Steven Wilson XTC’s Skylarking to be released in Dolby Atmos (Blu-Ray out September 27!)

[kap'n krunch]

What do SDE have to do with this release? The issue should be brought to the attention of the label, Ape House, or directly to Andy Partridge (deleted his Twitter) and/or Steven Wilson.

Well, Ape House too cause I guess SW would have nothing to do with the authoring, it's only a couple of quick emails, I know if we all get together, we could do something instead of letting them give us shitty authored discs!

 

[RustyM]

I hate it when this happens... on my mighty OPPO BDP-103D , both (up until now) , the first seconds are cut off on 1000 Umbrellas and Season Cycle (and Earn Enough for us..., will I have to return it and ask for a repress???

I did QC in the previous 5.1 BD and it was something that was VERY IMPORTANT, so QC and the people who did the authoring were not very thorough!

Does it happen to anyone else here?

Hey Kap'n. Sorry to hear about your playback issues. I have a BDP-S6200. After reading your post, I went back and played Skylarking again and 1000 Umbrellas, Season Cycle, and Earn Enough For Us started from the beginning on the Blu-Ray and the CD. As JediJoker said, this is an Ape House product. I recently had playback issues on a few Atmos BD's and after much troubleshooting and help from QQ members, the issue was my equipment. In the end, I played around with audio playback options and found resolve by changing one setting. Hope this is all you need to do to find the fix. Wish I could be more helpful and wish you the best in getting your issue resolved. The moderators may want to start a new thread to clean up this poll. I'll be following this to see how this issue is resolved.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Amazon is backordered with no ETA.

yeah, got tired of waiting, not knowing on ETA for Amazon, and DirectToU, LLC underlings aren't showing, so paid too much for shipping and went with the shed

over the past year, I've noticed a significant drop off for timely delivery from Amazon for many items ordered!

-thought this was an interesting quote from the Google AI assist:

AI Overview

DirectToU, LLC owns importcds.com.

Importcds.com has an F rating and is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau. You can contact Importcds.com by: Calling 855-258-9650 and Emailing [email protected].

 

[Dynamic Editor]

Yeah, I'm having issues with the start cutting off, too. There's this little stutter at the start of each song's stream, and I can see my STR-DN1080 do this little bit where it tries its best to find the song's stream as it starts. I don't know if there's something I can do about it to avoid it, but I've never had this issue before with a surround sound disc.

Definitely worth knocking a point off for. I'd imagine someone could rip it with MakeMKV and tell what was done wrong.

 

[Wagonmaster_91]

I am not having the problem on my Oppo UDP-203 that Cap & Dyn Ed are reporting. Mine is playing the ATMOS and the DTS-MA with no glitches. So far, it sounds great. I'll leave a vote soon.

 

[CINERAMAX]

They are also holding up my RED. Criminals!

 

[Dynamic Editor]

I contacted Burning Shed ([email protected]) about the poor authoring of this release, which was referenced by myself and others within the poll thread.

This is what I wrote:

I am writing to say that I am really disappointed with the authoring of XTC's Blu-Ray Atmos release of Skylarking. Myself and others have found the release to cut off the first few seconds of the album's songs as they play, making for a much poorer album experience (especially for songs that segue into others).

I am hoping this release is recalled and repressed, or at the very least, any subsequent releases are authored without this issue. I have a number of Atmos Blu Ray discs and this release is the only one who has this cutoff issue.

I don't know how to contact Ape House, but with Burning Shed being the official shop for the band, I thought it was the most appropriate thing I could do without having to get a Twitter account. If anyone knows of other people I can contact, let me know!

 

[Dynamic Editor]

I contacted Burning Shed ([email protected]) about the poor authoring of this release, which was referenced by myself and others within the poll thread.

This is what I wrote:


I don't know how to contact Ape House, but with Burning Shed being the official shop for the band, I thought it was the most appropriate thing I could do without having to get a Twitter account. If anyone knows of other people I can contact, let me know!

@kap'n krunch Maybe this would be a good place to contact!

 

[shedsoundsmedia]

In this video I was hoping to briefly summarize my thoughts on the new 2024 Dolby Atmos mix of "Skylarking" by XTC. One of the strengths of this series has always been the 'boxed set on a disc' approach but this release dispenses of that and I feel you ought to be informed before you decide to sell the old one to upgrade.

 

[kap'n krunch]

I don’t find the start cutting off that @kap'n krunch and @Dynamic Editor are finding.

I play with Oppo 203 and Dune HD PRO network players from Blu-ray ripped on PC Server ISO image (MakeMKV+ImgBurn)

Actually, the two concatenated occurrences of gapless songs are authored in single files. That will result in NO Problem for the second gapless song in each file.

00000.M2TS : 1-Summer's Cauldron / 2-Grass

00009.M2TS : 5-Ballet For A Rainy %ay / 6-1000 Umbrellas

All the rest of songs have their individual M2TS files than can cause the hdmi sync to loss the initial sound seconds.

BUT, either the initial music is low enough or there is a small silence at the beginning of the songs, I hardly perceive any start cutting off in any song.

This problem Do arise in other Blu-rays, but not too much in this one. (for me).

Really, if the authoring tecnnician has noticed that there are two occurrences of gapless songs (mentioned above) and have put them in single M2TS file, All the rest of songs could have received the same treatment and have all been put in the same single file.


About the mix and musicality, this version is Exceptional.

I really like to A-B switch from the Atmos mix to the Instrumental Atmos mix. Listening the whole Instrumental Atmos mix version you really notice much better the great amount of sound layers and musical arrangements, that may be masked when you listen the whole mix with vocals.

A really good Steven Wilson enhancement over the previous 5.1 Mix.

I vote for a 10

How do you have the Oppo setup on your receiver (the player and the receiver)?

 

[AYanguas]

How do you have the Oppo setup on your receiver (the player and the receiver)?

OPPO was direct connected to the DENON with a single HDMI cable.

But since the DENON HDMIs are failing, now I have the OPPO and the rest of players connected to HDMI inputs of an HDFury Vertex2. The Vertex2 HDMI video outputs to Projector and TV, and the Vertex2 HDMI audio output to a DENON HDMI input that still works.

This connections cause even more HDMI sync delay, due to the always HDMI handshake of the Vertex2 when changing files during playback. And with this connections I don't hear any noticeable loss at the beginning of the songs of this XTC-SKYLARKING Blu-ray.

 

[kap'n krunch]

OPPO was direct connected to the DENON with a single HDMI cable.

But since the DENON HDMIs are failing, now I have the OPPO and the rest of players connected to HDMI inputs of an HDFury Vertex2. The Vertex2 HDMI video outputs to Projector and TV, and the Vertex2 HDMI audio output to a DENON HDMI input that still works.

This connections cause even more HDMI sync delay, due to the always HDMI handshake of the Vertex2 when changing files during playback. And with this connections I don't hear any noticeable loss at the beginning of the songs of this XTC-SKYLARKING Blu-ray.

But how is your Oppo Output set as in the Setup?

 

[AYanguas]

But how is your Oppo Output set as in the Setup?

Audio passtrough and video Auto, except now that I dont have 4K at propjector and force custom to 1080p and same color and croma settings as the Blu-ray

 

[kap'n krunch]

So, am I the only one who has this problem?
Or are we just too comfy to ask for a repress with correct authoring?
Just asking, cause I thought this forum was quite powerful whenever we got our synergies together...

 

[Dynamic Editor]

So, am I the only one who has this problem?
Or are we just too comfy to ask for a repress with correct authoring?
Just asking, cause I thought this forum was quite powerful whenever we got our synergies together...

I have said I emailed Burning Shed about it! Scroll up a bit in case you missed it!

 

[Clement]

So, am I the only one who has this problem?
Or are we just too comfy to ask for a repress with correct authoring?
Just asking, cause I thought this forum was quite powerful whenever we got our synergies together...

I'm NOT having the problem when listening through my Sony ubp-x800. I'm sorry you are having the problem; it must be maddening! Do you have a second player to try it on? Peace

 

[kap'n krunch]

I'm NOT having the problem when listening through my Sony ubp-x800. I'm sorry you are having the problem; it must be maddening! Do you have a second player to try it on? Peace

...shit, Korben!
maybe it's my processor?
my Oppo bdp-103D is probably feeding it enough to play it back PROPERLY!!!

 

[4-earredwonder]

-thought this was an interesting quote from the Google AI assist:

AI Overview

DirectToU, LLC owns importcds.com.

Importcds.com has an F rating and is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau. You can contact Importcds.com by: Calling 855-258-9650 and Emailing [email protected].

IMO, an unfair assessment regarding ImportCD [and their sister company Deep Discount not mentioned]. NEVER had a problem with either. In fact, I remarked in another post that my last order with ImportCD two weeks ago arrived in Elusive Disc style packaging in a sturdy cardboard box with cardboard inserts and plenty of paper filler protecting the contents which all arrived in pluperfect condition!

I do regret that ImportCD no longer carries any of those NEWER SONY QUAD releases in special 7" packaging...but that's another story.....

 

[popshop]

@kap'n krunch As far as I understand it, you're having issues on your Oppo 103, but it works fine on the 203 - and other players. Seems to me like less like an authoring issue and more of a setting/update issue. Is there a update you can do on your 103?

 

[AYanguas]

In any case, the authoring issue remains in this release and all other releases that does not consolidate the whole album in a single M2TS file.

For instance, I was listening yesterday KC- Larks Tongues in Aspic Atmos, and I really miss the beginnings of some songs, which bothers me a lot.
On the opposite, the YES-Fragile recent Atmos has the whole album with the whole 5 sound/versions options in a single 00000.M2TS file.

The loss of initial seconds may be insignificant or very important depending on each one's system or the amount of initial music at high volume.

This Forum could promote the good practice of authoring music Bluray albums in single M2TS file. But as this is a problem that has been there around for decades, and no one has ever cared for films when you lose the initial sound of the film studio intro or of the film itself, I dont think many authoring studios will take care, or even will know what we are talking about.

It is a First World Problem that some of us have corrected by merging the files into one single file with the audio/video tools we know.