Porky Tree on DVD

[3-LockBox]

I bought the reissue of Stupid Dream a year ago and only now do I have 5.1 DTS capability. I am listening as I type and holy crap, is this thing dreamy. I've listened to this album just a few months ago, but as of tonight, its like I haven't heard it before. Yeah, cliche as it is to say it like that, its the best way to describe the experience.

How do other Porky Tree DTS releases stack up?

How do other artists' DTS releases stack up to Steve Wilson's seeming mastery of the format?

[3-LockBox]

P.S. I'd do a search, but I've tried a search with DVD, DTS, and Porcupine Tree in the heading and it keeps saying, "sorry, no matches" - what a crock...not the first time this site's search function was AFU.

[Slosh]

You should hear the DVD-Audio tracks. DTS is good as lossy codecs go but lossless is the way to go, especially if you got HDMI with proper bass management/time alignment/room eq.

A friend of mine burned me a copy of the Arriving Somewhere Live DVD and I prefer the straight 48/16 stereo track with the DTS Neo 6 DSP engaged to the lossy 5.1 DTS track (although the DTS track sounds very good too).

Some other really well done rock albums with DTS:

R.E.M. - Automatic For The People and Document (both DVD-A with DTS)
Queensryche - Empire (DVD-A with DTS)
Super Furry Animals - Rings Around The World and Phantom Power (both DVD-Video with DTS and Dolby Digital)

SFA also has an excellent 5.1 SACD version of Love Kraft (hybrid SACD - no DTS)

I believe most of the Talking Heads albums were released as dual-discs with 5.1 DVD-A (probably no DTS, though). My friend with the Porky DVD-As has The Brick and it sounds great. I would assume the individual albums are just as sonically pleasing.

I downloaded the Genesis - Abacab DVD because it has a 96/24 DTS track (still lossy) and while it sounds excellent the album itself is really weak, IMO (as if you didn't already know my opinion :rolleyes: )

NP:

[kexodusc]

Ditto on the 5.1 mixes taking it to a whole 'nuther level.
The DTS tracks are good, but I agree with Slosh, the DVD-A cuts want to make me use all those cheeseball audiophile catch-phrases like "a veil was lifted", "organic" etc.

And I pretty much have to agree with the other albums he listed with the exception of the SFA Love Craft title I haven't heard.

In Absentia had a few creative uses of the surround channels that a occasionally result in an instrument being heard behind you. That drives some people nuts, but not me. No worse than Stupid Dream. The In Absentia DVD-A won a ton of awards for how a multi-channel mix should be done and I've heard few heavy rock SACD's/DVD-As do it better.

Nine Inch Nails did a good job IMO, too with The Slip. And Ben Folds does them well.

As far as DTS goes, it is lossy, but it's a damn good lossy more often than not (ie, when redundant unnecessary data is lost, not necessarily resolution). I find what is lost is more than offset by the benefits of multi-channel audio. Some of the best DTS titles I've heard are concert DVD's which are greater in number than studio albums. BB King, and Diana Krall have DVD's that show off how good it can sound IMO. There's plenty of rock/metal concert DVD's out there to keep people busy.

[3-LockBox]

I think I like most DVDs I own in straight stereo. I think multi-channel mixing is very dependant on the engineer and in this case, Wilson has proved to be the Alan Parson of our time. But for the most part, any other type or style of music may not play into the multi-channel format as well as PT stuff does. Gotta cool my jets before I go replacing a buncha CDs...I knew I shouldn't have hooked this processor up. It was a freebie anyway; a stand alone processor ment as an adaptor for those who already had their money in the old Dolby Pro-Logic system. This unit takes only digital inputs, and processes them either Dolby Digital, or DTS, and so far, the DTS setting is 'funner' for lack of a better term, depending upon the source that is. Sound quality wise, I haven't concentrated on that aspect too much. In DTS mode, the Stupid Dream album is quite the show, if you got that much time to sit in one spot that is. I have plenty of concert DVDs, but so far, only one DVD-A disc. That will prolly change.

[kexodusc]

I think I like most DVDs I own in straight stereo. I think multi-channel mixing is very dependant on the engineer and in this case, Wilson has proved to be the Alan Parson of our time. But for the most part, any other type or style of music may not play into the multi-channel format as well as PT stuff does. Gotta cool my jets before I go replacing a buncha CDs...I knew I shouldn't have hooked this processor up. It was a freebie anyway; a stand alone processor ment as an adaptor for those who already had their money in the old Dolby Pro-Logic system. This unit takes only digital inputs, and processes them either Dolby Digital, or DTS, and so far, the DTS setting is 'funner' for lack of a better term, depending upon the source that is. Sound quality wise, I haven't concentrated on that aspect too much. In DTS mode, the Stupid Dream album is quite the show, if you got that much time to sit in one spot that is. I have plenty of concert DVDs, but so far, only one DVD-A disc. That will prolly change.

With the exception of a few classic albums (Yes -Fragile, NIN, Downward Spiral, and Metallica) I haven't replaced any CD's with multichannel DVD's etc. Good thing stores don't carry them as much or the impulse buyer in me would have.
Do buy a bunch of concert DVD's 2nd from pawn shops, etc, those go cheap...
For jazz and classical albums, SACDs and DVD-A is the only way to go IMO.
You're right, a bad MC mix can screw up a good album pretty bad, lucky for us just about every format comes with a stereo version. Actually, I'm not sure of any that don't?

[DPM]

I have quite a few DVD Audio disks from various artists--including all of the Porc. Tree disks----and the ones that stick out in my mind are Steely Dan/Everything Must Go, Steely Dan/Gaucho, Dire Straits/Brothers in Arms (a Dual Disk) and Chicago/V.

The next P.Tree DVD Audio you should check out is either In Absentia or Deadwing.