Eagles Hotel California DVD-A question

For some reason I cannot get the hi-rez stereo to work on my Hotel California DVD-A. The DVD player shows that it is playing but no sound is produced. When I switch to the multi layer I can hear it. I currently have a Denon 2910 with a Sony STR-DE335 receiver and two JBL speakers. I only have the left and right analogue cables hooked up, and had no problems playing the hi-rez stereo layer of the Fleetwood Mac Rumours DVD-A.

So is it my setup or could it be the disk? I've just begun to get into hi-rez music and just got the Denon for Christmas to start with.

 

2 things come to mind:

Make sure you go into the DVD-A menu and have the stereo hi-rez layer chosen(obvious).

You may have to go into your Denon player menu as well. It's a universal, right? Sometimes adjusting there can make a difference...

Most discs played thru my Pioneer deck default to 5.1, but some discs will go to the stereo instead. Not many, but a few.

 

I don't have your Denon DVD player, but I had a similar situation with my Onkyo player. I eventually discovered that I had the DVD player analog outs set to multi channel instead of stereo. You mentioned that the Rumors disc plays fine, so this situation may not apply. The Hotel California DVDA is wonderful, BTW.

 

I did select the stereo layer in the DVD-A menu first because that's how the Rumours one worked, but no sound on the Hotel Calofornia DVD-A even though its playing. I'm assuming the problem is my receiver. It has a 5.1 option for connecting a DVD player, but no stereo option that I can find. Yet the Rumours DVD-A worked fine, and so have all the SACDs I have played in hi-rez stereo.

 

There is also a disc authoring/compatibility issue with this disc. I was not able to reliably play the stereo layer with my first dvd-a player (a Technics dvd-a10); the audio would play but drop out repeatedly. It plays fine on my Pioneer dv47a. Perhaps someone else with your player and this disc can verify whether his/her unit plays the stereo portion of this disc without problem.

Unless I'm missing something, I don't understand how the problem could be in your receiver if you are using the same dvd-a player and selecting the stereo portions of both discs. Since the playback channel would be the same in this event, both discs should play back the same.

 

Have you tried going into the DVD player setup menu? Most DVD players with 5.1 channel analog outputs have a "multi channel setup" section where you can choose stereo or multi channel. I'm no expert in these matters, but you might give it a try. It worked for me. Good luck.

 

I did try the DVD player set up menu, but still had no luck.

 

I've noticed that sometimes besides playing it without sound, it will not play at all when the stereo layer is selected. I would try exchanging it, but the place I bought it only carries one at a time and probably won't receive another in time for me to exchange anyway.

 

I have the exact same problem with my Eagles Hotel California DVD-A. I have a Denon DVD 2200 player, and so far I was able to play all DVD-A's just fine.

I assume this is an authoring issue which makes it incompatible with some players.

I can play the multi-channel but I don't have multi-channel setup. When I choose the stereo advanced resolution it will go to the respective group (2) and go to the beginning of the first song (1) and will stay at 0:00:00 and not play, even though the PLAY symbol is shown.

I assume that replacing the disc won't help either, since I assume all DVD-A's of Hotel California are the same. Or is this not correct, and they maybe fixed the problem with a later version of the DVD-A?

I bought my DVD-A th4e beginning of 2005 from tower.com

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Roland

 

I can't hear the stereo layer on my Pioneer 563-a either...

I believe it's an authoring issue. The Queensryche DVD-A will not player either layer on my Pioneer either.

 

Can't comment on Hotel California DVD-A, but stereo LPCM 24/96 track of Queensryche's Empire DVD-A is playable in DV-563A (5.1 PPCM track doesn't play though).

 

It would make sense to think that if you report the glitch now the store should honor the change of player given that the delay in recieving the hardware is not your problem but theirs.

It could be a problem of the disk itself. Do you have a way of gettng the disk changed instead of the player? Maybe this will be easier given that you say that the other disks show no problems.

I have an off and on problem with my "Sea Change" DVD-Audio. Most of the time it works correctly in 5.1, but sometimes it stops before a song (usually the final ones) starts and just stays there until I hit the |< button, then it plays it correctly. Given that this only happens with this disk I have concluded that it is a disk problem; nothing to do with my player.

 

I have the 565 (European version of the 563) and I do not have any problems playing the stereo track on the DVD-A.

Have you updated your player's firmware?

 

Yep, did the update last year, was it? I did it when they first released it to all Pioneer authorized shops, as opposed to having to send it in...

I think I've since gotten rid of that Queensryche disc...once I found the DCC.

 

How strange. My Technics DVD-A10 has always played it with no problems at all (and that includes the stereo version). So far, that player plays everything, even the CD side of dualdiscs (not that I tend to play the CD side... but I tried it as an experiment once, with the Donnas dualdisc).

 

Hi-rez stereo layer will not play in Pioneer 563A (without new firmware ) or Panasonic F87.

 

The Hotel California Hi-Rez stereo layer will not play on my Pioneer 578A regardless of player or disc-menu settings.

Anthony

 

Just in case, why don't you try resetting your player and seeing if that takes care of your problem, my 565 (with the firmware update) plays it perfectly.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by resetting the player?

Anthony

 

Check your user's manual because you can reset the player's settings to the factory ones and this sometimes takes care of certain problems.

 

go into your player's set up menu and choose the AUDIO preference over VIDEO. this should do the trick.

later, chris

 

I seem to recall that the stereo track on "Hotel California" is 192 Khz.

I'm certain that the stereo track on "Rumours" is 96 Khz.


I could be wrong about "Hotel California"... I seem to recall another title
that I purchased around the same time listing it on the sleeve - but the
track not being there... but I think that was a different title.

At the time, I was eager to see the 192 Khz LED flash on my player. I'm
fairly certain that "Hotel California" was the first title I owned that
made this happen.

 

Yes the stereo track is 24bit/192khz on Hotel California

 

After doing some primary research on this subject, I can now definitively report that there are (at least) two different pressings of the Eagles “Hotel California” DVD-A. One of them plays the 192/24 hi-rez two channel stereo layer, and one does not. I have both copies of the disc in my possession, and I have compared the two at length.

Here’s the deal:

One of the first DVD-A discs I purchased was “Hotel California.” I had read great reviews of the sound, and I was anxious to hear the 192/24 two channel stereo layer (I am still a stereo guy.) I was dismayed to learn that neither my (three year) old Pioneer DV-656A nor my new Denon 3910 would play the stereo layer of my new disc. The Denon would make a disturbing clicking sound and would show the elapsed time of a few of the tracks but would emit no sound. The Pioneer refused to do even that much. I was able to select the stereo option on the menu, but I couldn’t get the disc to play. Oddly, however, the MC layer played just fine, as did the DVD-Video lossy DD layer. I tried resetting the machines to factory defaults. I tried updating firmware. I tried everything. Nothing worked.

Naturally this ticked me off, because I love this album and really wanted to hear it in all it’s hi-rez stereo DVD-A glory. Besides, I had read enough comments from other folks who had no problem playing the stereo layer. But I also read many comments from other folks who had trouble playing the stereo layer like I did. I began to think that perhaps there was more than one version of this disc…

So one day recently I picked up a used copy of the disc at my local indy shop. I took it home, put it in the Denon, cued up the stereo track and held my breath. Bingo! I got beautiful, 192/24 stereo two channel sound! It sounded great! I hooked up my old Pioneer, and the used disc played perfectly on that machine as well. This copy also played the MC and DD layers perfectly.

After examining both discs closely I can clearly see that these are two different pressings, as follows:

1) The “good” DVD-A (the one that plays the stereo layer) has a slightly gray colored disc label, with dark, crisp printing. The “bad” disc has a mostly white colored label, with faded, slightly blurry printing.

2) The inner rings of each disc have different numbers and markings. These can be seen clearly in the pictures below.

3) The packaging appears to be identical for both discs. The bar codes and matrix numbers on the jewel box tray and inserts are identical, so there does not seem to be any way to tell the difference without opening the discs and examining them closely.

I will post pictures below.

I hope this helps some of you find a good copy of this DVD-A. It’s worth it!

Chris

 

Here is the "good" disc. Note the slightly grey color and the crisp printing.