It is 5 AM, Do you Know where Mikey Fremer is?

I haven't watched my own DVD in quite some time but I don't recall the chapters all ending in freeze frames! It's easy enough to do a fade-out and it certainly doesn't cost any more.

I agree that the footage shot in my listening room wasn't as well lit as it was on the first DVD. I used the same crew and they let me down somewhat but since the first one came out so well, I trusted the director to get it right the second time. When we went to edit, I saw what you're talking about.

However, there was one other issue: I went to the added expense of shooting in high definition. There are various HD formats and fortunately the ones used for both pressing plant shoots looked extremely good while the one used for the home shoot was less so.

As far as the cost of the DVD, please remember it required a trip to Germany, hiring a film crew, a trip to RTI in California and hiring another crew and then a third crew to shoot at home.

Then all of it had to be edited, which took a great deal of time, and then the graphics had to be created, including all of the chapters, along with the opening animated sequence.

Music had to be written and edited to picture and then the DVD had to be authored (similar to CD mastering).

Add a bunch of etceteras to this and believe me, it adds up to a great deal of money...

I hope at least you found it interesting. I found the plant tours really fascinating and the visit to AcousTech really fun.

Also, the unscripted, ad-libbed 47 minute record collecting rant came out pretty good, I thought...

But that's just me! Plus there's a great deal of good info on the DVD-ROM section....

This has been an unpaid advertisement....

I don't understand the OP busting on Fremer, who seems to listen quite a bit indeed and has been a stalwart champion of analog.

I probably have in the neighborhood of 50 records in my "backlog". I've mostly halted my buying until I catch up.

Mr. Fremer, have you had a chance to hear the new Audio Research Ref Phono 2? What did you think? I borrowed a Ref 2 for five days and it blew my socks off; awesome performance in every way!!! I am saving up for one now.

I've got about 1500 LPs, a collection assembled over a nearly 40 year period starting in and after college. I mentally divide my collection into two categories: those LPs I bought new when LPs were available by the bushel in "Record Stores" and those LPs I bought since the late 1980s/early 90s, which tend to be LPs I bought used or at boutique prices from the many companies that still make "new" pressings, usually by mail order. My collection is about 85% jazz; the remainder is roughly 60/40 classical and rock. I like to buy used LPs in Tokyo, when I am there visiting our son, because the condition of the LPs is generally impeccable. I refuse any longer to buy ANY LP that has a scratch or glitch in the surface. I don't and never did collect "to own"; I collect to listen. I don't give a darn about the condition of the jacket, as long as the LP itself is mint. I have recently noticed that I cannot reliably recall whether or not I already own a particular pressing, unless it's by an artist that I know is insufficiently represented in my collection or not represented at all. So once in a great while I buy an LP that I already own. This to me is a sign that I have "enough" LPs. There is such a wealth of wonderful music in my collection that I don't feel compelled to binge at yard sales or second hand stores. Nearly all LPs available at such venues would not fit my strict criteria for purchase.