Thompson Twins - Into The Gap blu ray audio #29 in the SDE series

[key_wiz]

Still waiting for my copy to show up in California. According to tracking, it hasn't left the UK yet.

Mine showed up in Northern Nevada last week. I'd think we'd be on the same ship-out, but...

 

[jkoolpe]

Also in California, and just got mine on Saturday. For comparison, my brother is in New Mexico and got his about the middle of last week.

Anyway, I gave it a good listen on Saturday, and it is impressive! Lots of discrete instruments and sounds in all of the channels, with nicely focused vocals in the Center channel.

A shame about the mess up with the 5.1 mix for Doctor, Doctor. Also noticed the approximately 4 second dropout of the RF channel at about the 18:56 -19:00 mark (also during the 5.1 mix during "No Peace for the Wicked").

Hopefully SDE will eventually issue replacement discs as this was an expensive release.

 

[Leahcim1402]

The aforementioned flaw aside, it's a pretty nice product. Packaged nicely with a lot of options. I have listened to only the Atmos through my 5.1 setup at this point, but it's a solid mix with a lot of separation. The Howard Jones releases are still my go-to discs for the 80s synth pop stuff, but I have no complaints about the mix itself or the fidelity of the tracks. They really sound great. I was never into Thompson Twins, but my wife was, so this purchase was as much about appeasing her when I go into my surround sound listening mode as it was about pleasing myself.

Like others, I'd be fine with a simple replacement disc sent with one of my other pending orders with them. It's going to be expensive to do a reprint, but unfortunately seems necessary. Helping SDE cut costs by consolidating shipping seems like a reasonable thing to do.

I'd like a replacement too - the 5.1 is sub-par.
Super Deluxe Amateur Hour!
At least 'No Peace for the Wicked' has 'some' vocals ;-)

 

[Uncle Obscure]

Now, I really wonder if this is the result of some kind of manufacturing or a replication error. I can't imagine how these glitches slipped by those responsible for the QC of the glass master that was used to produce the Blu-ray. So much obvious care went into everything else related to this release, it makes no sense.

If the defects are the result of something that happened on the manufacturing side, then BMG should have more than enough clout and every right to have the replicator pony up the cost for a full set of replacement discs. Or, better yet, send out all new disc sets (which might be easier to do from a logistical standpoint.)

 

[mediumwave13]

Reposted below as my original post had the files linked directly, which is not allowed. Please PM me for more information about the below fixes.

I've successfully been able to render corrected 5.1 versions of both "Doctor! Doctor!" and "No Peace For The Wicked".

For "Doctor! Doctor!", by inverting the instrumental and vocal 7.1 mixes against each other I was able to extract perfect clean vocals in 7.1, downmix them to 5.1, and then sync them up against the instrumental true 5.1 mix. This preserved the unique mixing placements of the 5.1 mix as well as keeping the overall resolution at 24/96.

For the FR dropout in "No Peace For The Wicked", I spliced in the FR channel of the 7.1 mix, combined with the missing piano and synth tracks from the rears (these elements are in the front channels of the 5.1 mix, but are placed in the rears on the 7.1 mix). This fix integrates seamlessly with the rest of the track.

I'm really pleased with these corrections and believe they fully restore the 5.1 mix of this great album to it's intended glory. It's unfortunate they were necessary, but hopefully, we'll be notified of a replacement program soon.

 

[cbsynth]

My copy (finally!) arrived today, in California. Atmos sounds terrific. Sir Elton is on the way...currently in Los Angeles customs.

 

[Der_Dude]

What I am really annoyed about is the size of the bluray-package. I am surprised that didn't find any posting in this forum with anyone complaining about the fact that it doesn't fit with the other discs of the SDE series - although Paul explicitly wrote the opposite (see attached screenshot). Did I miss something and this was already discussed at another place?

 

[Perp]

What I am really annoyed about is the size of the bluray-package. I am surprised that didn't find any posting in this forum with anyone complaining about the fact that it doesn't fit with the other discs of the SDE series - although Paul explicitly wrote the opposite (see attached screenshot). Did I miss something and this was already discussed at another place?

The copy I received is slightly larger than the typical Blu-ray case they have been normally packaged in. The slipcase I received is slightly larger too, presumably to fit the newer cardboard case. I haven’t tried the slipcase and probably won’t even use it. I like the case but don’t like the fact that the booklet can easily slip out. Perhaps, a paperclip will suffice in this situation to hold the booklet to the case.

 

[Juggsnelson]

What I am really annoyed about is the size of the bluray-package. I am surprised that didn't find any posting in this forum with anyone complaining about the fact that it doesn't fit with the other discs of the SDE series - although Paul explicitly wrote the opposite (see attached screenshot). Did I miss something and this was already discussed at another place?

I believe it was mentioned that since this is a BMG licensed product, SDE has to go with the packaging they want.

As to Paul's comment, I think it reads that it will "look consistent on the shelf" as in regards to the fact that it still has an SDE Edition outer slipcase.

 

[JulesRules]

What I am really annoyed about is the size of the bluray-package. I am surprised that didn't find any posting in this forum with anyone complaining about the fact that it doesn't fit with the other discs of the SDE series - although Paul explicitly wrote the opposite (see attached screenshot). Did I miss something and this was already discussed at another place?

It was discussed briefly on the Steve Hoffman forums, yes. I'm also not too fond of it but I guess it is what it is.

Since I posted them there, I'll also put them here - some attempts at making a tracklist you can print, fold and stuff into the case with the booklet. It's all based on screenshots of the BD, plus a nice picture of the alternate US cover.









I designed this so that when you print it on A4 paper, the format of the printed part should fit into the pocket of the Blu-Ray case when you cut it out. Since I'm not a professional printer / artwork designer, the overlap effect didn't work perfectly when I printed it on both sides of a sheet of paper, but it was good enough for me. Mind that I turned one page by 180° prior to printing to get them aligned a bit better.

 

[JediJoker]

Hopefully SDE will eventually issue replacement discs as this was an expensive release.

Has the issue been acknowledged by SDE?

 

[Ryk]

Has the issue been acknowledged by SDE?

Yes, Paul has mentioned a couple of times recently that he is in talks with BMG about it.

 

[efb18]

Well, apparently, mine either got stolen or was lost, while USPS was holding my mail. And now I see it's no longer in stock, so I can't get a replacement copy. Upsetting.

 

[Farles]

Mine shipped today! Us Canadian's had to be very, very patient due to the Canada Post strike. I have been really looking forward to this one.

 

[schubser]

I love this BD. Great album and the content on this disc includes everything from the 3CD deluxe edition, but the mistake with the 5.1 Mix is really annoying. I don't have an Atmos-Setup so I was happy about the dedicated 5.1 Mix on this release and that one is broken.

The fold-down Atmos isn't good. The elements are placed different to the 5.1 Mix and I'm missing some details when I hear the fold-down mix.

Have taken a backup of the BD with MakeMKV and I'm looking for the audio streams with an old tool called AudioMuxer through wine (I'm a Debian Linux user). AudioMuxer runs fine under wine an there is a portable version of the emulator on Github. Perfect for doing such things.

Opening the playlist 0000.mpls gives you access to the Dolby Atmos in 7.1 with an embedded AC3 in 5.1 (only a 384 kbps stream). With AudioMuxer you can extract the embedded AC3 seperatly to your HD. Another known tool, the DVD audio extractor (dvdae) don't list this embedded stream. This lossy 5.1 version contains all vocals in "Doctor! Doctor!" and there is no glitch in "No Peace For The Wicked". Then I'm using another old tool called "headAC3he" to convert the AC3 to WAV with the possibility to change sample rate to 44.1 khz and bit depth to 16 bits during the conversation.
The output WAV is RedBook conform and can be burned as an Audio-CD. It's the AC3 aquivalent to a DTS-CD. Okay, this is a "very lossy way" to hear "Into The Gap" in 5.1.

 

[SomethingAnything]

I love this BD. Great album and the content on this disc includes everything from the 3CD deluxe edition, but the mistake with the 5.1 Mix is really annoying. I don't have an Atmos-Setup so I was happy about the dedicated 5.1 Mix on this release and that one is broken.

The fold-down Atmos isn't good. The elements are placed different to the 5.1 Mix and I'm missing some details when I hear the fold-down mix.

Have taken a backup of the BD with MakeMKV and I'm looking for the audio streams with an old tool called AudioMuxer through wine (I'm a Debian Linux user). AudioMuxer runs fine under wine an there is a portable version of the emulator on Github. Perfect for doing such things.

Opening the playlist 0000.mpls gives you access to the Dolby Atmos in 7.1 with an embedded AC3 in 5.1 (only a 384 kbps stream). With AudioMuxer you can extract the embedded AC3 seperatly to your HD. Another known tool, the DVD audio extractor (dvdae) don't list this embedded stream. This lossy 5.1 version contains all vocals in "Doctor! Doctor!" and there is no glitch in "No Peace For The Wicked". Then I'm using another old tool called "headAC3he" to convert the AC3 to WAV with the possibility to change sample rate to 44.1 khz and bit depth to 16 bits during the conversation.
The output WAV is RedBook conform and can be burned as an Audio-CD. It's the AC3 aquivalent to a DTS-CD. Okay, this is a "very lossy way" to hear "Into The Gap" in 5.1.

Good on you for coming up with your own fix, since you weren't getting one from anywhere else. I admire your tenacity!

 

[Monkish]

Well, it's been two and a half months since release, and still no word on when or if the 5.1 issues will be fixed.

My biggest gripe with all of this is how SDE has never acknowledged or apologized for the screwups in any sort of proactive way, such as sending an acknowledgement/apology email to buyers or doing a dedicated news post about the issues on their website. The only comments have come from Paul's replies on other news posts, and the only updates have come when people have prodded him about it.

I'm not holding my breath that there will ever be a fix.

 

[schubser]

Yes. Hope for a replacement program too. These SDE discs are expensive and for audio enthusiats.

Have extracted the embedded AC3 stream just for fun. It's low quality of course. Want to have this dedicated 5.1 mix in 96/24

 

[srbjab]

It is a shame that this error has marred an otherwise fine release, and at least so far, no correction of any kind has been offered. And although BMG is primarily responsible for this situation, SDE will be tarred with the same brush. This kind of thing happens fairly often with films released to physical media, and the track record for corrections is equally spotty. Unfortunately it seems to be a numbers game rather than a question of doing what's right.