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Re: Faulty DVDs & Blu Rays

Posted: Fri May 08, 2020 4:23 am
by Precious Doll
I had read about the US Blu Ray release of Woody Allen's Manhattan failing for some people about a year ago. Read some more recent reports so checked my own disc (which was fine a year or so ago) and sure enough its showing problems (stuttering and stopping). I've ordered the UK edition to replace it.

Re: Faulty DVDs & Blu Rays

Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2019 2:47 am
by Precious Doll
Another two dead Gaumont discs from 2010:

Bresson's A Man Escaped (order the UK edition to replace an all-time favourite)

Cousin Cousine - have seen this a couple of times over the years but never got a chance to watch the Blu Ray.

Re: Faulty DVDs & Blu Rays

Posted: Sun Sep 29, 2019 4:46 am
by Precious Doll
I was vaguely aware of this problem but as I've now been struck by it I've done some digging on the internet.

Firstly, it is only of concern if you have any French Blu Ray discs.

My Danton Blu Ray is nearly dead (will still play on one player so I'd better get to it this week as I haven't seen the film since 1982/83 and only purchased it for a revisit). The other is La Nuit de Varennes which is a wonderful film which I've thankfully seen a couple of times and am now really hoping for a US or UK release. Very upset about this one.

Both discs are from Gaumont and were released in 2010. The discs were processed by a company called QOL and it appears there are over 80 titles from this company that have been reported a failing. Whilst it won't be every disc they have manufactured it is very worrying (I've already ordered the UK Louis Malle Blu Ray box set in case my French discs go off). QOL have also processed most (if not all) Gaumont discs though I have a couple that didn't indicate that QOL manufactured them.

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend purchasing any French discs as even some non QOL disc are having problems.

Re: Faulty DVDs & Blu Rays

Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 1:04 am
by Precious Doll
That's not good to hear DWS.

Have you tried the discs on another machine? Sometimes players start being 'difficult'.

Our main Region B locked blu ray player in the lounge room has been a nightmare for months now. I'm looking at replacing it because I sometime have to reload films up to five times before the machine will start to play them.

Last week it froze during Fatal Attraction, so we popped the film in our multi-zone player which is set to region A and it played without a hitch.

I've also had problems with Kedi (US blu ray) and Sieranevada (Romanian blu ray disc) in this machine but tested them in 3 other blu ray players and they were fine - so I'm putting those done to an ageing Blu Ray player.

The machine doesn't have problems playing DVDs though, except for those faulty Warners ones.

Speaking of Warners of been testing more films from the 2006-2009 period and thankfully far more play than don't.

On the general matter of disc care cleaning a disc that may not play even though it looks fine can occasionally help. This is the best method:

https://www.howtocleanthings.com/electr ... ean-a-dvd/ - I've been spraying Isopropyl onto the recommended Micofibre cloth and cleaning as recommended on this site on discs I find have gone hazy or have what looks like moldue without any problems. Both my copies of Fat Girl had gone smokey (one Australian, the other Criterion) and they played fine but I cleaned them nevertheless and they look brand new again.

I have growing concerns about the longevity of physical media and various things could be affecting some discs such as temperature, humidity and even the cases themselves.

Internet search showing suitable temperature rangers vary from advice to advice so who knows.

Which brings me to another very noticeable issue - Blu Ray cases. Has anyone noticed that some of them feel oily and you can run your finger on the inside of the case and leave a mark. That cannot be a good thing. And this isn't something that is happening with age some of them are like that when you remove them from plastic wrapper. Case in point I received Good Time & Blue Collar from the UK today and both cases are like this. Ditto the Australian Blu Rays of The Battle of the Sexes and Big Little Lies that I purchased from the store last week.

Re: Faulty DVDs & Blu Rays

Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2018 9:26 pm
by dws1982
I was watching the Chariots of Fire Blu-Ray with my nephew around Christmas, and I had issues with it around the one hour mark. I eventually had to go to a later chapter and back it up. I'd had the disc for awhile (about a year), but I had bought it new and it was my first time watching it.

Had a similar issue with the Blu-Ray of Lincoln, which I was watching with him this weekend. I've had that one about five years and have played it a few times. But I've always been careful with it and didn't notice any scratches or spots on the disc.

Tempted to start going through all of my Blu-Rays and seeing which ones have issues.

Re: Faulty DVDs & Blu Rays

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 12:41 am
by Precious Doll
Don't know if that will be the case with an International buyer as on their website they only sell to U.S. residents. I still am going to alert them, very nicely, in the hope these titles can be bumped up their Blu Ray release program.

I tested Prince of the City (both discs), Rollover & Petulia today and they were all fine.

Re: Faulty DVDs & Blu Rays

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 10:20 am
by Big Magilla
Warner Bros. and Screen Archives are very obliging as well, though I have had problems with Amazon on third party sales where the most they'll do is advance my Prime membership another month - three times in the last year.

Warner Archive, in their early days, sent me a duplicate of a large order - 9 or 10 discs - when I asked them for a return slip, they told me give the duplicates to a family member or friend, which I did.

Re: Faulty DVDs & Blu Rays

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 8:39 am
by Precious Doll
I am going to buy another play next week and an playing on getting an expensive multi-zone-zone one, though we will keep it looked at region B and the region A player is working fine. I won't email Warners with my concerns until I try the discs in the new machine.

My Dinner at Eight disc played fine when skipping chapter to chapter and I did watch the last scene with Marie Dressler & Jean Harlow (the highlight of the film) so you should hopefully be OK.

I'm going to test Land of the Pharaohs, Prince of the City, & Rollover tomorrow if I get a chance.

Funny I can't recall of any discs no playing as soon as I have got them. Though I did have problems with Criterions Veronica Voss, it wouldn't play about 5 minutes of the film. I contacted Criterion about it and got a reply back that may as well have told me to fuck off. I got a different region boxset of which Veronica Voss was part of so that resolved that for me. Great customer service from Criterion, not. I have had films replaced by Amazon if they arrive loose and are all scratched. Ironically scratches rarely affect playback but I do feel when buying something one is entitled to a pristine copy. Amazon are always very obliging.

Re: Faulty DVDs & Blu Rays

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:01 am
by Big Magilla
I, too, have been trying to cull my DVD/Blu-ray collection down. It was over 7,300 at its height, is down to a little over 5,000 now with theatrical films making up about 4,800 and TV movies and series making up the difference.

I have had problems with Warner Bros. discs and others, but usually the problem is there from the start. I usually play everything on my Sony region-free Blu-ray player first because it has the widest range on the remote, but if it doesn't play or skips when playing, I find if I play it on my Oppo region-free Blu-ray player, which is a better machine, the problem goes away. On the other hand, there are some discs that won't play on the Oppo, but will play on the Sony or my older non-region-free Panasonic.

I've been wanting to re-watch Dinner at Eight for a while, but have been hesitating because I've read that people have problems with the disc.

Faulty DVDs & Blu Rays

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 12:59 am
by Precious Doll
Over the last six months I have been culling my collection of DVDs & Blu Rays down from 6,000 to 4,800.

During this process I have checked some of the discs which included titles that I was planning on keeping and others that I was going to sell and stumbled across two DVD discs that have stopped playing altogether. One was an Australian disc of an American comedy thats title escapes me and the other was the Criterion edition of Gimmie Shelter.

Neither of the discs had any signs of DVD rot or damage and both played fine when I purchased them over 10 years ago. Anyway I didn't give it much thought. I threw the discs away and ordered the recent Blu Ray of Gimmie Shelter. I wasn't concerned about the other film as I was going to sell it anyway and was only going to watch a couple of funny scenes again.

I should point out that I take very good care of my collection. I don't lend titles out except to my mother (and father before he passed away) who treats them with great care. If friends want to watch films I invite them over or go to their place and watch it with them. It really is advisable not to lend discs to people as in the cases where I have (when I have received a second copy or its something I'm going to sell) they almost always are returned with fingerprints!

Anyway, when I got to culling all my boxsets I checked one of the Forbidden Hollywood editions with The Red Headed Woman and to my horror (it is after all my favourite Jean Harlow film), it would not play. I started checking the internet for any information of other people having problems and my worst fears were realised.

It turns out that a number of people are having problems with US Warner & Turner Classics discs from around 2006 to 2009. Initially, I thought this was limited to boxsets but have this week discovered the problem is much wider.

We watched Rich and Famous last Sunday night and half way through it stopped playing. I popped it in another machine and it was fine. (Age has not been kind to Cukor's last film not that it matters because it wasn't too good back in 1981). I was going to watch Shoot the Moon last night but after checking it on six different machines the same problem occurred - it wouldn't chapter skip past the middle of the film and if I went to the menu and selected a later chapter the disc either would play at all or would go to that chapter only to stop and start.

I thought it would be worth starting a post to advise of any faulty discs that people come across as I know some people on the board to have DVD collections and it would be worth checking any Warner or Turner Classic discs you have from the above period.

The films in my collection that are now redundant - and I have checked them in numerous DVD and Blu Ray players are:

Forbidden Hollywood - The Red Headed Woman (though thankfully Baby Face & James Whales Waterloo Bridge play fine);
Joan Crawford boxset - Torch Song, A Woman's Face, Sadie McKee, Strange Cargo & Flamingo Road
O Lucky Man
Personal Best (I let out a cry like a dying animal with this one) :( :evil:
Crusin'
Shoot the Moon
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

It should be noted that all the films in the Crawford boxset and well as all the other single films will only skip from chapter to chapter to the half way point.

It turns out that only dual layer disc are affected and it was a manufacturing fault which didn't emerge until sometime later. Goodness knows how many complaints Warners have had but it is very concerning.

The following films played fine:

Cannery Row
Goodbye Mr. Chipps (the Herbert Ross one)
Zabriskie Point
The Ritz
The Grass Harp
The Lon Channey collection that included Laugh Clown Laugh
The Star
Dinner at Eight

These are playable on some machine but not others:

Buster Keaton collection (which includes Spite Marriage)
Rich and Famous
The Old Maid

Also worth noting that I have sold around 1,200 films over the last 6 months and have had no complaints and some of these were Warners titles (Attack of the 50 Foot Woman & Queen of Outer Space).

Also, I have watched some of these films (Personal Best, Crusin', Red Headed Woman when I first purchased them and they were fine. When I buy any disc I always ensure that they play and do a chapter skip.

Last night we ended up watching Fatal Attraction, having not seen it since it's first release. It was the Australian Blu Ray disc. You wouldn't believe it, it stopped half way through, but played fine in the other player. To be far in this case though our primary region B player is on it's last legs and can take up to six goes to start playing a film. The Blu Rays of Kedi & Sieranevada both started breaking up when we watched them a couple of months ago but are fine in every other Blu Ray player we own (both films are Region Free). Clearly in these three cases the problem is the player, not the discs.

I intend to contact Warner Brothers and basically beg them to release the above films on Blu Ray given we the paying customer paid for product that turned faulty. I know Warners have re-released some of these titles on DVD-R, but that is really not good enough. Though to be fair I watched Heart Beat after John Heard passed away and that was a Warner's DVD-R which I had purchased in 2009 and it played fine. I just prefer pressed discs to DVD-Rs & Blu Ray-Rs.