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Monday 9 November 2015

Analysing 1 and 1+

Record store in Amsterdam
From Monday to Friday last week, I've been in Amsterdam in Holland. And that's where I was when the new Beatles product was due to be released on Friday. So a Beatles friend of mine and I went to a record store to buy a few copies. Actually I was a bit surprised when I found out not only that there was a Beatles poster in the window advertising the new releases, but a bit of hoopla around the event was in the store. Everyone who bought a configuration of "Beatles 1" that day could enter a lottery, free of charge, and the ones who won got their pick of two large Beatles prints. An advertising poster for "Beatles 1" was hanging on the wall, with a black and white image of the lads from the "Revolution" video.

Sorry about the quality, I had no idea it was going to turn out so blurry.
There seems to have been a problem somewhere along the line, regarding the Limited Edition "Beatles 1+" in it's Blu-ray configuration. As I had already ordered this package from Amazon in the UK, I was alerted by mail that there was a problem and that the content of what I had ordered had changed. I had make note of the fact that the Amazon page for the Blu-ray edition "Beatles 1+" was a bit mixed up, some times referring to the video discs as DVDs, and sometimes as Blu-ray discs. Now everything had been reverted back to DVDs and I had to cancel my order and order it again, this time from a page which advertised the edition as Blu-ray discs consistently.
Now that I was in an actual record store, and not a virtual one, I witnessed that they had every edition for sale, except the Limited Blu-ray edition of "Beatles 1+". The same thing has been reported from other countries in Europe, plus Amazon UK has yet to confirm shipment of my new order, so it looks like this edition has been delayed here in Europe. Back in the record store in Amsterdam, my friend bought the DVD version of the Limited Edition "Beatles 1+", and since I was expecting to get the Blu-ray edition of that same package in the mail when I got home, I went for the yellow 1CD + 1DVD of "Beatles 1". Since I'm still waiting for my "Beatles 1+" edition, I'll leave it to others (below) to review the full package.

The version I purchased in Amsterdam: 1CD / 1DVD.
It also sounds like, from reports by Beatles fans unsuccessfully trying to get hold of the new release, that it was understocked in most of the record stores. A lot of people who arrived late in the day to purchase the release have had to visit quite a few record stores to find copies.

Blu-ray.com has provided us with the following details regarding video quality:
The contents of the two Blu-ray discs are listed below, along with the resolution of each track (resolutions seem to be independent of the original source formats, e.g., some supposed 16mm or 35mm sources are presented interlaced while some that look to have been sourced from broadcast video are progressive).

Beatles 1
Love Me Do (1080i, 29.970 fps)
From Me to You (1080i, 29.970 fps)
She Loves You (1080i, 29.970 fps)
I Want to Hold Your Hand (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Can't Buy Me Love (1080i, 29.970 fps)
A Hard Day's Night (1080i, 29.970 fps)
I Feel Fine (1080p, 23.976 fps)
Eight Days a Week (1080p, 23.976 fps)
Ticket to Ride (1080p, 23.976 fps)
Help! (1080p, 23.976 fps)
Yesterday (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Day Tripper (1080i, 29.970 fps)
We Can Work It Out (1080p, 23.976 fps)
Paperback Writer (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Yellow Submarine (1080p, 23.976 fps)
Eleanor Rigby (1080p, 23.976 fps)
Penny Lane (1080p, 23.976 fps)
All You Need Is Love (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Hello, Goodbye (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Lady Madonna (1080p, 23.976 fps)
Hey Jude (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Get Back (1080p, 23.976 fps)
The Ballad of John and Yoko (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Something (1080p, 23.976 fps)
Come Together (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Let It Be (1080p, 23.976 fps)
The Long and Winding Road (1080p, 23.976 fps)

Beatles 1+
Twist and Shout (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Baby It's You (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Words of Love (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Please, Please Me (1080i)
I Feel Fine (1080p, 23.976 fps)
Day Tripper (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Day Tripper (3rd version) (1080p, 23.976 fps)
We Can Work It Out (1080p, 23.976 fps)
Paperback Writer (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Rain (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Rain (alternate) (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Strawberry Fields Forever (1080p, 23.976 fps)
Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows (1080i, 29.970 fps)
A Day in the Life (1080p, 23.976 fps)
Hello, Goodbye (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Hello, Goodbye (alternate) (1080i, 23.976 fps)
Hey Bulldog (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Hey Jude (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Revolution (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Get Back (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Don't Let Me Down (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Free as a Bird (1080i, 29.970 fps)
Real Love (1080i, 29.970 fps)

The Beatles 1+ Deluxe is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Apple and Capitol Music with AVC encoded transfers in both 1080i and 1080p (see above for a list of the various resolution presentations), and in a variety of aspect ratios, most of which hover around the 1.33:1 size (some are a bit narrower, a few get to wider aspect ratios like 1.66:1). As should probably be expected from a compilation like this one, video quality is quite variable, with some of the broadcast videos having baked in issues like ghosting, tracers and combing artifacts. The more professionally produced items, especially those on 35mm and 16mm, look significantly better, with very good (if perhaps not exceptional) levels of detail, and some great color (especially during the psychedelic Sgt. Pepper era). The 16mm films show requisite (heavy) grain, and the finer grain field of the 35mm elements is also generally organic looking. Whatever restorative efforts which were undertaken have resulted in elements which are largely problem free, at least in terms of damage that can be ameliorated with digital tools.

Steve Shorten has gone through all of the videos on the 'Beatles 1+' set with a fine-toothed comb, and has this to report. Here's what we get. Aside from the TV show clips, the videos for:

- Ticket to Ride
- Help!
- I Feel Fine (both versions)
- Day Tripper (two versions)
- We Can Work it Out (two versions)
- Paperback Writer (Ed Sullivan version)
- Strawberry Fields Forever
- All You Need Is Love (colorized version)
- Hello Goodbye (all three versions)
- A Day in the Life
- Lady Madonna
- Get Back (1969 version)*
- The Ballad of John and Yoko
- Something
- Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows
- Don't Let Me Down (from LIB Naked)
- Come Together
- Free As a Bird
- Real Love (version 2)
- Hey Jude (version 1)*

are all the original untouched restored edits (plus Eleanor Rigby and The Long and Winding Road which are ripped from their respective feature films).

*Get Back has an asterisk because the common copy of it is a slightly different edit at one point, but I believe it's because missing footage from that print was replaced with a section duplicated from later in the film, so that shouldn't count.

Original promo films that have had slight reediting done (insertions of small frames or shots that don't affect the overall experience of the original films) are:

- Paperback Writer (Chiswick)
- Rain (Chiswick)
- Penny Lane
- Hey Bulldog (two shots have been swapped to correct an error in assembly back in 1999)
- Revolution
- Let it Be

The 'Let It Be' promo has been recreated from the same footage from the film, but fails to crossfade between the opening four closeups of John, Paul, George & Ringo. Instead, the clips are connected with straight edits. Either someone wasn't paying attention or some of the material needed to reconstruct this accurately was lost when the original opticals were composited back in 1970.

Completely new creations for these discs are:

- Love Me Do
- Eight Days a Week
- Yellow Submarine
- Rain (b/w)
- Get Back (Naked) (this is a composite of the two versions released in 2003)
- Baby It's You
- Hey Jude (second version)*

*Hey Jude: the version on disc 1 is a complete original take which formed the majority of the version that aired on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (that version substituted an ending from an otherwise unused take). This unedited original take was distributed by Apple as a music video in the wake of The Beatles' Anthology. The version on disc 2 is a new edit which interpolates shots from the unused take into the basic take which aired in the UK on Frost on Sunday. While the 1+ disc has inserted footage from take 3 into take 2, they are video insertions only. The audio remains take 2 throughout.

The Beatles posted this version of the 1 poster, full of positive reviews from small and big sources.

Thanks to Steve Shorten for clearing that up. The 'Please Please Me' video is from the Ed Sullivan Show but the sound has been piched up. They pitched The Beatles up because as we all know, the Beatles tuned down for the 1st Ed Sullivan show, and Martin and Okell have put some elements of the record in the background. In 'A Hard Day's Night', the studio guitar solo (and piano) has been flown in to the Paris footage. There was no call for that, the live solo was fine! As for the Intertel 1965 videos, it looks as though they've deinterlaced all the videos and slowed them down to 24fps, hardly an improvement!
The rest of the videos are great, though. Those sourced from 16mm film will be grainy, because that's inherent in the film. Why they haven't removed the 'hair' from the 'Long and Winding Road' film is a mystery. The Shea Stadium clips used to accompany 'Eight Days A Week' look as great as ever, and they have managed to edit this video so well that newbies will believe that The Beatles are actually performing this song in concert. Each clip on disc 1 is preceded by an animated title screen, which looks quite quaint, and a bit on the cutesy side. As bonus material, Paul McCartney doesn't have much to add in his audio commentary, except that he tells the story of a man named Bill in the 'Hey Jude' video, a story which we only heard last year from Lizzie Bravo, but is otherwise not a story most people know about.

"Homeless Bill", performing with the band.

Ringo takes a look at some of the videos, but doesn't provide much insight either. They both agreed that Ringo's horse had a habit of running away with him during 'Penny Lane'. Talking about 'Penny Lane', isn't it funny that all the Beatles were riding on white horses, except for one, and that was of course that Dark Horse himself, George Harrison!



So much for video. Blu-ray.com has this to say about the new audio, as it is on the video discs: The changes here may rankle some purists, but when taken on pure fidelity terms, there's very little to complain about here. Some of the actual live performances suffer a bit from clarity issues, but generally speaking, this is a precise sounding release that offers excellent clarity and at times some relatively extreme stereo imaging in the 2.0 versions. The surround iterations are interesting, with an attempt to thrust the listener "inside" the music, though several of the tunes seemed to be awfully "wet" (i.e., lots of reverb) sounding. Due to that fact, some of the surround mixes sound slightly diffused at time, and those wanting a more focused "archival" sound will probably want to opt for the stereo versions.

Free As A Bird/Real Love - new audio mixes/versions:
McCartney's vocals are way more up front, almost singing in unison with Lennon on especially 'Free As A Bird', but apart from that, the biggest differences are in regards to Harrison's performance. His guitar lines in the first half of 'Real Love' are alternative takes and 'Free As A Bird' even has a different vocal take by him. Also, the intro to 'Real Love' is completely overhauled, Lennon's home demo doesn't come in until after the intro, the backing doesn't come in fully until the second (half of the) verse. On 'Free As A Bird', you now hear John say 'Turned out nice again'. On the original release that phrase was played backwards, which made it sound like John was saying his own name. So these are new creations, made to make these songs sound better.

The CD
Whereas the video disc is a mixed bag of audio with bits coming from the TV and concert performances, the CD sticks to the studio versions. As for the sound of the remixed CD, in general most of the vocals and instruments sound clearer and with better fidelity, this is due to them coming from the original studio session tapes and not from the downmixed masters, which of course are all at least one generation further down the tape duplication line, some more. Furthermore, instruments, vocals and sound effects have been placed differently than what we are used to from older stereo mixes. The 1999 stereo mixes from 'Yellow Submarine Songtrack' showed us what to expect, but these are all mixed anew again. 'Eleanor Rigby' sounds mainly like the YSS stereo mix, but has been redone to synch up McCartney's vocals better with the backing. 'Paperback Writer' finally has the bass more prominent in the mix, mimicking the mono single mix. Too bad though, that they have mixed the "Frére Jacques' backing vocals so low that they are almost inaudible. The tambourine in "Ticket To Ride" now occupies it's own little space and you can sit and just listen to that element all through the song. 'Can't Buy Me Love' now has crystal clear vocals in the opening, while the version we know always was a bit muffled. The backing track is in the middle, the vocals and guitar solo are spread across the stereo field. An extra guitar is on the right during each chorus. On 'A Hard Day's Night', George's lead guitar is so clear you can hear him pluck each string. This is a mixed blessing, as I think the famous intro chord loses a bit of it's original impact. It will take some getting used to. The bongos have also been mixed lower. 'All You Need Is Love' now has a longer fadeout, but still not as long as in the mono mix. 'Greensleeves' has been mixed out, as per the copyright problem with that song. Whereas 'The Long and Winding Road' has the audio from the released version without Spectorization on the promo, Spector's version has been used on the CD.

On the "Beatles 1" download album on iTunes, the 2009 remastered versions were replaced by the 2015 remixes at the stroke of midnight, Nov 6. There is nothing on the store page that acknowledges this, except a new @2015 Calderstone Productions copyright.

The accompanying book with the Limited Edition 'Beatles 1+' is not available to take out and read on it's own, as it is glued together with the plastic cases that hold the discs, which is a bit annoying.

43 comments:

Real Quaid said...

Are Love Me Do and She Loves You in mono?

Anonymous said...

Real Quaid, "Love Me Do", "From Me To You" and "She Loves You" are in mono. The booklet says that they were "remixed to mono" though. Whatever that means. The multitracks for "Love Me Do" and "She Loves You" don't exist anymore and the multitracks for "From Me To You" don't have the harmonica intro.

Real Quaid said...

Yeah, it's a shame about multitracks. They could have done some digital trickery and made fake stereo mixes though.

Anonymous said...

I suspect, from all the reports that have circulated and my own eyes in shops, that what has happened is that the european 1+ discs have been delayed at manufacture (due to the Christmas queues). The fact that nobody has a PAL edition only seems to confirm this.
I think that a lot of 1+ packages were hurriedly shipped from the USA by Amazon to the UK, for example, to meet demand and that, in the meantime, they panicked and issued that notice in an attempt to cover it and deal with it.
Nobody seems to have a PAL edition of 1+

Meanwhile, Amsterdam is always a great place to be for new releases from the likes of U2, Prince and (maybe a little less so) The Beatles as there's a real 'hardcore' among the city's record shops and they always pull something special. It's slightly japanese in that respect. There's always something extra going on.

I've also been in Amsterdam a few times on release days and remember the Yellow Sub DVD coming out and being played in full, in proper and impressive surround in one of my favourite coffee-shops with just me and the staff in attendance. That was pretty dam special!

wogew said...

I was in Amsterdam when "Let It Be...Naked" was released in 2003, and I found that a "Free Record Shop" nearby had ordered one (1) copy! It wasn't even put out in the shop, I had to ask for it and then the shop keeper produced it from the back room. Played it back on my computer in the hotel room, listening with ear plugs...

Anonymous said...

Internotional Times, for what it's worth, my BluRay Deluxe 1+ is "All Regions" and not NTSC. Not PAL either though.

Unknown said...

Let It Be is also different in new remixed version.
Its ending parts is more simillar as Glyn Johns' Get Back mix.
Here's a comparison video.

https://youtu.be/BDTmtZOC0m8

Mikko Suhonen said...

Apparently the UK is the exception, since I received by cd+2Br-box today (which was dispached on friday). But I haven't heard anyone getting the blu ray version of the Special edition elsewhere in Europe.

ALK said...

There is a "serious" flaw with the 5.1-channel mastering on some of the tracks. The LFE on tracks such as Ticket To Ride has LFE way too loud (the level is approximately 15dB too loud) compared to the other tracks on Beatles 1+. There is also a slight delay (slightly out-of-phase) with the LFE, compared to the other channels, which may or may not have been intentional. I'm still going through the discs, so I'm not sure yet how many of the tracks are incorrectly mastered in 5.1-channel.

At the same time, other tracks such as the live tracks and Lady Madonna sound great, even if the 5.1-channel mix doesn't use the back channels for any discrete instruments (a very 2-dimensional mix). But the 2-dimensional mix was a choice. The LFE levels on some tracks seem to be an error.

Also note that even if you have a surround sound setup, the disc's default audio is stereo. You must select 5.1-channel audio from the disc menu to hear in 5.1-channel.

Thought you should be aware that some of the tracks were incorrectly created for the 5.1-channel mix.

kirkenshrir said...

Amazon.ca still doesn't have the 1+ Bluray...

I pre-ordered in september and it still hasn't shipped; maybe they're waiting for tuesday ?

:-(

http://www.amazon.ca/2-Blu-ray-CD-Deluxe-Limited/dp/B01576X9J0/ref=sr_1_1

Unknown said...

By the way, since abbey Road Studios has two stereo mixes of "From Me to You"(The released stereo mix with vocals, but no harmonica during the intro, AND an officially unreleased[but widely bootlegged] alternate stereo mix with harmonica, but no vocals during the intro, bootleggers have recently demonstrated, that, by synchronizing the intros from both of those stereo mixes, that it is indeed possible to create a stereo mix with both the vocals and harmonica during the intro. But Apple does the lazy thing and presents the song in needless mono sound.
Similarly, when Apple assembled the "U.S. Albums" boxed set, the 2:04 version of "I'll Cry Instead" appears in mono in both the mono & stereo sequences of the U.S.A. "A Hard Days Night" album. The 1:44 version isn't an edited version. The 2:04 version is artificially extended via a tape copy repeat of the first verse. In other words, a stereo version of the 2:04 artificially extended version could have been easily created by re-editing the regular 1:44 stereo mix. But no one at Apple seems to know that.
Giles Martin's unimaginative surround mixes for the "1+" blurry" set don't leave me longing for a surround sound release of individual Beatles albums. I'd much prefer 192Khz/24-bit releases of the original stereo & mono mixes.

James Percival said...

I received my blu-ray 1+ on the morning of the 6th via HMV. I must admit I haven't played it yet because the tv has not yet been free!, but I also ordered the dvd + cd set (also on the morning of the 6th via HMV) which I have watched on my pc, so some have been available in Europe.

James19 said...

I have the deluxe Blu-Ray set but I can't rip the audio from them since my computer can't read Blu-Ray. Has anyone been able to rip from them and make audio files?

Unknown said...

It's not a competition, but I'm in the UK and my copy of the 2bluray/1CD 1+ box turned up from Amazon UK on Thursday morning...

It doesn't say NTSC or PAL but the discs do say they were made in the EU.

Weren't the Intertel clips remastered from celluloid? Presumably they were shot at 24fps in the first place?

Unknown said...

No, they are from crisp 405 line VT. So some unnecessary messing about has taken place.

Ole M. Olsen said...

I ordered the special edition 2 BD/1 CD from Platekompaniet in Norway and received it on Friday.

Anonymous said...

still havent seen one commercial on tv for the beatles 1 bluray.whoever is in charge of promotion is doing a bad job.

Ole M. Olsen said...

By the way:

"'Greensleeves' has been mixed out, as per the copyright problem with that song."

a) The copyright problem was with Glen Miller's "In the mood", wasn't it?
b) With it having been available on the song for 48 years, what is the point in mixing anything out NOW?

(I haven't gone back to confirm whether it actually IS mixed out).

Brian Fried said...

In Canada, the 1+ BluRay were delayed; they should be available this week, according to the stores I visited. One store blamed shipping at Universal, another said it was typical now to stream some of the Canadian copies to the US when demand there is high because "Canadians can actually wait."

Unknown said...

Donny said, " "Love Me Do", "From Me To You" and "She Loves You" are in mono. The booklet says that they were "remixed to mono" though. Whatever that means"

One thing to note - "She Loves You" was produced from the same digital source as the 2009 remastered version. Line up the two versions in Adobe Audition and they stay in perfect sync until the end (LMD and FMTY do not). But the version on the new release of "1" is more compressed and louder than either of the 2009 versions, which really brings out the distortion in this recording in an unpleasant way (to me).

One thing that disappointed me was that there was no new stereo mix of "Please Please Me" which could have fixed the out-of-sync harmonica at the end. Instead, a live verson of the song is used. Boo.

And it's not just "The Long and Widning Road" that has a "hair." All of the films made from "Let It Be" footage look completely unrestored. Boo again.

Fab4fan said...

Strange how visible hairs in many frames from the Let It Be film have not been digitally removed. Surely that would have been possible? It makes me wonder (and worry) if no digital restoration of the film has been done at all? If not, it doesn't seem like a re-release of the film is imminent!
Also funny how the same ending is used for both Let It Be plus The Long and Winding Road (the cigarette smoking chap leaning on the piano).
Finally, I don't think the Come Together promo video belongs in this collection. It does not in anyway represent the Beatles or the time it was recorded. It just shows how primitive computer animations were back in 2000.
But all in all a splendid collection! Looking forward to view the bonus Blu-ray Disc.

Anonymous said...

Computer animations were not all that primitive back in 2000!
I used to have a big folder with all of the iterations of Beatles.com since it came online and was wanting to check on this but I seem to recall, from memory, that there was some kind of outreach to new animators for the original "1" site and videoes were progressively added during that site's lifetime (which, due to the incredible sales was a lot longer than most promotional websites for albums, especially in 2015). I'm therefore thinking that 'Come Together' while not being a fan creation was a student creation and may have been voted for.

Extremely perturbed that I can't find that beatles.com folder but will update this comment with more accuracy once I do.

Unknown said...

Were the hairs in the original cameras shooting the footage? If they were then you could argue that a restored film should still have the hairs - they're part of the original film rather than a product of ageing or copying.

Martin said...

I agree that the Come Together flash animated film is a dud. Crystal Tipps and Alistair was even better animated than that... Lindsay-Hogg must be tearing his hair out: he has approached Apple more than once about Let It Be being restored, but he never gets a proper answer...

And a definitive Beatles best of DVD with no Walurs?

maikel ariel said...

i think the hairs and grainy image on Let It Be clips could have been fixed, but they decided not to do that, i don't know the reason for that.
there is more complex restoration, as seen on the promo clips, done with From Me To You footage and Strawberry Fields Forever video

Brian Fried said...

If I recall correctly, the reason the Let It Be feature is so grainy is that the 35mm print is a projection of the 16mm on a blank wall… making it a first generation copy of the original because the original wasn't shot for those dimensions. Going back to the 16mm is a huge step towards cleaning the film – as Anthology showed us – but I have a strange feeling the clips were treated as "best available" as clips rather going back to the feature simply because the feature is on the back burner.

Paul and Ringo both acknowledge the fan demand for such a product, but it's not going to come in 2016: that's reserved for the Ron Howard "Beatles live" project. 2017 will no doubt be a huge 50th birthday bash for Sgt. Pepper's, complete with a new TV special or re-release of the original. 2018 is likely the earliest we can get a copy of Let It Be on DVD/BluRay at this point (sadly).

nic said...
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nic said...
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nic said...

No actually they are doing a good job.
The quality of the blu-ray disc is abysmal, re-encoding PAL to NTSC and 35mm film to NTSC.
This release is the laughing stock in Europe and Apple are not advertising it because it's an embarrassment.

Martin said...

Both 'In The Mood' and 'Greensleeves' are present and correct on my 1+ copy of 'All You Need Is Love.'

Also nice one, Giles Martin. For leaving in the 'F***ing hell!' bit in 'Hey Jude.' I feared (in these ludicrously PC times) that it may have gone the same way as Paul's cig on the Abbey Road cover...

wogew said...

"Greensleeves" has been edited off the stereo mix on the new Beatles 1 CD, iirc. The advertising campaign is still running in social media, Apple is releasing one minute previews every second day, television advertising is scheduled for Christmas. And the cigarette on Abbey Road has always been there, except on a poster released by an independent vendor, not Apple. But Apple has removed other cigarettes, as has Capitol Records.

kirkenshrir said...

I'm listening to the CD (the one from the 1+ Blu-ray box) and, unless we're talking about a different instance (AYNIL @ 3:14), "Greensleeves" is still there.

It's has a little less presence in the mix than it used to but it's pretty hard to miss on my CD.

nic said...

The disc is NTSC that's why the picture quality is crap. The video have the wrong frame rate and the disc is full of motion blur.

nic said...

Crisp 405 line VT? Ha ha ha.

nic said...

Yes I ripped the bluray (deluxe version) then returned it back to Amazon because the discs are NTSC. I am in Europe.

Unknown said...

I think some very cool footage of John and Paul singing,barking etc is missing from the "Hey Bulldog" clip.....I think when this clip first came out it showed a lot more of them at the mic singin.... what happened to this ??????

nic said...

The DVD which I am assuming is NTSC 720x480 at 29.9fps will be poor quality because most of the footage is sourced from PAL 720x576 at 25fps meaning motion blur is inevitable. The 35mm film with a frame rate of 23.976 will also be encoded to NTSC which will degrade the quality vastly. On the bluray version only the footage sourced from 35mm film is worthy of viewing, all the 29.9 video is a right off having been destroyed by unnecessary encoding with some horrendous motion blur. Added to this catalogue of calamity is the unbelievable fact the 35mm promo for Paperback Writer which is equivalent to 4K has also been encoded to 29.9 fps, complete madness. I returned my bluray discs to Amazon based on the fact it's American format NTSC which isn't stated on the cover, the fact that it's region free is irrelevant. I ripped the disc to my hard drive before sending it back. The personnel at Apple have a reputation for incompetence, from what I have seen of these Beatles discs it's a reputation well founded.

maikel ariel said...

Brian Fried said: "...the reason the Let It Be feature is so grainy is that the 35mm print is a projection of the 16mm on a blank wall..."

is this correct?

if it's true then this explain not only grainy picture, also those hairs seen at the edge of the picture.
i think it's more possible to get "hairs" into the picture through a projection process than while filming

Martin said...

The Let It Be and The Long And Winding Road clips still look they need major restoration work. But maybe it's so fans will be chomping at the bit for a fully restored Let It Be film release?

Other than those two I have no complaints. Except maybe that This Boy and I Am The Walrus should have featured. Also a couple of George tunes. For You Blue (wasn't it classed as a No.1 in the US charts?) and a blistering Roll Over Beethoven would have been nice...

db said...

Looking at the videos beginning to end, you'd think George and Ringo were just side men. It's all about John and Paul.

Mostly joyous to watch: though Come Together should have been dropped or remade... and Tomorrow Never Knows looks too digital and out of place. But FAAB and Real Love sound better than 20 years ago, they sound like they belong with the other songs.

walrus gumboot said...
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walrus gumboot said...

Must be a mistake...wasn't it Glenn Millers In The Mood that caused copyright problems. That's still there !!

Judemac said...

To Donny
I've got a great version of "Love Me Do" in stereo in my collection. It is on a compilation which is on my website.