Interesting that the video is MPEG2, why would they do that instead of AVC
It was probably prepared long ago for DVD-A release with only the bare minimum amount of work done to make it suitable for Blu-ray.
Interesting that the video is MPEG2, why would they do that instead of AVC
Already voted, but still listening to this title again and again. This is definitely my favorite surround release in a long, long while. Of course, loving the album really helps, but also having a great surround mix makes it a disc I will play over and over and over.
Already voted, but still listening to this title again and again. This is definitely my favorite surround release in a long, long while. Of course, loving the album really helps, but also having a great surround mix makes it a disc I will play over and over and over.
I'm quite late to this one, never having been a big Van fan before, but it was on the Sainsburys clearance sale for only £15.99 so I couldn't resist.
The sound as everyone says is superb, a very immersive surround mix. The packaging looks nice, but is a bit fiddly. The lack of a menu on the disc does annoy me a bit, but the sound quality more than makes up for this. My Denon player starts playing this disc without me having to press anything. Pressing menu on my remote doesn't do anything, each song just plays one after the other with a different screen, which doesn't even show the song name. I also can't access a stereo mix on the blu-ray, even pressing the audio button on my remote doesn't give me any options here.
A 9 from me.
if you're wondering who any of those guys I just namechecked above are..
http://www.craigmandigital.com/about.aspx
I agree. This is an album that I've never owned. Of course, I knew the title tune, and recognized "Crazy Love", but I did not know the rest of the tunes. But this entire album is such an easy listen that it just burns into your head. This is one of the finest 5.1 releases we've received in a long time.
It's clearly a 10 all the way, IMHO.
It is a wonderful album, and looking back, so obviously commercial. But I must say that for whatever reasons his 1968 first, ASTRAL WEEKS--which I bought in 1970 just weeks before HIS BAND AND THE STREET CHOIR (has its moments) was released--has stayed with me most of all, perhaps because it remains beyond classification, with a special mood and atmosphere that has so fondly stayed with me . MOONDANCE has a little of that (not a cycle of songs but of many diverse yet somehow connected) and is, like STREET CHOIR, a pop album made with commercial intentions and among the finest kind of 1970. Given the strong content, I'll never understand how "Come Running" was chosen as a single when others--like "Into the Mystic" (covered by Johnny Rivers) might have worked a bit better. But in a time when there were few blue-eyed soul guys out there, Van the Man filled the bill (through '72).
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Wish we could get more artists like Van to embrace the concept. Like Neil Young and a few others, you just KNOW the dude's got a ton of interesting--perhaps even brilliant--material buried in his stash. I mean, if Mr. Springsteen can give us an updated, expanded DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (even if not in surround) it would seem to be anybody should be amenable to it. The original's still around for those who love it, while completists and true fanatics get goodies they've wondered about for decades. Seems to me the best of both worlds.
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