Alchemy: Live [Blu-ray]

I have no idea what the people who give low rating to this blu-ray concert are talking about. Bad audio quality? Audio quality is excellent. I listened to it on 5.1 channel (I have a Yamaha receiver and Klipsch speakers) and it sounds fantastic! People who think the audio quality is bad may have received a defective product or maybe they are reviews for the DVD? (Sometimes Amazon combines reviews of the same title even though the product edition may be different). Some people complain about the songs being low tempo. What??? The music selection is fantastic. Yes, there are some parts of the concert when they play slow tempo but that's Dire Straits, that's how the song is written and doesn't mean it's bad. Let me tell you: from start to finish, the music in this concert is top-notch. Phenomenal. The songs with saxaphone are just to die for, one of the finest jazz-rock tunes you will ever hear. These musicians are super talented. There are no bands like this anymore. As for video, there is nothing wrong with the video quality. You must keep in mind this concers was shot in 1983 using old film cameras. Obviously, you cannot expect the same clarity as concerts shot in HD cameras in recent years. Yes, there is some grain. There are dark scenes which make it harder. But overall, this blu-ray video quality is excellent. There are NO damages to the print, no flashing little white dots, no lines, etc. It's a very clean copy. Grains are just natural. Video quality could not be better. If you really want to be disappointed by video quality of a blu ray concert film, I suggest you try The Dream of the Blue Turtles blu ray (by Sting). I regretted ever buying it, there were damages throughout the film, and I don't think audio quality was that great. This, on the other hand, is a superb concert. I own hundreds of concert music/film DVDs, blu rays and I can say this will be in the top 10 of my collection (my favorite one still being Stop Making Sense by Talking Heads).

I think 'Sultans of Swing' was one of the very first songs I recorded for myself off the radio back in the 70's! My dad had a couple of reel to reel rigs, one of which had a slot in the side for recording onto 8 tracks! So I sat there listening to the radio until I heard the DJ announce it... These days my tastes are a long way from that top 40 station, as is the technology for listening and recording. I don't really understand why more music isn't being released on the high quality mediums available these days. Yes it's not portable, so what? MP3s honestly sound like crap and unless I'm exercising I want to hear better! HQCD, SACD, XRCD all follow DVD-audio, and Blu-Ray which sound amazing on a killer surround sound system. But I'm sad that so little music is available on all these formats. If nothing else the greedheads in the record industry should salivate at the bottom line, since it's such a pain in the b#tt to copy a blu-ray disk.Anyhow.This is a great concert or compilation of 2 concerts, from a tour when Dire Straits were at the top of their game. And lets be honest, having heard a few bootlegs of 'average' shows w/ poor sound quality that still rocked, I was really looking forward to this and Dire Straits did not disappoint. I confess, I love a good jam...when a band knows each other and their songs inside and out that they can riff on them and find something to entertain themselves even while playing a song for the thousandth time. We've all been to shows of bands playing their songs note for note from the album...or worse, playing 'improv' versions of their songs note for note the same each night (Sting, I'm looking your way, buddy)... You can tell the guys are having a ball on stage, and the versions of the songs reflect everything coming together.Even tho' the '80's clothing kinda makes me giggle...that headband, honestly I'm not going to _watch_ this that much... but I will be playing this frequently to _listen_ to, with the screen only on just to get everything rolling. Yes, the 'hair' is a distraction, yes the 16mm original doesn't look flawless under HD resolution, but to expect it to is unrealistic. Besides, to me the visual portion and the extras on the disk are just gravy because this is a delightful, rocking and infectious concert to listen to.

I am a fan of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits, and expected to get the sound quality in multi channel track somehow close to Mark Knopfler's Shangri La SACD multichannel track. Unfortunately, my expectations vanished after auditioning of this disk - may be because it was an old live record, may be due to limited remixing missing overdubs and re-recordings, I don't know.It sounds like an old stereo record with added sounds from the public in surround channels, base is not going down as I love on the best remastered records like DSotM, Amused to Death or Donald Fagen's / Steely Dan remastered disks.May be it's just me, but I just purchased used old Donald Fagen's Kamakiriad DVD-A on eBay for $50 and don't regret about the paid price - the sound quality on that old disk, as well as on Shangri La, worth every penny. I can not say the same about this BR disk, and I paid just a fraction of $50 for the brand new disk.I do not really understand how Chuck Ainlay could make Shangri La SACD and at the same time accept sound quality on this BR album ... or is it because of Bob Ludwig's perfect work on Shangri La?James Guthrie, Roger Nichols, Elliot Scheiner, Steve Hoffman, Steven Wilson are my men. Fortunately, such audio engineers exist.