Peace Sells ... But Who's Buying DVD-A! (1 Viewer)

[Philip_T]

Mike,
Glad to hear Im not the only one who experienced some disappointment with the surround mix (well, Im not glad the mix sucks, just that I wasnt hearing things improperly). I agree, the vocals tend to get drown out sometimes. The 2CH mix was very nice, you should like it better.

 

[Mike Broadman]

The 2CH mix was very nice, you should like it better.

Yeah, I figured as much. During the MC listen, I could hear the potential for sonic greatness.

The poor MC presentation doesn't upset me that much, since with this music I like to headbang and thrash about the room which I can do in stereo and not in MC where I have to sit in one spot.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Well, I did some further exploring of the disc.

First off, let me report that the menus here are terrible. They look fine, but controlling them is a bitch because it just doesn't work like it's supposed to. During the "play along" feature for Devil's Island, it just freezes up sometimes. During stereo playback, time and track info is not displayed on the player. And other such nuisances.

I watched the two videos which use the DTS track. These mixes sound much different- and better- than the DVD-A. I never listen to DD or DTS mixes on DVD-As because I figure, "What's the point?" I will listen to the full DTS track to compare the mixes, but so far it looks as if they're very different and that the DVD-A track got shafted.

The stereo track sounds very cool.

 

[Philip_T]

Unfortunately, this appears to be the case. I like the individual sounds of the instruments, but they are just not mixed together well on the DVD-A. I think the drums especially sound stellar. The DTS mix is actually a slight improvemet on this disc, should be the other way around though. Im taking this over to a friends house tonight and will get his reaction to it and report back. Also, Mike, your right about the menu's being dificult. I also had a hard time navigating around and was unable to FF through the DTS and Stereo mix's. Such a shame.

 

[Michael_T]

The DTS mix is actually a slight improvemet on this disc, should be the other way around though.

You have to remember that this is a DTS DVD-A disc, so it could just be that DTS tweaks their encoded surround mix to sound a little bit better than the DVD-A mix.

It would seem that it shouldn't be that way, that both mixes should be similar, but DTS might have their own interests at hand when producing a disc like this. What I propose might be far fetched, but could have some truth to it.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Michael, I've read that before and am now beginning to think it's true. Granted, this is only the 2nd or 3rd DVD-A I have of theirs, but I can't think of any other explanation.

 

[Chat C]

First off I should say that my DVD player is not DVD-Audio compatible, so I am listening to the disk in DTS 5.1

I've listened to most of the songs, and while it does sound quite crisp and like the original recording has been cleaned up nicely, there is one thing that bothered me right off the bat. When I first put the disk in and the first screen pops up playing the bass line from peace sells I was impressed with the sound, the bass drum especially thundered through my sub. Of course then when I start playing the full length songs there is almost no low-end sub activity?? The drums sound quite weak and thin, does this happen to anyone else? Anyways, upon listening to a few tracks, I noticed many of the guitar solos are noticeably louder than the rest of the mix, and the vocals and rear surrounds seem to have A LOT of echo. Maybe this was part of the intended mix, but it feels a little gimmicky to me, and just wasn't quite what I expected. Subtle tweaks I can understand, but I wouldn't think that they should stand out that much, but rather fit in to compliment the mix as a whole. I plan on giving the disc a bunch more listens before making any final judgment, as I remember from before, this disc always did have that thin 80's metal sound to it, maybe my ears will adjust, but so far I haven't been real impressed.

I do like the extras however, and over-all I am very glad this disk was released, as I have looked forward to it for months. I can only hope this is just the beginning of many more DVD-A releases for other bands of the same genre.

 

[Mike Broadman]

One great thing about the DVD-A is that it forced me to revisit this metal classic. I haven't heard it in ages. And even when I do listen to Megadeth, it's usually Rust In Peace or Countdown To Extinction.

 

[Cliff Olson]

Wow! I missed this thread, but today I ordered the DVD-A, and thought I should see if there were any reviews. Glad I did

What do you guys think, as far as comparing it to the Redbook CD? The Redbook has always sounded bright and lacking bass, to me. Is this DVD-A an improvement upon it? TIA.

 

[Mike Broadman]

I haven't heard the CD in ages, but I don't remember it sounding too hot. The stereo layer of the DVD-A is definitely the best way to hear the original mix of the album.

 

[LanceJ]

Just wondering if any of the glitches reported above for this disc were fixed by DTS (I was thinking maybe someone bought this *lately*).