BIG Blu-Ray Audio drive from Universal Music in 2013

[Failed Muso]

The Who - Tommy: Just received the single disc edition from Amazon.co.uk today, and it's a HFPA edition. I'll post pictures in the poll thread.

Link

Thanks for the clarification. Interesting to see it appear as the HFPA version when the Amazon UK site shows it in the gatefold CD Deluxe Edition case.

What is also interesting is that Amazon state that, whilst the item is in stock, it may take an additional 2 days to deliver. It doesn't mention that it is an import, so I wonder why this is?

And my final observation is that it has come down in price over the weekend, from £18.99 to £14.51, ergo I bought it!

 

[Failed Muso]

I may have missed in this thread since it is 45 pages long at this point... but what is the point of having LPCM, DTS-HD and DolbyTrueHD

A fair point Possibly to cover all bases and preferences? Whilst it is arguable as to which of those three is better then the rest, some people have demonstrated in various posts here that they have a personal preference to one or the other.

But, I'm open to all other suggestions/interpretations

 

[Cheezmo]

There is none, other than perhaps marketing.

I would think that normally one would have to pay additional licensing fees to DTS and Dolby in order to use them, but perhaps there was some kind of deal or they played them against each other to help subsidize these releases?

My (not so serious) theory is that they felt guilty using such a small amount of the available space on a Blu-ray that they scrambled for some way to fill up more of it.

 

[IMachine]

I only need LPCM.

 

[Failed Muso]

My (not so serious) theory is that they felt guilty using such a small amount of the available space on a Blu-ray that they scrambled for some way to fill up more of it.

That wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if that was true!

 

[fredblue]

Beck's arrived..

 

[fredblue]

Beck BDA Screen Shot..

 

[fredblue]

Confirmed 5.1 @192k/24bit DTS HD-MA..

 

[fredblue]

When disc first loads there's a simple menu screen which gives the option to playback in 2.0 or 5.1.

pretty neat and a 1st for these HFPA's in my experience so far they ordinarily just auto play defaulting to the 2.0 PCM stream.

things "camp HFPA" are looking up.. if UMG/Warner/EMI et al were to even just re-release all their OOP and now pricey 5.1 mixes such as this one, I'd be a happy camper!

 

[fredblue]

Thanks for the clarification. Interesting to see it appear as the HFPA version when the Amazon UK site shows it in the gatefold CD Deluxe Edition case.

What is also interesting is that Amazon state that, whilst the item is in stock, it may take an additional 2 days to deliver. It doesn't mention that it is an import, so I wonder why this is?

And my final observation is that it has come down in price over the weekend, from £18.99 to £14.51, ergo I bought it!

Thanks for the info Rob I just ordered the Tommy BDA from Amazon UK at £14.51 too (w/Free delivery)

Keep it up HFPA! More of the same! Let's have some unreleased 5.1's next!

 

[fredblue]

..and what a relief..! It sounds SUPERB!

The 5.1 isn't compressed to hell like the Queen ANATO or Serge Gainsbourg Melody Nelson! :banana:

If you've been putting off getting this one cos the OOP DVD-A and SACD go for such sky-high prices, now's the time guys!

Awesome all-round -- the best 5.1 HFPA so far without a shadow of a doubt.

 

[mdmost]

I may be wrong but that 5.1 at 192khz is higher than the DVD-Audio which I believe is 96khz. I still have to wait a few weeks for my copy to arrive from across the pond.

 

[fredblue]

I may be wrong but that 5.1 at 192khz is higher than the DVD-Audio which I believe is 96khz. I still have to wait a few weeks for my copy to arrive from across the pond.

IIRC the DVD-A had 192k Stereo? I can't say for certain, I only have the SACD.

 

[fredblue]

IIRC the DVD-A had 192k Stereo? I can't say for certain, I only have the SACD.

oh no, I'm wrong, it was 88.2khz according to this thread..

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/24-bit-192-khz-stereo-titles.208732/

 

[mdmost]

Unless I'm mistaken, MLP never went above 96khz for 5.1. Like you said, only stereo was 192khz. If it's claim of 5.1 at 192khz is true then it's better than DVD-Audio quality. That's impressive if true. I can't wait to get this and A/B it against my DVD-Audio copy.

 

[fredblue]

Unless I'm mistaken, MLP never went above 96khz for 5.1. Like you said, only stereo was 192khz. If it's claim of 5.1 at 192khz is true then it's better than DVD-Audio quality. That's impressive if true. I can't wait to get this and A/B it against my DVD-Audio copy.

pretty sure you've got it spot on, only stereo MLP could/can exceed 96khz afaik. I don't think you'll be disappointed with the new BDA, mdmost, it sounds excellent to me

my AVR confirms it's receiving a 192khz 5.1 DTS HD MSTR audio signal (see pic above)

 

[IMachine]

Beck's Sea Change BDA will arrive this week.
:banana:

I'm really looking forward about a comparison with my DVD-A.
But I really don't think that human ears are for 192khz.

 

[fredblue]

There is none, other than perhaps marketing.

I would think that normally one would have to pay additional licensing fees to DTS and Dolby in order to use them, but perhaps there was some kind of deal or they played them against each other to help subsidize these releases?

My (not so serious) theory is that they felt guilty using such a small amount of the available space on a Blu-ray that they scrambled for some way to fill up more of it.

I'm sure I read that Dolby are one of Universal's key partners in the rollout of these HFPA releases, no idea what DTS' involvement is, if any.

Yes its probably just filler but I'm glad there are as many different streaming options as possible because my setup seems to handle these codecs differently - I have no proof as it's all just my ears doing the detecting (!) but on the Marvin Gaye HFPA, for example, the Dolby True track is certainly audibly louder on my BDP/AVR combination than the PCM stream on the same disc. what that's all about, I do not know but that's what I hear on my gear, so YMMV and all that kershizzle

 

[steelydave]

Given that the Beck disc originally came out as a SACD, it would be nice if someone did some spectral analysis on the HFPA Blu-Ray to see if it's a fresh 192kHz/24bit PCM transfer from the original master tape, or if it's been transcoded from the SACD master, which would mean it had gone from 1-bit/2.8224 MHz DSD > 24-bit/352.8kHz PCM > 24-bit/192kHz for the Blu-Ray.

The other question is, all of that aside, is this the first major-label pop/rock release with a 24-bit/192kHz 5.1 track?

 

[fredblue]

good Qns., I don't have a BD drive hooked up to any of my Macs or I'd be all over a spectral analysis.