Richy Mercury 01.03.2006 00:10 |
Has anybody watched the WWRY DVD using component video cables hooked up to a high definition television? The quality is amazing!!! I don't think it gets any better than this. Any other opinions out there? |
Jay Mantis 01.03.2006 03:57 |
WWRY is definitely te best DVD quality wise right now. I've watched it on a HD TV and it looked great indeed. Just a shame that the concert could've been a lot better. |
John S Stuart 01.03.2006 17:15 |
« Jay » wrote: WWRY is definitely te best DVD quality wise right now. I've watched it on a HD TV and it looked great indeed. Just a shame that the concert could've been a lot better.So why did Brian rant about the quality being so poor in his soapbox? |
Negative Creep 01.03.2006 18:05 |
It can't be descibed poor in any way. It sounds better than any DVD QP have issued and it was filmed properly and it doesn't suffer from lower bitrate picture like the QP DVDs. |
Adam Baboolal 01.03.2006 20:14 |
John S Stuart wrote:Video on it is definitely better. Sound? Could be a lot better than it is. Remember, that mix on the dvd is from the time they mixed it for its initial release. And while it's not bad, this is what Brian was mainly miffed at. Just listen to the official dvda's and you'll get a basic idea of what could be done.« Jay » wrote: WWRY is definitely te best DVD quality wise right now. I've watched it on a HD TV and it looked great indeed. Just a shame that the concert could've been a lot better.So why did Brian rant about the quality being so poor in his soapbox? Peace, Adam. |
goinback 01.03.2006 20:25 |
Yeah Brian wanted to remix the audio...the video is superb IMHO. Even though Wembley was shot on video, I'm surprised these days they weren't able to get those "noise bands" out of the picture on some shots...you'd think there'd be computer software to do that nowadays...but there might not be.... |
Jay Mantis 02.03.2006 04:29 |
John S Stuart wrote:Maybe the audio but I can't imagine the video quality being poor.« Jay » wrote: WWRY is definitely te best DVD quality wise right now. I've watched it on a HD TV and it looked great indeed. Just a shame that the concert could've been a lot better.So why did Brian rant about the quality being so poor in his soapbox? |
Negative Creep 02.03.2006 06:12 |
Adam Baboolal wrote:Wrong. The newest release is a brand new remix in both stereo and 5.1 & it couldn't sound better. Plenty of low & top end. If it was released via QP, they would have compressed it to fuck and made it sound muddy like MK or the Q&PR DVD.John S Stuart wrote:Video on it is definitely better. Sound? Could be a lot better than it is. Remember, that mix on the dvd is from the time they mixed it for its initial release. And while it's not bad, this is what Brian was mainly miffed at. Just listen to the official dvda's and you'll get a basic idea of what could be done. Peace, Adam.« Jay » wrote: WWRY is definitely te best DVD quality wise right now. I've watched it on a HD TV and it looked great indeed. Just a shame that the concert could've been a lot better.So why did Brian rant about the quality being so poor in his soapbox? |
Richy Mercury 02.03.2006 19:08 |
WWRY was shot with Hollywood style film stock. Therefore the high resolution. Wembley '86 and On Fire at the Bowl were shot with TV-grade film which has a lower resolution. |
Adam Baboolal 02.03.2006 19:38 |
Negative Creep wrote: Wrong. The newest release is a brand new remix in both stereo and 5.1 & it couldn't sound better. Plenty of low & top end. If it was released via QP, they would have compressed it to fuck and made it sound muddy like MK or the Q&PR DVD.It's not a remix that included either Brian or Roger, though. And this is why I mentioned what I did. Remember what happened with the 1st release of the ANATO dvda? It wasn't supposed to be very good, then Brian got involved and also had Roy Thomas Baker on the phone for details. And it transformed into something really cool. I don't really understand the criticism of the MK sound as it's definitely one of their best releases. I've heard it in my studio 5.1 surround and at my brother's flat on his surround system. It's certainly one of the best I've heard on a 5.1 music release. The thing I'm starting to notice on other dvd's is that the 5.1 mixes are generally treated as a novelty value extra. But certain dvd music releases (like Queen's) have approached it with more than a little thought. Thank god as these releases have been much sought after by this community. Peace, Adam. |
KevMull 02.03.2006 20:22 |
Richy Mercury wrote: Has anybody watched the WWRY DVD using component video cables hooked up to a high definition television? The quality is amazing!!! I don't think it gets any better than this. Any other opinions out there?Well it's still only SD and not HD, but the componet and I assume prog scan will help for a better picture. It's no different to watching a DVD movie on a HD display (same SD resolution) But it DOES (or COULD) get better, but only with stuff shot on film (doubt whether any recent stuff was filmed in HD). Therefore WWRY and Budapest will DEFINATLEY benefit in a HD format as they filmed with er film. Wembley and MK will not. It's also possisble that some of the promos could be converted but only if they still have the original film or negative masters. Note, There's no benefit from any of the standard def electronic archives (most of it!) being converted to HD. Fortunatley WWRY is in the right hands for a possible Blu Ray/HD-DVD release...Pioneer and NOT QP. Shame Budapest isn't too. QP never really mastered (literally!) the DVD format and it will soon pass them by so I don't have much faith in them with a more technical HD format. Although I agree with Adam and the 5.1 sound, but maybe at the detrement of the picture quality |
Paul Mark 03.03.2006 07:27 |
I may be wrong but I am 90% sure Return of the Champions was filmed with HD cameras. |
Wilki Amieva 03.03.2006 09:10 |
John S Stuart wrote: So why did Brian rant about the quality being so poor in his soapbox?That one is very easy: Just because QP does not hold the rights to it. |
Adam Baboolal 03.03.2006 10:45 |
Wilki wrote:Poor show, dear Wilki.John S Stuart wrote: So why did Brian rant about the quality being so poor in his soapbox?That one is very easy: Just because QP does not hold the rights to it. Peace, Adam. |
Bobby_brown 03.03.2006 13:45 |
Wilki wrote:Yes, you're right! I remember, Brian was so angry about the fact that QP didn't own this performance that he started to talk bad about it, and it's director, etc.John S Stuart wrote: So why did Brian rant about the quality being so poor in his soapbox?That one is very easy: Just because QP does not hold the rights to it. But the fact is, at the time it was the best Queen DVD. Both audio and image! Even though Brian says it's not real 5.1, everybody says that this has the best audio. Take care |
kohuept 03.03.2006 14:08 |
I agree that the audio isn't the best. It sounds too front-and-center to me. The picture is fantastic, though. Not only was it filmed on well, film, but was meant for IMAX theaters or the like. |
Rick 03.03.2006 14:46 |
There is absolute no live feeling on the WWRY DVD. It's like Queen playing in your living-room. But the audience is also very bad. I love the sound in DTS 5.1 surround. Especially the opening (the big thunder sounds) en the big explosion before the head banging part of Boh Rhap. |
Adam Baboolal 03.03.2006 20:39 |
I did some searching on the old wwry dvd stuff here as it's no longer stored on Brian's site. I found this: "...really glad that the "We Will Rock You" performance DVD didn't win... instead of risking the EXTRA money to let US remix it properly in DTS 5.1 surround. They frigged around with the old Stereo mix to make a kind of surrogate surround. Unfortunately the old mix was crap. I only wish we could have stopped them putting it out in this shoddy fashion - it's the only Concert footage which we don't own - we let this company called "Mobilvision" film us to put us on an experimantal large-screen show for "concert"- type audiences many years ago. So we lost control of this footage". Peace, Adam. |
inu-liger 03.03.2006 21:23 |
That doesn't stop them from offering to buy back the rights to the show, and the master materials (film, multitrack tapes (though I would imagine that QP own multitracks for almost all shows since 1974...?)). After all, didn't they buy back the rights to Hammy '75 from the BBC? (Or was it just a rumour?) And to relate on a point or two from above: Yes, WWRY and Budapest, as well as ROTC (and all the other 2005 and current & upcoming shows from the current tour that have been or will be filmed) would all benefit with an HD DVD / Blu-Ray release, tho' I'd rather stick with just Blu-Ray, since although it uses the exact same codecs as HD DVD, it has more space, and thus could do the shows justice by using a higher bitrate. HD DVD discs only have 15GB (sl) / 30GB (dl) of capacity, while Blu-Ray has up to 27GB (sl) / 50GB (dl) of capacity (and it doesn't stop there either - they're currently developing quad-layered 100GB discs for a 2008 release, and eventually 200GB discs!), so the extra space could be used up to give the films more quality for both video and audio. What's nice about the two newer codecs, being H.264/MPEG-4 and VC-1 (the latter an enhanced version of the Windows Media 9 video codec, I believe), is that they are advanced codecs which are way much more efficient than MPEG-2, which is also being included in the standards to ensure backwards capability with DVD's and recording compatibility with HDTV broadcasts (at least until newer codecs are included in the bitstreams). I believe the Blu-Ray specs allow for a max. bitrate of 40Mbps for the video data alone, as opposed to 9.8Mbps for DVD, so with these advanced codecs, you could fit a 2+ hour film or concert on a DL disc at this rate, and get the best bitrate. But with the newer lossless DTS and Dolby Digital codecs, DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD respectively, that bitrate could potentially be lowered a bit to allow for multiple audio tracks (did I mention Blu-Ray supports up to *32* audio streams?) The only thing that would worry me is how Queen Productions would handle such releases on BD/HD DVD (except for WWRY). They're notorious for not going above 6.5Mbps at best on any of their DVD's (except for ROTC, I think, but I'm not sure), which is a factor in the decreased quality problems we all know about. How do we know they won't go and use near-DVD bitrates on BD/HD DVD? (And not to mention not skipping proper remaster jobs?) Not to mention that half of their DVD's are in cropped 16:9 widescreen. The worst DVD in terms of compression and on-screen artifacts is Wembley, as far as I'm concerned. They wasted a good opportunity with the video quality by wasting space on a faked 5.1 DTS mix. (/bitch mode on) For fuck sakes, if they have the mastertapes, as evidenced by Freddie's isolated piano and vocal on BohRap from that concert as heard (and seen) on the current Q+PR tour and DVD('s), then why didn't they properly remaster the audio into true 5.1 from those tapes?! I'll tell you why: Quick money maker to finance the WWRY musical (/bitch mode off) I think I'll end this post here, and post more thoughts later, if I feel up to it. |
Adam Baboolal 04.03.2006 17:29 |
I think you meant to say -remix- instead of remaster, into 5.1. Plain and simple, there never needs to be anything radical done for a 5.1 concert dvd. As creative as you can get, the best idea is always - main output at the front with slapback sound and crowd noise at the back. That is generally what people are used to anyway. It's jarring to hear something at the back like a vocal or an instrument because that's not what an audience (for the main) experiences. And btw, it's silly to say that anything less than 6.5MB on a dvd bitrate is bad. It's all about the source material. I've just finished encoding a theatre dvd at.. gasp (!) 4.7MB bitrate! Oh horror... But it looks great. Really, Inu, you don't seem to know much about this aspect. Why make a comment that doesn't hold water? Peace, Adam. |
inu-liger 05.03.2006 18:47 |
Adam Baboolal wrote: I think you meant to say -remix- instead of remaster, into 5.1. Plain and simple, there never needs to be anything radical done for a 5.1 concert dvd. As creative as you can get, the best idea is always - main output at the front with slapback sound and crowd noise at the back. That is generally what people are used to anyway. It's jarring to hear something at the back like a vocal or an instrument because that's not what an audience (for the main) experiences.True, but the sound quality itself isn't the greatest (though I'm sure the DTS mix itself is better than the older mixes). And btw, it's silly to say that anything less than 6.5MB on a dvd bitrate is bad. It's all about the source material. I've just finished encoding a theatre dvd at.. gasp (!) 4.7MB bitrate! Oh horror... But it looks great. Really, Inu, you don't seem to know much about this aspect. Why make a comment that doesn't hold water?I'll give you that (Admittedly, at one time I used to make single-layered anime DVD-R's with 6 episodes per disc, at around 4-5Mbps, and they looked nice on a normal TV - but then again, I've never watched them on a higher-end TV...) But surely, the same masters they used for the original Flix videos (which were re-released as a single DVD with new DVD players back around 9 years ago, and are apparently regarded as having superior quality compared to the GVH DVD's) couldn't have degraded THAT much to the point where they were unable to be properly restored, did they?? I mean, look at the Led Zeppelin DVD's with shows from the 1970's - THOSE look great, even the one show that was filmed on 2" video tape (which, according to the liner notes, they literally had to hunt down a machine that COULD play those tapes!). Queen videos and concerts in those days surely would've either been filmed on similar tape material, or film...? They wouldn't have been so cheap as to use bad quality tapes, would they? More on this later... Peace, Adam.Same, Richard |
Adam Baboolal 05.03.2006 21:06 |
I don't know the details on what they filmed on, but I'm sure a lot of the detereoration would come from badly stored material. If what people around here say is true, it wouldn't be surprising. You can't put it past them! Even the tape they use. So, it's all possible. But I honestly don't know. Peace, Adam. |
inu-liger 06.03.2006 19:19 |
Adam Baboolal wrote: I don't know the details on what they filmed on, but I'm sure a lot of the detereoration would come from badly stored material. If what people around here say is true, it wouldn't be surprising. You can't put it past them! Even the tape they use. So, it's all possible. But I honestly don't know. Peace, Adam.Again, you could very well be right. I guess the only ones I could really ask about those tapes are Greg and Justin, but I'm not sure that I'll be able to squeeze any answers out of them (as evidenced in an exchange of e-mails between me and Justin a few months ago regarding questions I had about certain concert mastertapes, some of which he did answer, and some where he basically said that I was asking a bit too much). I *could* try, but I'm not going to. At least, not for the moment. And as far as I can remember, the WWRY DVD was shot with a certain type of film for showings in IMAX (according to the director's commentary), so it would more than benefit from an HD release, as I said. Budapest was shot on 35mm film, so it would seem likely also to benefit from a BD/HD DVD release (according to some people, the 35mm footage apparently was shot in widescreen, but I don't know if this is true or not...can anyone confirm?). But you're right, it's down to the quality of the source material and how it's handled. I would kinda guess that when they made the material back then, they probably thought the best quality consumer medium they would best benefit from back then was LaserDisc (which had 440 lines of resolution, compared to 240 lines for VHS (both numbers for NTSC; dunno about PAL), so they probably didn't think to store it in the best conditions once they were used for the Flix videos, if that was the case. Peace, Richard |