Music DVD Poll The Beatles - Anthology (5 Discs, DTS/DD)

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Rate the DVD-V of "The Beatles - Anthology (5 Discs)

  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5

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  • 4

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  • 3

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  • 2

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  • 1 - Poor Mix, Poor Picture, Poor Content

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  • Total voters
    28
The reason I went looking for this thread was not to vote, but to let everyone know that a new version of the Anthology has recently appeared.

Thanks Andy! I had seen this discussed on the Hoffman forum and downloaded it yesterday. I listened to the first episode and it is excellent. It is indeed a greatly expanded version of the Anthology doc. Perhaps the original assembly before edited for broadcast? The same interview and music segments are present but with much, much more - especially archival interviews, many of which I had never heard. Looking forward to working my way through the rest!
 
... I listened to the first episode and it is excellent. It is indeed a greatly expanded version of the Anthology doc. Perhaps the original assembly before edited for broadcast? ...


I think that's a large part of it - the unedited version before broadcast and DVD. But, I also thought I heard interviews that were recorded after the original Anthology release. Once I finally get 27 more hours to listen to the rest, I'm hoping there are enough clues.

Andy
 
But, I also thought I heard interviews that were recorded after the original Anthology release. Once I finally get 27 more hours to listen to the rest, I'm hoping there are enough clues.

Interesting. I was wondering that too after hearing snippets of Ringo with Terry Gross. However, I then searched and found that at least one of his Fresh Air appearances (June 1995) was before the original Anthology broadcast. I'll keep listening for clues as well. :)
 
But, I also thought I heard interviews that were recorded after the original Anthology release.

Ah, you're right. Several of the interviews from the first episode were lifted from Scorsese's Harrison documentary. The clips were familiar but I was beginning to doubt if I knew them from Anthology and so I brought out the Harrison doc to check.

So, it would appear not to be an Anthology 'director's cut' but rather an impressive labor of love by an avid fan perhaps.
 
Ah, you're right. Several of the interviews from the first episode were lifted from Scorsese's Harrison documentary. The clips were familiar but I was beginning to doubt if I knew them from Anthology and so I brought out the Harrison doc to check.

So, it would appear not to be an Anthology 'director's cut' but rather an impressive labor of love by an avid fan perhaps.

After doing some Anthology - Director's Cut research, it certainly looks like that was the basis for this new set. Add the remainder of the regular Anthology DVDs as well as some 1997 - 2008 interviews and we have the Anthology Revisited set. I haven't found anything yet that wasn't already "in the wild", so this could be Apple or the fan-based "labor of love". Certainly a lot of time was spent on this collection, if it was a fan.

Still listening to the Revisited set, so I may hear something completely new and say "ah, ha!, it must be Apple" but I haven't heard that yet.

Andy
 
After doing some Anthology - Director's Cut research, it certainly looks like that was the basis for this new set. Add the remainder of the regular Anthology DVDs as well as some 1997 - 2008 interviews and we have the Anthology Revisited set. I haven't found anything yet that wasn't already "in the wild", so this could be Apple or the fan-based "labor of love". Certainly a lot of time was spent on this collection, if it was a fan.

Still listening to the Revisited set, so I may hear something completely new and say "ah, ha!, it must be Apple" but I haven't heard that yet.

Andy

It is a fan-made project. Source:
https://www.reddit.com/r/beatles/comments/3ra4xo/i_created_a_podcast_with_the_intent_of_blowing/
(I'm not affiliated)
 
Finally got my hands on the 5-disc set today - I've passed over it a few times over the years, mostly because I was never really sure how much of the surround content is either truncated and/or upmixed.

Though I understand this is really a documentary and not a surround audio-only release, the voiceover interruptions just annoy me. It's especially aggravating in the cases where the voiceover comes in just as the song is fading, requiring an early fade in Audacity :mad:

Having extracted and gone through all the audio in the set, I'd say there are 20-25 complete(ish) tracks, maybe 5-10 of which either sound upmixed or just not all that impressive in surround. Obviously I didn't expect much from anything originally recorded 2-track, but I did notice that the vocals have been centered on all those early songs (y)

Some of the older material does fare surprisingly well - "In My Life" has one of the best surround mixes in the whole set, with isolated backing vocals in the rear channels (though they're unfortunately also present in the fronts :() and the piano solo through the center. Makes me wonder if Rubber Soul in 5.1 is actually possible....

Quite a few of the pre-Revolver tracks have the occasional bit of discrete information in the rears, though you may need to boost them a bit to bring it out - "I'll Follow The Sun" has some low keyboard, "Things We Said Today" has isolated backing vocals, "We Can Work It Out" has what sounds like a concertina or accordion (?) over the chorus, and even "I Want To Hold Your Hand" has some isolated handclaps and John's harmony vocals.

Other surround highlights include "Something" (it'll be fun to compare this to the new 5.1 version on the upcoming Abbey Road set), "Lady Madonna", "Free As A Bird", and "Real Love".

"The Long & Winding Road" is the Let It Be...Naked version, though it sounds almost mono with the vocals and piano isolated in the center channel. Speaking of which, the use of the center channel varies throughout - on some songs it sounds like a low-level sum of the fronts, while others have totally isolated vocals.

There's some interesting outtake material as well - my favorite is the botched early take of "And Your Bird Can Sing", where you can hear Paul laughing in the rears. "Eleanor Rigby" is another cool one - it starts off as an early acoustic demo, then the actual recording fades in about midway, then it shifts back to the acoustic for the ending.

Overall, it's an interesting listen - there's a few really nice mixes, though not quite in the same league as the White Album 5.1 (Did Giles do these?) - but I'm not sure I'd recommend if you're solely after the music. Your enjoyment may vary depending on whether you're into the whole computer aspect of the surround hobby (ripping the audio, repairing the truncated songs, adding early fades, etc) or not.

"In My Life":
IML_ANTH.jpg


"Something":
SOMETHING_ANTH.jpg
 
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There's some interesting outtake material as well - my favorite is the botched early take of "And Your Bird Can Sing", where you can hear Paul laughing in the rears. "Eleanor Rigby" is another cool one - it starts off as an early acoustic demo, then the actual recording fades in about midway, then it shifts back to the acoustic for the ending.
My opinion regarding the Revolver-era tracks presented in the DVD set is that the outtakes (such as And Your Bird Can Sing) have more discrete surround sound mixes than the album master versions. I don’t know why that would be the case, unless my mind (and ears) are playing tricks on me.
 
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