Journey/Eagles DVD-A's, any good? (1 Viewer)

[Eric_Connelly]

We were at BB last night and they actually had a decent sized DVD-A/SACD selection.

We picked up REM's Greatest Hits on DVD-A and the wife picked up the Bon Jovi SACD.

REM's was so-so...mediocre mixing on most songs but there were a few good ones.

Bon Jovi's was mostly 3 Channel with very little rears but you can tell it was mixed for that effect, the 2 rears are used for emphasis so its a good sound.

She looked at the Eagles/Journey DVD-A's they had and I wanted to check if they were any good.

Are they just simple remixes in 5 channel or did they put some work into it?

If they have some effort in them she'd like to pick them up.

Not bad either, all their selection was $14.99.

Thanks

 

[Brian L]

Hotel California is a must have, assuming you like the music. It is an example of DVD-A done right.

IMHO, of course, but I would be surprised to find any fans of the music that would offer a dissenting opinion.

I know zero about Journey on DVD-A.

Brian

 

[GordonL]

What Journey on DVD-A? The only ones I've seen are on DVD-Video.

 

[LanceJ]

Journey is on one of Sony's labels (Columbia?) so that disc couldn't be a dvd-audio disc.

Full review of Hotel California on dvd-audio.

BTW: according to Internet reports, on one version of this disc the 192kHz/24bit stereo track was authored incorrectly and many players cannot play it. FYI: this is not related to the Pioneer 563 debacle. There were photos of the two discs with (barely) different graphics on the stevehoffman.tv forum, but ever since that forum experienced some kind of software issue, its search engine brings up practically nothing - someone there said using Google can actually find more info there.

 

[Eric_Connelly]

I thought Journey was a DVD-A, maybe it was SACD...either way thanks for the info on the Eages and the review.

We'll be picking it up tonight!

 

[Chris Gerhard]

Journey "Greatest Hits" is a stereo SACD. "In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003" is one of my favorite DVD-Audio discs.

Chris

 

[Aaron Silverman]

What Pioneer 563 debacle? My 563a has never had any problems. Should I be checking something?

 

[Brian L]

The 563a has a firmware update available from Pioneer to deal with compatibility issues playing certain DVD-A titles. IIRC, there were not all that many titles that had the problem; maybe Neil Youngs "Greendale", but I am not 100% sure.

I don't recall the specific symptom, but there was a lot of buzz online a year or so back when the 563a was all the rage.

Brian

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Interesting. Thanks!

 

[LanceJ]

Around 2003 or so Warner, Universal and some other 5.1 music labels started using new dvd-audio authoring software that was slightly different than before, different enough that the Pioneer 563 couldn't play them correctly (the disc played, the track timer advanced normally, but no sound). Other Pioneers, like the popular Elite DV-45A, played them fine though.

Just a rough estimate but I think around 10 popular titles are affected, plus the entire Talking Heads "Brick" boxset.

You can read about this issue here.

Also, the 563 has a rather weird bass management system for the hi-res formats, but especially including crossover points that IMO can cause audible problems with subwoofers: dvd-audio for example has its crossover point set all the way up at 200Hz!! Yikes! Many subs will sound very boomy trying to reproduce upper bass like that.

Check out the mile long thread about this player (and its bass management issues) for more about this: Pioneer DV-563A Review

And for DV-45A owners............."Pioneer DV-45A does not have bass management".

I own this player's less expensive non-Elite cousin, the Pioneer DV-656A, and can confirm it has no b.m. of any kind for hi-res signals (it is a dvd-audio-only player). But I use speakers with 8" woofers all the way around, so this is no big deal.

 

[Paul.S]

I figure the Journey you thought was DVD-A must've been a DVD-V. I think the only Journey high rez are SA-CDs of Arrival, Escape and Greatest Hits. By all means take a look at The Essential Journey before picking up the single layer, stereo only Hits just because it's SA-CD: the two-disc Essential has everything that's on Hits plus 17 more songs.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Thanks for that link, Lance! Interesting stuff.

Honestly, I've been quite happy with the DVD-A and SACD performance of my 563a. I'm pretty sure that it's set for small speakers + sub (not at home to check at the mo'), so maybe it's just a testament to the quality of my (Paradigm PDR-12) sub.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

I would agree, get The Essential Journey rather than the single layer SA-CD Greatest Hits. I think it is likely about the same price and has twice as much music.

Chris