Neil Young announces upcoming 10 disc Archives release on Blu-ray Nov. 3, 2008*

Exactly. Before long, it will be popular not to have discs at all. No physical format...

 

Based on watching his presentation, it appears his bottom line is 24/192 audio and being able to jump around the video while the 24/192 audio streams. DVD-A provides the former, but only Blu-ray appears to provide the latter. DVD-V provides neither, with a 24/96 upper limit on audio. So it's hard to guess what format other than Blu-ray this will be released in. While DVD-V seems to fall short on both goals, Neil Young's recent deluxe releases have all featured 24/96 DVD-V audio. DVD-A would work for the audio portion goal of 24/192, but Neil hasn't released a DVD-A disc since Greendale.

Is it possible Blu-ray will be it for the Archives box sets and that lower resolution 16/44 and 24/96 archival releases will be limited to the single disc live Performance Series and Unreleased Album Series, starting with Toast?

 

If Neil wants to be so forward-thinking regarding the technology of this thing, dump it all on a Neil Young-branded external hard drive. New Yorker magazine offers their archive on a drive like that, so why not do the same with music? Then you would truly be able to download updates and incorporate them into the timeline.

I probably won't buy a blu-ray player until the normal-res DVD dies off, and by that time another format will be in place. So, no sale here.

 

That has nothing to do with what I was talking about. The fella was saying no movie has been released on Blu-ray only.

 

Neil is nuts. If someone can't play his releases through an iPod, car stereo, computer, music server, etc...that person may well just wait for the stuff to turn up as flac or mp3 on a peer to peer site. Blu-only is a bad mistake.

 

Remember back when the 2 "archive" CD's (Fillmore & Massey Hall) were released, & everyone was concerned that they would be "repeated" on the first Archives box set, meaning that you'd of bought the same material twice? Pretty funny in hindsight, huh?

Well, I'm sure glad that I bought them when they came out & have had all this time to enjoy them. Looks like that might be all of the "Archives" that ever find their way into my collection.

 

Regular DVD's are MORE than good enough for me.
And I often think about the same thing regarding the aging/deteriorating eyesight comment. Like you, I'm sick of the format wars, & I myself don't feel like buying into it.

Outstanding post, Johnny!

 

So true. Regular DVDs still look excellent to my eyes. I play them thru an analog Sony Trinitron TV from like '96 that still looks fantastic. I have no plans to buy a HD TV or Blu Ray DVD player, well maybe 10 years from now when one of them breaks.

If large amounts of hi-rez music starts coming out on Blu-ray that might change my thoughts. But I dont see that happening. And I would want a cheap (<200$) multiformat player from Oppo etc before I would even consider it.
Yes, Im cheap

 

Blu Ray whats the point if he were to mix everything in surround then may be else wise why not straight DVD/CD releases like his recent releases compatable with his fan base.

The Mind Boggles !!!

 

That's one ballsy and forward thinking announcement.

And typically Neil. I.e., the single most egotistical announcement ever since the day Prince became the symbol.

I'd pay a hundred bucks for a coupla extra Buffalo Springfield tracks, no problem.

But buy a new technology that at this point I don't want? Hey Neil, hold your breath while yer waitin' on me to do that -- a guy who's famous among my friends for always being the last to buy 'new' technologies?? Pass.

So, congrats, Neil. I like to BUY stuff from artists I really admire. I'll be finding a way around that to get any Springfield stuff you put on Blu Ray, tho. NOT buying a player.

Unless he puts ALL the Buffalo Springfield TV appearances, pristine and uncut on there. THAT might make a Blu Ray owner out of me.

Neil's said and done plenty of things that've irritated or amused me in the past, but this really takes the cake.

Maybe this will be a candidate for WBR's new 'dynamic pricing' they announced this week. Buy a Blu Ray deck from, say, Best Buy, and get a free copy of Neil Young's Archives 10-disc Blu Ray box. THAT, I might do.

I'd have to say based on this announcement, tho, that I'd rather buy a bootleg sourced from the DVD than pay Neil for Blu Ray discs. That's how forward I think this announcement is.

 

That seems to be the case which makes me wonder why he's gone down the Blu Ray route? Is he more interested in the concept rather than the sales? He did say that Blu Ray was exactly the format to deliver the ideas he had in mind for the Archives project. It seems to me it's more of an artistic vision than flogging units so in this respect he has to be applauded but yet I do agree with you, his hardcore fanbase are going to be excluded.

 

That makes two of us. All I care about is the SOUND.

 

can anyone post a link to the 'watch again' for this presentation 'cause I'm damned if I can find one on the Sun or Java or JavaOne Conf websites...?

 

That's funny because I think it's exactly that age group that is running out and buying Blue Ray and big plasma TV's.

 

You guys do realize that Blu-Ray players play discs other than the Neil Young Archives right?

 

But not SACD (other than superceded Playstation 3s) or DVD-A, meaning that being able to play all hi-rez NY requires at least two different players.

 

Not to stary into taboo of territory, but if you paid for this set, I am sure the technology exists to capture the audio and convert it into the medium of your chocie. A Pain sure, but fair use, and do able.

C

 

I think that once the contents become known it's going to be harder to maintain that sentiment. As soon as this thing started to go multi-media I got worried. I think that talk started in the late nineties. Most people don't want a multi-media experience all the time. Aside from the restriction on where one has to be (at home, in the room with the Blu-ray) in order to partake in the experience, I think visual distracts from audio. I'm aggravated because some hoops will have to be jumped through. However, I can't envision any scenario in which I won't jump through those hoops once I see the contents (BS, CH, CSNY outtakes, unreleased songs, albums, demos, etc....).

That's a great idea. It would be even better if a mechanism was made available to burn the music to cd.

Look how much time he's put into making lousy films (the verdict is out on "Deja Vu" because I haven't seen it). He loves that stuff. Even his shows in the eighties were multimedia. This is clearly what he wants to do regardless of the potential pitfalls. He probably thinks it's fantastic and that he'll convert people. To some extent he's right. He will convert people. He'll convert me. But I'm not normal. He'll lose all of the fans that aren't totally gonzo, which is most of them. He could put that stuff out on 78 and I'd buy a 78 player.

 

yeah, thats partly the burn for me. I've got a pretty pricey and fairly new machine that plays all kinds of discs but blu-ray and really dont have the room for two machines to play discs....so when one can play all that I own on shiny 5" discs, I might be swayed.

I"m sure the quality is astounding though.

 

People round here don't seem to have any trouble endlessly upgrading their stereo systems, so I don't know why it's suddenly inconceivable to imagine upgrading their DVD player.

The question to me is more do you want to be locked into watching/listening to this thing in front of your TV. I think it's been pretty conclusively demonstrated in the past few years that most music listeners aren't really interested in staying parked in front of their A/V equipment.

 

another thing that struck me during the press conference, they were showing some 60s' looking tv show where he was performing and he says "I wouldnt buy a record from a guy who looks like that", or something to that effect, and frankly, I am not much of a fan for seeing that sort of archival tv performance footage all that often.

So many are going to have to pay for the video content, which I for one would pass on if there were a choice.

I mean, is Journey Through The Past film going to be in that box? thats not something I care to see either....

on a DVD note, I find I watch, well actually listen to the Heart of Gold DVD a lot and I always think it sounds pretty great through my system, so not quite sure what he's hearing that I'm not, but I wish I had Neils bionic ears. I'm missing something if the Greatest Hits CD and the other recent cd's are "unacceptable audio quality"....something i'm sure that ancient tv clip is going to be guilty of. Do we need 192/24 bit sound for an old 60s tv mono broadcast video?

 

We'll hear Neil say this a third time when the successor to BR appears. This 35-year Neil Young fanatic is irritated by it all at this point, almost to the point of disinterest in ever hearing the Archives.

 

close your eyes.

 

I'm sure that when this finally comes out, someone will figure out how to upload the audio content onto a torrent-sharing site. In the meantime, I'm gonna go home and listen to my needle-drop of Time Fades Away.

 

Only Neil can break your heart...