I only had to use DVD Shrink for Pet Sounds.

I will give those other applications you mention a shot though.

Looks like there is a distinction between "Advanced Resolution Stereo" and "Enhanced" or "Superior Stereo" on some of these DVD-Video releases (makes me harken back to the early days of HDTV with "High Definition" and "Enhanced Definition" TVs.)

I just got a few DualDisc releases that I thought would have 24/96 stereo. One being AC/DC's Back in Black.

Back cover the DVD side is said to have the "Entire album in superior sound." I naively assumed that would mean 24/96 PCM, but no. It was 16/48. I mean, technically, that is "superior" to the Redbook standard, but would anyone really notice a major difference between 16/44.1 and 16/48 audio? I keep reading that there's no discernable difference between 24/88.2 and 24/96, sooo...

Another one, and this is probably one the most perplexing DVD-Audio releases I've come across, is In Your Honor by The Foo Fighters. The DVD side of Disc 2 is a DVD-Audio disc, with 24/96 stereo and surround. The DVD side of Disc 1 is said to have "Enhanced Stereo" on the cover. Like "Back in Black" it is 16/48 PCM Stereo. Why would only 1/2 of the album be DVD-Audio and the other not?

Deceptive ain't it? Yeah. I have Dr. Dre The Chronic on DualDisc and was disappointed to get Enhanced Definition of 48/16, not even 24 bit! Glad it was a $2 thrift store score...

It is almost never the formats themselves that are to blame for failing. It is ALWAYS the marketing people and to some extent the tech people pushing the envelope. The potential is always far greater than what is delivered and what's delivered is always bastardized in some way. Different edit/mix, bonus tracks/content, mastering/remastering, artwork/packaging. It never lines up exactly as you had hoped with the right content in the right package. Hence the evolution of the "Super Deluxe" box set releases that STILL manage to miss the mark.

My assumption with the Foo is that the first 1/2 is amplified Rock thus no need for the extended fidelity (think AC/DC) but 2/2 is acoustic based music that would benefit from the extended fidelity provided by DVD-A. Then there are the royalties to pay for the DVD-A logo or to the DVD consortium or whatever. Every penny counts!

Hah, penny pinching indeed.

At the very least when picking up another one of these "enhanced stereo" DualDiscs, it worked out in my favor, particularly, Contraband by Velvet Revolver. I had the CD for many years, but the disc had some kind of copy protection so if you tried to play it in a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, it would mangle the sound; ie: it would sound like the thing was constantly skipping. That would carry over if you tried to rip it to MP3/AAC/FLAC what have you. With the DualDisc, I could then decrypt the DVD side and then use MediaCoder to make 16/48 lossless FLACs. So that worked out well.

Plus, I've been trying to get the music videos for "Fall to Pieces" and "Slither" for some time and those were featured on the DVD side.

Having mentioned The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds in this thread, now I have this "1st World Problem."

Looks like it has just been re-released and remastered in 24-bit/192khz stereo and mono . . .

HD Tracks - Pet Sounds



So I'm torn on getting this again or just be happy with the 24-bit/96khz version!

Pet Sounds in mono 96/24 on the DVD-A is excellent. I personally stopped there.