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).

.....get back here and buy this thing. I'm totally blown away! I have the Blu-ray version, and while I wouldn't know the diff between the Blu-ray and DVD versions (others have reviewed that aspect), I can attest to the amazing sound quality. I have not setup my surround system, but listened to it on my Bose headphones with the Blu-Ray player set to 5.1 and Straight through my Yamaha Receiver. My ears are still ringing! Yes, I'm not a techie, but it sounded awful good to me. The Bonus Features are just awesome too. Actually for me the bonus was the feature. Whereas I remembered every riff....every snap....every pluck of the strings.....every beat of the drums....every bar of a rhyme....every strange sound out of MK's throat on the Alchemy feature, the bonus documentary showed some excellent variations I had never heard. The version on the documentary of "where do you think you're going" is just absolutely mind blowing and put the icing on the cake for me. I have always been a HUGE Dire Straits fan, but having grown up in parts of the world where behind the scenes access was impossible, this documentary brought a whole new dimension to life for me. The group come across as unassuming and you see them putting compositions together. But it's really cool to see those bits and pieces and then the final product is mind bogglingly perfect and genius. I come out of it thinking, "you mean THESE guys did THAT? Holy Smokes!" Coolness existed off stage even in 1983. Dire Straits do not come across terribly "cool" in the documentary. But on stage, Mark Knopfler is the definition of coolness. In control. No hurry. Supreme confidence. There to deliver. And especially in the documentary....in the moment. Consumed by his passion. The rest of the band followed suit. Although it is not overtly discussed, the documentary allows comparisons between Pick Withers vs Terry Williams and David Knopfler vs Hal Lindes. Things that are not so obvious just listening to the CDs. Very happy with my purchase. A must buy for anyone who loves or loved Dire Straits. Yes the video is old school. I guess I can't expect that to change. But that's just it. The music never disappoints. They were a band. They weren't (really) making movies!

I really like this concert. As already mentioned, the video is not that great but acceptable considering the source. The sound quality is outstanding. I love the fact that this concert is available on the BD in mp3 format. I didn't realize it when I purchased this that in order to get the mp3s you need to have a BD player on your computer. What I would really like seems to be missing from every concert I have bought so far in the BD format. That is - a digital copy that I could transfer to my computer or iPod. I've got lots of digital copies of movies which I never use. Only once have I ever watched a movie on my ipod and the experience was not very satisfying. If I had digital copies of concerts however, I would be very happy to put those on my ipod and play them since I would be caring more about the sound. I hope a few manufacturers read this post and take it to heart!

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.

"Alchemy" involves the early period of Dire Straits, from their first album through their "Making Movies" period...IMHO their best stuff. It captures them on a gloomy Dec. night at a concert in London. But their music, especially Mark Knophler's exquisite guitar playing very soon takes you away from any gloom. There's a lot of this beautiful but still dynamic soloing in this concert, which along with the driving and even uplifting songs make this disc well worth having...especially if you're a Dire Straits fan (and they are one of my all time favorites). I have the Blu Ray version and the sound is excellent. What's not so excellent is the video. A lot of the time they seem over-exposed, almost solarized, against a dark background. But the overall effect- to me - is a sense of abstraction which somehow accents the music. They did what the could with a 1983 video I guess. If you're a Dire Straits fan you should also like "On The Night", which focuses more on their later period. Also an excellent concert DVD; video much more natural, sound very good.

The audio and visual quality of this item has been covered in other reviews, so I won't discuss that further here. My review covers the product itself. I purchased what is advertised as the "multi-format" version of this item. In my experience, such items generally include a blu-ray disc and a similar DVD version of the same. I received a single blu-ray disc, which ordinarily would be fine (I generally have no need for more than one copy, and blu-ray is the preferred format anyway). However, the product description states that mp3 versions of the original album for this concert may be downloaded by following the included instructions. Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to me, this process requires the buyer to insert the disc into the BD-rom drive on one's PC. I store all my mp3 files on my laptop and do not even own a desktop PC. My laptop does not have a BD-rom drive, and I dont know of anyone's who does. If this information had been included in the product description (not only in the booklet that came with the disc), I likely wouldn't have purchased this item, since I wanted to be able to listen to the album other than on my home entertainment system. Furthermore, if the product were actually a "multi-format" version, it likely would have had the available downloads accessible via the DVD and the problem would be solved. Overall, the blu-ray disc is fine, I knew what to expect from it going in. However, potential buyers of this item should be aware that, if you want to download the mp3s, a BD-rom is required to do so. I feel somewhat blindsided not having been informed of this prior to my receiving the single disc (again, advertised as "multi-format").

Watching this VHS tape, something I have not done in well over twenty years, was like taking a step back in time. I have a top-of-the-line (at the time) Sony HiFi DVD/VCR combo player with a.4k television, but video tape has definite limits, and this one is no exception. That being said, the sound was great, and I enjoyed the step back in time. I reminded me of the evenings sitting around with my brothers, all of us huge Dire Straits fanatics, endlessly listening to their albums. I am told that this VHS tape has more content than the subsequently issued DVD of the same performance, and it may, but I really just wanted it for the trip back. It did not disappoint.

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.

Extraordinario concierto. La calidad de la grabación es muy buena y lo recomiendo ampliamente a todos los fans de Dire Straits.

Remasterisation au top! Super image pour l'époque et que dire du son, la piste DTS est un régal !

Quem já viu o show ou ouviu o disco sabe bem que esse blue-ray é fantástico. Acredito ser a obra-prima de Dire Straits.

Super Konzert, würde ich jedem empfehlen

Let's get the bad out of the way, Alchemy was filmed on video. What you see here on this Blu-ray is likely the best this will ever look, it's limited by the source material. No amount of baking, scanning and what-have-you is going to do this source material any favours. This is also presented in the original aspect ratio of 4:3, meaning on a high definition TV you will have black bars on the sides. This is perfectly normal. If they were to re-scan the source material to present it in 16:9 you'd be now stuck with around 400 lines of source resolution and it would be ugly, so either zoom in on it or please hold your tongue...this is as good as it gets. Now for the juice - Chuck Ainlay has gone back to the original master tapes and done an amazing re-mastering of Alchemy as well as an amazing multi-channel surround mix, mastering to 24-bit/96kHz and encoded using the dts Master Audio codec, which is of course lossless. The surround mix is enveloping and accurately reflects the feel of a live concert. Every single nuance of the performance seems to come across with delightful clarity, from the subtleties of Private Investigations to the all out rock and roll of Sultans of Swing. Until now the best I've ever heard Alchemy sound is on the original German vinyl pressing, but I have a new favourite and it is this Blu-ray disc. Whether you kick the lights and TV off and flick your receiver into a PURE DIRECT mode, shut your eyes and float away into this amazing concert or watch it at the same time, this one will be sure to be in constant rotation for a long time to come. Alas this isn't the pristine 1080p24 16:9 35mm transfer that I'm sure people would love to see, but with the elements available I think we're very lucky to finally have such an incredible audio presentation of this truly wonderful performance. Not sure why we still don't have the missing tracks, like Love Over Gold. Would be interested to see an answer to that someday. Thanks Universal Music and thanks Chuck Ainlay...and of course thanks to Dire Straits, you still rock as hard in 2010 as you did in 1983.