[Glathannus]

It's still two weeks before the Heisei Fuuzoku DVD comes out, and it's already sold out at HMV Japan. But don't be too shocked - it happened because they had a much lower price than everyone else, and the recent online-released clips could've also had something to do with that. Other online stores with closer-to-retail prices are still accepting orders. Though I'd be skeptical about YesAsia because they overestimate availability of limited products all the time, and they're internationally more popular than other online sellers of Japanese CDs/DVDs, which means they're more likely to be sold out and less likely to tell you that.

I've ranted about this before (in the old boards), but I think including exclusive content (bonus songs/visuals) combined with making this into a limited product, is a crime against the universe. That other content should come in the form of nonlimited consumer product(s). There are later fans who are going to want this DVD primarily for the audio quality, who can't have it because it's sold out everywhere, because of all the people who wanted it for what are arguably the bells and whistles. Consider that more than 50% the bandwidth on this DVD is being used for audio (even when you're watching "motion graphics"), when for Ringo/Jihen concert DVDs and PV collections, audio is getting no more than 25% of the bandwidth.

I'd bet money that 95% of the buyers can't experience the DVD in 96kHz/24bit (an audio resolution 3 times more detailed than CDs). And "can't" isn't a subjective term here where people technically can play 96kHz but just "won't hear the difference". I mean peoples' players/computers are literally going to be capping them on 48kHz, either for circuitry limitations, or DVD-A protection scheme paranoia, or both. Cheap speakers/headphones don't help the matter either, but I'm not making any generalizations about how little or much money Ringo fans spend on those. I just know that the average person is uninformed and unprepared to deal with DVD-As, whether their speakers/headphones are great or not. And I'm not saying people ought to be prepared & informed, either. I'm just saying if they're not prepared, they shouldn't buy this DVD.

The DVD-A format is such a proprietary mess that I myself almost want nothing to do with it, but I'm enough of both a fanboy and an informed/prepared audiophile that I'll jump through the hoops of dripping bullshit just this once - just for Ringo. I have an expensive sound system, and I own music for a lot of other artists, but I've never bothered to buy a DVD-A before. I've never ripped one before either, but I have the proprietary hardware/software combo to do so, and it's going to be a huge pain in the ass because DVD-A uses a different protection scheme than standard DVD videos. You could try ripping this DVD the same way you'd rip any other, but you're going to be capped at ripping 48kHz audio, because the other half of the audio quality is under the extended protection that DVD rippers (and most playback software/devices) can't decrypt.

I'm actually looking more forward to the LP, even though I'm still buying the DVD. LPs don't go according to digital measurements like 44.1kHz/48kHz/96kHz/etc - they are arguably infinite resolution (while digital is a bunch of dots in one place trying to mimic a solid line), and there's no such thing as proprietary bullshit with LPs. You can either play all of them in their entire quality or none of them - there is no inbetween.