[NewMusic] DVD playback question for the group

[grobair at emusician.com]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. It's been very helpful. It's a bit of a
gamble to release it on DVD, rather than a box of CDs, not only with
purchaser/listeners but also with, say, college radio (traditionally our
biggest media supporters). But to those of us involved, it makes the most
sense aesthetically, just as it did for Mode to do the Feldman works on DVD.

We've tried this project a number of ways t o make this work in this format,
and we'll keep it up till we're satisfied that it works.
. 
To answer Andrew's question, I think it has to with the fact that this is a
dual-layer DVD that we're having problems on laptops. It is working fine on
the tower computers I've used, such as a Mac G4 "mirror door". The problem
is that the tracks on the second layer don't always play on the laptops
we've tried. Some do, and some don't. So, at least we know that the DVD is
in this form on most systems. I'm just trying to figure out the
compatibility issue. The disc itself passes all the diagnostic tests for a
replicated disc (that is, it's within tolerances).

I realize some of you will rip this to iTunes to listen to it in the car or
in the woods and that's fine with me. I just want to make sure that
"friendly experiencers" get a full-resolution copy that works on the
majority of playback devices, just in case they want to sit in one place for
6.5 hours! :-)

Again, any and all comments are welcome. Feel free to contact me offlist.
Best,
ginorobair

PS: in the meantime, I still have handful of copies of the CD reissue of
"Duets 1987", which was remastered with extra tracks. Let me know if you're
interested. 

* * * * * * *

Posted by: "Andrew Grathwohl" agrathwohl at gmail.com   theoutletserver
Wed Jan 9, 2008 6:59 am (PST)
In my particular situation, I will not be buying the DVD unless I can be
assured compatibility on a computer DVD-ROM drive. The reason is because, as
a college student, I use my laptop to watch and read DVDs, so I have no use
to buy a standalone DVD player. I have a dedicated CD player, as an audio
major, but again, no use for a standalone DVD player.

I attend the Jacobs School of Music's Recording Arts department, and I may
be able to ask one of my professors (one of whom essentially championed the
release of music on the DVD format) about your particular question. I'll get
back to you later on what my professors say about this...

I should specify: What exactly has been wrong with the DVD's compatibility
on the DVD-ROM drives? Have some drives been successful in reading the DVD,
and others not? Or is this an issue of software mostly?

If the DVD can at least be read by the computer, then one should be able to
view (or "explore", for OSX users) the disc and copy off the relevant audio
files. There are plenty of free, open source applications that can play PCM
audio files. If you can't even get as far as copying the files to the
computer from the DVD, then I'm sure my professors can tell you whether or
not full compatibility is even possible...


-Andrew Grathwohl