Yessongs Blu-Ray - with 5.1 remix!

[scratch17]

A few words of caution are needed.

Unfortunately Blu Ray discs have region codes. Yes you can buy a modified player that can play discs that are outside of your region but it will cost you more money and the mod will void the manufacturer's warranty. you could also buy a player made for the other region. Again, you have to spend more money.

So, North American QQ members should be aware that U.K. Blu Ray discs will probably not play in non-modded North American players.

Steven.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

A few words of caution are needed.

Unfortunately Blu Ray discs have region codes. Yes you can buy a modified player that can play discs that are outside of your region but it will cost you more money and the mod will void the manufacturer's warranty. you could also buy a player made for the other region. Again, you have to spend more money.

So, North American QQ members should be aware that U.K. Blu Ray discs will probably not play in non-modded North American players.

Steven.

Although it is true that some Blu-ray discs are coded for a single region and won't work in all players worldwide, a huge majority are not region coded and will play in all players. Amazon shows this as from Odeon Entertainment and I know nothing about that company or whether or not it has obtained worldwide rights for this release but that information can be easily obtained before purchase. I have an all-region player that did not require a hardware modification, the LG BH200, but it is long discontinued and not easy to find now and I can likely play this disc regardless of coding. Last I checked well over 70% of Blu-ray releases are coded for all regions but of course that isn't important, what is important is whether or not this specific release is all region or Region B only. I will figure it out and report back here if somebody else doesn't beat me and post it sooner.

 

[cupboy]

Well you do have to setup the LG each time you want to switch between a Region B and Region A disk. Rather than do that I leave both of my LGs set for B and play the Region A disks on a different machine.

Strangely one of my LGs won't play the Region B Californication, but the other one will.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

I haven't found a definitive answer yet as to whether or not this release will be Region B or all regions but the only Odeon title I can find that has been tested for all-region playback is "Witchfinder General" and it was region free. The company has only released a few Blu-ray titles so far and the others are mostly obscure and not generating much interest at the sites I check.

 

[solaris]

However, "Use of region playback codes is optional for content providers..."[122] Some current estimates suggest 70% of available [movie] Blu-ray Discs from the major studios are region-code-free and can therefore be played on any Blu-ray Disc player, in any region.

 

[Ge Someone]

Concert discs have been long the exception to the (movie) rule. There is no reason here to use region codes, it will not be in the cinema's (this time). But caution is OK, better than an unpleasant surprise.

 

[Quad Linda]

The other issue, and the reason many concerts are region coded, is that someone else, even another division of the same company, might get the royalies. God forbid! Perhaps they're fearful of a glut of Chinese discs, with no royalty payment whatsoever. My Yamaha will play any region DVD thrown at it. In fact, it will play ANY disc, other than Blu-Ray, even the self-destructing DIVX, Mr. Phelps. I doubt my Sony Blu-Ray will play other region codes.

Concert discs have been long the exception to the (movie) rule. There is no reason here to use region codes, it will not be in the cinema's (this time). But caution is OK, better than an unpleasant surprise.

 

[strat54]

I saw this film in the theater went it was released. The theater was on 42nd Street in NYC. Having seen them in concert live I knew pretty much how it should look.
The picture and sound as I remember it was awful.
Picture quality was fair but lacking detail, grainy. The camera angles and editing were less than optimal. Not to mention the extremely cheesy effects and non-concert footage that was spliced in, plankton, venus fly-traps, no, I just want to see them play!
The sound quality was horrendous. The theater had a string of Bose 901 speakers in woodgrain cabinets on the side walls. I assume an Altec Voice of the Theater behind the screen and another unseen speaker in the back by the projectors. The soundtrack was played very loud, there was no bass and all the speakers were distorting heavily. Think megaphones front and back with transistor radios on the sides. Painful.
The soundtrack was not mono. The front had a mono mix of the band most of the time but audience, guitar and synth solos, sound effects, etc. moved around the sides and rear. It seemed like a highly compressed source, like some sort of weird quad Dolby.
I have seen the DVD also, it matches what I saw then but the soundtrack is only stereo on it, just barely stereo.
Shame really, it's classic Yes, excellent concert - bad movie. If they re-edit the film and remix from the multitracks it would be worth a blu-ray.

 

[Pockets17red]

Odeon Entertainment released a trailer for this on March 30th apparently. Found it on Amazon.co.uk
[video=youtube;Z4e3mE8crPg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4e3mE8crPg[/video]

 

[LivingForever]

Well, as much as you can tell from a YouTube video, that looks ok!

 

[Bob Romano]

Not yet listed at Amazon.com or at Bestbuy.com
Preorders with current USD prices:

ImportCds - $36.05
http://www.importcds.com/Movies/2384039/Yes-Yessongs-40Th-Anniversary-Special-Edition-Blu-Ray

CD Universe - $59.79
http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=8713730

Amazon UK - 17.99 GBP
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yessongs-Blu-ray-Anniversary-Special-Edition/dp/B007CKHPD6

play.com - 17.99 GBP (free delivery)
http://www.play.com/DVD/Blu-ray/4-/29734920/-/Product.html

HMV.com - 15.00 GBP (free UK delivery)
http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?sku=592519

 

[Bob Romano]

Even the Youtube trailer has more balls than the actual dvd

 

[jdmack]

Anyone know what the original aspect ratio was for this film? My fear is that it may be forced into a 16:9 frame, which means the edges may be cut off (either horizontal or vertical).

J. D.

 

[LivingForever]

I really really hope that the success of this leads to other releases along these lines.

The one I want most is "Genesis In Concert" - the film from the 1976 tour. I know it finally got an official release on the Trick remaster but they just picked up a version from a bootleg DVD and whacked it on the bonus disc (don't even get me started on how cross I was when I realised I had better quality copies of pretty much all the footage on that first box set...)

Shot on film, it'd make a lovely (if short) Blu-ray disc. Hey, if they want to push the boat out then the director supposedly has all the original footage in his attic so they could get us a full show. I bet the multitrack tapes are somewhere in Genesis' possession too.

Ahhh, dreams.

 

[scorgiman]

A friend got the DVD version last week and we watched it together over the weekend. The whole package seemed like it was fairly poor quality.
It was a release from the early days of DVD so hopefully with todays technology and standards this Blu-ray version bring out a clarity for this film that has never before been experienced.

 

[boojidad]

As I remeber I saw it at a midnight screening and it was the second movie. I think some songs were different than the album. Almost bought the DVD a few times. this I might get if they clean up the sound and video. But it still is a concert movie from the 70s.

The only performances that are the same between the album and the movie are "Close to the Edge" and "Wurm" (which is the last part of "Starship Trooper"). The album has the complete "Trooper", while the movie only used the last part over the credits, which alternated lived footage with running credits. I wish they were the same all the way down, as that means I only get to hear gems like Bill Bruford's drum work on "Perpetual Change", Bruford and Squire working out on "The Fish", and Steve Howe's solo on "Yours Is No Disgrace." But short of a new mix from the multis (which I seriously doubt), a nice remastered soundtrack could still make this work. Caveat Emptor.

 

[ArnoldLayne]

This should be shipping now from Odeon Entertainment. Does anybody know anything?

 

[ArnoldLayne]

My copy arrived yesterday. I'ts a great concert but no miracles has been achieved for neither sound nor picture quality. Moreover, my PC drive (Matshita SW-5583) cannot read the disk. This one should be labelled "for hardcore fans only"

 

[winopener]

Sonic-wise, it is *at least* an improvement over the regular cd?

 

[LivingForever]

Nope.

It sounds to me like they took whatever soundtrack was on the theatrical print (massive hiss and crackle included), put that mostly in the centre speaker and then added echo /reverb so it sounds like you're sitting in a giant empty hall listening to a cheap PA at the other end of the room.

And the film still is what it is- bits of songs, odd angle choices, cheesy graphics, mostly quite dark. It's also in 4:3- never having seen it at the cinema I don't know if this is its Original Aspect Ratio or not.

Having said all that, I've never seen this film before and I'm glad I have it- footage of vintage Yes isn't that easy to come by and in all fairness it does look like they did a proper restoration of a theatrical print, so it's hard to imagine that it could look any better given the nature of the actual film itself.

It's not going to win any prizes either for audio or visual, and I'm not entirely convinced that it needs to be on Bluray from either an audio or visual perspective- I'm not even convinced that it's "Real" HD but it's very hard to tell when the original footage is obviously so dark and grainy (and in some cases out of focus!)

Verdict- glad I have it but don't do what I did and pay £25 for it in HMV, definitely not worth that much! If it'd had remixed audio from the multitrack tapes, it would have been.