I'm just back from Best Buy with their exclusive version of ROTC. The bonus DVD is no surprise..
We Are The Champions (4:41)
followed by
Reaching Out/Tie Your Mother Down (5:35)
No menus.. 16x9 enhanced widescreen, seems excellent quality..only Dolby Digital 2.0 192 Kbps sound. I'm sure the actual DVD will of course have DTS and PCM..
It's housed in a 3-disc digipack. Book style, not foldout. Front cover is a sleeve which holds a very nice little booklet with excellent pics.
I don't have a scanner anymore so I can't do a nice little page of pics like I did for GH:WWRY last year. I can try to do some DVD caps though, if anyone would like to see..
I'll post again after I've heard the music :)
PS - The sticker price was $22.99 but they're on sale for $16.99
The bonus DVD is region free, but NTSC of course. When I put it in my stand-alone DVD player, it displayed in 4:3 regardless of what setting I put the player on, but it did squeeze when I put it in 16:9 mode. Rather weird.. I hope the real DVD isn't like that, forcing 4:3 on us without widescreen sets. It displayed properly on the PC with PowerDVD though.
Here's some caps.. if the site is working. I got it uploaded but can't even get to it myself right now to check it: link
And apologies in advance.. I'm never very good at taking caps. For WATC I was going frame by frame trying to find decent captures but by RO/TYMD I just let it play and captured in intervals, then deleted the worst of the blurry ones ;) There's 50 total in original source size.
I grabbed it at lunch today. The back cover is 10x worse than the front (jeez, let's show Brian's back and ignore Roger) But....what I could sample sounded pretty damn good. It will certainly add enjoyment on the trip to/from Jersey.
"I hope the real DVD isn't like that, forcing 4:3 on us without widescreen sets"
Eh? If you have a standard TV set, you would want it in 4:3, not widescreen. I think its safe to say the proper release will be in true widescreen, going by the trouble they went to to fuck up the original promo videos to accomodate widescreen TV sets.
No, on my computer it's obviously widescreen enhanced 16x9.. no letterboxing.
So I pop it in my player for TV... and it's 4:3 no matter which setting I put the player on, so it has some code telling it to do pan & scan even if the player is set to letterbox. I have a few other discs which have the code for pan & scan if you set your player in that mode.. this one forces it though.
I know what I'm talking about here :)
I called Wal-Mart yesterday afternoon to check on the availability of "Return Of The Champions". As it would turn out, they had two copies and the lady on the other end of the line was kind enough to reserve a copy for me underneath her register. At 12:00am today, I purchased the album, ran out to my car and immediately stuck it in my CD player. I had heard the preview for "Reaching Out/Tie Your Mother Down" on queenpluspaulrodgers.com, but wasn't expecting the sheer surprise that I got from hearing the full track. Jesus - I just can't put into words the feeling I got when Paul's vocals close on "Reaching Out", accompanyed by accoustic guitar then, magically, there's the quintessential Queen sound: Brian May's Red Special, grinding out squeels that blend into the beginning of "Tie Your Mother Down". Goosebumps through every second of these two CDs. Highlights, in my opinion - "The Show Must Go On", "Fat Bottomed Girls", "I Want To Break Free", "'39" and "We Are The Champions".
To those against the Queen + Paul tour, buy this album and let it change your mind. Paul Rodger's voice perfectly compliments the sound, music and spirit of Queen.
mrjordy, I'm curious whether the regular 2 disc version is any different? Is it also a digipack? Also, how much is it at WalMart?
I agree with you about the disc.. I absolutely loved it, just finished awhile ago.
Disc 2 is 52:45 btw for a total of 2 hours, 7 mins. Very nice show!
Testes -
The 2-CD pack at Wal-Mart as far as I can tell, does not include the bonus DVD features. I'm not sure whether or not you're referring to the digipack as the packaging or the DVD bonus. Regardless, this 2-CD set is in a paper sleeve with a nice glossy booklet insert. I paid $25.98, gladly.
Thanks for the info :)
It's definitely worth that much, but Best Buy is clearly a better deal for anyone who has them in their area, at $16.99 with the bonus disc.
Got mine at bestbuy...Fantastic- stupendous- great sound...I was at the concert so this is really special.
Highlights:
Wishing Well
Fat Bottom GIrls
Feel like making love
Drum solo
guitar solo--very long- but great example as to why brian is a guitar god!
Last Horizon
I want it all
Show must Go On
Can't get enough of your love...
Can hear a few distant shout outs by me--I won't list them here.
After driving around to 4 stores I got mine and it sure as hell isn't worth the $30 bucks I had to pay. I was pretty open to the whole PR thing, but I have to say, I'm pretty disappointed. It starts off promising and BM is an absolute monster out there (his wall of sound is incredible), but that's about it. The acoustic set came way to early (was PR taking a nap?) and Say It's Not True is boring. Roger's playing except for a few moments was just average and the Radio GaGa was just bad. And speaking of bad ideas, the video Freddie singing BoRap was a terrible idea. If you're going to perform the song then perform the song (see my INXS post). I love what the band does with the PR songs, but I'm not sure I really like his interpretation of Queen's. RT spoke of "a new direction", but I just don't see it. Overall it's kind of flat. Oh, and the cover couldn't be any worse either.
I should have bought the new Foo Fighters instead.