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Date: Sat, 25 Apr 87 23:02 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu
Subject: Hair of the Hound
Hi, folks.
IED is in heaven. He just got the new Japanese laser-disk of The Hair of the Hound. It's unbelievable. Even though it's only 20 minutes long, it's a twelve-inch disk! Usually short programs are put on eight-inch disks and sold for a lower price. But being Japanese, the manufacturers of this disk decided to go for quality in every respect, and screw the cost (exactly the opposite of the American policy). The extra space was used to allow for digital sound (same sampling rate and Hz. as a CD), as well as for CAV format commands (for the video). The latter term means it has forward and reverse motion at any speed, plus freeze-frame, a display of which frame (of the 38,000+ frames) you're on, etc. And laser slo-mo and freeze-frame are totally noise-free and rock-steady. But best of all, the picture is stunning! The resolution is so high that it's like seeing the videos for the first time. All kinds of details come out were not visible on cable or broadcast television.
For example, in Cloudbusting, at the point where the Feds are ransacking Reich's lab and rifling through his papers, and you see a one-second flash of a newspaper headline about Reich's arrest (The Oregon Times), it is now possible to read not only the headlines, but part of the fine-print of the article about Reich and his son -- all written out in authentic journalese. Plus you can inspect all the weird specimens of fish on the lab walls, and take the time to appreciate Kate's unbelievable attention to detail: there's a photo-portrait of the President on the wall, and as it's 1955 (the year of Reich's arrest) -- NOT 1952, the date of the newspaper, which is found in Reich's file-cabinet because it has a story about him and his son and was evidently preserved by Reich --Eisenhower -- Big Brother literally looking down on the doomed protagonists. (Also interesting is that the photo on the front page of the newspaper itself is a snapshot of the REAL Wilhelm Reich.)
And in The Big Sky, it's now possible to identify many familiar faces in the meteorological crowd, including Dave Cross, Krystina Fitzgerald and Peter Morris. And there are some amazing technical touches in the video that only become clear in ultra-slo-mo.
That's all for now.
-- Andrew Marvick
From: L-H@cup.portal.com
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1991 07:47:39 -0700
Subject: Video Magazine review of TWS vdisc
Hi Everyone,
I received the latest issue of Video yesterday, and found this review of the TWS release. Page 60:
Kate Bush:
The Whole Story
1985 comp. Digital stereo. 58 min.
CLV 2 sides. $24.95. Pioneer Artists.
It's taken five years for this 13-song anthology to make it into Pioneer's U.S. catalog. (The Japanese release has long been a choice import, even at $100.) But the wait is just about worth it. The images are wonderful-Bush's mix of sensuality and surrealism is shown to great advantage, whether she's engaged in the exquisitely erotic dancing of "Running up That Hill" or acting out the moody psychodrama of "Breathing." And the color and sharpness are just about everything one could hope.
The only problem is with the sound-the digital tracks are reasonably bright and sharp, but fall well short of the vibrancy of EMI Record's British CD of this same material. According to Pioneer, the music was mastered from the video's analog music tracks, which would put it at least two or three generations away from an original studio master. A mild boost in volume-coupled with a few adjustments on an equalizer-can make up for this problem, but those with analog-only players should be warned that the analog music tracks are so soft, they're almost unusable.
In any case, the disc is a dazzling showcase for Bush and her videos, which do comprise an important part of her work. Since she's only undertaken a single tour in her entire career, she puts more of herself into these video appearances than most of her peers.
Larry
From: IEDSRI@aol.com
Date: Sun, 18 Jun 1995 02:40:01 -0400
Subject: Laser-disk tally; CD-ROM
Alec, your list is excellent, but not yet completely complete. IED knows that a second edition of the Live at Hammersmith Odeon LD was released in Japan (in NTSC), and that the rerelease featured (with the notice prominent in the corner of the front-cover artwork) "digital sound".
Also, TLTCTC did indeed come out in laser-disk form in the U.S., and judging from its quality, was probably transferred from a print, not a PAL copy.
From: alec baker <alec@wessex.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 25 Jun
1995 10:09:03 GMT
Subject: Kate's LaserDiscs
Thanks to uli@zoodle.robin.de, and BCBliz@aol.com, an expanded and improved LaserDisc list.....
Live at Hammersmith Odeon:
UK: Was released in the early 80s as a LaserVision analogue sound disc. The picture is colourful but not particularly detailed, probably due to the original recording not being too wonderful. The sound is also reasonable, but not up to the standard of the CD release. The recording has been spread over both sides of the disc, although it would've fitted on one. The cover is superb, making full use of the LP size sleeve by re-formatting and expanding the various photos. This disc has been deleted for some years and is thus now quite rare.
Cat no info: EMI Music Video, distributed on LV by CBS-FOX Video.
Made in UK - cat no 6135-70
US: No
Japan: Has been released, but is now deleted and rare.
Cat no:
SM035-3419
The Single File:
UK: Released in the mid 80s as a LaserVision analogue sound disc. A very sharp and clear picture and similarly excellent sound. The cover is very nice, with the 'blue leaf' effect spread all over. This is the rarest UK Kate disc, probably only one batch (500?) was ever produced.
Cat no info: Picture Music, PMI 90 1430 1. Made in UK
US: No
Japan: Released, deleted and again rare.
Cat no: SM048-3292
The Hair of the Hound:
UK: No
US: No
Japan: Released as a CAV disc, and possibly still available.
Cat no: SM048-3111
The Whole Story:
UK: 1st edition: Released in the late 80s as a LaserVision analogue sound disc. A sharp picture, but the sound quality was dreadful - a continuous hissing from the right hand channel. The cover is also poor, with the VHS-shaped cover slapped at a jaunty angle in the middle of the LP size sleeve. Now deleted.
Cat no info: Pic Music Intl dist by Lightning Dist.
MLP 99 1143 1 Made in the UK
2nd edition: Released a couple of years after the above as one of the first UK digital sound LD's (then called CD video), as you would expect the sound is a great improvement on the above. The cover is also improved, although the front cover is still VHS- shaped, the back has no less than five little colour photos! The disc itself is a snazzy gold colour, and the Wuthering Heights video has the new vocal. Now deleted.
Cat no info: Pic Music Intl dist by Polygram Music Video
080-504-1 Made in the UK
US: Relased, but now deleted.
Cat no: PA91-374
Japan: Released, but possibly deleted.
Cat no: either TOLW-3084
or L100-1076 (2 diff releases??)
The Sensual World:
UK: Not released on disc.
US: A 20 minute version, released as a 20cm LD. Picture is reasonable, given that it's converted from PAL. The cover is nice, although it would be better without having "THE MUSIC DISC" written all over it. Now deleted.
Cat no info: CMV enterprises, dist by Image Entertainment.
ID7291CB
Japan: The full 36 minute version, issued as a 30cm disc.
Cat
no: TOLW 3189
The Whole Story 1993:
UK: Released in 1993 (stating the obvious?), the picture is excellent throughout. The cover is also very nice, breaking away from the VHS-look of its two predecessors. Unfortunately the sound is VERY hissy, particularly in the right hand channel, which leads me to believe that it was produced from the same master copy as the original analogue TWS release, and not the (much improved) remastered CD Video version. The sound for the three TSW videos is excellent however. Wuthering Heights has the original vocals. Still available.
Cat no info: Pic Music Intl, dist by Pioneer LDCE; PLMPB 00871
Made in the USA.
US: No
Japan: No
The Line, the Cross and the Curve:
UK: Recently released, superb sound, picture, and cover make it well worth
owning.
Cat no info: Pic Music Intl, dist by Pioneer LDCE; PLMPA 00901
Made in the USA.
US: Apparently available, although I have still to see it listed anywhere. It would be interesting to know whether it's a conversion from PAL or whether it has been produced from the original film. Anyone know the cat no?
Japan: Unknown
So that's the latest version. No fewer than 14 discs! My collection is only half complete....
You may notice a slight difference between the review of TWS:1993 in this posting and the one in my previous posting. I have to hang my head in shame and admit that when I first posted this list I hadn't watched TWS:1993 properly, just looked at a few snippets, and had just assumed that the sound quality would at least be on a par with the previous version. How wrong I was.....
Interestingly, the hiss runs all the way through side one, but at the start of side two it is less noticable (although it seems to have been reduced using filtering, rather than obtaining a new master). I would guess that the LD engineers realised that the sound was poor while cutting the master disc for side one, tried to improve things on side two, but could not justify the expense of re-cutting side one.
alec; in havenpool, wessex
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 1995 09:39:41 +0900
From: Yamamoto Sozo <sozo@isl.mei.co.jp>
Subject: kate's LaserDiscs
These days I'm getting to be busier and cannot spend enough time to read news articles. But some recent messages about Laser Disk releases drove me to do summarization on video releases in Japan.
Here's a list of Kate's videos released in Japan. The source of the information is a CD-ROM based data retrieval system available at a local CD shop. Entries without issue date are from other resources such as `the Illustrated Collector's Guide.'
Compared with alec's post, there are slight differences.
One thing I can point out is that `The hair of the Hound' is out of print.
Different releases surely exist. These are usually to drop prices. For example, Live at Hammersmith Odeon was first priced 16,000 yen and later reissued 4635 yen.
Also, some other discs with Kate's name are included in this list. You can see there's Wuthering Heights Rockflix version on LD ! Some disc such as Peter Gabriel's Cv are missing, the searching strategy was simply to "Find all videos with Kate Bush as Artist Name."
Japanese Title [Original Title]
Media/ Catalog Issue Price Label Number Date (Yen)
Kate Bush Live [Live at Hammersmith Odeon]
LD PI SM0483198 ------ ? X
LD PI SM0353491 900325 3605 X
Video Collection [The Single File]
LD PI SM0580019 ------ ? X
LD PI SM0483292 890125 4666 X
The Hair of the Hound
LD PI SM0483111 861125 4666 X O
Kate Bush Story [The Whole Story]
LD TO L100-1076 ------ ? X
LD TO TOLW3084 910614 4800 O
The Sensual World
LD TO TOLW3189 940727 4200 O
The Red Shoes [The Line, The Cross & The Curve]
LD TO TOLW3198 941214 4800 O
NOTE:
1. Titles are not necessarily exact.
2. Label codes are: TO: Toshiba EMI, PI: Pioneer LDC, PO: VideoArts Japan
3. An item with `X' after its price is out of print, `O' is for `i Own it' ;-)
--YAMAMOTO Sozo
From: davidh@harlequin.co.uk (David Hembrow)
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 1995
13:01:47 GMT
Subject: Re: Kate's LaserDiscs
alec baker writes:
>The Whole Story 1993:
UK: Released in 1993 (stating the obvious?), the picture is excellent throughout. The cover is also very nice, breaking away from the VHS-look of its two predecessors. Unfortunately the sound is VERY hissy, particularly in the right hand channel, which leads me to believe that it was produced from the same master copy as the original analogue TWS release, and not the (much improved) remastered CD Video version. The sound for the three TSW videos is excellent however. Wuthering Heights has the original vocals. Still available.
Cat no info: Pic Music Intl, dist by Pioneer LDCE; PLMPB 00871
Made in the USA.
I have a copy of this, and the sound is fine. Definitely no hiss audible at all, apart from the sound of the master tapes of a few of the tracks.
I have listened to the internal DACs of my player and and external DAC box, all through my Quad Electrostatic speakers. Never any hiss.
I have had a problem with this disc though, I am on my third copy and this, like the previous ones is slightly warped ( I have watched it spinning around with the lid off my LD player ). The end of side 1 suffers from serious crosstalk and breaking up of the sound ( but not hiss ). Side 2 is perfect all the way through.
I have the service manual and am intending to make sure the tracking of my laserdisc player is perfect before returning the disc again. However, I suppose it is possible that the hiss which you hear is the result of the same problem on your own disc producing different symptoms from those which it does on mine.
The other problem I have is that I am beginning to get sick of hearing Wuthering Heights. I thought this could never happen, but my 18 month old daughter has decided she likes copying Kate dancing. She says "Keh Boosh" over and over, pointing at the laserdisc player or disc. When Wuthering Heights is playing she does a remarkably credibly job of copying Kate.
Thanks for the details of the other discs, I did not know about the LaserVision discs.
---David Hembrow
From: laganlove@aol.com (Lagan Love)
Date: 30 Jun 1995 08:26:53 -0400
Subject: Re: Kate's LaserDiscs
The US release of The Line, The Cross & The Curve on laserdisc has the catalog number MLV 50118. It is from Columbia Music Video (CMV).
From: Ulrich Grepel <uli@zoodle.robin.de>
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 95
23:59:39 +0100
Subject: Hair Of The Hound /p>
Version: 1.3.v minus 1.3.u
4.4. Basic Discography/Videography
Hair Of The Hound (June 16, 1986):
This tape is now out of date since all four videos from the Hounds of Love album are also on The Whole Story. You might want to get the LaserDisc, since it's in CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) instead of CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) like The Whole Story, that means you have better freeze frame than with CLV LaserDiscs.