Take the first track, "Pills". Where do the first vocals come in? For me they come out the rear right. Which sounds cool, but then it also sounds so unbalanced that I suspect that's maybe not the way it's supposed to be. Steven Wilson's mixes are usually pretty conservative, with the main vocals in the center channel. So is it just me, or is this actually correct? I'm listening to the 96/24 mix from the DVD-A files. I haven't tried any of the other formats yet, but I will once I get the chance.
Definitely wrong! Aviv's vocal is dead center when I play it (Lossless 5.1 MLP). Are you playing the DTS track? Maybe something is wrong there...
Nope, I was playing the lossless files (or almost, see below). I just played the DTS files and they're fine.
I figured it out though. I store all my music on my media server, and I convert everything to FLAC first. So in this case, I converted the MLP to multichannel hi-res FLAC files. Somehow, though, eac3to screwed up the remapping this time. I don't understand how it happened since it always went fine in the past, but it did. I set the mapping manually, and voilà, fixed!
Looking forward to having a first proper listen!
P.S. This is the reason why I'm a big proponent of Blu-ray over DVD-A. I can just pop my Dark Side of the Moon Blu-ray into my PS3 and get the best possible audio quality sent straight to my receiver. For a DVD-A though? I either need a dedicated player (which are kinda hard to find and often a bit of a waste of space), or you need to go through the relatively elaborate process of ripping the hi-res files first and playing them from a PC. I could just settle for the DTS version, but really, why should I? The files are there, I want to be able to play them! </rant>
PHEW!!!
I almost had a heart failure when I read that post......
Haha Neil. I'm sorry I'm putting you through all these intense emotions! Can you explain to me why this procedure is so shocking to you? Please understand that all I'm trying to do is get the best possible audio quality out of my legitimately purchased albums using the equipment that is available to me. Since a dedicated DVD-A player is not something I own (and in the age of BD, I'm not sure I still want one), losslessly (I hope!) encoding the MLP files is the best solution I was able to come up with. Which is not to say I don't occasionally pop in the DVD-V side of the disc and enjoy the full experience with visuals and DTS...
I guess he thought the channels might be screwed based on what you'd said Coren..?!?
I guess he thought the channels might be screwed based on what you'd said Coren..?!?
That's it exactly - what you do with the discs is entirely down to you of course but the thought - even for 2 minutes - that channel orders were screwed up is the stuff of nightmares.
Haha, okay, phew
It's FINE, Neil. It sounds great. Everything in its right place! Don't worry