Blu-Ray Disc-Audio continues with The Pixies

neil wilkes said:

DTS can indeed be encoded at 24/96 for DVD-Video usage.

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I know that. But then it's called DTS 24/96 and not just 24/96. Some people might say it makes a difference (lossless vs. lossy). I surely don't want to start that discussion, but if a product discription says 24/96 I expect lossless, especially at that price.
And be it as it is, this edition is not DTS 24/96 anyway, but plain DTS. Stereo is only Dolby. And it's advertised otherwise...

The response from AINR when I asked if these were remixed from the original stems:

These mixes were all done from the original analog tapes, however, I believe some of the tapes were only recorded in stereo. If you are unhappy with your purchase, you can return it for a refund.

Best,
A+R

Has anyone from here gotten this set and listened to the the BR copy?
If yes, is it any better than the Dvd Dts only or is it the same just on a different format.

well if I don't open it I think Amazon.ca will take it back

My copy is in that mail so hopefully I will be able to receive my copy and give the Blu-ray a listen sometime this week.

Came home from work today to find my copy sitting next to the front door. I've had a very short listen to the DVD and the Blu-ray discs. The Blu-ray disc has all the content from both DVDs. The audio options are DTS HD-MA 5.1 or 2.0. The concert footage is standard definition and the audio is 24/96 for both 5.1 and 2.0. The album mixes seem to be the same as the ones on the DVD, which should not come as a surprise. The audio is 24/192 for both 5.1 and 2.0 which is good to see. As mentioned before the mixes seem to be pretty much everything in the front and reverb in the rears, not what I was hoping for but better sounding than the two channel in my opinion. I'm please that I got this box since I have never owned any of the albums previously and I love the Pixies.

Any comments on the 5.1 mix?

Desmo888 said:

Any comments on the 5.1 mix?

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You mean like in the post right above yours?

scorgiman said:

As mentioned before the mixes seem to be pretty much everything in the front and reverb in the rears, not what I was hoping for but better sounding than the two channel in my opinion.

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wolfram said:

you mean like in the post right above yours?

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doh!

I've listened a bit more to the surround mix now, and it seems that although most of the music is in the front, there are select guitars that are much more prominent in the rears creating a fairly immersive experience. It is not a great mix by any means, but the Blu-ray surround mix will be the only way I listen to the albums unless in the car.

A side note, my amp says that the DTS mix on the DVD is DTS 96/24.

I am wondering if these mixes are much better than the MFSL SACDs. which are stereo only

solaris said:

I am wondering if these mixes are much better than the MFSL SACDs. which are stereo only

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I didn't think so. I found the reverb too distracting. I prefer the MFSL. Sounds cleaner to me.

solaris said:

I am wondering if these mixes are much better than the MFSL SACDs. which are stereo only

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I would wager that they sound exactly the same in stereo. The extra Khz are almost certainly overkill for these albums, unless you are the type of person who needs the piece of mind that they have the best available. I'm pleased with the purchase because I've never owned any of their albums before, but I would never recommend it for a double dip.

silvahalo007 said:

I didn't think so. I found the reverb too distracting. I prefer the MFSL. Sounds cleaner to me.

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Doesn't make sense to compare the 5.1 mix to the MFSL's - what about a comparison with the 24/192 stereo mix?

wolfram said:

I know that. But then it's called DTS 24/96 and not just 24/96. Some people might say it makes a difference (lossless vs. lossy). I surely don't want to start that discussion, but if a product discription says 24/96 I expect lossless, especially at that price.
And be it as it is, this edition is not DTS 24/96 anyway, but plain DTS. Stereo is only Dolby. And it's advertised otherwise...

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Yes but to be fair it doesn't say 24/96 MLP either, so there is no valid reason to have assumed this was going to be lossless.

scorgiman said:

I would wager that they sound exactly the same in stereo. The extra Khz are almost certainly overkill for these albums, unless you are the type of person who needs the piece of mind that they have the best available. I'm pleased with the purchase because I've never owned any of their albums before, but I would never recommend it for a double dip.

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What about a double dip over the CD's? You're right, it probably is overkill to have 24/192 for 99.9999% of the population, but when you have either 25 or 50 GB of room and only 5 albums and a 480i concert to encode, why the heck not?

dobyblue said:

What about a double dip over the CD's?

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Well... this is not the ultimate and definitive Pixies set we were hoping for, but this is probably the best we are going to get in the foreseeable future at least. The CDs will be exactly the same as what you have and the DVD is lossy, so pretty much everything in the set is useless to you apart from the Blu-ray disc. If having everything in one set and having the lossless versions on the Blu-ray disc seem worth the money then go ahead and get it, but really they are the only two things you will be getting for your money. Remember that there has been no remastering here at all so you are getting exactly the same sound as previous releases.

dobyblue said:

Yes but to be fair it doesn't say 24/96 MLP either, so there is no valid reason to have assumed this was going to be lossless

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No? I thought that is pretty common that 24/96 (or (24/48-88,2) means lossless until it's explicitly specified as dts. At least that's what I'm used to. But again, I'm not out for a format war.

wolfram said:

No? I thought that is pretty common that 24/96 (or (24/48-88,2) means lossless until it's explicitly specified as dts. At least that's what I'm used to. But again, I'm not out for a format war.

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Nothing to do with a format war...simply that if I saw a DVD release saying 24/96 it would be wrong of me to assume that it was lossless without seeing either the "Advanced Resolution" swirl logo or the DVD-A logo.

24/48 could be either dts or Dolby also eh?

However your assumption that it would be lossless based on the AiR description is entirely valid, because they stated it would be 5.1 and stereo at 24/96, so logically you would think (well, I would) that it would be a DVD-Audio because who includes a 24/96 lossy stereo track?

If I see 24/96 on a Blu-ray release then I would definitely assume it was lossless, but would still check to see if it was PCM, dts-ma or Dolby TrueHD.

scorgiman said:

Well... this is not the ultimate and definitive Pixies set we were hoping for, but this is probably the best we are going to get in the foreseeable future at least. The CDs will be exactly the same as what you have and the DVD is lossy, so pretty much everything in the set is useless to you apart from the Blu-ray disc. If having everything in one set and having the lossless versions on the Blu-ray disc seem worth the money then go ahead and get it, but really they are the only two things you will be getting for your money. Remember that there has been no remastering here at all so you are getting exactly the same sound as previous releases.

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I would definitely rather pay $30 for Trompe le Monde on SACD stereo from MFSL than $175 just to get one Blu-ray Disc as the rest of the package seems redundant.

Hopefully the AiR job on "The Fragile" by Nine Inch Nails will be done properly, I have no doubt Trent will be involved making another amazing discrete surround mix just like the deluxe SACD edition of The Downward Spiral.
Yes, I would only be interested in the Blu-ray upgrade. Shame they didn't make this available separately. So you're getting the same mix, but with much better fidelity than the CD's.

dobyblue said:

Nothing to do with a format war...simply that if I saw a DVD release saying 24/96 it would be wrong of me to assume that it was lossless without seeing either the "Advanced Resolution" swirl logo or the DVD-A logo.

24/48 could be either dts or Dolby also eh?

However your assumption that it would be lossless based on the AiR description is entirely valid, because they stated it would be 5.1 and stereo at 24/96, so logically you would think (well, I would) that it would be a DVD-Audio because who includes a 24/96 lossy stereo track?

If I see 24/96 on a Blu-ray release then I would definitely assume it was lossless, but would still check to see if it was PCM, dts-ma or Dolby TrueHD.

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Well, nobody had seen the release before ordering. Of course I would have been sceptical if I had seen the box and it would not have had any of the logos or said DVD-A anywhere. But I surely would have seen a DTS-logo on it. And yes, 24/48 could be either dts or Dolby, but then it's simply called dts or Dolby (or does it say 24/48 on your DVD movies?).

But if you think the advertisement wasn't misleading, maybe I'm wrong. I still would expect more for that kind of money.

Edit: I just saw you would find the AiR description misleading as well. That was all I was trying to point out.

While browsing for hi res audio on blu ray, I came across this title. Reading the reviews, it is not the best release out there. Importcds has it for only usd 61,15. Its out of stock, so not sure if they will ever deliver for this price. I placed my order though, and the save10 code is also still working.

dobyblue said:

.............I would definitely rather pay $30 for Trompe le Monde on SACD stereo from MFSL than $175 just to get one Blu-ray Disc as the rest of the package seems redundant.

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Looks like it's coming.

Anyone have that Blu-ray of the live performances? The female member of the group smokes throughout the whole thing. Yuk! Well, at least the music is good.