IMO if you want the best in DVD audio, you should go with Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. The audio improvements are just as significant as the video improvements. In particular, with lossless audio you can have audio quality that is bit-for-bit identical to the studio masters. Hopefully the days of Dolby Digital and lossy DTS will soon be behind us.
I mention HD-DVD even though it has lost the format war, because there are some really good concerts that are not yet available on Blu-Ray.
Some suggestions:
- Moody Blues Live - Lovely To See You Tonight (lossless TrueHD on HD-DVD). Excellent audio and video quality.
- Eagles Return Tour in Melbourne (even though it doesn't say it on the cover, this has lossless DTS-HD/MA, on HD-DVD). This is one incredible sounding concert, and also has excellent picture quality.
- Elton60 (lossless PCM on Blu-Ray). Outstanding picture quality. Audio also very good but I think Elton is losing his voice.
- Dave Mathews and Tim Reynolds, Live at Radio City (TrueHD on Blu-Ray). 96KHz/24-bits. Great picture and audio quality.
- Celine Dion - A New Day (TrueHD on Blu-Ray). 96KHz/24-bits. Great picture and audio quaity. I am hestiant in recommending this because the concert is too "cheesy".
Not all Blu-Ray or HD-DVD concerts are good (James Taylor comes to mind), so you still need to be selective. But overall, they are significant improvements over regular DVDs.
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