Product Details

• Actors: n, a
• Directors: n, a
• Format: Surround Sound
• Language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: G (General Audience)
• Studio: n/a
• DVD Release Date: June 25, 2008
• Run Time: 69 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0019HSQ68
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #153,081 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent sound but problematic for many Blu-ray players., December 10, 2009

By 

Chris Boylan "MrBoylan" (Astoria, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tchaikovsky - Piano Concertos Nos. 1&3 [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

Technically this is not a Blu-ray Disc but a dual-layer DVD which uses the AVCHD and DTS-HD Master Audio codecs in order to play in a Blu-ray Disc Player. And play it does, within reason. Using 3 current high-end Blu-ray players (LG BD390, Samsung BD-P2500 and Panasonic DMP-BD80), all with the latest firmware applied, the results are mixed. On 2 of the 3 players, set to "bitstream" mode, I was eventually able to pass a DTS-HD Master Audio stream to a compatible preamp/processor via HDMI for playback of the audio track. (BTW, there *IS* no video track here -- it's an audio-only Blu-ray Disc). When working properly, the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 channel 24-bit 96Khz track here sounds phenomenal and the performance is clean and enjoyable. Those with compatible gear are in for a treat. But if you want your player to be able to do the decoding, this is where the trouble begins.

On the Panasonic BD80 (firmware 2.2), set to PCM mode (internal decoding), the sampling rate drops down to 48 Khz - still good quality but not the 96 KHz as advertised. On the Samsung BD-P2500, any attempts to decode the track internally fail with a nasty crackling sound. On the LG BD390, I was unable to get sound from this disc in any mode: bitstream, PCM stereo, DTS re-encode and multi-channel PCM modes all failed to pass a valid stream to my preamp/processor for decoding.

This is one of only a couple of recordings available which use full 7.1-channel 24-bit 96 KHz DTS-HD Master Audio sound, and perhaps for good reason, because decoding it internally seems to be a task beyond the capabilities of most current players, even those that are supposed to support internal decoding of DTS-HD MA and which do behave properly with other DTS-HD titles.

Unless you can confirm that your specific player and receiver or processor will work with this title in advance then it may not be worth a purchase.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a treasure!, November 8, 2008

By 

Matt Lehnmann (Beverly Hills, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tchaikovsky - Piano Concertos Nos. 1&3 [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

I literally grew up on this music. I have easily played it over a 100 times if not closer to 200. As for the performances, they are classics and you certainly can't go wrong with them - though I wouldn't say they are the 'best' for either of the respective pieces. Konstantin Scherbakov is an extraordinary pianist. The first thing you notice on hearing these two excellent performances is his amazing ability to play at high speed with no loss of control or shapeliness of phrasing. While never short-changing the virtuoso elements (particularly in the finale), has a give-and-take that few other versions match. There are a couple of brief spots in the first movement where the tension does drop a bit as Scherbakov lapses into dreamy reverie, but otherwise this is as persuasive a performance of this warhorse as any on disc. The orchestra and conductor have just as much to offer as the soloist, being totally at one with the interpretive concept and wholly characterful in their collective response.
I am very happy to report the DTS-HD version is the best that will ever be available for this recording and looking forward to see more music titles with this superior audio quality.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Tchaikovsky Piano Concertos 1 & 3, December 22, 2008

By 

Richard C. Belter (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tchaikovsky - Piano Concertos Nos. 1&3 [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

Purchased this Bluray twice and both times it failed to play--very, very disappointing. There is something very wrong with this particular production. Purchased the Rachmaninov and it played great. Be careful about this particular Bluray. I complained about it, but, of course, no one bothered to heed and I am sure there are others out there. Beware!!