HiRez Poll XTC - Nonsuch [DVD-A/BluRay Audio]

[PK]

I hesitated to buy this release as I didn't think the music was my cup of tea. Finally succumbed to all the great reviews and purchased it. Popped it in the player then started doing chores. Got around to sitting in the sweet spot on track 13, "War Dance." Wow! The mix is over the top :sun

 

[Snood]

I hesitated to buy this release as I didn't think the music was my cup of tea. Finally succumbed to all the great reviews and purchased it. Popped it in the player then started doing chores. Got around to sitting in the sweet spot on track 13, "War Dance." Wow! The mix is over the top :sun

Yes very Awesome Mix for sure :51banana:

 

[John Svensson]

Very late to this one... a solid 9+ for me, was only familiar with Peter Pumpkinhead so the rest is a revelation as the album flows well. The songwriting is certainly strong, and witty.

 

[rusinurbe]

I still can not believe that 'Did'nt Hurt a Bit' never made the cut originally and did not appear untill 'Coat of Many Cupboards' many years after the fact.
I ahve not grown tired of this yet so good in every way on Blu ray.

Now where is D & W

 

[John Svensson]

I've had it in heavy rotation...IRT "Didn't Hurt a Bit", given the original vinyl limiatations on overall length, which song would you have replaced? I don't have a good answer to that...... John

 

[timbre4]

Adding to that, I had 10-12 promo CD singles from Nonsuch (some overlap) and yet Didn't Hurt A Bit wasn't on any of them. It was a pleasant surprise to hear this for the first time when the test disc arrived. If it was trotted out back on the day I'd like to what it was on.


From QQ deep space

 

[blue.monk]

Adding to that, I had 10-12 promo CD singles from Nonsuch (some overlap) and yet Didn't Hurt A Bit wasn't on any of them. It was a pleasant surprise to hear this for the first time when the test disc arrived. If it was trotted out back on the day I'd like to what it was on.

If I remember correctly it was started during Nonsuch but Colin had second thoughts and it was abandoned. Then while compiling songs for "Coat of Many Cupboards" they came upon the unfinished track and decided to finish it for the collection. Colin recorded his vocal and Andy added the guitar solo. It is chronicled in the "Cupboard" liner notes (which I do not have handy so I may not have all the details exact).

 

[timbre4]

Thanks so much for that, I should own Cupboards by now.


From QQ deep space

 

[rusinurbe]

Thanks so much for that, I should own Cupboards by now.


From QQ deep space

You should probably one of the best Outtakes Collections I have so Much high quality music left off albums, even alternate mixes which were ditched, and just how exciting were XTC live, what a shame Andy Partridge had all the problems he had to stop the band playing live, but possibly why they are held in such high regard today no wasted bloated later life shows.

 

[neil wilkes]

Now where is D & W

Lurking on my authoring drive right now, waiting for the final tweaks to be done.
:banana:

 

[blue.monk]

You should probably one of the best Outtakes Collections I have so Much high quality music left off albums, even alternate mixes which were ditched, and just how exciting were XTC live, what a shame Andy Partridge had all the problems he had to stop the band playing live, but possibly why they are held in such high regard today no wasted bloated later life shows.

Yes, "Cupboards" is a terrific collection with loads of high quality unreleased gems. Did you discover the 2 hidden tracks? They are found on discs 2 & 3 by scanning backward before start of track one.

 

[rusinurbe]

Yes, "Cupboards" is a terrific collection with loads of high quality unreleased gems. Did you discover the 2 hidden tracks? They are found on discs 2 & 3 by scanning backward before start of track one.

yes I did interesting throwaway bits

 

[Which_One_Is_Pink]

Was not familiar with this one, had heard a few songs from it somewhere down the road but only ever owned Drums & Wires and Black Sea loved both of those. Now I can add Nonsuch to XTC I like. This is a sonic treat and I am really loving the music! And it goes without saying the wilisonized 5.1 is absolutely superb! Cant wait for Drums & Wires! Nonsuch is a 10.

 

[delarog]

Hey people, I have a problem with/question about this disc. I have a Sony blu-ray player which plays blu-ray (duh!), sacd, and the dts track of dvd-a's. A friend bought me the dvd version of this disc (I would have preferred the blu-ray of course, but you know what they say about gift horses). I have about 40 surround discs in various formats and this is the only one that only plays the stereo layer. Looks like I'm not the only one, someone else posted the same complaint about Nonsuch on Amazon. So my question is: what is the problem, is there no dvd-v compatible dts layer on this disc?

 

[rtbluray]

I'm investigating this problem now. Stay tuned!

 

[neil wilkes]

Anyone with a DTS issue on the DVDA should get in touch with me directly for replacement.

Regarding the DTS-HD against the LPCM, it is quite possible to end up with very different sound off each stream.
Blu-ray is a weird format - and DTS-HD MA is a strange beast too, and these are the possibilities for a "different sound" compared to LPCM - what you must remember is that while both DTS-HD MA and Dolby True HD are so-called "mandatory codecs", it is in fact only the hidden core streams that are mandatory supported - the lossless component does not have to be supported in any player and on a lot of Profile 1 players you get the DTS-HD MA or the Dolby True HD light, but you are hearing AC3 and DTS Core audio.
Another way things will sound different to the lossless is with a DTS-HD Essentials decoder. All manner of odd things can happen, and we have learned that including the core stream at 96KHz can trigger all manner of problems in certain players using this cut-down cheap-ass decoder because a lot of players siomply cannot handle DTS 9624 - this is no big deal off a DVD, where the DTS 9624 is in extensions & the core is still 48KHz but with DTS-HD MA it is possible to set the core itself to 96KHz. This can - and does - cause decoding issues usually in the form of on-the-fly SRC down to 48KHz.

The other problems with early players is the use of "legacy" audio connections (ADAT/Lightpipe or CoAxial) as it is not possible to output lossless surround over these connections & quite possibly it is also not possible to use 24/192 LPCM stereo down these connections - we are investigating this and the early indicators are not good.

To get around these issues we have changed the way we do Blu-ray as follows:
1 - All playlists with 5.1 mixes default to DTS-HD MA to ensure output. Streams can be changed on the fly with coloured buttons where available.
The default of DTS-HD MA with a 48K core guarantees it will play on everything. The inclusion of LPCM 5.1 guarantees maximum quality for those who want it, ditto stereo.
2 - All Stereo playlists at 24/192 will likewise be defaulted to a DTS-HD MA version with a 48KHz core. Again, LPCM will also be included.

I hope this helps, and if anyone needs any further clarification on anything please drop me a PM.

 

[dobyblue]

Anyone with a DTS issue on the DVDA should get in touch with me directly for replacement.

Regarding the DTS-HD against the LPCM, it is quite possible to end up with very different sound off each stream.
Blu-ray is a weird format - and DTS-HD MA is a strange beast too, and these are the possibilities for a "different sound" compared to LPCM - what you must remember is that while both DTS-HD MA and Dolby True HD are so-called "mandatory codecs", it is in fact only the hidden core streams that are mandatory supported - the lossless component does not have to be supported in any player and on a lot of Profile 1 players you get the DTS-HD MA or the Dolby True HD light, but you are hearing AC3 and DTS Core audio.
Another way things will sound different to the lossless is with a DTS-HD Essentials decoder. All manner of odd things can happen, and we have learned that including the core stream at 96KHz can trigger all manner of problems in certain players using this cut-down cheap-ass decoder because a lot of players siomply cannot handle DTS 9624 - this is no big deal off a DVD, where the DTS 9624 is in extensions & the core is still 48KHz but with DTS-HD MA it is possible to set the core itself to 96KHz. This can - and does - cause decoding issues usually in the form of on-the-fly SRC down to 48KHz.

The other problems with early players is the use of "legacy" audio connections (ADAT/Lightpipe or CoAxial) as it is not possible to output lossless surround over these connections & quite possibly it is also not possible to use 24/192 LPCM stereo down these connections - we are investigating this and the early indicators are not good.

To get around these issues we have changed the way we do Blu-ray as follows:
1 - All playlists with 5.1 mixes default to DTS-HD MA to ensure output. Streams can be changed on the fly with coloured buttons where available.
The default of DTS-HD MA with a 48K core guarantees it will play on everything. The inclusion of LPCM 5.1 guarantees maximum quality for those who want it, ditto stereo.
2 - All Stereo playlists at 24/192 will likewise be defaulted to a DTS-HD MA version with a 48KHz core. Again, LPCM will also be included.

I hope this helps, and if anyone needs any further clarification on anything please drop me a PM.

Keep in mind those players represent less than 0.01% of players on the market so when authoring I would completely ignore those issues. Anyone with a profile 1.0 player that still works accepts those shortcomings by the very nature of being an early adopter.

I always expect the core to be 24/48, didn't even know you could set it to 24/96. The default authoring choices you've settled on make perfect sense, nice job.

 

[atrocity]

The other problems with early players is the use of "legacy" audio connections (ADAT/Lightpipe or CoAxial) as it is not possible to output lossless surround over these connections & quite possibly it is also not possible to use 24/192 LPCM stereo down these connections - we are investigating this and the early indicators are not good.

24/192 stereo is possible over optical SPDIF though it may not always work. I have what's supposed to be a nice Blue Jeans optical cable that only works up to 176.4, but the same hardware will connect just fine up to 192 with a cheap generic cable.

It's also possible that some hardware won't even try--I *think* support for 24/96 is mandated but anything above that is not. Now if I can only remember where I read that...

 

[skherbeck]

Having never heard of XTC before, I held off on this until I got caught up in the hype over the impending release of "Oranges and Lemons"... I'm so glad I finally came around. These guys are master craftsman of Pop Rock... The styles are varied throughout the album and each song exists in its own little musical world; they remind me of The Beatles or Wilco in their mastery of the pop form (although they don't sound the same as either of those bands). The sound quality is clear and dynamic; the mix is discrete and expansive (I tried listening in stereo after experiencing the multichannel version... That will never happen again.) While I love most of the album, there are a handful of songs I can do without (kind of like The White Album). I give this an enthusiastic 8 and can't wait until Drums and Wires arrives at my doorstep!

 

[edisonbaggins]

I went with a 9 on this. Wonderful sound. Terrific song-writing. Stylistically way more accessible for me than Drums & Wires (though D&W is growing on me some).
I'm anticipating O&L. I probably won't be auditioning it before the 5.1 shows up. I'm mildly curious where it lies stylistically compared to D&W and Nonsuch.