Genesis albums to be released on Pure Audio Blu-ray

Pure Audio High resolution Blu-rays of all albums

In 2007 and 2008, all Genesis albums were released on Hybrid-SACD in High Resolution 5.1 Surround and Stereo Sound, including a bonus-DVD which contained visual bonus material plus the album in DOlby Digital 5.1 and dts Surround sound. In North America, no SACDs were released, but CD/DVD sets. You can find more information about that here.

Some of the titles are becoming unavailable (or, in case of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, have not been available separately in High Resolution Surround Sound). In 2014, Universal will rerelease all Genesis albums on the Pure Audio Blu-ray format. Each Blu-ray will contain the music only, there are no visual extras.

Pure Audio Blu-ray vs. SACD - what's the difference?

Selling England By The Pound Pure Audio Blu-ray From the technical point of view, the Pure Audio Blu-ray is a normal Blu-ray, so it can be played on all Blu-ray players. Nevertheless, it can be played as a CD, which means you do not have to use your television to enjoy the disc or browse through menues before you can start the music. The music comes in lossless audio formats called DTS HD Master Audio and Dolby True HD with a maximum of 24bit/192kHz sampling rate with up to 6 channels (5.1). In contrast to the SACD and DVD-Audio formats, also 7.1 would be possible (in theory, the Genesis albums were mixed in 5.1 anyway). So, in comparison to the SACD, the Pure Audio Blu-ray allows higher resolution, which will nevertheless not produce an audible increase in quality, since the Genesis SACD masters are already top level. A big advantage of the new format is the higher capacity of the discs.

It can be assumed that The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and the double Live-albums will be released on one disc. Whether or not the slideshow will be included on The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (which would be possible from the technical point of view) is unclear at the moment, but this issue has been addressed by us already.

In a nutshell: The new format is a chance to enjoy the high resolution versions of all albums, yet it won't reveal more than the SACD/CD-sets. In fact, there won't be any visual content. So it's mainly a way to make the albums available again in 5.1 Surround.

The first release will be Selling England by The Pound in January. We will provide a list with release dates for all the albums and further news about that topic soon.

published on 21.12.13 20:34 by Christian @ Genesis