Crosby Stills & Nash (2012) Blu-Ray WARNING!

[JonUrban]

Well, I saw these guys a month or so again. They were surprisingly good for their age, and Stephen Stills looked better than he has in decades! Lost a lot of weight. So, when I saw there was a Blu-Ray of from this very concert tour, I figured I'd have to get it. So, grabbed a copy at Best Buy today. Listened to the included CDs in the car (It came with 2 CDs of the concert and a Blu-Ray in the same package), thinking I'd probably have to convert the Blu-Ray to DVD-A for the car, because the CDs didn't sound that great.

Got home, fired up the Oppo, popped in the Blu-Ray disc and was prepared to be dazzled by the DTS HD-MA audio surround track. "But wait!" something was wrong! It sounded like the CD???

I pressed the AUDIO button, and low and behold, only one audio track was available, it was DTS HD-MA ***STEREO***

WTF? WTF? WTF?

Not only that, if you watch the video, the audio is not totally sync'd with the video, so lips don't match, and it gives the impression of a retouched vocal track (which may be the case)

Anyway, if anyone is thinking about this disc for audio quality, beware. Don't get your hopes up. Damn shame that Graham didn't at least allow an 'as-recorded' surround mix for this disc. After watching so many concert DVDs and Blu-Rays in surround, listening in stereo is so disappointing,

Oh yes, I did use the DPLII, but it does not do justice to the audio at all. Very disppointing.

One more thing. The concert itself is great - don't get me wrong.

And there are some interesting interviews with the 3 guys in the bonus section.

 

[jefe1]

Another example of how the industry is charging us for a premium product and then cheating us with the contents. At least there is hirez stereo......

 

[Chris Gerhard]

Another example of how the industry is charging us for a premium product and then cheating us with the contents. At least there is hirez stereo......

A Blu-ray concert disc and 2 CDs for around $20 to $25 isn't what I would call a premium price, that is about what 2 CDs cost 25 years ago and $25 today isn't worth half as much as it was 25 years ago. Still, the Blu-ray needs to be done properly and it is unusual and disappointing to hear this one isn't. I have about 100 Blu-ray concert discs and love the format for that purpose but I consider it a bargain, not premium priced by any stretch, my average cost is about $10 per Blu-ray disc for concerts and considerably less than that for movies.

 

[Quad Linda]

I own every CSN (&Y) CD & DVD. Perhaps I will still buy this. It sounds very disappointing and smacks of a cash grab. Thanks, Jon.

 

[JonUrban]

I own every CSN (&Y) CD & DVD. Perhaps I will still buy this. It sounds very disappointing and smacks of a cash grab. Thanks, Jon.

I ripped the BluRay via AudioMuxer to see what I could do with it and SPEC. It's 24/48, BTW. Nothing to good. Plus, it's brickwalled. You can see in the wav file when they do the "quiet stuff".

I ran the thing through SPEC, with horrible results. This is not a good stereo mix, so not much happens with Diagonal, Across or SUM using ARCTan. The harmonies and lead guitar and vocal all sit in the center channel, no matter how much you tweak. This usually is a sign of a near mono mix.

Very disappointing. Sure, this is only a $20 disc, and it was recorded only 2 months ago, so there probably was no time for a stellar 5.1 spectacular mix, but the bonus material shows the audio guy describing his 48 channel mixer board at the concert, and how he can control every detail of the sound. ARGH!! Give me the damn multi's. I would have hacked them a nice mix!

Sorry for the rage, I was just looking for this to be good, being music of my time - the old fart era!

Here's the wav file view of the 2.5 hour wav file:

 

[cupboy]

I saw this on the Best Buy site. It's an exclusive for them. You could write a review and post it on their site. There are no reviews there yet.

 

[DKA]

There's an HDTracks version of the album I'm interested in checking out. Once I get ahold of it, I may run it through SPEC myself, just to see what happens. Let's see if the actual album is different.

 

[Quad Linda]

I'm watching it on axstvHD, DirecTV channel 306. I love the performances and the video quality. The audio could be better, though it's far from awful. The synch is just off enough to be maddening if you watch closely. I will pick this up on Blu-Ray. This will be aired several times in the next 10 days.

Open up the gates of the Church and let me out of here...

 

[delarog]

The recent Crosby-Nash in concert DVD was also stereo only. Very disappointing.

 

[Quad Linda]

They know the fans will buy it anyway, so why bother with anything else???

The recent Crosby-Nash in concert DVD was also stereo only. Very disappointing.

 

[timbre4]

Focus group fanbase summary: 12:00am blinking VCRs

(wrong assumption)