Alice
Cooper – Live At Montreux 2005 (HD-DVD)
Picture: B
Sound: B+* Extras: D Film: B-
Eagle Rock is now matching and possibly surpassing their
initial Blu-ray releases with HD-DVD editions under their Eagle Vision HD label. Alice Cooper - Live At Montreux 2005 is
the third time the company has issued the popular, high-quality concert and for
good reason. Though this is a more
paired-down version of Copper on stage, it is interesting change and the
following links show the coverage of its content:
DVD-Video/CD set
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3908/Alice+Cooper+-+Live+At+Montreux+2005+(DVD/CD+Set)
Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4455/Alice+Cooper+–+Live+At+Montreux+2005+(Blu-ray)
With the DVD having limited information capacity, the
Blu-ray easily squashed it with its 25GB/single-layer capacity, but this HD-DVD
has 30GB and it sounds like there has been an audio upgrade here as it is
labeled.
The 1080i 1.78 X 1 image is again at least as clean as the
DVD-Video version, but depth and detail are improved as they were with the
Blu-ray edition, as the color here making the DVD-Video version look a bit
washed out by comparison. Sound is
presented in the same three configurations as the DVD-Video version: PCM 2.0 16-Bit/48kHz,
standard 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes. The DTS HD Master Audio is a major upgrade of
the regular DTS from the previous editions and though no one has a chip to
playback the full 192kHz/24-Bit sound, you can hear the improvements even in
the tradedown we heard it in. We will
have to revisit this one down the line.
Like the Blu-ray and DVD-Video versions, there are no
extras on this HD-DVD, but the DVD-Video version of the concert we covered
previously did come packaged with a CD of the concert, which unfortunately due
to time constraints, is missing the morality play segment of the show.
Overall, the HD-to-HD playback made it a more pleasant
sit-through and if you can catch it this way first, you’ll be able to enjoy and
judge it better for yourself. However,
with this being one of the very first HD-DVDs with DTS HD Master Audio 5.1
sound, it should be a very sought-after HD-DVD for a very long time.
- Nicholas Sheffo
