BIG Blu-Ray Audio drive from Universal Music in 2013

[groo]

Has anyone in the US received their copy of Beck's Sea Change yet? Seems like Amazon is taking forever to get them.

 

[fredblue]

New info on the Lennon HFPA...

Rumour has it that it is 2.0 only, using the 2010 Abbey Road remaster as opposed the Yoko Ono supervised 1999 remaster.

Make of that what you will. Shame the quad mix won't make it

That's not all bad news (a flat t/fer of the mixdown masters more like it) but the 2010 has a good rep and for a modern-day remaster isn't brickwalled to oblivion!

ah, the Quad mix of "Imagine"... what a delightful load of old bollocks that was!

 

[mdmost]

Has anyone in the US received their copy of Beck's Sea Change yet? Seems like Amazon is taking forever to get them.

I cancelled mine since they gave through January as the estimated ship time. Went with a UK source which already shipped.

You guys are just going to come to grips with 5.1 not being a HFPA standard unless an existing previously released mix is available.

 

[groo]

Well my perspective is that a 5.1 mix itself is not the main selling point but a good 5.1 mix is. I would rather get a good sounding release than a crappy 5.1 mix. So if HFPA puts out excellent 2.0 releases such as Lionel Ritchie, I have no complaints.
But judging from Universal releases, firstly in most cases, they do not see the ROI on making a 5.1 mix anew. Sales number are not that great, Lionel Ritchie ranks at 23,017 in Amazon music sales.

 

[fredblue]

You guys are just going to come to grips with 5.1 not being a HFPA standard unless an existing previously released mix is available.

Very well said. Its a hard pill to swallow for us Quaddies but these HFPA's are commercially-driven affairs and the masses want popular albums (of "the same old, same old") and they want it in stereo.

As the O'Jays put it: "You've got to give the people, give the people what they want.."

I'll add this; the French HFPA titles may seem like obscure choices to Brits and American punters but over in France a lot of these are hugely iconic artists and albums, so they really are very commercial releases that just may not seem like it to a lot of us guys in the UK & USA.

 

[fredblue]

Well my perspective is that a 5.1 mix itself is not the main selling point but a good 5.1 mix is. I would rather get a good sounding release than a crappy 5.1 mix. So if HFPA puts out excellent 2.0 releases such as Lionel Ritchie, I have no complaints.
But judging from Universal releases, firstly in most cases, they do not see the ROI on making a 5.1 mix anew. Sales number are not that great, Lionel Ritchie ranks at 23,017 in Amazon music sales.

Good points, well made.

The Lionel Richie is a bit of a strange choice, one I can only imagine driven primarily by the sound quality unlike the Nirvana/Rolling Stones/Amy Winehouse/Bob Marley/Stevie Wonder/Who titles, etc..

Let's face it, Lionel Richie's back catalogue probably isn't flying off the shelves these days.. but somebody at Universal figured it was a great-sounding mastering (which it certainly is) and that there'd be enough appeal to garner sufficient interest in their HFPA initiative with a Lionel Richie album but more importantly to show off just how good these HFPA's can sound.

 

[Bob Squires Jr]

Beck, Lionel, Stevie, Supertramp, Krall, Marvin & The Stones' Exile are wonderful sounding discs AFAIC.
Winehouse & Queen are muffled...
Velvet Underground, Layla, Nevermind are OK, In Utero stinks.
The Marley's are pretty good.
I'm waiting for them to put out T-Rex - Electric Warrior on HFPA but fear they'll only use the stereo as that is what they used on the SHM-SACD
even though the DVD-A and SACD were 5.1.
They did the same crap with Diana Krall's album... she has 4 DVD'A / SACD 5.1 albums and those cheeseheads released the BDA in stereo only.
Eric Clapton's 461 maybe?? 5.1? Probably not, they'll use the SHM-SACD Stereo even though there are quad 8s, CD-4s a DTS 4.0 and a 5.1 SACD.
5.1 where available? NOT! 5.1 when we feel like it is more the way it seems.

 

[Scott M4]

And one of the 5.1 discs (Queen) has brick walled 5.1 making the old DVD-A much more desirable. So that knocks out 20% of the 5.1 discs.

Crap! That and the Nick Drake were the only ones that interested me as I already have surround versions of Tommy & Sea Change.

 

[fredblue]

It's a new & very different surround mix of Tommy on the Blu-ray.

shame, the Beck Blu-ray sounds wonderful. I'm seeing it as a backup, save me "wearing out" my SACD @:

 

[Scott M4]

It's a new & very different surround mix of Tommy on the Blu-ray.

shame, the Beck Blu-ray sounds wonderful. I'm seeing it as a backup, save me "wearing out" my SACD @:

I was happy with the DVD mix of Tommy but now i'm intrigued about a new mix on Blu Ray - which will surely have the wonderful bonus of teeny tiny text in the menu displays!

 

[fredblue]

the text is teeny as usual yes! the layout is slightly different to any of the other HFPA's I have.

I'll take a pic and post it

 

[fredblue]

Tommy HFPA Screenshot..

 

[LizardKing]

Tommy HFPA Screenshot..

Looks like this....

 

[fredblue]

Looks like this....

View attachment 12036

WOW! That's not an HFPA!

So... Universal have finally adopted the "Pure Audio" Blu-ray standard created/used by 2L, etc..???

:yikes

Thanks for the pic Mike!

 

[fredblue]

What's that?? Is that the sound of "Pure Audio" lawyers' phone calls ringing in Universal's HQ..???

 

[mdmost]

I have a gripe about HFPA aside from the usual lack of 5.1 and questionable mastering. Why do they not include track titles on all the discs? Nevermind is the only one I have so far that has each title listed so it's easy to skip to a track you want to hear. Just seems an odd thing to skip over in favor of numbers. On GRRRR it's downright annoying with 50 tracks to choose from. It's not like there's no room on the disc for a little better of a menu.

 

[Failed Muso]

I have a gripe about HFPA aside from the usual lack of 5.1 and questionable mastering. Why do they not include track titles on all the discs? Nevermind is the only one I have so far that has each title listed so it's easy to skip to a track you want to hear. Just seems an odd thing to skip over in favor of numbers. On GRRRR it's downright annoying with 50 tracks to choose from. It's not like there's no room on the disc for a little better of a menu.

Have to agree with this. Although, don't the track names appear as you scroll around the numbers? I'm sure this is how it works on the Tommy disc.

But then, the XTC track-listing takes a hell of a lot of beating. Full screen, with individual graphics for each track as well as their names

 

[fredblue]

I have a gripe about HFPA aside from the usual lack of 5.1 and questionable mastering. Why do they not include track titles on all the discs? Nevermind is the only one I have so far that has each title listed so it's easy to skip to a track you want to hear. Just seems an odd thing to skip over in favor of numbers. On GRRRR it's downright annoying with 50 tracks to choose from. It's not like there's no room on the disc for a little better of a menu.

some HFPA have song titles onscreen, some don't.

off the top of my head...

these don't have song titles onscreen:
(the earliest releases all have the same menu/interface with no song titles only track numbers)
Grr..!, Bob Marley/Legend, Stevie Wonder/SITKOL, Supertramp/BIA, Getz/Gilberto, Nina Simone.

these have song titles onscreen:
Marvin Gaye/WGO, Tommy, Yodelice, Exile on Main St., Lionel Richie, Beck/Sea Change, Brel/Les Marquises, Amy Winehouse, Queen/ANATO.

 

[0tto]

some HFPA have song titles onscreen, some don't.

i guess could be more exciting if they all would have 5.1mixes than titles on screen

 

[fredblue]

i guess could be more exciting if they all would have 5.1mixes than titles on screen

I've resigned myself to 5.1 being an occasional treat on these releases (sadly) rather than the norm.