DVD Concert Questions and Answers

Why this site?

I loved watching live musical performance on television whenever I could find them, so when more concerts were released on DVD, I got interested in the format and bought a DVD player last year. I became more fascinated with concert discs than my CDs. But there is not a lot of information, reviews or a place to discuss musical performance on DVD, a lot about movies, but very little on music. Also, it's very hard to find concert DVDs on DVD review websites, at online stores and even in the store where they are often tucked away in some non-descript location. So if you like concert video, I think you'll enjoy this site.

Why Live Performance of Music?

"... for most musicians live albums are little more than concert souvenirs or holiday-season cash-ins ..." Rolling Stone (January 22, 2002). This is an unfortunate state of affairs that has existed throughout the history of modern popular music. Ever since the introduction of the phonorecord, live musical performance has had to take a back seat to studio albums. Partly, this is the ability to create sounds in the studio that are unavailable live. But partly it is do to carelessness of both artists and concert-goers. I sometimes think that we should ban all recorded music to force all performance to be live as it once was before the invention of the phonograph. Perhaps DVD-Video can reawaken appreciation for the true context of music.

Need another reason? I saw this in Usenet once: "My 14 year son is taking guitar and he is blown away by hearing and seeing music and concert footage from the "guitar masters"."

Who pays for this site?

I pay for it out of pocket. If you enjoy the site, please buy a few DVDs to help keep it going. Thanks!

--- liketheweather, site admin

Now, for some helpful hints for DVD musical performance.

Can I hook speakers directly to my DVD player?

To get the most from your player you will need a receiver (or separate amplifier system if you're an audiophile) to drive the speakers. Nearly all players have outputs for stereo sound. You cannot hook the output up from any normal DVD player directly to regular "hi-fi" speakers. You have three options if you are not interested in digital surround sound: 1) Hook these up to an existing stereo receiver and speaker system. You will be able to hear stereo and any "matrix" surround sound if you have a decoder for it. 2) Connect to a powered speaker system. These are usually sold for use with computer sounds systems or portable CD players. This is an reasonable option for a small den or office. 3) If you television set has line level inputs for stereo sound, you may use the built-in stereo speakers. This is probably the least effective option unless your Tv has very good audio quality. Some televisions can decode matrix surround sound (look for Dolby Pro Logic on them).

To play back in Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS surround sound, you will need an audio/visual receiver capable of decoding these formats. More discs are being produced with DTS as it gains popularity, so I suggest you get a receiver with both DD and DTS. Many feel DTS offers superior sound quality to DTS, so you will likely want the option so you can decide for yourself.

Is it possible to listen to surround sound on headphones?

Not everyone has built a multi-speaker system for home listening. Five full range speakers can require a large room and budget as well. Moreover, there are occasions when private listening is required. Such as when travelling or late at night. The question is often asked, is there a way to hear surround sound without filling my living room with speakers or bothering anyone? Yes, Dolby Headphone technology solves this problem by providing a rich surround sound experience in headphones. No special headphones are needed. How does this work? Normally sound comes to the ear both in a direct from the speaker and reflections from the various surfaces in the room. The small delays in reflected sound give our ears clues about how far and in what direction sounds are from us. Also speakers impart their own coloration to sound. Conventional headphones make no attempt to simulate the small time delays and characteristics of listening to individual speakers in a room. The familiar stereo headphones place the image to the side and within the head resulting in an unrealistic soundfield, which may be useful for audio engineers or detailed listening but lacks the rich image produced by speakers. Dolby Headphone attempts to recreate the experience of listening to speakers in a room. So far, reviews have been positive although not everyone agrees.

Does Dolby Digital always means five channels of sound?

The number of channels Dolby Digital carries can range from 1 to 5 of compressed digital audio depending on what the producer decides to include (or how many channels are available in the original work). The sound may be mono (1.0), stereo (2.0), three channel (3.0, two stereo speakers plus a center dialog speaker) four channel (4.0), five channel (5.0), four speakers plus center) and the .1 is for the "low frequency effects" channel. It is named so because it makes up about one-tenth of the overal audio. The LFE channel is not necessarily the "subwoofer channel." The LFE channel may be routed to four wide range speakers mixed in with the overall soundtrack, or it may be sent to a subwoofer. This depends on settings in your receiver or decoder. Even if only two channels are recorded you may still obtain 4 channel surround sound if the music or soundtrack is encoded with a "matrix" sound format. This surround sound "hides" the sound for the two extra channels in the music itself, using Dolby Surround encoding. A Dolby Surround or Dolby Pro Logic decoder is required to playback and hear the matrix surround sound.

Ground Loops

If you've got HUM in your audio, you may have a ground loop. Here's a great site for understanding and fixing a ground loop. Ground Loops

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