BIG Blu-Ray Audio drive from Universal Music in 2013

[Owen Smith]

Space isn't really an issue with Blu-ray and audio.

For example, the new Close to the Edge Blu-ray has 4 versions of the album in stereo PCM 24/96, one version in stereo PCM 24/192, one version in 5.1 PCM 24/96. AND space for another 5.1 copy in DTS-MA 24/48 and 4 versions of America (a 10 minute track) in the aforementioned formats and another set of bonus tracks in stereo PCM 24/96.

So what, like 6+ copies of the entire album in PCM and room to spare!

Maybe Universal just felt guilty using so little space on the Blu-ray format that they put as many different encodings of the same material as they could find.

But space does become an issue when you rip the album to hard disc. Optical discs are vulnerable to damage, loss or theft. Once on hard discs they become part of your regular backup cycle so should be as hard to lose as the rest of your backed up data. Hard discs are large, but they're not infinite and 25GB of blu ray space is significant. You'd only get 40 full ones per terrabyte.

 

[HomerJAU]

DTS HD Master 5.1 24bit/192khz and
LPCM 5.1 24bit/192khz

I wasn't going to buy this until I read good reviews but after reading these specs just went out and bought it! My local store did include it in their 20% off sale too!

I will do a comparison with my SACD version later today.

 

[Cheezmo]

Trust me, the people putting out Blu-ray audio discs are not taking ripping to hard drives into consideration!

Plus, when you do convert it to flac and there you go it takes up less space. Doesn't matter how it was stored on the Blu-ray.

But space does become an issue when you rip the album to hard disc. Optical discs are vulnerable to damage, loss or theft. Once on hard discs they become part of your regular backup cycle so should be as hard to lose as the rest of your backed up data. Hard discs are large, but they're not infinite and 25GB of blu ray space is significant. You'd only get 40 full ones per terrabyte.

 

[HomerJAU]

I will do a comparison with my SACD version later today.

First impressions: Sensational. I've not yet played my MC SACD today but this blu-ray sounds fantastic. Anyone without this in surround - buy it now! Those waiting on favourable reviews - buy it now!

Had to laugh. When I first put it on my poodle came running in from another room, started cocking it head at the front speakers. It was on full alert. Maybe it's the 192kHz info?

(Oops - As I write this I'm getting some drop-outs on track 4 playing DTS-HD 5.1. Changed to LPCM no probs)

 

[fredblue]

I can't think of another disc I've got with 24/192k in 5.1.. Stereo yes but surround!? ..Crikey! Now Universal really are starting to use Blu-ray's capabilities over DVD-A etc.!

 

[kap'n krunch]

But space does become an issue when you rip the album to hard disc. Optical discs are vulnerable to damage, loss or theft. Once on hard discs they become part of your regular backup cycle so should be as hard to lose as the rest of your backed up data. Hard discs are large, but they're not infinite and 25GB of blu ray space is significant. You'd only get 40 full ones per terrabyte.

Yes , discs are vulnerable, but if you take care of them, they'll last a LONG time...hard drives, OTOH, WILL go to hell in a handbasket sooner or later....discs will not...
Give me discs any time over downloads..(HDs are great but as ,emtioned it is not a question of IF but WHEN they stop working...we'll see when discs are replaced by flash memory "drives")

 

[Owen Smith]

Yes , discs are vulnerable, but if you take care of them, they'll last a LONG time...hard drives, OTOH, WILL go to hell in a handbasket sooner or later....discs will not...
Give me discs any time over downloads..(HDs are great but as ,emtioned it is not a question of IF but WHEN they stop working...we'll see when discs are replaced by flash memory "drives")

That's what regular backups to removable hard discs are for. I even have offsite backups in case the house burns to the ground.

 

[user 4725]

(Dolby True HD is actually MLP encoding, but with a load of metadata added including dialogue normalisation. Not that I've ever figured out why anyone would want dialnorm, I have a volume control and I can turn it up or down.)

I find the ability to boost the volume of dialogue quite useful when watching movies. Firstly because I have difficulty in hearing speech over background noise, and secondly because I have sleeping children and it's sometimes useful to maintain the dialogue volume whilst quietening noisy sound effects. But I agree it's useless for music.

 

[DuncanS]

Yes , discs are vulnerable, but if you take care of them, they'll last a LONG time...hard drives, OTOH, WILL go to hell in a handbasket sooner or later....discs will not...
Give me discs any time over downloads..(HDs are great but as ,emtioned it is not a question of IF but WHEN they stop working...we'll see when discs are replaced by flash memory "drives")

Unfortunately FLASH drives are also prone to failures as they are based on NAND devices, but should use better 'quality' devices than USB sticks. They have bad sectors like Hard Drives. They will 'wear' out with repeated writes, due to switching threshold shifts in the transistors used to store the data, and also produce a lot of Read errors. However, most Read errors are removed using error correction, types of which are also used on Hard Disks, CD, Blu-ray, etc. The more expensive NOR FLASH is better than NAND but isn't totally perfect, and the devices have nowhere near as much storage capacity. RAID systems using either multiple HDs or FLASH drives are best, but more expensive. I've a dual 1TB disc RAID box. But personally I prefer the shiny discs

 

[Failed Muso]

Given that the Beck HFPA disc is getting some decent reviews here, I will probably relent and buy it soon. I know this is lazy of me, but to save me trawling through 70 pages here, is there a definitive list of which titles are confirmed 5.1? I know that it will be a short list, but not even the Universal site makes mention of whether a title is 5.1 or 2.0 only. Thanks in advance to anyone who can assist my lazy ass ;-)

As a side note, I received some funds into my PayPal account today and decided to spend it directly on some new material. I hummed and ahhh'd over the Beck disc and whilst I do like Beck, 'Sea Change' is a very chilled and laid back album, tempo wise, and I felt like something with a bit more urgency to it. So, determined to increase my Blu Ray Audio collection, I ended up spending my money on Steven Wilson's 'Grace For Drowning' Blu Ray instead. Once again, the Universal discs don't even come close in terms of content and the SW disc is cheaper too. I know a certain individual, whose participation here has been forbidden, would be leaping all over me right now, decrying his nemesis, Mr Wilson, and his charlatan efforts (as well as hurling personal abuse about me and my wife (for some bizarre reason) over on Facebook), but if being in major debt for over a decade taught me anything, it was to always get the best value for money. And that is certainly not going to happen with HFPA discs as they stand.

And seeing as I was in such a good mood, I topped up my order with the CD/DVD-A of No Man's 'Schoolyard Ghosts'

 

[fredblue]

5.1 HFPA BDA confirmed so far (afaik):

A Night At The Opera - Queen,
Histoire De Melody Nelson - Serge Gainsbourg,
Tommy - The Who,
Sea Change - Beck,
Les Miserables OST.

 

[Failed Muso]

5.1 HFPA BDA confirmed so far (afaik):

A Night At The Opera - Queen,
Histoire De Melody Nelson - Serge Gainsbourg,
Tommy - The Who,
Sea Change - Beck,
Les Miserables OST.

Thank you, kind sir! I kinda new you'd be on the ball

I see Tommy there. Is that a Universal HFPA disc? I know there is a Blu Ray Audio version but I don't see it on Universal's site.

 

[fredblue]

Thank you, kind sir! I kinda new you'd be on the ball

I see Tommy there. Is that a Universal HFPA disc? I know there is a Blu Ray Audio version but I don't see it on Universal's site.

there's a single disc BDA version of Tommy, apparently.

when the Amazon UK pre-order went live "x" number of months ago it was depicted as being in HFPA-branded clear plastic BD case. now that the same listing has gone from pre-order to an on-sale item, the pic has changed to the 2013 Deluxe Edition digipack.

who knows for sure!? QQ folks have the expensive (but cheap thru Amazon.de pre-order balls up) box set with BDA but either nobody has bought any of the other versions/packages or if they have they're not saying what the package looks like/comprises of.

its one of the reasons I like pix of stuff posted here, it's always handy to see what we're keeping an eye out for when shopping etc.!

 

[Failed Muso]

there's a single disc BDA version of Tommy, apparently.

when the Amazon UK pre-order went live "x" number of months ago it was depicted as being in HFPA-branded clear plastic BD case. now that the same listing has gone from pre-order to an on-sale item, the pic has changed to the 2013 Deluxe Edition digipack.

who knows for sure!? QQ folks have the expensive (but cheap thru Amazon.de pre-order balls up) box set with BDA but either nobody has bought any of the other versions/packages or if they have they're not saying what the package looks like/comprises of.

its one of the reasons I like pix of stuff posted here, it's always handy to see what we're keeping an eye out for when shopping etc.!

Agreed. Evidence is a good thing I was thinking about buying the 'standard' BD version of Tommy.

 

[Robert van Diggele]

Good choices Rob! Schoolyard Ghosts is an excellent album too. Together we' re stranger is also highly recommended.

 

[Failed Muso]

Good choices Rob! Schoolyard Ghosts is an excellent album too. Together we' re stranger is also highly recommended.

Agreed! I already have that gem in my collection

 

[HomerJAU]

I can't think of another disc I've got with 24/192k in 5.1.. Stereo yes but surround!? ..Crikey! Now Universal really are starting to use Blu-ray's capabilities over DVD-A etc.!

The only other one I know with 192kHz 5.1 is 2L The Nordic Sound (I got mine from AmazonUK). It comes with both SACD 24bit/352.8kHz and Blu-ray 24/192KHz LPCM & DTS-HDMA. Sound is sweet, although I'm not into classical.

 

[Owen Smith]

The only other one I know with 192kHz 5.1 is 2L The Nordic Sound (I got mine from AmazonUK). It comes with both SACD 24bit/352.8kHz and Blu-ray 24/192KHz LPCM & DTS-HDMA. Sound is sweet, although I'm not into classical.

If it's 24 bit 352.8 then it's not SACD. SACDs contain DSD and nothing else, and DSD is a 1 bit stream.

 

[HomerJAU]

If it's 24 bit 352.8 then it's not SACD. SACDs contain DSD and nothing else, and DSD is a 1 bit stream.

Just reading off the back cover (24bit 352.8kHz DXD at top right):



[Edit:] I found this: What Is DXD?: http://dsd-guide.com/faq/what-dxd-it-dsd#.UogqPHmIqUk

 

[LedMan]

Speaking of Classical, I'm curious if anyone has listened to either of these?

http://store.universal-music.co.uk/...ies-nos5+7-pure-audio-2013/invt/0028947911067

http://store.universal-music.co.uk/...mphony-no9-pure-audio-2013/invt/0028947910831

I preordered both for $30.57 USD and if there are no delays, they will be released here on Tuesday. Once order arrives I'll have 17 "HFPA" releases in my collection.