David Bowie 'David Live' and 'Stage'

[timbre4]

All I've seen stateside is CD Universe has them as "imports" for $35 each. I'm going to move them to Jan 10th for North American release. ShopEMI.com concurs with that...

Don't understand why we can't have them here now as well, so it goes.

It's late and I need to rationalize my Running On Empty DVD-A vote further...

 

[neil wilkes]

That's £20 each!

Tell you what.
As soon as one of the UK companies has stock, I will be happy to mail across copies.
The prices here should be cheaper even after taking shipping into account.

Either play.com (no stock) or 101CD.com (no stock) will supply to me without shipping charges.
I'll be happy to pass them on for the cost of shipping.

 

[Bob Romano]

All I've seen stateside is CD Universe has them as "imports" for $35 each. I'm going to move them to Jan 10th for North American release. ShopEMI.com concurs with that...

Don't understand why we can't have them here now as well, so it goes.

It's late and I need to rationalize my Running On Empty DVD-A vote further...

Well at least I know why I can't find them now.... Thanks

 

[neil wilkes]

This gets even more annoying by the day.
Despite my having originally ordered these discs from 101CD.com back in January this year, and then having my order cancelled by 101CD.com because they cannot honour the price I pre ordered at - without so much as a "would you like to keep the order open at a higher price?".
I reorder after calling to ensure that stock is available.
I am told yes.
I reorder.
At the higher price
I am still waiting.
Called customer services - who told me the original order was cancelled because the titles are now deleted. Which is odd, as the email I recieved told me that they couldn't honour the quoted price of £8.95 each. And the links in the cancelled order take you straight to the new priced version.

Anyway, it appears they are out of stock now. And have no idea when they will get new stock, or when my order will be filled as, and I quote directly from customer services "You only placed your order last week and there are others who ordered ahead of you so they will get first allocation of stock". Say fvcking WHAT??
My order was there since bloody January. Until 101CD cancelled me without so much as a "by your leave".
Now I am told I am at the bottom of the line as there are "So many orders for this that they cannot be filled".

Time to go try & find someone with some STOCK, and tell 101CD to shove it.

EDIT - 23 November.

The mail complaining to 101CD.com must have worked.
I just got a mail telling me that the discs have shipped yesterday.
Hurrah!

Looking forward to posting a review!

 

[bloop]

Got the "Stage"-DVDA now.
The Hi-Rez doesn't play on my DV-565, only dts is playable...

 

[neil wilkes]

Got the "Stage"-DVDA now.
The Hi-Rez doesn't play on my DV-565, only dts is playable...

Sad to say things not playing correctly on that particular Pioneer machine is far from surprising. The first universal I bought was one of those, and I had nothing but trouble with it.
Additionally, in DVD-A mode it passes everything under 200Hz to the LFE.
Have you tried contacting Pioneer to get the firmware updated, as this problem is caused by an incompatibility between the 565 and the Panasonic MEI Authoring system used by Sonic's DVD-Audio Creator software.

I'm having no trouble at all with either of these discs in my Denon 2910 Unit.

I do have criticisms though.
Originally, David Live was supposed to include the original Stereo mix in the running order that was on the original album. This is missing.
The stills used for display onscreen during playback are 7 shots repeated 3 times. (Both discs)
The "new photo gallery" is a collection of badly scanned Single covers & Promo posters. (Both discs)
The High Rez content is at 24/48 instead of the originally promised 24/96 (both discs)
Oddly enough, there is no Dolby Digital version at all, so the only mandated multichannel format for Video_TS compatibility is missing completely. (both discs)
The stereo mix is a downmix of the surround version (both discs) and also is at 24/48 only, so no 16/48 stereo for older DVD-V players at all.

If you have an older, legacy player, forget these titles as your player will not be able to play them at all if it cannot handle a DTS bitstream, or your amp has no DTS decoders. Additionally, a lot of DVD-V players will truncate a 24 bit stereo file to 16 bits, so yet another incompatibility.

Moaning aside, the sound of these 2 albums is really good though.
David Live is the better of the two for my money - the vocal peformance is infinitely superior, and the band is far better than the '78 "Stage" outing.

 

[Kazaam]

I've received word that my copy of "Stage" has shipped. Hopefully, it will arrive soon. Too bad about not getting, "David Live", though. Perhaps I'll get it someday.

That is disappointing to learn that there is no dedicated stereo mix, though, I can't say that I was planning to play it in stereo.

 

[Kazaam]

I took a first listen to my copy of the "Stage" DVD-A and I'm fairly pleased. It's not at the same level as, say, the Talking Heads "Brick". But I liked it enough that I felt compelled to place an order for the "David Live" DVD-A. Hopefully, they won't cancel this one on me like last time.

Anyway...

I was worried when I heard that the surround mix was sort of discrete like a studio recording might be. However, I am totally fine with the way it turned out. I don't feel it goes overboard. Instead, the stuff that strays into the rears moreso keeps things interesting without killing the "live" vibe---though I'm sure you need to have an open mind about surround mixes since it isn't truely an audience-only mix. I liked how the train sounds moved around in a circle during "Station to Station"; and I liked the horns and whatnot that crept into the rears throughout the album. About the only thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was that 'shaker' sound coming from the surrounds during "Heroes". (It was a bit loud and jarring.)

Also... I am happy to discover that "Stage" plays the hi-rez tracks just fine on my Denon DVD-2200 and the NTSC video displays perfectly on my North American JVC television.