More Seeger Sessions Disc Problems

Damn! I'm back already, and I've got some bad news and some good news.

But first, if you are wondering what this is all about, read the previous blog entry I made earlier tonight.

Now. In case you haven't caught up with the latest technology, some discs are now being released as a two format, double-sided disc. That is, one side of the disc is recorded as an audio disc, and the other side is recorded in DVD format. Both this recording, and Springsteen's previous album, Devils and Dust have been released in this Dual Disc format.

So. After listening to The Seeger Sessions a couple of times via my computer, I decided to have a look at the DVD content on the disc. I popped the disc out of the CD tray, and put it into the DVD tray. I assumed I would have no problems with this, since the audio side had worked well in the CD player.

And so to the bad news -- I was wrong!

This time all I could hear was constant noise. A bit like the sound of static your TV might make when it is not tuned into a regular channel.

Damn! Now I'm really not happy. I went back to the Root Menu on the DVD and found an Audio Select setting. I clicked on this and was presented with two options. (1)Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, and (2)PCM Sound. Aha, thought I. Here's what I'm looking for. I could see that the check box next to Dolby Digital was selected. Since I don't have 5.1 Surround connected to my computer, I clicked instead on PCM Sound. Maybe this was the answer.

I was wrong.

In fact, I didn't seem to be able to select PCM Sound. Each time I went back to the Audio Select setting, Dolby Digital was highlighted. Now I'm really starting to get pissed off.

In desperation (and with the volume down low so that I am not driven mad by the sound of static), I did a right click on the DVD splash screen, and a pop-up menu appeared.

Without really knowing what I was doing, or what I was looking for, I check through some of the options on the pop-up menu. Down towards the bottom of the pop-up I could see a heading called, 'Configuration...' (see screen shot). I clicked on that and the Configuration dialog box appeared. Exploring through this I took a closer look at the Audio tab.

I notice that in the Speaker Environment field, the '2 Speaker' option is selected (see screen shot below). On a whim, I select the Use SPDIF option, just to see what it does, and -- Ta! Da!

Finally, there is some good news. The sound is perfect. Don't ask me why -- because I have no idea. Nor do I know what SPDIF means, nor what it does. All I know is, my problem appears to be solved, and I can now watch the DVD component of my new purchase the way it was meant to be viewed.

Oh, and one final piece of good news. I've also played the DVD in a standard DVD player attached to my television, and everything seems to be working fine there as well.

But questions still remain. Surely, it is not unreasonable in this day and age, to expect something as basic as this to work properly, straight out of the box? If a company like SonyBMG can't get this right, what hope have the others? And why not just put two discs in the package: one a standard audio CD, and the other a standard DVD? Do we really need a hybrid product?

SonyBMG must produce these discs for a few cents each anyway, so cost is the least of their concerns. In fact, what they should be concerned about, are the problems I and others (and there *must* be others), are having with this new Dual Disc format.

The advertising states: "One Disc - Two Experiences". However, it's not much good when the experiences we are having with these discs are unhappy ones.

--o0o--

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