ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars[new dvd]

i piced up this dvd today and this is the best this material has looked and sounded[good 5.1 decent picture]a must buy imho

 

In 5.1 DD Now Huh? I think I will have to pick this one up as well. I was kind of dissapointed with the recent 30th Ann, 2 disk release as I thought it was kind of leaning on the bright side . I still prefer the Ryko AU20 Gold disk to any of the other's I have heard in the Redbook Cd Catagory anyway. Are there any extras on this new DVD release?

 

just a commentary track[btw this is the concert film not the studio album]

 

The Ziggy Soundtrack (not the studio album) is slated for release on multichannel SACD sometime in June--as an import.

I'm kinda holding off the DVD purchase for now, waiting to see how all this shakes out. I might get both, particularly if the DVD is good and assuming the SACD will be... but I'm in wait-and-see-mode now.

More reviews of the DVD would be most welcome!

 

I just picked it up today. I saw it on the big screen during its short theatrical run last year and was very impressed. The DVD is equally as impressive (but a tad expensive... $34.99 SRP). It has great packaging in a deluxe box with a transparent cover. Inside there's an essay by D.A. Pennebaker about his experience with the film and a fold out poster with vintage newspaper articles on one side and a reprint of a concert poster from the Ziggy Stardust tour on the other.

In terms of the picture, its an improvement over the earlier VHS release but there's still quite a bit of grain. Not too distracting, considering the print is 30 years old. As far as the sound is concern.....WOW! This is one of the most active surround mixes I've ever heard. With many concert films you get ambience in the rears, not this one. I can hear great separation between the instruments and their position on the soundstage seems natural. On the earlier VHS I almost missed out on the horn section completely! To break it down: Picture - pretty good, but not as good as say Gimme Shelter. Sound - Excellent, a really exciting mix with great bass I might add. Its obvious that a lot of care went into this. If there were a few more extras I'd venture to say that it would rank up with Criterion.

japes

 

The grain doesn't appear due to the age of the film. It's there because of the film stock and the conditions in which they shot it. I've not seen the new DVD yet, and I'd guess they did their best to clean it up somewhat, but there's only so much they can - or should - do. That's the way it was filmed, so without tampering, that's the way it'll be. Removing original grain is equivalent to no-noising...