Syntrillium Backup Forums :: View topic - DVD-A's buyer beware !!

djwayne · Location: USA

Okay here's the scoop. I've recently been buying a few DVD-A's to test out my 2496, 5.1 system, and to get a few ideas about mixing to the 5.1 surround sound. Each DVD-A is different. For the most part sound quality is very good, but mixing techniques vary widely, some sound great and add lots of ambience to the total sound. Others, flat out suck. I have a Santana Abraxas DVD-A that has instruments going to different channels, that doesn't blend together at all. Listening to it is like walking thru a haunted house with little monsters popping up at you from all directions. Very distracting. Note to myself, never,ever, mix music like this. Fleetwood Mac's Rumours DVD-A sounds great. Yes's Fragile DVD-A sounds great. David Crosby & Graham Nash's DVD-A, wouldn't play on my DVD player. We tried with three different DVD-A's. No luck.

A couple of other names you wouldn't recogize, were mixed okay, but the music was bland. So it's a real gamble on what you get if you haven't heard the DVD-A or CD first.

DVD concert movies, I like Peter Gabriel's Secret World, The Chieftain's Down The Old Plank road, Emerson Lake & Palmer's Live At Royal Albert Hall, Paul McCartney's Back In The U.S., Eagles's Hell Freezes Over, and Alanis Morissette's Feast On Scraps.

Obviously, Advanced resolution 5.1 mixing is still in the developement stages. When it's done right, it's great, when it's not, it's a waste. So buyer beware.

VoodooRadio · Location: USA

Maybe by the time that it "takes hold", they will have listening stations (akin to what most the major music stores have now for regular CD's) that will facilitate listening to an DVD-A before purchasing. Shy

djwayne · Location: USA

If they had listening stations, I wouldn't have bought a couple of these, and one store told me once you open it, they would refuse to take it back, whether it worked or not, whether you liked it or not. Best Buy did take back the Crosby-Nash DVD-A's with no problem, but they checked it on their computer and the first one didn't work, the second one did, and no questions on the third one. They're really concerned I was buying and duplicating, then returning the DVD-A's even though I had a legitiment problem. They mentioned any opened DVD's returned, had to be replaced with same title, due to some bull s---t copyright law. After a long arguement, at least they would give a store credit, but three trips to the mall, was a waste of my time, and aggrevating. If the DVD-A sucks though, you're pretty much stuck with it. Maybe I'll try to re-mix this Santana one with Cool Edit. hehehehe. Because there's sooo much seperation here, it's almost like having the master recording !!!!!