Neil Young to release archive on BluRay disc (1 Viewer)

[David Deeb]

This is interesting, but I agree with some above that question the logic of having to turn on a monitor to use it.

I can only imagine there will be a truckload of trailers, commercials, FBI warnings, disclaimers, and then everything repeated in Spanish, before you ever get a chance to just push "PLAY" and listen to the music.

Any time there is a new format, there are some artists who champion weird ways of "experiencing" their music. IE: Peter Gabriel and Todd Rundgren's experimental CD-ROMs, a Hard Day's Night (the movie) on CD (this was a VERY big deal at the time, but flopped), all those "Enhanced CDs".

One thing that makes this unique is the "entire library" concept on 1 disc which I do think has a potential to be the new "Box Set" approach for established legacy artists. In the same vein as "Season Sets" for TV shows. All us collectors might actually make this one work where those others didn't.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

AVS is a niche within a niche? Check out the traffic there vs here.


Genesis would disagree. Ever hear of 'em?


I think I do get it now. The BD set is coming out on WB. WB used to support DVD-A, and DVD-A is truly dead, whereas there are still some releases on SACD. So maybe he didn't have a choice. I just hope they don't encode them with DTS-HD MA, or then he'd truly be screwing his fans.

I do hope that he or the record company still sees the benefit of some kind of CD release even if just for the convenience of his fans. I for one do not have a BD player at work, but I do listen to CDs there every day.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

And?

I guess you feel that DVD-A/SACD is a more viable medium than BD, is that your point? That it's more "mainstream" than BD?

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Sigh ... I'm not going to argue with you anymore.

But yes, I actually do have plenty of friends with SACD and DVD-A capability who actually use it for SACD and DVD-A listening. Amazingly enough, more than the friends who have BD capability.

(BD? What's that? I thought HD DVD was dead.)

It's easy for at least me to see why when you put together that DVD-A and SACD have been out there for many more years than BD, and the hardware is a lot cheaper too.

Maybe I just hang out in audiophile circles vs videophile.

If Neil wants to get his material out into as many hands as he can, then I think BD is a mistake. Most people don't even realize you need a BD player to see high def video on an HDTV vs a good upscaling DVD player.

But do you see the irony? Genesis didn't release high res versions of their remasters in the states (Europe and Japan yes, here no), and Neil is going to do his archive on BD. Most people here seem satisfied with low quality MP3 vs even CD. Yup, BD is definitely the way to go!

 

[Jack Gilvey]

This is a ludicrous analogy from a technology standpoint, of course, if that's what you attempted.

 

[Will_B]

Yeah can we stop the SACD and DVDA whining please? This release has nothing to do with either of those formats, and, if you've watched the demo, you've already seen that it could not be released on either of those formats, not as conceived.

On a new note, I like the way that the "file cabinet" imagery allows NY to include material that simply does not mesh with his other music. If you were supervising a compilation of tunes, and you had a song that was perhaps of some historical interest, but which really didn't fit the flow at all, normally you'd decide not to include it. But with this massive archive, you can stick that recording in a simulated "drawer" somewhere, and if someone really wants to play it, they can, and it doesn't have to mesh with the rest of the songs at all. This overcomes a problem that anyone who has ever edited anything -- be it an album or a magazine -- can relate to. Odd-ball tracks that just don't work, even on rarity albums, can at last find a home.

 

[Ruz-El]

I have to agree, it's a neat idea. That said, it looks too much to me like a "Wow! Look what we can do!" kinda thing as opposed to actually being practical for listening. I would of liked a demo showing how this thing actually worked. Is there a play all? He picks "Mr. Soul", then there's a clip of him performing it on Ed Sullivan (if memory serves), is there a video option to watch that all at once? I really would of preferred a DVD frankly. Hi-Rez audio to listen too, clips to watch and a book to read.

The "Massy Hall" disc is one of my favorites. Great sounding audio, and some nice things to look at if your in the mood. This Blu-ray demo looks like it might be a bit of a pain in the ass, especially if your like me with a 30" or so display instead of something birthed by Cinerama in that demo vid. Gonna be hard to read all those meticulously printed news clippings and such.

 

[Will_B]

Re: play-all -- I suppose it depends on how much of a control freak NY is. I'd imagine there'll be options to listen to a particular album exactly the way the particular album was originally sold, and then maybe an option to listen to listen to all the finished tracks from that album session regardless of whether they made the lp or not, etc. But will there be a total, complete "play all" button to start a couple days' worth of music? Unknown.

 

[Mark_TS]

been waiting for a remastered EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE for years. The other mysterious holdout is Van Morrisons ASTRAL WEEKS
Both still using 1987 LP masters..........................BUT

Ill believe it when I see it-shoulda been done long ago (on DVD-A or SACD)
Neil's been talkin' this for years....and all weve seen is talk...

I dont want to have to turn on my tv to listen -and setup requires that

 

[David Deeb]

Thanks for the video link. That is very interesting. I wonder how much this idea will catch on with other artists & labels.

I'm in the DVD authoring business, and I can only imagine this will be very expensive to produce. And I'm curious if in today's music distribution model, if this will be embraced.

 

[KurtEP]

Out of curiosity, where would the costs primarily be? Would it be in transferring the music from a master tape (and any restoration) to the BD, or would it be more in the production of the BD itself, or somewhere else? I've been exposed to a lot of industries over the years, but this hasn't been one of them, and I've always wondered where the money goes.

 

[Ruz-El]

From what I can gleam (intereviews and such with Neil), he's mostly doing this in house (his money), with "Warners/Reprise" being the distributer. So I would guess that it would be like in the movies, where he "sells" it to the label to cover the production costs. I'm guessing this sets going to be in the $300 range. 10 B-DVDs? in a box? Can't be cheap to buy, not with 20 years of work put into it.

 

[David Deeb]

DVD, and BD, authoring costs include: professionally encoding the video sources (in this case from HD sources), DVD authoring time; menu design time; materials. There will also be some music encoding costs you asked about, but I'm not as certain at this time, how much or how little this will impact. This is the first of its kind.

Based on what we see in this video clip, this thing will be loaded with content. The flowchart must be ridiculous. So the whole design and approval process is going to be magnified and multiplied for each disc.

I suspect that this is being done as a "showboat" piece meant to "WOW" us with what the technology is capable of. Only a guess, but someone or some company may be putting up a lot of resources and time in order to show what can be done.

 

[Ruz-El]

I was right! It's up for pre-order on Amazon, $32300. Jan 27. first time it's appeared I think.

Amazon.com: Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1: 1963-1972 (10 Disc Blu-Ray) [Blu-ray]: Neil Young: Movies & TV

There's a new performance series disc out too, Dec 2
Amazon.com: Sugar Mountain-Live At Canterbury House 1968 (CD/DVD): Neil Young: Music

 

[Henry Gale]

$323.95

 

[Mike Frezon]

I guess that's a LITTLE better than $32300...

 

[Henry Gale]

It does have that comforting decimal point.

 

[Ruz-El]

lol! sorry guys! sloppy typing at work strikes back.

It's going to cost me closer to $600, I have to buy a PS3 to listen to it. :frowning:

 

[Mike Frezon]

Think of it as an investment, Russell!

 

[DinBad]

I think it will be coming out in standard DVD as well. That's still gonna be expensive!