Intrepretations on DVD

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CraigGA

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I bought this last week and enjoy the product more than the video counterpart. I would buy anything updated to DVD. It is far better than the synthesized remixes on CD.

Craig
 
Hi Craig -

I'm curious;

Is the DVD giving you a better quality sound than the VHS tape? I only ask because I have the DVD and VHS version of "Remembering the Carpenter's" from the PBS special and even running both of them through a 5 channel surround system both of the recorded mediums sound virtually identical. I do like the fact that the DVD will outlast the VHS version without question, but the sound value of the two side by side is pretty much identical. Maybe my stereo system isn't sophisticated enough to give me a good enough comparison. Or I'm a total dork with technology...
I've got a high-end Receiver (which means nothing really...)
It's a 1 year old SONY @ 225 watts per channel x 5) and a new DVD/VHS Hi-FI tape player combo, both advertised to play in a 5.1 DOLBY surround sound field. With all of the new technology out there I find that it is almost easier to listen to a Carpenters CD on an older system... (Like my car stereo for example). Of course, with all of the settings on my receiver it's almost impossible to find the sound field that really plays the C's music in a really pleasing format that matches the sound in my head from hearing the C's over the years. A way that really brings out the Karen's voice with the overdubbing that doesen't sound cheapened by the SONY"S multitude of sound fields.

Was that a major run-on sentence, or what? Sorry about that.

I still think that it's ME that doesn't know enough about how to set the sound fields properly so I can just sit back and enjoy their music without getting so idiotically technical about what I'm listening to!

Anyway, thank you for your post. Any feedback from you would be greatly appreciated Craig. I guess I should just stick with my CHEAP Little portable CD player with headphones. It doesn't really matter (Well, not TOO much anyway) what recorded medium of the Carpenters music I that use to listen to their music - it's the music itself that makes it all worth while.

Later my fellow Carpenters fans !
 
First off - the sound quality on the Interpretations DVD: It's digital sound as opposed to the old VHS having the old HiFi Stereo tracks. Some might argue that analog is better than digital, but in reality they're pretty much the same. VHS's HiFi Stereo was always advertised as having about the same signal-to-noise ratio as CDs did. There's no 'enhancement' to the sound on this DVD, it's just Dolby Digital stereo 2.0, essentially the same as the VHS. The improvement comes in the DVD's picture reproduction capabilities, with cleaner, clearer color and better resolution, particularly on larger screens.

To phoenixfan4, the recommended way of listening to music on modern surround sound systems is to find the '2-channel stereo' mode. That's the way they were recorded, and that's the way they should be listened to. My experience with my own Sony stereo setup is that indeed there is a '2-channel' stereo button right on the face of the unit, as well as a setting in the list of sound fields. Don't be concerned about not using your center channel speaker or your surround speakers - the music wasn't recorded with their use in mind. So try to find that '2-channel' setting and listen to regular CDs in good old stereo, the way they were meant to be heard.

Now, if you've got upgraded SACDs or DVD-Audio discs or DTS Surround Sound discs, THEN you'll want to start finding the 5.1-channel 'Cinema' modes of your surround sound receiver. For the Interpretations DVD though, good old 2-channel should do it, since there's no 5.1 channel surround mix on the disc. Now of course if you WANT to mess around with the sound settings, you can always run your CDs or other stereo sources through the surround sound settings to give the impression that the sounds are all around you. It can have some pleasing effects, but my experience has been that all the surround stuff tends to overshadow the lead vocal in the center channel that way. Still you could boost the center channel levels if you wanted to better 'equalize' the surround mix, but as I said, really the best way to hear stereo is plain old 2-channel, since that's how the producers originally designed them.

Harry
NP: early morning rain on the windows
 
Harry said:
NP: early morning rain on the windows

Sounds like an "Early Morning Rain" Gordon Lightfoot morning. :D

I've found most of those "surround" modes to be very phony sounding...you get the best results sticking to what's on the original recording. The best that VHS can offer is Pro-Logic, which extracts four channels from two (left, center, right, and the rears which only go up to 5kHz). DVD actually has each channel digitally encoded separately, which requires you to use either the player's multiple outputs, or send it digitally to a receiver or preamp that can decode it properly. If you are just using the analog outputs of DVD, you're still using it in Pro-Logic mode. Regardless, like Harry mentioned, you're still better off using whatever multi-channel mode is on the disc. If it's just 2.0 channel sound, it would sound best played back that way.
 
Wow -

Thank you both for such clear concise explanations about the sound mix on the DVD and HI-FI VHS media! I must admit that I'm a bit of a techno-tard when it comes to playing with the sound field options on my stereo and when I FINALLY clicked on the "2 channel stereo" button on the front of the receiver the stereo separation was EXACTLY as you described.
DUH.
:oops:

So that takes care of that. Thanks again for helping me out.

I'd also like to ask either one of you if Richard has released any of their music on the SACD or DVD-Audio format that you wrote about. I would think that if either one of those two processes would enrich the sound of the music that Richard would be releasing their music in one of those formats.

Hmmmmm......Something else to bug Richard about.:cool:

Anyway, thanks again for giving me such a great lesson on how to listen to the C's music on my stereo system.

**And now: Back to our regularly scheduled program, already in progress......**

JB
 
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