Surroundablog

Hitchhiker's guide to DVD-Audio?

Editor's note: A unique find on bbcshop.

A first in audio publishing, this DVD-Audio disc presents six episodes of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in 5.1 Dolby surround sound.

The Tertiary Phase is the long-awaited, brand new third series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, with 25 minutes of action not included in the BBC Radio 4 broadcast. Many of the cast of the original BBC Radio 4 series have been reunited for this new six-part dramatisation of Douglas Adams's book 'Life, the Universe and Everything'.

Amongst the returning cast are Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford Prefect, Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Stephen Moore as Marvin the Paranoid Android. Other famous names in these new productions include Richard Griffiths, Chris Langham, Joanna Lumley and cricket commentators Fred Trueman and Henry Blofeld.

DTS Entertainment Debuts Second Surround Mix from Porcupine Tree

New Surround Music Release, `Deadwing,' Includes Unique Bonus Features

AGOURA HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 7, 2005--DTS (Digital Theater Systems, Inc.) (Nasdaq:DTSI - News) entertainment label, DTS Entertainment (DTSE), announces a May 10th street date for surround music version of notable British rock band Porcupine Tree's new album "Deadwing." DTS Entertainment previously released the 5.1-channel surround version of the Porcupine Tree's critically acclaimed "In Absentia" in March 2004, which received the 2004 Surround Music Award for Best Mix: Non-Orchestral.

Known for their unique blend of rock, atmospherics, songwriting and dark intellectual cool, Porcupine Tree is a band whose goal is to dissolve boundaries between different music genres. The stereo version of "Deadwing" is scheduled for release by Lava Records on CD on April 26th, and the track "Shallow" is currently breaking into the Active Rock chart according to Radio & Records.

The DTSE 5.1-channel surround version DVD-A of "Deadwing" offers a wealth of bonus features, including:

• Exclusive surround re-mixes of all nine original songs
• Three new bonus tracks: "Mother And Child Divided," "Revenant," and "Half-Light"
• Film short on the making of "Deadwing"
• Album Trailer
• Gallery of more than 100 photos

Deadwing DVD-Audio delayed...a little bit

Editor's note: special thanks to Marty Saletta for the heads up on PT..

The DVDA version of the new Porcupine Tree album will be issued by DTS on 10th May 2005. The album has once again been mixed into DTS 5.1 Surround in collaboration with Grammy award winning producer Elliot Scheiner. As well as bonus video material and photo galleries, the DVDA includes three exclusive surround sound bonus tracks: Mother And Child Divided, Revenant (the music from the deadwing.com website), and Half Light.

Otherwise, the regular release...Atlantic says, "Due to an unprecedented surge in demand for Deadwing at UK retail, and the disruption to manufacturing and distribution services over Easter, Atlantic Records are in the unfortunate position of being unable to supply all the orders for the album to make a March 28th release.

However, in order to give fans the chance to buy and listen to the album before the UK tour starts, we have been able to provide Amazon with enough stock so that they can still hold the March 28th release. Other retailers (HMV, Virgin, MVC, independent stores etc) will have the album instores from April 4th. Thus, fans keen to buy the album before the shows can go to www.amazon.co.uk and pre-order there. Pre-ordering in good time should enable the album to be despatched to arrive on the 28th March."

Please note that this does not affect the full retail release date of 28th March in other European countries.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Soundtrack on DVD-Audio In March

Editor's note: This soundtrack will be the first DVD-Audio set encoded in AAC which will allow the user to easily download the tunes to their puter-ipod-cell phone etc...

MONTREAL & LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 7, 2005-- Coding Technologies, the leader in audio compression for Internet, Mobile, and Broadcast, announced today that the upcoming Splinter Cell 3 soundtrack DVD-Audio release will be the first to include 5.1 multichannel and stereo tracks in the aacPlus format. Provided according to the DVD-Audio Compressed Audio zone specification, listeners can copy these songs directly to their computers, digital media adapters, and mobile phones without the need of ripping. The first track, 'Lighthouse,' is available immediately for on-demand 5.1 multichannel and stereo streaming from Tuner2 (http://www.tuner2.com/).

"I'm doing my part to satisfy all Splinter Cell fans' inherent desire to be spies, and as such, want to make sure my music is available for as many small & stealth-like portable formats as possible," said Amon Tobin. "The addition of aacPlus tracks to my DVD-Audio release frees the music to move beyond the home sound system onto the PC and the mobile phone, so that they can be enjoyed while engaging in international espionage, riding the subway, or various other daily pursuits of global or not so global significance."

"DVD-Audio and Dual-Disc open up new possibilities for labels to distribute compressed audio with their releases," said David Frerichs, Vice President and US General Manager for Coding Technologies. "With the 'Chaos Theory' DVD-Audio release, Ninja Tune is opening a future of digital content distribution full of consumer choice and free of label fear."

The Splinter Cell 3 soundtrack DVD-Audio will be available in store at the end of March 2005.

About aacPlus

Already standardized by MPEG, DVD, and 3GPP, aacPlus delivers streaming and downloadable 5.1 multichannel audio at 128 Kbps, and near CD-quality stereo at 48 Kbps. This level of efficiency fundamentally enables new applications in the markets of consumer electronics, mobile and digital broadcast 

Reported by: Mike Sklens

Hello Finland...Nightwish on DVD-Audio

NIGHTWISH will release a DVD-Audio version of their latest album "Once" on February 21. They seem to be quite a going concearn in Europe.."Once", has been certified triple-platinum in the group's native Finland for sales in excess of 90,000 copies. It has already been certified platinum in Germany for sales in excess of 200,000 copies. For those of you keeping count...platinum in the U.S. is 1 million and is 100,000 in Canada.

track listing:

1. Dark Chest Of Wonders
2. Wish I Had An Angel
3. Nemo
4. Plane Hell
5. CreekMary`s Blood
6. The Siren
7. Dead Gardens
8. Romanticide
9. Ghost Love Score
10. Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan
11. Higher Than Hope
12. White Night Fantasy

The sound is available in:
- 24Bit/48kHz LPCM 5.1 surround (requires DVD-Audio player)
- 24Bit/48kHz LPCM stereo (requires DVD-Audio player)
- Dolby Digital 5.1 surround (plays on all DVD-players)

The following bonus features will be added:

Audio:
'Symphony Of Destruction (live)' (Cover of the Megadeth classic, sung by Bassist Marco Hietala)
'Ghost Love Score (orchestral)'
'Creek Mary's Blood (orchestral)'

Video:
'Nemo'
'Wish I Had An Angel'
(Clips play on all DVD-players)

Beck's "Guero" DVD-Audio...Not to be confused with Jeff Beck's "Bolero"....

Beck's official website has revealed that his new album will be called "Guero" and will be released in the U.S. on March 29. Simultaneously; we can expect Beck and UMG to release the long awaited DVD-Audio version too. The DVD-A will feature "motion menus", videos and a few unreleased songs that aren't included on the cd release.

This follow-up to 2002's acoustic-heavy "Sea Change" was produced by former Beck collaborators the Dust Brothers and should return to Beck's signature 'junkyard-funk' sound. The album's lead single is "E-Pro", and it'll be at radio stations sometime next month. Of course, whether they play it is something else altogether.

1. E-Pro
2. Que Onda Guero
3. Girl
4. Missing
5. Black Tambourine
6. Earthquake Weather
7. Hell Yes
8. Broken Drum
9. Scarecrow
10. Go it Alone
11. Farewell Ride
12. Rental Car
13. Emergency Exit

Beck's "Sea Change" DVD-A won the "Most Adventurous Mix" honour at the 2004 Surround Music Awards.

The "Dark Side" of Pink Floyd on DVD-Audio

Found this little bit of tid on the ole puter this afternoon...would be interested in hearing Alan Parsons re-take given the results of his "In Air" release on DTS...

Sources in the pro audio business in Europe tell Audiorevolution.com that the audiophile classic album, Dark Side of The Moon was originally mixed for its initial high resolution release on DVD-Audio (before its release as a hybrid SACD) and that the disc may soon resurface as a DVD-Audio title in the United States. Dark Side was supposedly mixed for DVD-Audio at Abby Road Studios and then rejected by members of the Pink Floyd camp. The band’s long time mixing engineer, James Guthrie, has since publicly stated his preference for the SACD format yet denies the original mix was done for DVD-Audio. The album eventually was released as hybrid SACD and stands as the most successful SACD title to date in terms of overall sales.

Rumors of another version of Dark Side of The Moon on DVD-Audio mixed by Alan Parsons, the original engineer on the album, surfaced when his own personal test disc was heard at private listening session in Los Angeles. This DVD-Audio version exists but is nothing other than a test by Parsons. It is not an official mix and is unlikely to be the mix approved by the band or used by EMI for a future dual disc CD/DVD-Audio release.

Since the test marketing of CD/DVD-Audio flip discs began this February in Seattle and Boston by EMI (and other major labels) rumors of Dark Side and possibly a few other classic Pink Floyd titles coming out on DVD-Audio have quickly resurfaced. Universal Music Group has made it a common practice to release titles on SACD (their “preferred” high resolution format) and then three months later they release a DVD-Audio version. EMI, in the states, has been an enthusiastic supporter of DVD-Audio and would be likely to release such a successful classic album in another format if they thought they could sell millions more of units of the record. Now that DVD-Audio can be paired with a CD on the same disc, the temptation might be too strong for EMI to resist.

David Bowie DVD-A's on the way

EMI Canada has some exciting news for fans of the Thin White Duke. David Bowie's "Stage" and "David Live" DVD-Audio releases are pencilled in for March 15th 2005. The remastered double disc versions of these 2 albums will be released in mid-February in Europe.

"David Live" was recorded at the Tower, Philadelphia on 11 and 12-07-74. The original 2LP came with pictures on the inner sleeves and sides B and D reversed. It features material from the post "Diamond Dogs" days leading into the soul of "Young Americans". It was later given a double disc treatment by Rykodisc in 1990.

"Stage" was Bowie's 2nd double live album and was recorded at the Philadelphia, Spectrum Arena (28 and 29-04-78), Providence, Civic Center (05-05-78) and Boston, New Boston Garden Arena (06-05-78). It featured the dual talents of Carlos Alomar and Adrian Belew.

As an aside; fans of Belew can look forward to hearing him guest appear on Porcupine Tree's multi-channel "Dead Wing" coming at ya on March 21st..

Simple Minds....yawn

In other upcoming release news...Simple Minds' "New Gold Dream" and "Once Upon a Time" DVD-Audios are coming your way on March 29, 2005. I wasn't much of a fan of these Scots....so go dig up yer info on these new wavers....and while you're at it...go rent "The Breakfast Club"...you...you.....

The Doors catalogue on DVD-A

I lifted this nugget off the Doors message board posted by Doors manager Jeff Jampol. As an aside; I interviewed Robbie Krieger in 1996. Off mic., Robbie indicated that he loved new technology and innovation. I guess so...every new format means 1 more trip to the well; so to speak, for him to wrest a few more dollars out of my pocket. I've personally owned "LA Woman" on vinyl, cassette, cd, a special limited edition HMV cd boxset and DVD-Audio. And now I can buy it all over again in the upcoming boxset...

" • Bruce Botnick has just completed remixing and remastering EVERY Doors studio album in full 5.1 surround and DVD-A – these will be released as a box set first, and then probably packaged along with a re-release of all studio albums next year – ALL repackaged to look like their original, vinyl counterparts, much like the album covers looked in the “Complete Studio Recordings” box set. All of them will be re-mastered again, as well, using the latest digital technology, and will contain some VERY interesting outtakes, alternate takes, etc.