Peter Gabriel - Play: The Videos

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DTS 96/24 issue, 2008-03-03
Excellent PG DVD with a brilliant, aggressive surround mix by Daniel Lanois et al. One caveat: my region 4 PAL DVD suffered from the problem outlined here (Peter Gabriel forums): br / br /"Since the release of the PLAY DVD we have become aware of an issue affecting the DTS soundtrack on the latest generation of surround amplifiers. br / br /PLAY is the first disc produced using a new DTS encoder and it seems that the version we used has set a flag within the DTS audio stream that can cause a 30db reduction in volume. br / br /We have only experienced the issue on a Denon AVR-3805 amplifier (kindly lent to us by Denon UK), although it may be more widespread as new audio decoder chips reach the consumer market in other products. Reading through our DVD forum, our experience would tie in with the comments of people on the boards . A 30db volume reduction is very noticeable, so the DTS audio heard through these amplifiers is going to be both disappointing, and give a you big shock if you turn it up and then flip back to one of the other audio tracks, or navigate back to a menu. br / br /Only the latest amplifiers are reading the 'Dialogue Normalization" setting in the DTS audio which is causing the volume reduction. Other amplifiers are simply ignoring this information, so during the product development and testing, and to most consumers the DTS was and still is the best sounding audio on the disc. br / br /We are currently working with DTS, Warner Vision and Denon to find a solution, and will keep you posted." br / br /At first I thought there was something wrong with my new Yamaha RX-V3800Bi receiver, but all the other DTS 96/24 discs were playing at normal volume. br / br /I can verify that there is a newer edition available for regions 2,3,4,5 PAL which has the Dialogue Normalization flag error corrected, and it sounds great. As far as I know, the region 1 edition hasn't been fixed, so the only way you can experience DTS 96/24 from this disc is if you have onboard DTS 96/24 decoding and analogue outputs, or you have an older AV receiver that doesn't recognise the flag. Those who haven't experienced this problem are most likely only hearing the core DTS 48/24. br / br /These are the only surround mixes of Peter Gabriel's studio work available apart from his "Up" SACD, and they bring a new dimension to the music. Excellent.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Summoning Sight Sound, 2007-08-30
Music videos are the area from where most of today's leading visual artists derive from. I say leading by meaning the most visually energetic, yet sometimes even profound. Unfortunately, most of the videos themselves are churning along the trite old paths. There isn't much of a distinction, as also the music sounds the same, the formulae clasp. br / br /Peter Gabriel has been into many things. Luckily for all of us, he was also in the front row of witnessing the possible power of a new music form, the integration of video. What is even luckier is that not only has he evolved as a musician, he has also had the possibility to innovate. In that sense, his videos represent perhaps the largest scale of history of the music video of the last 25 years: it's interesting to note that while music video directors are often only masters of the short form, a bunch of artists we have here, such as Stephen Johnson, the Quay Brothers (most famous for their Kabbalistic short films), Nick Park (the creator of Wallace Gromit) and Sean Penn (who has directed the amazing The Pledge, and has "Into The Wild" coming out later this year) have proved themselves as masters of the long form. Here they are offering some of the most visually arresting videos of the medium. br / br /As for the collection, the combination of music and video is aggressively balanced, only adding to the raw energy of Gabriel's early songs, being softened and elaborated from the "So" years and onwards in the Johnson era ("Sledgehammer", "Big Time", "Steam") reaching their maturity with Penn's "Barry Williams Show", an extravaganza of light and motion, not to mention the humorously cynical perspective. The images are striking: so striking, that you might form the visual image of the video before recognising the rhythm or the melody. "Red Rain", a simple yet glorious play on light, is like that to me. "Sledgehammer", of course, has been burnt to our visual memory forever. It says a lot of these videos that they remain visually impressive even when some of them are thirty years old. As any great work of art, they have remained fresh, as has the music. br / br /But it is, if nothing else in the end, the new audio mix that'll have you bouncing on your seat. The trusted team of the amazing Daniel Lanois, Richard Chappell and Paul Grady really have delivered; if you haven't heard this compilation yet, think of the remastered Gabriel disks, and you're close. The sound is amazing, and it leaves me wordless. It's soft in the right places, it comes out loud enough and broadly in others; it's so well balanced and imaginative, that sometimes the mixes, as Gabriel says in the liner notes, are even better than the originals. br / br /For us, who consider Gabriel an inspiration, this is an amazing release. Yet even those, who don't really like his music, should find a visual experience here that, if going deep enough, could bring something to the songs themselves. This is where inspiration comes from. br / br /Heartily recommended. br / br /With best regards, br /Antti

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Gotta love Gabriel, but I expected a bit more., 2007-07-31
I am a Gabriel fan. His music has always been inspirational and cutting edge. His "Growing Up" concert tour was the best concert I have ever been to. And with classic videos like "Sledgehammer" and "Digging in the Dirt" you can't go wrong. But some of the videos seemed to rob the music of it's greatness. And in some, like "Blood of Eden" the music used is not the same version that I remember listening to on his CDs. Some songs let me down and some videos fell short of what I would expect. I liked the touch up on "Shock the Monkey" video, however. br / br /The special features were nice. I liked being able to get a bit of background on each video if I wanted it. br / br /Over all, since I love his music, I think it's a great buy and will keep this DVD on hand. I just wish the music would have been slightly revamped and that more of the less phenomenal videos would be updated like "Shock the Monkey" was.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Essential Peter Gabriel, 2007-05-22
This is a great compilation of all his classic videos. I'd also recommend his two live DVDs. He puts on as good of a live show as his videos. One day before I die, I hope to see him live but can't recall the last time he came to North Carolina.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

He's a genius., 2007-02-15
It is Peter Gabriel, and his videos show off more than just the music.