A Few Thoughts About....Blu-ray/DVD FLIPPER DISCS (1 Viewer)

[Sam Favate]

Just an update. After reading this thread, I kind of freaked out and contacted Universal to see if they would be willing to exchange the flippers for standard blu-rays since I had already opened them. They stated it is not their policy to exchange discs that are not defective.

I realized the logic in that statement and tried to watch the films. The first movie played fine. The second started to freeze and skip about 2 to 3 minutes into the film. The third film would not play at all in my PS3. I tried to return them to the store that I had bought them from, but since they did not have the exact same discs, their hands were tied. I reached out to Universal again explaining the situation, and thankfully they have agreed to exchange all of the discs for standard bluray discs.

VERY thankful to Universal.

Universal exchanged blu/DVD flippers for single-sided DVD for me. They actually called me after I mailed them, saying their people had no trouble playing them. I said I played them in 3 different players with no luck. They exchanged them.

I will never buy any title, ever again, that has flippers.

 

[Jason_V]

Flipper Disc: A double-sided disc that requires you to flip it over and play the other side to continue watching the movie. The terminology dates back to the DVD days, well before Blu-ray or HD DVD was available.

Combo Disc: A double-sided disc that has Blu-ray (or HD DVD) on one side, and DVD on the other side.

I know I'm late to this party but "flipper disc" is the incorrect terminology. They are COMBO discs. The HD DVD folks got it right and called them exactly what they are, combo discs. A combination of HD DVD (or Blu-ray) and DVD.

That said, I don't believe I own any Blu-ray combo discs. I've got several HD DVD combo discs and they all continue to play just fine.

Mark

Disagree 100% with you, Mark. A simple Google search ("flipper disc") will get you this link from ComingSoon.net as the first result.

The article is from 2009 and talks about Universal using a flipper disc with the DVD on one side and high def on the other. The article writer used the term, the headline uses the term and, most importantly for me, in the third paragraph, the head of Universal Home Entertainment uses the term.

Blu-ray.com says the same exact thing in 2010. Endgadget, CNET, Wired, Gizmodo...the actual press release from Universal...Collider...AVS...

Do I need to go any farther?

On the other hand, Combo's (there is no Combo Disc...they're Combo Packs or some version thereof) can include a 3D BD Disc, BD Disc, DVD, Digital Copy/Ultra Violet/iTunes.

I understand why you mentioned what you did; the HD DVD wiki article mentions Combo discs. But I can't find a good reference for that piece of the article in the footnotes.

 

[Scott Burke]

Universal exchanged blu/DVD flippers for single-sided DVD for me. They actually called me after I mailed them, saying their people had no trouble playing them. I said I played them in 3 different players with no luck. They exchanged them.

I will never buy any title, ever again, that has flippers.

I'm with you 100 percent.

 

[Mark Booth]

Disagree 100% with you, Mark. A simple Google search ("flipper disc") will get you this link from ComingSoon.net as the first result.

The article is from 2009 and talks about Universal using a flipper disc with the DVD on one side and high def on the other. The article writer used the term, the headline uses the term and, most importantly for me, in the third paragraph, the head of Universal Home Entertainment uses the term.

Blu-ray.com says the same exact thing in 2010. Endgadget, CNET, Wired, Gizmodo...the actual press release from Universal...Collider...AVS...

Do I need to go any farther?

On the other hand, Combo's (there is no Combo Disc...they're Combo Packs or some version thereof) can include a 3D BD Disc, BD Disc, DVD, Digital Copy/Ultra Violet/iTunes.

I understand why you mentioned what you did; the HD DVD wiki article mentions Combo discs. But I can't find a good reference for that piece of the article in the footnotes.

Here's a reference for you:

I stand by my previous post. Before HD DVD and Blu-ray were a gleam in any home theater enthusiast's eye, we had double-sided DVDs. Those discs were referred to as Flipper Discs because you had to flip them over to continue watching the movie. The term was coined WELL before we had HD on one side and DVD on the other.

Just because a bunch of sites continue to use the term "Flipper Disc" to refer to what is actually a "Combo Disc" doesn't mean it's right. You don't have to flip over a Combo Disc to continue watching the movie. A Combo disc is a combination of two formats with the same movie on each side.

Mark

 

[Jason_V]

There is a difference between the combo FORMAT and a combo DISC.

All those articles reference the original Universal press release. I would imagine they know what they're talking about, but we're going to agree to disagree on this.

And yes, I do remember the old flipper LaserDiscs where the disc had to be turned to finish the movie. But that is in no way the only legit definition for the term. But we're going to agree to disagree on this.

 

[Mark Booth]

LaserDiscs were NEVER referred to as "flippers". Virtually EVERY LaserDisc movie needed to be turned over to continue to play the movie so there was never any need to coin a term to describe the process. The term "flipper" didn't come into existence until double-sided DVDs. Since the vast majority of movies fit on a single side of a DVD the use of double-sided DVDs was rare. When longer movies were released on DVD, sometimes the movie was split between two separate discs and sometimes the movie was split between two sides of the same disc. AKA, a "flipper" disc because you had to flip the disc over to continue watching the movie.

Here's one example of a reference to flipper discs as it accurately applies to DVD:

http://club.myce.com/f62/feature-request-making-single-dvd-image-flipper-2-sided-dvd-73191/

That was in 2003, well before we had HD DVD and Blu-ray.

Granted, later, the term "flipper" got used by Universal to refer to its forthcoming Blu-ray/DVD combo discs. But that is a bastardization of the term and completely incorrect. There is NO NEED to "flip" the disc over to continue watching the movie. The are simply double-sided dual-format discs. In other words, combo discs.

"Flipper" was coined because it described an ACTION required during the middle of the movie. With combo discs, the only action required is which side is down when you initially stick it in the player.

Yes, we can agree to disagree.

Mark

 

[Sam Favate]

I don't really care what they're called. I refuse to buy any more 5 inch discs with content on both sides of the disc, whether they're DVD/DVD (flippers), CD/DVD (the so-called DualDisc), or Blu-ray/DVD (the Combo). I've had some of each, and NONE of them have worked reliably.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

This is why no avg, casual by-stander cares what goes on in our HT world.

_Man_

 

[Mike Frezon]

Oh.....

THAT'S why!

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I refuse to buy any more 5 inch discs with content on both sides of the disc, whether they're DVD/DVD (flippers), CD/DVD (the so-called DualDisc), or Blu-ray/DVD (the Combo). I've had some of each, and NONE of them have worked reliably.

REALLY now- NONE of them??? I have at least 200 2-sided DVDs, give or take a few, haven't had problems with any of them except for "Casino" which was a notoriously defective title. There have been plenty of 1-sided mass-defects as well, such as "Vertigo" which no longer plays at all- should I stop buying 1-sided DVDs also? Haven't had any problems with DualDiscs either, though those seem to be extinct now and many of them didn't have a lot of compelling content on the DVD sides.

I've bought EVERY HD-DVD title released in the US (save for a few of the smaller companies' titles) and have had the worst luck with single-sided, dual layered discs made by Cinram, who manufactured all of Warner's discs and some of the smaller studios'. Strangely all of the combo-format discs I've had have worked fine.

 

[Sam Favate]

REALLY now- NONE of them??? I have at least 200 2-sided DVDs, give or take a few, haven't had problems with any of them except for "Casino" which was a notoriously defective title. There have been plenty of 1-sided mass-defects as well, such as "Vertigo" which no longer plays at all- should I stop buying 1-sided DVDs also? Haven't had any problems with DualDiscs either, though those seem to be extinct now and many of them didn't have a lot of compelling content on the DVD sides.

No, none of them were reliable. The Universal discs almost always froze up and/or skipped chapters. The Warner discs would do the same, although less frequently. The DualDiscs (CD/DVD) would never play in a computer (so the music couldn't get to iTunes, for instance). And the blu-ray/DVD discs I had (again, Universal) were sent back for the same problems - skipped chapters, freezing up. It was impossible to watch anything on those discs without wanting to throw them across the room. Off the top of my head, some of the titles involved were Battlestar Galactica (1978 series), Buck Rogers, the West Wing, NYPD Blue, North and South, and others.

I never bought any HD-DVDs, so I can't speak for those. But I have dozens of double-sided discs and had problems with them all at one time or another. They were tried on no less than 4 players, both DVD and blu-ray (the DualDiscs on at least 3 players). Anyway, it's absurd to think I should have to switch players to get a disc to work.