Amazon is now showing this photo of the box front: [Note that the label (which I showed in an [post=6030697]earlier post[/post]) is on the outside of the cellophane wrap and removable.] From the top, with the hinged lid open: Zoom in on the spines: [MODERATOR UPDATE, June, 2017: @Bob F has reposted these images here.]
Wave, I have been able to determine one difference: The audio on this DVD is uncompressed (vs. compressed in the CONCERT COLLECTION). See [post=6062792]my post[/post] in the other thread.
Ian: Now that I've been poking around a bit in the Sinatra DVDs, I can tell you that the original Warner Reprise Video region 1 releases (in the black cardboard cases) were definitely NOT "glorious mono." They were uncompressed PCM stereo (48 kHz, 16-bit), as are the three shows on the bonus DVD in this box. I haven't gotten far enough yet to be able to say if there is any change in the mastering.
Thanks very much, Bob for this detail. I am surprised these are in stereo! I'm going to give the first DVD special a 'spin' now I think through headphones. I have only ever watched these through a (stereo) rather than proper hi-fi but I am intrigued by this. Thanks for all your research. The 'uncompressed' is the bit that especially pleases me, though. I shall certainly stick with these rather than buy the Concert Collection set - hoping, perhaps, a Vintage Sinatra might pop up on Ebay separately! Thanks again for the research. Cheers!
God this set looks so delicious. I wish I could afford it but I just shelled out big bucks for the Dylan & Stones vinyl boxes plus a Sinatra MFSL box on ebay. This one will have to wait. Hopefully the price will come down to around $200 or so eventually.
i think one of these is hiding in my attic... Santa has hidden a box up there that looks big enough to be holding a toaster oven... I wasn't snooping... honest...
I think your wife may have got you a toaster oven. Just think, pizza in a fraction of the time without preheating for 15 minutes.
Last week I received a Sinatra record from an Ebay sale, and I e-mailed the guy today to tell him how well it was packed (seriously) in that PIZZA BOX, and he said how it's only right to associate Sinatra with pizza. Matt
If you were to go back thru my posts, I had the exact same experience earlier this year! May be it's the same seller.
Was it a used pizza box? I actually had someone send me a record in one once and it smelled like pizza.
If it was a used pizza box, it was very clean, like McCartney's dad. Seriously, he had two layers of cardboard on each side of the record, wrapped that two times in thick bubble wrap, because it was something like a 15" pizza box, packed all four sides with tightly packed, crumpled newspaper. Worked great; probably overkill, but appreciated. My apologies for getting the thread off topic. Matt
I wish they'd wrapped my box set that well. It came with a slight dent in one corner, which you can see at the top left of the inside lid in the photo above.
All this talk of the box makes me want a...pizza...the action. " Santa Baby, I've Been An Awful Good Girl......"
I don't know if it's due to the printing errors or the price disparity (or some other undisclosed reason), but Amazon (US, not UK) is now showing the following notice:
Well, Bob, if they pulled it because they were charging too little for it, then those of us who bought it at that price owe you an ENORMOUS thank you for the heads-up.
No John, they haven't pulled it in the UK where the price was lower. It's the US store (where it was overpriced) that has posted that notice.
What's 'PCM' stereo, Bob? I listened to Day In, Day Out from the +Ella, +Jobim special last night through the amplifier and headphones. It's a long time (ten years, I bet!) since I watched these specials and only then through the TV. The difference is amazing - and definitely stereo! It's a whole new experience - and will be like watching these shows all over again for the first time - which I shall do during the Christmas holidays. Although they are not seasonal, Christmas always seems a good time to watch these TV specials. Thanks again, Bob, for the info.
Are you referring to the old gray DVDs - or the new ones? If you're talking about the former, the uncompressed audio can do little to make them better. At least, the first two "A Man And His Music" specials are in dreadful fake stereo (IIRC). I wished they had kept the original mono (or at least offer it as a bonus). I don't get it that upmixes are still a sales argument. In most cases, they sound awful. At least, most DVD releases in the US contain the original mono as well. R2 DVDs only have the upmixes (possibliy due to the additional space required for dubs)...
No, they do not. The R1 issues in the US (black cardboard cases) were never mono. They are stereo, and they don't sound bad at all. I've never heard the R2 Europe issues to compare, but from what you and Ian say, it sounds like those had poorer-quality soundtracks (not necessarily "upmixes"). It may be that these new releases from UMG are using the original US masters, and that is why they are making such a point of advertising the improved audio quality.
It's probably due to the printing errors. Note this disclaimer by one of the Amazon marketplace sellers: That says to me that UMG is replacing the first run with a corrected version (and not taking back the defective originals).
It's along time since I played these DVDs (but, yes, the original R1 releases). I've only recently played just the opening track of Man and his Music 3 through an amp and headphones- which sounded genuine stereo to me and pretty good sound - for a sixties tv soundtrack, at any rate. I can't vouch for the first two volumes. I must listen to them soon. I, too, had heard that these R 1's were in mono, but this seems not to be the case. I do not have the original R2 releases, but had heard that the sound on these was poor.
I could live with the mis-printed CD label for the Ellington disc, but I sure wish they'd at least send out a nice copy of page #8 to insert into the book. That is truly shameful that they'd make no effort to remedy even that! Ahhh... the dying days of physical media.
