I'm splitting this off into its own thread on the Video board to make sure that all our Zeppelin collectors don't miss it. Here's the information about this DVD release as originally posted by musicdav24 in a thread on the Vaults board about the forthcoming Zeppelin anthology CD entitled [lilred]Mothership[/lilred]:

http://www.imwan.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=16458

Here are the various editions, see which one suits your collection best ...

[bigred]Limited Collector's Edition[/bigred]





http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013K1ALO/?tag=imwan-20

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[bigred]Two-Disc Special Edition[/bigred]



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013K1ALE/?tag=imwan-20

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[bigred]Blu-ray[/bigred]



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UR9TPK/?tag=imwan-20

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[bigred]HD DVD[/bigred]



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012YYZYU/?tag=imwan-20

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And of course the expanded 2-CD remaster of the soundtrack album:



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VWYNNW/?tag=imwan-20

Guess, just guess.

Same here. LOL!

I'm looking forward to both DVD and CD release of this baby. I'm 42 years old and finally getting into Zep. I bought their 3 DVD set and thought...damn these guys are incredible. I've always known their music, but just never realized how great they really were.

Mark

From Blabbermouth.net:

November 20 sees the release of LED ZEPPELIN's "The Song Remains The Same" movie DVD from Warner Home Video and, simultaneously, the release of a two-CD "The Song Remains The Same" soundtrack through Rhino Records. Thanks in large part to the efforts of sound engineer Kevin Shirley (IRON MAIDEN, DREAM THEATER), the titles are much more than recycled, re-packaged material — both are a fresh sonic adventure that breathe new life into "The Biggest Band In The World" on stage changing rock 'n' roll into rock.

Modern Guitars Magazine recently spoke to Kevin Shirley about his work on "The Song Remains The Same". A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

ModernGuitars.com: The advance copy of the two-disc "The Song Remains The Same" movie soundtrack credits Jimmy Page as producer and Peter Grant [LED ZEPPELIN's manager who passed away in 1995] as executive producer.

Kevin: "Yes, Peter Grant was involved in the original making of the movie and its soundtrack, but let me tell you, the CDs you have there bear only a little resemblance to the original soundtrack album with respect to the performances included or anything else. It's all new, all culled from the three nights at Madison Square Garden. The movie was the template for the new audio. To be fair, the movie, at the time, was adequately shot and edited and we weren't allowed to change any of the imaging, so we had to work with the audio. I don't know if you remember the original audio, but it was sometimes out of sync and there were many questionable edits, so I tried to make a more cohesive package that flows with the movie a lot better. What you have there really is a movie soundtrack with a few extras."

ModernGuitars.com: When the movie first came out [1976], wasn't an attempt made to create something of a surround sound experience in at least some theaters?

Kevin: "Yes. Jimmy [Page] and Eddie Kramer did some mixes, back in the day at Electric Ladyland, and they were pretty good. They tried to resurrect those for the audio, but I think they were a little less than thrilled, which is why we set about re-doing it again from scratch. 5.1 [Dolby Surround Sound] has made a huge difference in things. It's like taking an 8-track and saying, 'Does this work as modern DVD audio?' It might have been state of the art back then, but it just doesn't fly anymore."

ModernGuitars.com: The new "The Song Remains The Same" movie DVD is in 5.1. What's the audio point of view? Where am I sitting in Madison Square Garden?

Kevin: "You're sitting three rows back, in the center, just behind the gorgeous girl with blonde hair [laughs]."

ModernGuitars.com: What's coming from my 5.1 rear speakers? The crowd?

Kevin: "There are all sorts of things coming from the rear speakers. Audience, delays, and there are some elements coming back from the rears like in 'Dazed And Confused' — the violin bow thing goes all over the place when Jimmy's climbing up the mountain — some of the drum solos, and in the fantasy sequences the audio travels between the front and the back. So, you're sitting in the middle of this very interesting experience. There are also the sound effects. There's the subway train that comes in the middle of the movie right before 'No Quarter' — the train comes from right behind you and through the middle of your head, which is pretty cool, actually. It's a surround experience, no doubt. It's not a concert with just some subtle rears."

ModernGuitars.com: What were your instructions? What were you told was the goal with respect to the new edition of "The Song Remains The Same"?

Kevin: "What I was told was, 'Here's the movie, and we can't touch it [the visuals] but can we improve the audio? How can we make this a very good ZEPPELIN experience?' There are many bad edits with the original audio. With all due respect to Eddie [Eddie Kramer who served as the original sound engineer], the original's a pretty average mix — but Madison Square Garden might have been a tough venue with the equipment that was available then — it would probably be much easier and better with what we have now. I took it and looked at it as carte blanche. I looked at the movie and would say, that doesn't sync at all so why don't we find the right piece that syncs? If you look at the end of 'Stairway To Heaven' on the original movie, the visual's from a completely different take than the audio. I'd say, 'Why is there a different take?' and I'd be told, 'Oh, because there's a mistake on the original audio.' Well, I could fix the mistake and we could put the original audio back on there. There are things you can do now that you couldn't do back then."

Read the entire interview at http://www.modernguitars.com.

After the opening video clip... be sure to check out the Video Gallery.
More cool clips there...

http://www.LedZepDVD.com

There is also a MySpace page available:

http://www.myspace.com/ledzeppelin

Now that I bought a HD-DVD player ($98), I'm gonna need the HD-DVD version.

Did this actually come out?? I was able to find the new CD version, but two Best Buys did not have the DVD version??

Also, is the DVD newly edited to include the extra songs, because the CD liners say that because of legal issues, the film couldn't be re-edited.

I was under the impression that the DVD was a reedit, but maybe I'm....gasp, wrong??

The film could not be re-edited so the additional songs are included separately as "bonus material".


Jim

I did end up getting this today. I guess my thinking the film would be re-edited to include the other performances was wishful thinking. I did kind of skip through the film and it's a nice upgrade with DTS sound to boot.

The previous DVD was just barely of decent quality with generic artwork and obviously had no involvement with Jimmy Page.

I wonder why the film couldn't be re-edited, as I thought Zeppelin owned the film, having produced it themselves under the Swan Song imprint.

I'm wondering the same thing...it has always been my understanding that Zeppelin self-financed (and thus controlled) the entire project.

I read recently that there were too many legal hurdles if they wanted to re-edit or re-sequence the movie, so they left the visuals alone, but did re-edit the music.

Did anyone else here go to the one night showing of TSRTS in movie theaters on Nov 27? I went to it in Houston. Although the screen was tiny for a theater, the film looked pretty good but I was disappointed in the sound. It was supposed to be 5.1 but it was missing at least one of the channels so the sound of Page's guitar was at about one third volume through most of the movie while the rest of the band sounded fine. I talked to the kids in charge of the theater and they just said "ya, um, it was doing that earlier too". I was just curious if anyone else went and had a better experience.

I wonder if WB underestimated the demand for this title. Most retailers didn't get the title on its street date of 12/11 and are saying it's been either delayed or canceled. It sounds like people that pre-ordered it are getting it though.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=740

THE SONG DOES NOT REMAIN THE SAME

The new reissue of Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains The Same is not just a reissue of the previous version. This new 2CD set includes bonus tracks not found previously but it also excludes material found on the original CDs. According to the man who remastered the new version, Kevin Shirley, he told Modern Guitars:

"No, actually the CDs much more accurately represent the movie now. What you hear on the new soundtrack CDs is what's in the movie, they're not two different things now. There's just more on the CDs than there is in the movie because the movie wasn't the entire concert." Previously the CDs did not follow accurately the video release.

According to a post on the Steve Hoffman site, Raf wrote: "Just to clarify, it doesn't match up exactly in all cases. There's a bad edit in "Rain Song" in the movie, but the version on the new CD is complete. And of course "Heartbreaker" is all chopped to bits in the movie, but not on the CD. (Is there a complete version of "Heartbreaker" in the DVD extras -- anyone know?)

"The songs on the new CD that are shortened (compared to the original album) to match up with the film are "No Quarter", "Moby Dick" and "Whole Lotta Love". The edits are unnecessary and detrimental in the case of the first track mentioned, perhaps forgivable in the second, and downright disastrous in the third.

" 'Dazed and Confused' is actually longer now, again because of being standardized with the film.

"If you are used to hearing the original album, you will notice many, many different bits in the new mix -- sections of instruments and vocals taken from a different performance. I assume most if not all of these were done for better synchronization with the visuals."

Buy the new version but keep the old one as well. Just be mindful that the new Kevin Shirley master is slightly compressed to make it louder than the original mix.

P.S. If this movie was not remastered visually, only with the audio upgrade, why would it be nessesary to view it in a hi-def format instead of the dvd format? What would be better about it? Just Curious.

I still haven't recieved my HD-DVD copy from Amazon yet?

Is this that rare?

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray releases were "postponed indefinitely"... haven't heard any update since.

Interesting...In a possibly related story, Warner Home Video is the only major studio releasing discs in both the Blu-ray and HD DVD formats, but no fewer than two recent articles have published speculation that their titles will soon become exclusive to Blu-ray:

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/art ... 882911.htm

"Time Warner's TWX Warner Bros., the only studio still backing both formats, has been wooed by both sides about backing one exclusively. Analysts say Blu-ray has the best shot at landing a deal with Warner."

http://www.allthingshidef.com/ME2/dirmo ... A7611EB63B

"Richard Doherty, media analyst with The Envisioneering Group, downplayed scuttlebutt that Warner Home Video might announce exclusively backing Blu-ray. The studio currently backs both formats.

“All that really does is cheer up the Blu-ray camp and tick off a lot of Warner customers who bought the HD DVD version,” Doherty said. “If that is the big news for the BD camp … it won’t make the retailers or consumers any happier.”

I ended up canceling my Amazon order and tried Bestbuy.

Now that I bought a Toshiba HD-A2 player, of course Blu-Ray will win.

Bestbuy just emailed me that my copy is on the way.