EMI "Classic Archive" DVD problem

Classical fans should rejoice that these DVDs are out.
These are performances by brilliant artists taped by the BBC in the early to late 60's.

Among the discs I want are some by Rostropovich Richter, Stokowsky, Oisrakah, and most of all a trio of Heifetz, Rubinstein, and cellist Piatigorsky.

Yesterday I bought the Yehudi Menuhin disc, with performances of the Beethoven concerto, Mozart No. 3 concerto and the Bruch No. 1, along with a bonus of Beethoven's "Romance for Violin and Orchestra".

The problem?
Only the left audio channel has any information. Nothing on the right. Weird eh? No mono switch on my receiver I use for video viewing, so I either have to put the left speaker on the TV or buy one of those mono to stereo adapters for the left channel.

On the slim chance anyone has another version, does it have this same problem?

The booklet says "PCM mono", there are no other audio choices. Too bad they didn't sync these up with stereo tapes that were probably made during these concerts. Well, maybe they weren't made, it was the BBC after all.

Up side is the Beethoven and Bruch concerts, taped in 1962 and '61 respectively, are transferred from actual video tape rather than kinescopes. The picture quality is mostly good for the tape's age but the PAL to NTSC conversion could've been better methinks.

Strangely, the Mozart was shot in 67 and is made from a B&W kinescope.

Still a rare treat these days and I'll pick up the others when I can.

Dan C

 

BTW, here's a web site with the titles available:
http://www.angelrecords.com/featured.asp?featured=new

There's a Gelnn Gould I'd like to own as well. And the Mahler Symphony 3 by Sir. Simon Rattle looks like a winner too!
Hope the audio problem isn't on all the DVDs.

Dan C

Blurb from the site:

Imagine being able to watch great performances of legendary artists of the past on DVD from the comfort of your own home entertainment system. Classic Archive DVD, a new series on DVD from EMI Classics and IMG now makes this possible for the very first time.

Featuring the greatest names in classical music – Menuhin, Rubinstein, Rostropovich, Heifetz, Gilels, Crespin, Richter, Stokowski, David Oistrakh, Berganza, Milstein, Schwarzkopf, Karajan and others – the Classic Archive DVD offers an historical glimpse into our classical heritage. The programmes (24 in all) feature generous full
length and complete musical performances coupled with encore material as well as rare bonus footage. Each episode (some in colour, some in black and white) conjures up the feel of the period and the experience of hearing musical legends at the height of their powers.

Much of this archive footage from 1950-1975 has been made available from two of the richest television archives in the world: the BBC in the UK and INA in France. Many programmes have not been seen publicly since their initial broadcast.

Lovingly restored using the best sound and visual techniques available today, the Classic Archive series is destined to become a world-wide benchmark, an indispensable source of reference, and an original and moving testimonial to some of the greatest moments of our musical past. Classic Archive DVD will be a welcome addition to any classical music lover’s library.

 

Sort of a sneaky bump.
I watched long and close today and it seems that this whole disc is mastered from kinescopes. Good quality kines, however.

There's a "preview" section for several other discs, each features about a minute or more from the other editions. No audio problems there at all. Seems like I got a bum disc, but I wonder if there are any of this addition that have the right channel.

The Stokowski clip is friggin' incredible. A bit of Debussy, taped in color in 1972 and mastered from tape, it's beautiful. I'm a big time Stokie fan! Can't wait to buy it.

Yeah, other than the audio problem on this disc, I'm pretty excited about this series.

Anyone here gonna go buy one? Anyone? Please?!

Dan C

 

I, Karnak, will predict that you have an early Toshiba DVD player! I had one back in '98 & any disc that had 1-CH PCM on them (like Image's Marx Bros. discs) only came out of the left channel. It's a PLAYER problem, not a disc problem.

 

Sorry great Karnak!
I have an early Apex, but you very well could be right. However, both audio channels perform just fine on the "preview" sections. In fact, the Menuhin clip in the previews plays fine as well! Just the actual programming doesn't work.
It's sort of a crappy player, one of the first sub-$100 units. The only real annoying glitch on that thing is sometimes I can't get rid of captions. Mostly that's on Disney mastered DVDs.