Question on Greatest Video Hits

runner_70 wrote:

QPL need to obtain as many rushes for all their promo videos as they can or in the absence of them - the lowest generation masters, and re-edit and pass that on to a production company who know what they're doing when it comes to restoring video. Keeping things "in house" just doesn't work with the people QPL employ. A single blu ray instead of a multi-DVD set to accomodate lossless surround sound, that won't impact on the quality of the video content.

DId you see the "Live Aid" restauration a fan did (I guess it was discussed here also) which is on youtube? ALmost looks like a HD from 2019. Awesome. And look what they put on the official DVD (Was it Milton Keynes right?) The same bad TV picture. The same guy did re encode the DOn't stop me now video. Awesome as well. HE should be hired. What a wasted opportunity.
They seem to have done a good job with the Freddie videos on the "Never Boring" Box. SOme are on yt as well - not as great as those "fan" versions but way better than the shitty official DVDs.

Live Aid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a87-SYfD0js&t=397s

DSMN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gi6LINyYso

===================


the fan you mentioned is Chief Mouse from Queenzone. Amazing skilled person.

Queenman!! wrote:

runner_70 wrote:

QPL need to obtain as many rushes for all their promo videos as they can or in the absence of them - the lowest generation masters, and re-edit and pass that on to a production company who know what they're doing when it comes to restoring video. Keeping things "in house" just doesn't work with the people QPL employ. A single blu ray instead of a multi-DVD set to accomodate lossless surround sound, that won't impact on the quality of the video content.

DId you see the "Live Aid" restauration a fan did (I guess it was discussed here also) which is on youtube? ALmost looks like a HD from 2019. Awesome. And look what they put on the official DVD (Was it Milton Keynes right?) The same bad TV picture. The same guy did re encode the DOn't stop me now video. Awesome as well. HE should be hired. What a wasted opportunity.
They seem to have done a good job with the Freddie videos on the "Never Boring" Box. SOme are on yt as well - not as great as those "fan" versions but way better than the shitty official DVDs.

Live Aid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a87-SYfD0js&t=397s

DSMN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gi6LINyYso

===================


the fan you mentioned is Chief Mouse from Queenzone. Amazing skilled person.

Ok - he should be hired by QP

So do you think it is really just QPL being cheap? Or is it not wanting to relinquish control, or admit they don’t have the capability internally? One would think with Brian being such a perfectionist he would want things that are issued to be the best quality. But maybe he really doesn’t get involved with these productions much and it is just Jim Beach cranking things out randomly to keep the money coming in without concern as to what discerning fans may want? I don’t know much about those things, just kind of tossing thoughts around.

runner_70 wrote:

[So, maybe Video Hits 3 got shelved as Queen (Brian May, really) lost interest in doing 5.1 mixes, instead focussing on other projects like the collaboration with Paul Rodgers in 2005.

One of the side effects of Q+ - the real interesting stuff go shelved, 5.1 mixes, archive releases etc. Sad as Opera and Game sounded amazing. SO does the new Abbey road 5.1. mix. Awesome for a 50 year old record

They were looking into releasing a surround mix for all of their albums, too! Here's a message from Brian in 2003, basically when the bulk of the 5.1 mixes were coming out. I wonder if the process of going back through their catalogue sparked their interest in touring again, and hence the Paul Rodgers announcement a year later in 2004?

"Dear Folks around the world

"Here is an interesting puzzle.

"As you may know, we are now very keen on the idea of remixing the entire QUEEN catalogue of albums in Surround Sound. This entails going back to the ORIGINAL multi-track masters (in most cases analogue) and carefully transferring everything to the new high-resolution digital format for remixing in 5.1 format.

"The sad thing is that, as we move through this process, we will be coming up against problems, in that we DO NOT POSSESS all the original tapes. It's hard to believe, but many of these precious tapes have disappeared, some probably from their storage in EMI, or Studio vaults, some from remix studios perhaps, some returned to a wrong location in a library, to become effectively irretrievable, some almost certainly stolen, and in someone's collection!!

"We are anxious to find all of these missing, lost recordings, so we are appealing for your help, all you friends out there. Please look around, and let us know if you find any information, which might lead us to the recovery of our missing tapes. (REWARD!!!!)

This is what is missing.

The following is the latest updated list of missing multi-tracks for songs on QUEEN Albums:

01. The Prophet's Song (acapella section only)
02. God Save The Queen
03. Sheer Heart Attack
04. All Dead All Dead
05. Spread Your Wings
06. Sleeping On The Sidewalk
07. Who Needs You
08. My Melancholy Blues
09. Coming Soon
10. Staying Power

"Many thanks - love b xxx"

death to ming! wrote:

runner_70 wrote:

[So, maybe Video Hits 3 got shelved as Queen (Brian May, really) lost interest in doing 5.1 mixes, instead focussing on other projects like the collaboration with Paul Rodgers in 2005.

One of the side effects of Q+ - the real interesting stuff go shelved, 5.1 mixes, archive releases etc. Sad as Opera and Game sounded amazing. SO does the new Abbey road 5.1. mix. Awesome for a 50 year old record

They were looking into releasing a surround mix for all of their albums, too! Here's a message from Brian in 2003, basically when the bulk of the 5.1 mixes were coming out. I wonder if the process of going back through their catalogue sparked their interest in touring again, and hence the Paul Rodgers announcement a year later in 2004?

"Dear Folks around the world

"Here is an interesting puzzle.

"As you may know, we are now very keen on the idea of remixing the entire QUEEN catalogue of albums in Surround Sound. This entails going back to the ORIGINAL multi-track masters (in most cases analogue) and carefully transferring everything to the new high-resolution digital format for remixing in 5.1 format.

"The sad thing is that, as we move through this process, we will be coming up against problems, in that we DO NOT POSSESS all the original tapes. It's hard to believe, but many of these precious tapes have disappeared, some probably from their storage in EMI, or Studio vaults, some from remix studios perhaps, some returned to a wrong location in a library, to become effectively irretrievable, some almost certainly stolen, and in someone's collection!!

"We are anxious to find all of these missing, lost recordings, so we are appealing for your help, all you friends out there. Please look around, and let us know if you find any information, which might lead us to the recovery of our missing tapes. (REWARD!!!!)

This is what is missing.

The following is the latest updated list of missing multi-tracks for songs on QUEEN Albums:

01. The Prophet's Song (acapella section only)
02. God Save The Queen
03. Sheer Heart Attack
04. All Dead All Dead
05. Spread Your Wings
06. Sleeping On The Sidewalk
07. Who Needs You
08. My Melancholy Blues
09. Coming Soon
10. Staying Power

"Many thanks - love b xxx"

Very sad they have given up that plan. But I guess it was due to lack of interest as 5.1. sound is not for everyone just for nerds with a good equipment. Not the audience for them in 2020 anymore sadly.

runner_70 wrote:

Queenman!! wrote:

runner_70 wrote:

QPL need to obtain as many rushes for all their promo videos as they can or in the absence of them - the lowest generation masters, and re-edit and pass that on to a production company who know what they're doing when it comes to restoring video. Keeping things "in house" just doesn't work with the people QPL employ. A single blu ray instead of a multi-DVD set to accomodate lossless surround sound, that won't impact on the quality of the video content.

DId you see the "Live Aid" restauration a fan did (I guess it was discussed here also) which is on youtube? ALmost looks like a HD from 2019. Awesome. And look what they put on the official DVD (Was it Milton Keynes right?) The same bad TV picture. The same guy did re encode the DOn't stop me now video. Awesome as well. HE should be hired. What a wasted opportunity.
They seem to have done a good job with the Freddie videos on the "Never Boring" Box. SOme are on yt as well - not as great as those "fan" versions but way better than the shitty official DVDs.

Live Aid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a87-SYfD0js&t=397s

DSMN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gi6LINyYso

===================


the fan you mentioned is Chief Mouse from Queenzone. Amazing skilled person.

Ok - he should be hired by QP

Agreed!

Kind of odd that they don’t have all the original tapes....that seems so strange to me but I guess maintaining files was not a consistent process and since they were done so long ago there were many opportunities for loss. I would like hearing the surround mix, to me it’s a whole different experience. I wonder if there is a similar problem with videos, in that they don’t have access/legal authorization in order to upgrade them to current standards? I am not knowledgeable on how that works obviously. If laypeople can do it then maybe that’s not even an issue, but I am thinking in order to release under their name as “official” maybe they cannot do it without significant expense or access?

That list was from years ago. They found God Save The Queen not long after the first DVD-A of ANATO (on the same tape as Procession if I'm not mistaken) and issued a second edition with a proper surround mix of that track. I'm pretty sure it's just the NOTW tracks that are still missing hence no surround mix in the box set a couple of years ago. The real reason the surround mixes never happened was because they realised they were barely profitable, particularily when you are used to selling albums in the quantities that Queen were. The expense wouldn't justify the return, aside from ANATO and The Game

Actually there WAS a variation of Greatest Flix 3 released in 1999 on disc, but it was kind of a strange version, imo.
For starters, it was not a DVD but a Video CD, housed in a regular cd-package. The side and disc read "Queen + Greatest Flix III" but the front of the booklet had "Greatest Hits III" on it. To make it even worse the 2nd page of the booklet had only the words "Greatest Flix III". Design was similar to the GH3-release.

The disc was released by Parlophone/PMI with catalogue number 7243 4 92301 25. Running time approx. 71 minutes.
Tracks:
1. Under Pressure (Rah Mix)
2. These Are The Days Of Our Lives
3. Princes Of The Universe
4. Barcelona
5. Too Much Love Will Kill You
6. Somebody To Love (Live)
7. The Great Pretender
8. Heaven For Everyone (Video Version)
9. Las Palabras De Amor (The Words Of Love)
10. Let Me Live
11. Living On My Own (Radio Mix)
12. You Don't Fool Me
13. Driven By You
14. No-One But You (Only The Good Die Young)
15. The Show Must Go On

runner_70 wrote:Very sad they have given up that plan. But I guess it was due to lack of interest as 5.1. sound is not for everyone just for nerds with a good equipment. Not the audience for them in 2020 anymore sadly.

we prefer the term "audiophile". the dvd-a of ANATO is stunning. i bought it in a music store in California, when we toured the West Coast in 2005.

Now is the time to restore the videos that can be restored to 4K HDR (where those made by film and the negatives still exist).
Just like they recently did with the FM 'Never Boring' blu ray which have never looked so clear. I wonder if they restored them to 4K like Sony did with Wham's 'Last Christmas'?

Especially in these days with every increasing screen sizes and resolutions (4K..8K) and sharper pictures that show everything but where standard definition is almost unwatchable!

Movie studios have been doing this kind of 4K/8K restoration for years and am surprised the music industry hasn't as there are some classic music videos shot on film (not just Queen) that are worth restoring from a historical archive point of view.

I wish they would restore the videos to 4K as well, I would love that! I suppose it is somewhat hard to keep upgrading with new technologies, and with the sheer number of videos and hits it is a large (and expensive) undertaking every time. With so many fans wanting different songs/albums restored in audio and video formats, it just can’t be managed.

I did finally read about Greatest Flix 3, I haven’t tried to find it but I imagine it is somewhat rare.