Queen "The Game" - DVD-A at Best Buy (1 Viewer)

Michael_T · Apr 15, 2003

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 · Apr 15, 2003

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 · Apr 15, 2003

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 · Apr 15, 2003

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 · Apr 15, 2003

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?

Bill_Mis · Apr 16, 2003

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 · Apr 16, 2003

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

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Felix Martinez · Apr 16, 2003

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 · Apr 17, 2003

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 · Apr 17, 2003

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 · Apr 17, 2003

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.

Michael Allred · Apr 18, 2003

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

Well, the album cover for the LP originally had a shiny "mirror" shine to it, which made it look sharper (not to mention cooler) but for whatever reason, all re-issues since have lacked this look, resulting in a rather dulled image.

Click to expand...

Zack Scott · Apr 18, 2003

Weel, I finally got the disc...loved every minute of it. About the cover shot...It's a different picture from the original cover. In the original cover, John Deacon didn't have his Leather Jacket open so we could see his t-shirt.

BrianS · Apr 18, 2003

I picked mine up yesterday. I have always had a soft spot for "The Game" since it was the first Queen album I ever owned. (Hey, I was only 7 at the time)

I think it sounds great. Another One Bites the Dust seems to be the track they really worked the hardest on. Actually the first 4 songs seem to be the strongest (maybe it just seems that way to me).

The new vocals on Coming Soon does bother me though. Did they just use some different takes of Roger's backgrounds recorded back in the day or is it newly recorded backgrounds? They sound very different from the original.

Zack is right, the front is a completely different photo. Wonder why???

I have now owned "The Game" in 4 different formats in my short lifetime. Weird.

I have no problems re-buying the entire catalog once again if the quality stays this good!

KeithH · Apr 19, 2003

I have to get this disc just to hear "Another Bites The Dust" in hi-rez stereo. Should be great!

Ralph Summa · Apr 23, 2003

I picked it up Saturday at BB. Listened through it about two-and-a-half times.

Although I own "A Night at the Opera", on LP, cassette, CD and DVD-A formats, I only have this one on LP to compare against the DVD-A.

The guitar riffs in "The Game" jumped around from speaker to speaker but seemed much more natural than the out of place riffs on "ANATO".

I really liked "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". Background vocals came from the surrounds and surprised me.

My two favorites, "Save Me" and "Sail Away Sweet Sister", were all the more better.

Pretty happy so far!

Ralph

Rich Malloy · Apr 23, 2003

This is probably a dumb question, but bear with me... there's a lightbulb sparking to life above my head at the moment.

I'm noticing that many DVD-A discs of late seem to have been released without the higher 24/192 sampling rate for stereo tracks that they're otherwise capable of. I find this news somewhat distressing, on the one hand, but I got to thinking... given that my old but trusty Pioneer DV-414 does 24/96 with its Burr-Brown DAC, do I even need a DVD-A player to playback these 24/96 stereo tracks?

And would these 24/96 tracks be the same as what are otherwise known as "DADs"?

Finally, are you folks not particularly chaffed that so many DVD-As don't use the highest sampling rate the format is capable of, or is there actually very little difference between 24/96 and 24/192?

Justin Lane · Apr 23, 2003

Finally, are you folks not particularly chaffed that so many DVD-As don't use the highest sampling rate the format is capable of, or is there actually very little difference between 24/96 and 24/192?

I would perfer the higher sampling rate when possible, but honestly I have yet to find 24/96 lacking where that is the only option. If an album is done in surround, I think many times they just master the stereo in 24/96 because that is what is required for the 5.1 track anyway. Storage space is also an issue. However, If stereo only releases become more common on DVD-A, I would hope they use the 24/192 resolution everytime because space, and surround mixing should no longer be an issue.

J

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John Kotches · Apr 23, 2003

Well Rich is assuming that there's a plethora of material available that's been captured at 24/192K.

Were that this is so -- but it is not.

Anything digital has to be from within the last year or two, which is nothing in comparison to the overall recorded output.

For older analog recordings, 24/192K could be overkill but it doesn't hurt -- plus if you ask guys like Mark Waldrep it was only in the last year or so that acceptable quality A/D was around that was capable of 24/192K. Prior to that the 24/96K convertors sounded better.

Plus it was only in the last 6 months or so that all of the production houses used by WB for DVD-A work received 24/192K capability.

And of course the space issue can rear its head as well, as Justin so rightly pointed out.

So 24/192K material will be out there, and over time it will increase.

Regards,

andrew markworthy · Apr 23, 2003

Dumb question, guys - is there a 5.1 track on it that can be played on ordinary DVD players as on Night at the Opera?

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