Thread: Univesal DVD-A titles not available on SACD

Posts: 8

Post by beardawgs November 20, 2003 (1 of 8)
In the newsletter I received this morning from Acoustic Sounds (http://store.acousticsounds.com) there is a bunch of new DVD-Audios from Decca and Philips. Some of them are already available on SACD, but there are 2 titles I couldn’t find anywhere on SACD: Mahler’s symphony no. 8 with Chailly and Tchaikovsky’s no. 6 with Gergiev. Also, there is a complete Beethoven symphony cycle with Abbado from DG on DVD-A!!! Not so log ago I was told by DG that Abbado’s cycle won’t be coming out on any Hi-Res format anytime soon.

Does anyone know anything about what’s going on in their heads? I presume that Universal is going on American market with DVD-Audio. But there is no mentioning of availability of these titles in SACD on any of Universal websites (or at least I couldn’t find it).

It’s rather interesting – selling a vintage Karajan in Europe and new Abbado in the states. And I wonder how do they decide which titles are ‘good’ for SACD and which for DVD-Audio? It looks to me more like shooting in their own foot.

Post by zeus November 20, 2003 (2 of 8)
beardawgs said:

Does anyone know anything about what’s going on in their heads? I presume that Universal is going on American market with DVD-Audio. But there is no mentioning of availability of these titles in SACD on any of Universal websites (or at least I couldn’t find it).

Apparently the Universal DVD-As are a US-only initiative. On the DG Commmunity forum the response to a question re availability of the Abbado Beethovens etc on SACD was "This remains to be decided". With many early adopters of DVD-A moving to parallel issue on SACD (I added another one today: Farao Classics) there's a good chance these will appear on SACD in time.

Naxos also seemingly has woken up to the market for their recordings on SACD and plan to issue two a month starting next year ... according to an interview with Klaus Heymann in a German audio mag.

Stephen

Post by beardawgs November 20, 2003 (3 of 8)
Thanks Stephen,

It would be interesting to compare the transfers on DVD-A and SACD from DG now, but I never had a chance to listen properly to Abbado’s Beethoven on CD, and having recently bought Karajan’s set it will be too expensive to buy 5 new DVD-As just for the sake of the experiment. As we have universal player, we’re not really bothered too much with formats we buy, it’s the available music that matters (thou, by far we prefer SACD!). But what pisses me off is that DG didn’t even bother to announce even the possibility of Abbado’s Beethoven coming out in Hi-Res, if we knew that a month ago, we would have probably skipped that Karajan set, at least for a while.

I’ve send an email to DG couple of months ago asking about the note on Abbado’s CD set that the “recording is also available on DVD-A”. Well, it wasn’t at the time, and the reply was that they have no plans with DVD-A. Left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing? We might have a go at Chailly’s Mahler’s 8, but as there is no information available on how the MC transfers were made, we don’t want to end up with something as bad as early EMI MC DVD-Audios where they were playing stereo masters in the control room and re-recorded them in surround.

All this mess has made us incredibly cautious about the stuff we buy now. We also stopped buying new CDs, waiting to see will they appear on SACD or DVD-A. Is that a good or a bad thing I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure that we are not the only people with that kind of attitude. No surprise that the sales are dropping, instead of making us buying new titles, record companies are making us waiting to see what will happen next. And every time they come up with a nasty surprise. (As you can see, I’m having a bad day today!). I better listen to some historical recordings now, at least I know they were made the best they could at the time!

Nesh & Allan

Post by zeus November 20, 2003 (4 of 8)
beardawgs said:

But what pisses me off is that DG didn’t even bother to announce even the possibility of Abbado’s Beethoven coming out in Hi-Res, if we knew that a month ago, we would have probably skipped that Karajan set, at least for a while.

This Abbado DVD-A set has been coming for about 3 years :-).

Post by beardawgs November 20, 2003 (5 of 8)
zeus said:

This Abbado DVD-A set has been coming for about 3 years :-).

EXACTLY!!! I remember seeing Abbado’s CD set in the shops when it originally came out with the note “available on DVD-Audio”. So I didn’t buy it expecting that DVD-A. Then, a year later DG still wasn’t sure what will they do with it, and then they decided to go with SACD. Abbado’s set wasn’t mentioned in any option, and now here it is!

Post by Dinko November 20, 2003 (6 of 8)
So far I haven't seriously bothered to consider DVDA because of the relatively poor classical selection.

But if Universal USA is going to screw around and release interesting DVDA titles with no SACD equivalents, I'd be rather annoyed if they do it just to explore the options. If they go completely DVDA I can understand that. But if they release different SACD and DVDA titles that would be highly annoying. Especially if their DVDAs only have Dolby Digital on the DVDV program.

Post by beardawgs November 25, 2003 (7 of 8)
As I am not a DVD-A devotee, this article is a bit out of date (just found it), but might be interesting reading (if you haven’t read it before – from http://www.digitalaudioguide.com ):

Santa Monica, California, August 4, 2003 - Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's leading music company, today announced its first DVD-Audio titles to be released in the United States beginning on September 23, 2003. UMG plans an ongoing DVD-Audio release program that will offer best-selling artists and core catalog titles to major markets worldwide.

"UMG continues to offer music fans a wide variety of formats in which to enjoy our music. DVD-Audio gives consumers a quality sonic experience, while also offering bonus enhanced content," said Larry Kenswil, President, eLabs, Universal Music Group. "The popularity of the DVD format makes DVD-Audio a natural choice for consumers who wish to experience the world of multi-channel surround sound."

UMG titles slated for release on DVD-Audio include:
• Aaron Neville - Nature Boy: The Standards Album
• Andrea Bocelli - Verdi: Arias
• Anne-Sophie Mutter - Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
• Beck - Sea Change
• Cecilia Bartoli - The Vivaldi Album
• Christian Thielemann - Orff: Carmina Burana
• Claudio Abbado - Beethoven Symphonies 1, 2 (among others)
• Dave Grusin - Two For The Road
• David Sanborn - timeagain
• Diana Krall - Love Scenes, When I Look In Your Eyes, The Look Of Love
• Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive!
• Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
• George Strait - Honkytonkville
• John Hiatt - Bring the Family
• Marvin Gaye - The Marvin Gaye Collection
• Ryan Adams - Gold
• Shania Twain - Up!
• Sheryl Crow - The Globe Sessions
• Steely Dan - Gaucho
• Sting - Brand New Day
• The Who - Tommy
• 3 Doors Down - Away from the Sun
• Vince Gill - High Lonesome Sound
• Valery Gergiev - Tchaikovsky: 6th Symphony

All of UMG's releases have been remixed and remastered from the original multi-track masters, taking advantage of the superior Advanced Resolution surround and stereo sound quality available with DVD-Audio. Typically UMG's DVD-Audio discs will include bonus content including photos, biographies, lyrics, discographies and videos. UMG DVD-Audio discs will also play on existing DVD-Video players using Dolby Digital™ surround sound. To learn more about DVD-Audio and UMG releases, visit www.umusic.com/dvda.


Universal’s website has a DVD-A section with all the technical info you might need – all the recordings are naturally PCM, varying from 44.1 to 96 kHz/24 bit. No DTS, but only Dolby Digital btw. And I was waiting for that Carmina Burana with Thielemann to come out on SACD…

Post by Johnno December 13, 2003 (8 of 8)
I'm wondering if it will get to the stage when all the record companies "bite the bullet" and, having made a decision as to what they intend bring out in hi-res formats, release then in BOTH SACD and DVD-A. I would obviously like the classical divisions of both EMI and Warner to be included. I realise there are definite economic considerations in reaching such a decision, but if neither format intends conceding to the other, it seems like a sensible solution to me.

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