HiRez Poll Beatles - LOVE [DVD-A]

[zobalob]

It's not helped by the dreaded HMV pricing the CD/DVD package at a ridiculous £19.95. No wonder their high street stores are doing badly, they (and Virgin) are always the most expensive places around for new releases.

To update this...Virgin are £17.99, and...whodathunkit...Borders are the cheapest on the High St. at £15.99, they, incidentally, match Amazon at £54.99 for the Doors box.

 

[neil wilkes]

Okay.

Run through a few times now, and ready to vote.
I really wanted this to be a 10, but it gets an 8 for the following omissions, in my opinion.
1 - Just the single 5.1 group only. No way to access any of the other streams for demo/comparative purposes without resetting the player into Video mode.
This is the big bummer for me, as the Video_TS streams are there - all it takes is a link into them. Otherwise this would be perfect for clearly showing the improved clarity of true, uncompressed High Rez over DVD-Video streams.
There is also no Stereo option for the whingers. And no way to access the LPCM stereo from a DVD-A player either.
Silly, silly omissions.
2 - The onscreen is simply tedious - again, there has been zero effort to make things look nicer.

These 2 nitpicks apart this is a very well done mix. It's not the complete Mash-up I was expecting, and a surprising amount of the tracks are pretty much complete.
It makes me realise just how good the rest of the back catalogue should be....if & when done into 5.1 DVD-A, of course.

Somebody on another list says the dts stream is only 768 kb/s. Can somebody double-check?

It certainly is!
The Dolby Digital stream clocks in at 293Mb, the DTS at 492Mb.
Give the DD is at 448Kb/sec, then the DTS is at just under double that, so it is indeed half-bandwidth.
Strike another mark.

 

[winopener]

For the "video screen", it is very likely they can't insert anything regarding the "Love" show in Vegas - and it would be the only thing that make sense.
For the menu... i do like to have direct play.

 

[Guy Robinson]

Well, the highest I can vote is 10 so that will be it. Just incredible. I love stuff like the bass in Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows. Subsonic! The clarity of everything is better than any other Beatle remaster I have previously heard. I want the entire Beatles catalogue remastered into 5.1 DVD-A!!!!! It's so sad though that there isn't more action to do all the original albums in surround. If they want revenue this would be one way to do it. Hopefully the combined package will sell as many units as the CD and the powers that be will decide that there is money to be made from redoing the entire catalogue in surround. Now I'm waiting for the Doors and David Crosby to arrive. As others have said here, this is one heck of a display of new great releases for a dying format. Bring on the Genesis!!!!!

 

[Guy Robinson]

I'm not entirely sure what it would be, but I do think it has something to do with a reliance on the center channel for vocals a little bit too much---

I'm not getting this issue. Maybe your centre is not matched to your front speakers? I have to stand with my ear right in front of the centre to determine that the centre only is producing the vocals. Everything meshes very well.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

I am delighted with this. I hope they do another mashed up/compilation. This thing works great and if it counts as a Beatles album it, is one of my favorites. Alright I know the fidelity/mix/source problems make it less than perfect but it is perfect to my way of thinking. A more adventurous mash up might have been even better, I think they really have left most of the songs sounding the way we already love them since I am sure they felt they had to be careful. A dead straight in the center bullseye. Bravo!

Mixed reviews and all, my guess is that this is already the biggest selling DVD-A in history.

Chris

 

[daved64]

Posted the same thing on another site:
Mix and production:10!

Fantastic. I'm all over the way the elements and song pieces blend with each other. I think this has given me an even bigger appreciation for the Beatles music. It's like their music is an instrument unto itself. Drive My Car/What You're Doing is superb. Everything about it. Those backing vocals in the rear during the solo blew me away. Lifelike. Walrus left me speechless.. Please let Mr. Hicks do all the 5.1 mixes, if they happen. He's got the touch. Shades of Elliott Scheiner!

Sound:8
Ok, here are some negative points to bring this down to earth. Someone went apeshite with the ".1". There is too much bass. I had to turn my sub down quite a bit. On some songs it was not too overwhelming, but Tomorrow Never Knows had the paint peeling off the wall, but not in a good way. I like clean tight bass, this is a bit too boomy.

I also find the vocals a tad "reedy" for lack of a better word. Kind of grainy. I also found the sound changed from song to song, so maybe the source material made a difference. Here Comes The Sun had a really nice mellow sound to it. Help, on the other hand, felt a bit harsh.

I need to sit and listen again with less stuff on my mind (car in for repairs and a death in the family), but overall I really feel moved by this release. I was not lucky enough to "be there" when the original Beatles album came out. I guess this is how it felt.

Overall 9.

 

[Guy Robinson]

I was not lucky enough to "be there" when the original Beatles album came out. I guess this is how it felt.

Overall 9.

Sort of, except with even more excitement and anticipation.

 

[alk3997]

Wow! This is definitely the reference disc. At the end of the disc I was disappointed that the disc was over. I really wanted to hear more! Really impressive.

My biggest surprise was how much of a sound quality jump this was over the Anthology DVD DTS track. Now I know DTS is lossy but it does a pretty good job of masking the loss. I am sure sound quality improvement has a lot to do with the new mixing techniques used for "Love".

I had balanced the system recently and used Hotel California DVD-A as an "ear check". With those levels, all channels, including LFE, were perfect. There are plenty of instance where vocals are in the center and surrounds which gives a floating vocal effect when balanced properly. For my ears the LFE was not boomy but well balanced and very musical. The LFE effect was noticed but not the speaker itself.

Bottom line is that I hope everyone who is going to mix a 5.1 channel disc listens to the "Love" DVD-A. It is the way a DVD-A disc should be done.

Wow!

Andy

 

[Foxman]

I am loving what I am reading about how well this disk sounds in surround. This is the first surround disk in a while that I have purchased and am really looking forward to getting to just sit and listen tonight. I have had the cd disk playing in my PC at work for the past couple of hours.

I probably will hold off voting for a bit though since I do want to vote with my head and not my heart.

I am pretty excited :banana: :banana:

 

[JonUrban]

I just got back from the store, and (thanks to my Acura), I got to listen to most of it in the car. WOW! This makes up for this months car payment!

Not voting yet, but I did add scans for post #1. So far, I've gone from strange looks to looks of joy in listening. More later............

 

[kvsawilson]

Gave it a listen this afternoon and I think it's the best my stereo (yes, I have 6 speakers,but still call it a stereo) has ever sounded. The mix and production are perfect to my ears and it's 80 min of The Beatles! I've got a new demo disc.

10

K

 

[JonUrban]

Nice breakdown here

Also from the RMN:


'Love' is Beatles like never before
By Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News (November 21, 2006)

If you're going CD only, The Beatles Love is an interesting mashup and remix of songs you know and love; hearing Drive My Car suddenly drop into What You're Doing is a kick. But if you're putting on the DVD with the surround-sound mix, you step into a new world - the feeling of being in the studio as these classics are recorded.

The songs that you'd expect to sound great in a 5.1 mix certainly do - A Day in the Life, All You Need is Love, Hey Jude and more are big production numbers that are filled with nuance and detail that you've never heard before.

Even more striking, though, are the quieter moments. Strawberry Fields Forever opens with Take 1, just John Lennon and his guitar. The surround speakers capture the studio ambience, and yes, it's a cliché, but it's like he's right there.

If you're expecting a traditional Beatles album, this might not be for you. If you want to hear random bits of genius flying from your speakers in a way you've never heard them before, Love in 5.1 is a deeply satisfying listen. link

 

[dr. simple]

Interesting.

When I load the disc, I see there is but a single group present. I do not currently know if this includes either a downmix or a PGC Block with an embedded stereo version that only plays on stereo systems - this is possible, but unlikely as I cannot select the stereo stream manually, which I should be able to do if it is present.
It also autoplays the album instead of PGC Menu, which I like.

Resetting the player to VIDEO mode gives a whole different set of screens, beginning with the FBI Warning/Apple splash (Obviously the anonymous author didn't know how to access VTS content, as this is not in the DVD-A, and neither are any of the lossy streams. Sloppy authoring or by design? I prefer to believe by design.) followed by the main setup where you can pick from 3 streams, PCM stereo (unspecified bit depth & sample rate) DD and DTS.

Strange. The only other DVDA I have that operates the same way is DSOTM. I put it in, and it autoplays in 96/24 MLP. No other groups are available using the "Audio" select button, unless I reset to video mode. The only difference between this and DSOTM is that if I go into search mode I CAN access groups 2 & 3 on DSOTM.

O.K. - I just remembered that "Stupid Dream" operates like this as well, also authored by Anonymous.

 

[laughingmood]

I'm having some strange glitches as well. When I first popped in the disc....nothing happened. Although, the track was counting. Strange. I had to hit the back button to start the track again, and it started fine. Later, right after Strawberry Fields, the track went on for 13 minutes! Just silence after the song ended. I hit forward and the next track started, then rewound and Strawberry Fields ended at 4 minutes and some change! That's missing time there! I think it was some strange DVD-A authoring dimension.
Anyway, when I listened to it again just now with the wife, it didn't have any of those issues.

That weirdness aside, it's an astonishingly entertaining mix. I'm very, very pleased. I don't want to listen to it too much, because part of the fun of this project is not knowing what's going to come next, something many of us Beatle fans haven't been able to say in a LONG time.

And the music itself just sounds fantastic. I've never heard some of these songs sounds so good. The transistion from 'Kite' into 'Heavy' was wicked. Me and the wife were throwin' up the devil ears to that one.

A big whopper of a 10. No question. Bring on the rest of the Fabs' hi-rez 5.1 releases. I'm buying seven copies of each.

 

[elshagon]

This is one I'll be listening to over and over. It really does sound great. One of the best mixes to multi-channel surround that I've heard. I have other DVD-A discs that sound a bit better, but Love is right up there. This is The Beatles in surround, and it doesn't disappoint. A Big 10 for me.

 

[dwight]

If you're not in a puddle by track #9 SOMETHING, you got a problem!!!!! OH My God!... Please! This is torture.... because we now know what we could have !......I'm not complaining, just crying! The sound is cold ice on hot black!..... I am giving thanks! The mid and low bass ........simply stunning! The voices have never been more perfect....This is extraordinary! There is hope!....I will make sure that every friend of mine hears this recording.

 

[Foxman]

Interesting.
Not played my copy as yet, but it says on the back that the DVD has the following:
PCM
DD 5.1
DTS 5.1
Advanced Resolution 5.1

When I load the disc, I see there is but a single group present. I do not currently know if this includes either a downmix or a PGC Block with an embedded stereo version that only plays on stereo systems - this is possible, but unlikely as I cannot select the stereo stream manually, which I should be able to do if it is present.
It also autoplays the album instead of PGC Menu, which I like.

Resetting the player to VIDEO mode gives a whole different set of screens, beginning with the FBI Warning/Apple splash (Obviously the anonymous author didn't know how to access VTS content, as this is not in the DVD-A, and neither are any of the lossy streams. Sloppy authoring or by design? I prefer to believe by design.) followed by the main setup where you can pick from 3 streams, PCM stereo (unspecified bit depth & sample rate) DD and DTS.

Sound quality here is good at first play.
Will write a full review when I have heard it a few times.

Neil, I appreciate your having found this out. I might have missed switching the DVD setting to Video from Audio and I would have missed something there.

So, I listened to the first two tracks and I listened to I am the Wallrus in all three surround modes. I ended up listening to the whole disk in Dolby after initially starting out with DTS. Of the three I probably would repeatedly use the default surround mode without having to change my player's settings, but I think I preferred the Dolby surround the most on the tracks I listened to. It just seemed to me that the rear channel artifacts were more prevalent using the Dolby setting, that is unless my own perceptions were squeing my thoughts.

The disk is sooooo much cooler in surround regardless of which one you choose and really is done in a nice way. I could imagine some fans not appreciating some of the liberties that were taken, but I enjoyed the music a lot. Best Buy had the regular cd for 9.99 and the cd-DVD-A combo for 14.99 which is a no brainer. Clarity wise it is just amazing what they were able to do with certain tracks and I was particularly impressed with what they were able to do with "I Want To Hold Your Hand". On the other hand I didn’t like "Gnik Nus" at all and wondered why it was included. Another favorite was what they did with "Strawberry Fields". Some songs were listed in the track listing such as Blackbird and Helter Skelter, but you really don't get the song at all, rather some of the music mixed into another song. I point that out because it is odd to me that they would even list the song when so many other songs were used in part but not listed.

So, anyway these are my thoughts. Overall I very much enjoyed listening last night, it has been a while since I have done any kind of "critical" listening and I enjoyed it, but I stayed up too late to exercise this morning, so I can not make a habit out of that. I would rate the disk a 9 out of a 10.

One other thing I will mention about the clarity. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to "Let It Be: Naked" then you are missing another excellent example of what today's technology can do with older music. I thought the clarity of that disk rivaled the clarity of "Love". Also, as far as a reference disk to show off surround, the golden standard has been Dark Side of the Moon and I think a lot of that has had to do with the music itself being so liked as well as the fantastic way the surround mix was done. This disk will fall into the same category as DSOTM in both terms of liking the music and have a surround mix so well done IMO.

 

[atrocity]

Later, right after Strawberry Fields, the track went on for 13 minutes! Just silence after the song ended.

I noticed what I assume was a layer change that ground things to a halt for a few seconds, though I think it was later than that song. It annoyed me at the time, but it was so minor that I've already forgotten where it was!

I'm giving this a 9...only reason it's not a 10 is that there are some little bits and pieces that seem tossed in Just Because We Could that--for me--get slightly in the way. Having said that, I think the whole "mash-up" concept works a lot better than I thought it would, with some of the juxtapositions being absolutely brilliant, even ones that sounded...well, a little stupid...on paper. I mean, my reaction to hearing they'd put the "Tomorrow Never Knows" drums on "Within You Without You" was "WTF?" But once I actually heard it, I loved it.

I'm definitely left wanting more. Obviously, I'd buy whatever 5.1 they choose to put out, but after teasing us with this compilation I think it'd be a crime for them not to do "Sgt. Pepper" and "Abbey Road" at the very least. Oh, and "Magical Mystery Tour".

 

[Joel63]

It's a 9.8 for me. Musically, it's like a new Sgt. Pepper for me in terms of musical inventiveness and being transported to another world. Love the 5.1 DTS mix (don't have DVD-A 5.1), especially the sumptuous strings. Forget that old, thin All You Need Is Love stereo mix, this new mix just massacres the old one . My only issues: Slightly distorted vocals on a track or two, and Help, to me, sounds almost like mono. Yesterday, on the other hand, and from the same album, sounds wonderful. 5.1 mixes for the entire catalog (except the monos, of course) should be a no brainer.