out is something that I want to buy.

(And ... I have about 1000 CDs and 500 lps in my collection, so it's not like I'm super picky or anything.

And I *would* have bought the Foo Fighters DualDisc, but only 1 of the 2 discs has a multichannel mix. That's stupid.)

DanFe · 10-19-2005, 11:46 PM

SACDs are what made music-buying fun again for me. Honestly, no content in DVD-A that I want. And dualdisc isn't always hi-rez. Often it's very low rez.

Jesse Skeen · 10-20-2005, 06:56 AM

Dualdisc is certainly a good idea, but there's been so much stupidity in some of the releases so far. I read that the RIAA actually requires all the audio content of the CD side to be duplicated in some form on the DVD side in case the CD side doesn't work on a certain player, but that's retarded. If you are going to have the album audio on the DVD, it MUST at least have hi-res DVD-Audio. PCM stereo is nothing to get excited about. If you aren't going to include DVD-Audio, then instead use the DVD side for more VIDEO material.

I would've bought the Streisand Guilty disc, but it only has the album in PCM and the video content doesn't sound too exciting so I'll stick with my 8-track. I'll confess to buying the Britney Spears In The Zone Dualdisc (I get a discount from the company I work for

) but found out afterwards that was a SERIOUSLY botched release. It had a true DVD-Audio release before with a great surround mix, but the DualDisc eliminated the Hi-Res altogether and the Dolby Digital mix is different and a lot weaker than the one on the DVD-A. Of course the DVD-A was dual-layer and I don't think they can make Dualdiscs with a dual-layer DVD side yet, but if you can't do it right, don't do it at all.

**HTF Ads**

Phil A · 10-20-2005, 10:55 AM

Jay, I'm happy that you or anyone enjoys them. I'm just not into playing Russian Roulette with my equipment.

Jay_B! · 10-20-2005, 02:57 PM

people keep talking about the thickness of DualDiscs, but I don't notice it. If anything, DualDiscs seem thinner than most DVD-18's I have. For example, Terminator 2 was a really thick disc, the Dualdiscs I have feel about normal.

Phil A · 10-20-2005, 03:39 PM

Why does everyone continue to make thickness the only issue?
There is a thread going back where someone physically weighed the discs and they weighed on avg. somewhere around 20% more. Manufacturers design products to get them out the door at a specific price point to handle specified software. When they make thousands of units, they tend not to put more sturdy or expensive parts to handle other than std. formats playing over time. Transports are designed by engineering types to handle the discs to be put in the players. Perhaps playing a DualDisc over time will do nothing and perhaps it will wear out the transport sooner. I don't really think anyone can say until there is a sufficient history over a couple of yrs. If I were playing them in a cheap universal players, perhaps it would not make a difference to me. Given the fact I have more software to listen to than I can by, why even risk doing anything to any one of my players. Manuf. issued warning with respect to current players. I expect that if DualDisc continues to sell, we will see players bearing the DualDisc logo. Why does someone have to read into this as DualDisc bashing? I've posted threads about new DualDisc in the works when I've seen press release. No it does not interest me personally but I'm more than happy to pass the info along for someone who has interest.

Jay_B! · 10-20-2005, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Why does everyone continue to make thickness the only issue?
There is a thread going back where someone physically weighed the discs and they weighed on avg. somewhere around 20% more. Manufacturers design products to get them out the door at a specific price point to handle specified software. When they make thousands of units, they tend not to put more sturdy or expensive parts to handle other than std. formats playing over time. Transports are designed by engineering types to handle the discs to be put in the players. Perhaps playing a DualDisc over time will do nothing and perhaps it will wear out the transport sooner. I don't really think anyone can say until there is a sufficient history over a couple of yrs. If I were playing them in a cheap universal players, perhaps it would not make a difference to me. Given the fact I have more software to listen to than I can by, why even risk doing anything to any one of my players. Manuf. issued warning with respect to current players. I expect that if DualDisc continues to sell, we will see players bearing the DualDisc logo. Why does someone have to read into this as DualDisc bashing? I've posted threads about new DualDisc in the works when I've seen press release. No it does not interest me personally but I'm more than happy to pass the info along for someone who has interest.

settle down Beavis. All I said was that I've read into so much about how people are hesitant to use them because of the size, but yet the same people have no problem purchasing double-sided DVD's, which for the most part are thicker than any dualdisc I've encountered.

Take a chill pill seriously, god. Don't give yourself a heart attack over this.

Phil A · 10-20-2005, 05:06 PM

I don't need anything - not at all upset in the slightest. It just gets a bit old when the same info is posted over and over about pros and cons. Everything has good and bad points. There are those who just don't read or want to read all the facts and I'm fine with those who want to jump from a height w/o looking to see if there is a net there. Me - I'll make sure there is a net

Kevin C Brown · 10-20-2005, 08:54 PM

Quote:

There is a thread going back where someone physically weighed the discs and they weighed on avg. somewhere around 20% more.

That was me.

I don't like the idea of the thicker discs either, and yes, they do at least *weigh* more than any DVD-18 disc I could find too. But I figure that the 2 DualDiscs I currently have comprise about 0.2% of my collection, so I'm not too worried about their long term affects on my player.

There still is the fact that the thinner CD layer can play havoc with a CD (DVD) player's error correction because the laser can't focus properly, but this is more of a potential sound quality issue than anything that could break the hardware.

One thing I postulated before, is that *if* manufacturers were smart, at least in new player designs, they'd somehow include the possibility of DualDisc playing and modify the hardware accordingly. Obviously won't help current players, but at least some time in the future, all new players shouldn't have any problems with them. *If* the manufacturers think ahead.