# Neil Young Archives -- What Format Is This? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 18, 2009, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neil-young-archives-what-format-is-this/481841 "2009-01-18T06:48:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neil-young-archives-what-format-is-this/481841/1 "2009-01-18T06:48:32Z")
For close to 20 years now, I’ve been hearing rumors of a release of tons of stuff from Neil Young’s archive collection (live stuff, unreleased stuff, early versions, etc.) Now it looks like there’s going to be an actual release – at least [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) is taking pre-orders. [Neil Young archives at Amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/Neil-Young-Archives-1963-1972/dp/B001B8PV4K/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1232260076&sr=1-8) Is it kosher to post a link to a commercial website? I assure you, I have no interest in selling anything to anyone. What I’m interested in is that the format listed here is 10 DVDs, with a runtime of 1200 minutes. There’s also apparently a blu-ray version. So what’s the deal? Do you just play them in your DVD player, through your TV? I have one, but it’s not really my first choice for listening to music. Is there accompanying footage, or does your screen stay blank? Can you rip the songs to your iTunes library (and I know Neil would probably hate that, but I’m just trying to get all the facts)? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neil-young-archives-what-format-is-this/481841/2 "2009-01-18T15:07:57Z")
If it’s anything like the DVD that comes in the recent _Sugar Mountain_ release, the imagery accompanying the music-only portions may be less than riveting. The _Sugar Mountain_ DVD is exactly the same music that appears on the CD, only in high resolution DVD audio format, with what looks like a DVD menu screen (the cover image of Young overlaid with a looped drifting snowflakes effect) displayed throughout the whole thing. But I believe the archive set will include a lot of visual content as well–stills (and crosby and nash?) and documents, and probably some video content. Since it is DVD, I’m sure you can’t rip the tracks to iTunes without some kind of hack. ---
**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neil-young-archives-what-format-is-this/481841/3 "2009-01-18T17:11:47Z")
Thanks. Were you able to discern if the audio on the Sugar Mountain DVD was noticeably better than on the accompanying CD? I’m having a hard time figuring out why there wouldn’t be a regular CD release of the archives set as well. Maybe there will be – but it will come later, or Amazon doesn’t have an entry for it yet. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neil-young-archives-what-format-is-this/481841/4 "2009-01-18T18:19:01Z")
> [@Meltdown](#): > > Thanks. Were you able to discern if the audio on the Sugar Mountain DVD was noticeably better than on the accompanying CD? Since I can only play DVDs on my computers, I couldn’t say. This is really meant for people with audiophile-quality home entertainment systems. > [@](#): > > I’m having a hard time figuring out why there wouldn’t be a regular CD release of the archives set as well. Neil Young has always considered CD sound inadequate. I don’t think he wants to release his BIG PROJECT in that format. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neil-young-archives-what-format-is-this/481841/5 "2009-01-18T20:56:22Z")
> **[Neil Young Archives](https://neilyoungarchives.com/archives/gh_technotes_menu.html)** > > NYA contains the complete archives of Neil Young. The site is designed for a chronological exploration of artist output including music, books, films, & videos. Music is streamed in high-res with Xstream by NYA. A living document, NYA is always... Here’s some tech. notes from Neil’s website. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neil-young-archives-what-format-is-this/481841/6 "2009-01-18T21:32:29Z")
If it’s anything like John Mellencamp’s recent album [Life Death Love and Freedom,](http://www.amazon.com/Life-Death-Love-Freedom-Mellencamp/dp/B0018Q7K4O/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1232312092&sr=8-1) which was also released on DVD audio, they will have made provisions for you to copy the music to a PC. There is a folder with not only the uncompressed WAV, but also with MP3 and AAC files. The WAV files will be the ones with the best fidelity, of course, and I had no trouble copying them to my hard drive without converting them in any way whatsoever. They are identical to WAV files from a CD, only at a higher bitrate (4680 kbps) and with a larger file size (about 125 mb per track, making the placement on DVD necessary, as an album would be too large to fit on a CD). They play just fine in Winamp and Windows Media Player, and although I don’t have iTunes, I’m confident you should have no trouble ripping them into there. iTunes should treat them the same as normal WAV files off a CD. The ones from the Mellencamp album play just fine on my Creative Nomad Zen and the sound quality is quite excellent, with much more depth than you would get from an MP3. ---
**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neil-young-archives-what-format-is-this/481841/7 "2009-01-18T23:44:22Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Neil Young has always considered CD sound inadequate. I don’t think he wants to release his BIG PROJECT in that format. I considered that, but I’m not sure why he would view DVD as much of an improvement. He has a famous quote about how listening to music on a CD is like watching a sunset through a screen door – his point being that digital music converts the sound into discrete chunks of information. I would think that he’d view DVD audio the same way. But who knows – maybe he sees it as a workable compromise. cochrane, thanks for the info on ripping to a computer. I’ll probably examine the technical notes of the release in detail before plunking down $310 for the set.