We reported a few days ago the final, confirmed release date of the Pink Floyd's PULSE DVD, which judging by the battering our inbox has had over the last couple of years, is heavily anticipated. However, the delays and postponements to this title (to include technical additions and modifications) has proved a sore point with many of you.

The two disc DVD will be in the stores on September 18th, 2006, worldwide, and not a moment too soon for many of you. In a small departure from our normal news coverage, and as it is the weekend, we thought we'd share the thoughts of a Brain Damage regular, Graham Hignett, who has seen first-hand what happens when a DVD comes out before it is completely ready.

Pink Floyd's PULSE coming on DVD...finally!

WORTH THE WAIT

Like all fellow Floydians I am gutted that the Pulse release date keeps getting pushed back - but I am also glad. I am glad they are getting the DVDs right before they release them because I know only too well what happens when DVDs are pushed out into the shops with faults.

A few years ago I was excited that one of my favourite bands 'Procol Harum' were to release a second live DVD which would contain 5.1 and DTS tracks in addition to the standard stereo track.

I bought the DVD on the release date and for a good while was very impressed with the great setlist, performance, video and surround sound.

Until... half way throught the set, the 5.1 sound went out of sync, so too did the DTS track. It wasn't so bad it looked silly but I noticed it straight away and couldn't watch it. Now, I am picky about things like that but my mind was eased when some of my relatives (who are a lot older than me and were brought up watching old black and white TVs) noticed the problem.

I cleverly managed to get hold of the email address of the production company that made the DVD; in particular I got the email for the quality control manager. I sent a brief email about the problem and got a prompt reply. He asked me to supply specific details including time references as he had not heard about that issue before.

My second email to him gave accurate details and I told him that the DVD was returned to the store as faulty and I bought it elsewhere in case it was just a faulty batch. The second disc was exactly the same and I commented on how amazed I was that the quality control manager did not know about this issue when it was his job to remedy this kind of thing before releasing it.

His amazing reply was that he did indeed know about the sync problem but as it only happended half way through the set and most people would not notice it anyway - they decided to release the disc with a fault in order to meet the release date deadline.

My response to him is obvious.

Now, please remember people - this company thought it was fair to release and sell a faulty DVD to the public. They thought nobody would mention it. They decided not to admit the problem until pushed about it. Do you want that to happen with Pulse? No, not at all.

I am telling you this so that you can all relax and just wait for Pulse to be released. I personally want them to get it right before release (and I am sure they will) instead of releasing a shoddy job as in the case of Procol Harum.

A final intersting note on this issue though... I contacted the owner of the Procol Harum website about the problem and his stern reply was that I should keep quite about the matter as he didn't want the band to suffer a loss in sales of the DVD.

I did indeed keep shush about it - until now. I too didn't want sales to suffer for the sake of the band but I also don't like buying shoddy DVDs which I could have authored better myself. I also don't like withholding information from others - let people decide for themselves.

So, in a nutshell - I look forward to the Pulse DVD (no matter how long it takes to release) because I know a lot of thought and care has been put into it. Wish I could say the same for the injustice that has been done to Procol Harum.