Any problems with Springsteens DualDisc?


I've got Springsteens new cd on order with Amazon and its a dualdisc, which, from what I've read does not quite meet Redbook standards. What should I expect? Damage to my Cary 303/200 or my Toshiba DVD player? What kind of sound quality?

I did do a quick search on the forums before writing this note, and I could not tell exactly whether the folks who wrote were experienceing problems with dualdisc or there was just anger in the perception that Sony was taking up the cause of dualdisc in place of SACD.

What's really going on?

Thanks,
Art
artmaltman
I played it the day it came out in my 306/200 without any problems & good sound quality.
Hmmmm... The new Ben Folds is a Dual Disc and it plays fine in my 222ES changer and older Rotel Player.. Have not tried the DVD Portion..
I hope to be posting a review of Devils And Dust on Lugs in the next week or so.It needs a little revamp to start the 2005 reviews of which there are plenty already to do.
http://lugsmusicreviews.com

I prefer O'Brien's production on this album to his work on The Rising and the material is at least good infact it's very good in parts I'm just at the stage of trying to determine how good.

Here in the UK,the DVD comes as a seperate disc, I don't have 5 channel but the 5 acoustic performances are excellent.
I've had no problems with the playback, and the sound quality is very good (Lector CDP-7T). The only problem I've had is it will not allow me to make a duplicate copy for the car. It simply cannot find an audio file to copy.

Cbucki
Plays fine on my Sony SCD XA-9000ES. I was a little nervous about putting it in there, I'll admit.
I haven't tried the DVD side, yet.

Cheers.
It's my first DualDisc and the first "CD" that my Pioneer 47ai cannot play properly.

On the other hand my cheapo Panasonic DVD player has not problems with the CD side - haven't tried the other side yet.
Played fine on my 999ES.

In general I like this disc, but I don't necessarily like what da Boss does with his voice on some of the cuts. Recording quality varies a bit from song to song, but it is generally good to really good.
Update. My XA9000ES will sometimes read this disc. Sometimes it comes up "No Disc".

Agree totally with 1markr!
Would not play in my car cd player (1997 Toyota 4runner),played in nad 541i, burned it with imac and played the burned disc in the car.
What I think is going on is that my tower records charges $20 for this new release, and there's only 12 audio tracks. DualDisc means no choice - you get the video portion, and pay seven dollars more. It's gouging by another name.

I only hope college students and other file sharers are ripping the record companies off as badly as the record companies claim.

BTW, I assume the audio recording quality is as bad as most other Springsteen efforts...(some worse than others.)
The CD itself is not bad. I think it is his first since the 'Ghost of Tom Joab', which, in all honesty is a better CD. The DVD side is only the words on a kinda pretty background.

Still, it is a good CD and I am glad I bought it.
I have had problems with two copies of the new Springsteen, BUT on the DVD side. The CD side has played fine. The first one simply locked up on the menu page with white streaks across the page. The second one played the album DD5.1 fine but I got no audio with the music videos.
Mine plays on my Audio Aero Capitole, in my car and both sides work well in my Audiovox DVD/CD player.
I won't buy it because I don't support DualDisc. I'll just have to import the CD - I did get the single CD the other day.

Regards,
I haven't tried the new Springsteen disc, but I did buy the new Dave Matthews dula disc and it won't play in my Cary CD player at all. Its going back to the store tom first thing. Dual disc is a joke. Record companies are trying to convince us to buy more of their products buy putting this crap format out? I don't think so...
Oh you guys meant besides his singing, (err if ya wanna call it singing) and far left politics? LOL sorry
Hey...if politics is more important than singing, then RUSH is your ticket....you know....don't listen to anybody but me.....
LMAO...or U2 before we thought they were not sell-outs...just lousy...I love the edge on guitar...NOT
I don't think opposing Bush constitutes far left politics at all. Many centrist people opposed him; just not enough of them (as tabulated.) If you have some other indication than Springsteen is "far left," I wish you would post it.

There are a lot of people who think Springsteen does not have a "good" singing voice. It's not important that he does in the sense they mean it, because you don't necessarily have to be a technically good singer to be expressive.

I think he's a pretty good artist, and wish he would demand better quality recordings....
Do I really need to post an example of his politics? C'mon
step away from the Kool-Aid, do you think he has ever been a fan of anyone on the right? Anyway it was a joke, nothing more, nothing less..move on, its not worth the energy.
But if I could take out Bruce, the Dixie Chicks, and Striesand with one Gernade I might put effort into that.
Again just a joke, get over it
Why of course the people don’t want war. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.’’ _ Hermann Goering, Luftwaffe Commander.
I vote for better recording quality on the Springsteen discs. Even the early LP's were muddy. No excuse for that.

As for politics, his lyrics have always suggested sympathy for those struggling to make it in our society. I've never detected that he blames anything or anyone in particular, like, the government, the rich, or the poor themselves for not trying hard enough. Bruce paints portraits of gritty situations.

I remember that the New York police were so upset with his song "41 shots" that they refused to provide security (at first) for his New York concert. But I don't think they really read the lyrics, which, I think, don't blame the police for the situation. The song just paints a portrait of a type of situation that happens routinely in which police need to decide, in a split second "Is it a gun, is it a knife, is is a wallet? This is your life!".

Art
>Chadnliz - Do I really need to post an example of his politics?

Yes, that's what I asked for: Examples of his "far left" politics. I don't think you have any such examples.

Now, if you're only joking then that's what I'll take your opinions for. (Of course, when I imply your political opinions are a total joke, I am only joking. So get over it, Benito.)
My Music Hall Maverick won't read this disc. My Sony XA-9000ES will read it sometimes.
I'm with Metralla. I don't support this format. I had to have one just to find out first hand, though.
I won't be buying any more DualDiscs.

Cheers.
Forget the politics ... why aren't you guys doing something about these damn DualDiscs. I am pissed off that these huge record companies are bringing in these new disc formats (DualDisc, Copy Controlled discs), regardless that they are not in compliance with the Red Book CD standards. Hence, it is not surprising that many of you can't play these damn things on your CD or DVD players. These companies have no regard for their legal consumers !!!!! And they wonder why people feel it is right to steal music ?
I got the DualDisc "Kind of Blues" by (you know who) and it played 3 songs on my Sony XA777ES and then just stopped. I gave up after that. Thom_y, I understand your frustration, but what the h#ll are we going to do. Business rules and we are peasants. We can't even put Michael Jackson away.

Rob
I agree completely with Thom_y. It's a travesty that they release something like this, without at least giving us the PRACTICAL option of obtaining a regular CD version. I say "practical", because I understand there are some CDs somewhere (i.e. they are hardly readily available). I think some day these companies will be forced to learn what they ignore now. In the meantime, I suspect they are making more and more enemies.
Yes, I agree:

Here is a statement Meridian made regarding these DualDiscs. I believe Sony made similar warnings for some of their machines:

Meridian Issue Statement On DualDisc Compatibility

Meridian has issued a statement on the compatibility of the new DualDisc format and their own players. It is as follows:

Meridian has been fully aware of DualDisc since its inception, having carried out extensive tests on the new music carrier from the test-market stage onwards. Meridian endorses DualDisc, which offers wide compatibility across the vast majority of our players. This statement is being issued to give guidance to Meridian owners who wish to play the discs on their systems.

DualDisc is a two-sided music disc that aims to provide the maximum flexibility to those wishing to access or collect high-quality music on DVD. DualDisc has one or more DVD layers on one side, and a CD-compatible layer on the other.

On the DVD side, the majority of discs carry DVD-Audio content, which uses Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP) to provide state-of-the-art high-quality sound. The DVD side also carries a DVD-Video zone with the music in either stereo PCM and/or lossy-compressed stereo/surround formats. All DualDiscs must have, at minimum, a DVD-Video zone with high-quality music and some video content. Most titles include significant added-value material such as movie-clips, liner notes, interviews, concert footage, and other content. For more details, visit: http://www.dualdisc.com/

The DVD side of a DualDisc is 100% consistent with the DVD specification and will play in all Meridian’s past and present DVD-Video and DVD-Audio players.

The other side of the DualDisc contains a layer that is intended to be compatible with the majority of CD players. This layer is not compliant with the Red Book CD specification because it is thinner than a normal CD (typically 0.9mm rather than 1.1mm). This is primarily to keep the overall disc thickness below 1.5mm so as to minimise potential issues with slot-loading and caddy-based multi-disc players. DualDisc market tests showed that a small percentage of CD players, and especially DVD players, were unable to play the CD-compatible side reliably.

Because the CD side is not compliant with Red Book physical parameters, Meridian does not guarantee that the CD-compatible side will play without audible errors in all players. However, attempting to do so will cause no harm or damage whatsoever to our players.
Sony Japan posted today Q&A about the DualDisc format...

The text below comes from a Japanese->English translation, so there might be errors...

"...DualDisc is a new disk that consists of the side (non-DVD side) only for music that records respect (DVD side) in accordance with the DVD standard put on the market by the music industry in the United States on October 26 last year and digital audio information. The side (non-DVD side) only for the music of DualDisc doesn't conform to compact disc (CD) standard.

Inquiries concerning notes and this case of the DualDisc use in the Sony product were published in the much more, and refer, please.

Moreover, please inquire of each music label company in sales companies that sell DualDisc or the sale origin about details and the how to buy etc. DualDisc.

Q&A concerning DualDisc use

Q1. Isn't DualDisc CD?

A1. The side (non-DVD side) only for the music of DualDisc doesn't conform to compact disc (CD) standard. Therefore, the CD logo is not put.

Q2. Can DualDisc be reproduced with PC equipped with the recorder or DVD player/DVD drive made by Sony?

A2. Because the side (non-DVD side) only for the music of DualDisc doesn't conform to compact disc (CD) standard, the reproduction on the side (non-DVD respect) only for the music of DualDisc is not guaranteed in the DVD drive made by Sony present for the recorder and PC DVD player/The DVD video contents recorded in DVD respect of DualDisc can be reproduced by the DVD drive made by Sony for the recorder and PC DVD player/However, because the digital versatile disc audio format is not supported in the DVD drive made by Sony for the recorder and PC DVD player/contents recorded by the digital versatile disc audio format in DVD respect of DualDisc cannot be reproduced.
When I played this disk the CD portion sounded in parts like there smudges on it, with some crackles & low pops. There were no issues when using with the car CD player. I burned a copy of the CD side onto a Maxell CD-R and now am experiencing none of the anamolies present on the dual disk.
Hmmmm. I like Mattkimb96's idea of burning a home-made cd copy. That is, as long as my computer can read the cd side of the dual-disk, then this could prove to be a generic (if time consuming) solution. Any other comments on this idea?
Art
Even better, make those CD-Rs devoid of the copy control and then distribute copies widely to all your friends or even in front of your favorite record store.

I still don't think Sony-BMG will get the message. Unfortunately, they keep forcing new technology on their customers, without regard as to whether it can be used in all CD players. Hopefully, DualDisc will suffer a quick death.
I will never buy one!not even up to redbook standards!what were they thinking when they came out with this format?The music industry keeps shooting themselves in the foot,then blames music downloaders for low sales,,,geez!I remember when my friends and i would make copys on 8 track then cass. and the music industry was doing fine,,granted a computer is faster,,i think greed and stupidity is hurting the industry much more than downloading!Hmm,,yeah,i feel better now!
I got a double disk (separate CD & DVD-A) version from CD-WOW.com that seems to be out of the UK, but the disk was shipped from Hong Kong. $16.98 if I remember correctly. Seems that some of the music being put out in the US as dual disk is showing up on this much better double disk format elsewhere.
I bought this Dualdisc because it was the only way to get the Springsteen album. Otherwise I'd kind of be wary.

Which leads to...

Do you any of you know if there is a LP version? I was able to get an LP version of his last album. Alas, I forget now where I got it. : - (

Thanks,
Art
Art,

Not that I am that crazy about the CD, it was released as a CD only in Canada and could be obtained online amazon.ca if you so desired. But, I agree it really bugs me when record companies unilaterally decide to release certain recordings exclusively with these new technologies (i.e. DualDisc, CopyControlled discs), not giving a crap that they cannot be played flawlessly on all CD or multiformat players.

Lawrence

I must say, I have seriously toyed with going partly back to vinyl for this and other reasons. Yet, I then come to reality when I realize why I was happy to abandon vinyl in the 1980s. Although, I am certain if I spent enough on a TT (etc) and tinkered enough the result would blow my emmlabs out of the water.
BTW did you ever try to play the DualDisc on your Cary player ? Does it work without any audio errors ?
Yes, it plays ok on my Cary. Sounds a little muffled, not sure why.
Art
ps: I just ordered the LP from amusicdirect.
Muffled...a good way to describe it also on my Audio aero Capitole. I just thought it was the mixing. Could be the disc itself.