"The McCartney Years" 3 DVD Set due Nove 12th

JonUrban said:

One more update: EXCELLENT SURROUND MIXES all around!

Even the "Band on the Run" 5.1 mix, done differently than the quad, is still done well.

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I agree the mixes are excellent! However it seems that the first chord of BOTR is truncated. I can only hear the end of the first chord on my copy.

JonUrban said:

(I forgot that Janet Jackson was in this video as well)

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Thats LaToya Jackson

... and for those who care (and don't we all) there is no Dolby 5.1. Only DTS 5.1, LPCM 48/16, and Dolby 2.0

So far, I've listened to the first disc. Great mixes!

Alot of the songs from the 80's I grew to dislike due to heavy rotation on MTV. However, the new 5.1 mixes give them a new breath of life. "Coming Up" sounds better than I remember it. "Goodnight Tonight" has a particularly good mix with nice background vocal panning all around.

I do wish there were more earlier songs. Given no original videos existing for some of these songs, they could have had them specially made (as they apparently did for "Band on the Run"). Still, I'm glad for what we did get which is more than I expected.

A really cool feature I noticed after listening to the first disc was the "Chronological" menu option which allows you to listen to the songs...uh...chronologically. Handy option.

All around so far, a nice surprise!

Bob Romano said:

I agree the mixes are excellent! However it seems that the first chord of BOTR is truncated. I can only hear the end of the first chord on my copy.

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oh no, not again !

Gotta get mine And Ringo's New One in Dec.

Bob Romano said:

I agree the mixes are excellent! However it seems that the first chord of BOTR is truncated. I can only hear the end of the first chord on my copy.

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Weird, I haven't read anything about that, and usually other forums are quick to jump on that.

daved64 said:

Weird, I haven't read anything about that, and usually other forums are quick to jump on that.

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Does everyone else's play ok on BOTR?

Bob Romano said:

Does everyone else's play ok on BOTR?

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I don't have my set yet (not out in Canada), but I know with certain discs (Talking Heads and Eric Johnson) I sometimes lose a split second of an intro. Must be my player (Denon 1920).

daved64 said:

I don't have my set yet (not out in Canada), but I know with certain discs (Talking Heads and Eric Johnson) I sometimes lose a split second of an intro. Must be my player (Denon 1920).

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This seems to be the case with my player (Pioneer 578A). The wavs look fine and play fine on the computer.

Bob Romano said:

Does everyone else's play ok on BOTR?

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I thought you may have been joking. Mine plays fine.

Mine plays fine also. I noticed that With a little luck is the slightly shortened single version. Surround sound is fantastic. My only gripe is that some of the newer videos have talking and added sound effects, but these are videos after all. Actually this title is a major tease. Now if Sir Paul would start releasing boxed sets like Genesis, I would probably need tranquilizers. After all, Genesis started off with a video collection in 5.1. Dream on. Phil.

Philip Spinner said:

Now if Sir Paul would start releasing boxed sets like Genesis, I would probably need tranquilizers. .

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Or earplugs if they sounded as bad as the Genesis ones!

bobou2 said:

Thats LaToya Jackson

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Ooops! @:

One thing about these mixes, they are not heavily compressed of maximized at all. They sound real nice. They are not "ping-pong" '70s type surround, but good examples of modern 5.1 mixing of older material.

I forgot how good some of these songs were, as I too suffer from "heavy rotation" burn out. "Figure of Eight" really rocks. It's too bad Paul did not spend as much time on lyrics as he does on music. Of course, the music may be the easy part for him, the lyrics just an afterthought.

JonUrban said:

Ooops! @:

"Figure of Eight" really rocks. It's too bad Paul did not spend as much time on lyrics as he does on music. Of course, the music may be the easy part for him, the lyrics just an afterthought.

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I love Figure of 8, just not the version on the DVD ...the one on Flowers is much better (IMO).

I was going to wait for Christmas for this, but the $19 price at Circuit City made it stupid to wait. So I picked it up today.

You know, last year I was so pumped up by all the hype when "Love" came out that I could barely contain myself. When this McCartney set was announced, I had no idea there would be these great surround mixes, so it was like, "Yeah, whatever. Ho-hum." As I was listening tonight I kept wondering how this one snuck in.

This is an amazing set. O.K., yeah, there are deficiencies:
a) Cheesy videos
b) Single edit of "With A Little Luck"
c) Why not ALL of "Rock Show"?
d) Why not ALL of "Unplugged"?
e) Cheesy videos

I found myself turning off the tube so I could enjoy the mixes. The videos are very distracting. But when I turned them off and focused on the music, I couldn't believe my ears. Man, this is great.

Highlights for me, so far:
a) "With A Little Luck" - single edit or not, it was always gorgeous in stereo and is now unbelievable
b) "London Town" - are you kidding me? To what do I owe the pleasure of THIS in surround?!?! Awesome!
c) "Goodnight Tonight"
d) I'm not a big fan of "Say, Say, Say," but this mix is irresistible.
e) "Waterfalls" - I couldn't really get through a listening of McCartney II, but this is gorgeous. I'm not so keen on the studio version of "Coming Up," though.
f) "My Brave Face"

You know, I'm going to stop here because I can't see the point in going on and on. This is fantastic.

Goodnight tonight.

Paul

Anyone else realize that there are two different versions of Goodnight Tonight and Fine Line? Use your angle button to watch the alternate versions.

Even the music in the various menu screens (there are many) is in 5.1. I particularly like the Band On The Run "extra" which includes generous "snippets" of all the songs on the album (in 5.1) including the complete "Bluebird." It's a kick to see behind the scenes of the iconic album cover photo shoot with James Coburn et al.

I am admittedly a die hard McCartney fan, and in no means any disrespect to Porcupine Tree, but this is for me, hands down, THE surround release of 2007!

At $19 or even $35 this astounding, quality content laden 3 disc set renders all criticism picayune at best (IMO). I know, I know - no DVD A/SACD - get over it - it's over but for a few stragglers - DVD V (and/or HD) will be the physical medium for surround going forward. I'm not happy about it - just a realist.

Look at these DVD's with DVD Audio Extractor and there are tons of different audio folders and groups. So many it gets confusing. Angles, etc.

elmer said:

Even the music in the various menu screens (there are many) is in 5.1. I particularly like the Band On The Run "extra" which includes generous "snippets" of all the songs on the album (in 5.1) including the complete "Bluebird." It's a kick to see behind the scenes of the iconic album cover photo shoot with James Coburn et al.

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I didn't hear the complete "Bluebird" (one of my favorite Mac tunes), but I was disappointed to hear "Wanderlust" get cut off! I sat there thinking, "Hey - they're playing 'Wanderlust' in 5.1!" and then STOP! Bummer.