Farscape: Starburst DVD Problems (1 Viewer)

[Daniel Kikin]

After reading about all the problems, whenever I get a new volume, I start each episode from the beginning and skip through the chapters just to make sure they're okay, I've already seen the episodes anyway but I also want to make sure my discs are okay, hopefully chapter-skipping is as good a test as fast-forwarding.

 

[Andy_Bu]

Hi Mark,

You shouldn't.

You did not read my posts clearly enough however.

I said that I am fast forwarding through the discs so that I can determine if I have a bad one so that I can return it. I don't intend to watch these until they are all released and as such that would be too late to return them if at that time I find I have a bad one.

Hope that clears up the confusion.

Andy

 

[Andy_Bu]

Its not good. Chapter skipping will not find the problems. The problems seem to be in the middle of chapters at which point you could get passed the problem by choosing the following chapter.

So if you want to do like I did, you need to fast forward through them all. It does not take too long at top speed anyway so its worth doing I think.

Andy

 

[KyleC]

Wow what's the deal with Starburst 2.3 and Amazon? I ordered it back in early Sept as a pre-order, and I looked today at it's status. It says it won't ship for 4-6 weeks! What's the deal?

 

[AlexF]

the hurricane. ADV's HQ is in houston. apparently everything got delayed by a _minimum_ of 14 days.

just as an fyi.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

Not only that but Best Buy didn't even get the DVD's in either. At any rate, the series is halfway released with the new format and hopefully, with the next 6 disk sets I'll end up exchanging about a dozen sets in order to get working copies of these DVD's ... BAH ADV Sucks.

 

[Gord Lacey]

I called ADV about the problems you guys are having last week, and I received a call back today notifying me that they're dropping DVD-18s:

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=4302

Gord

 

[AlexF]

no more dvd18s? that's good news. i did like the fewer disc thing for these sets, but i (like others) had so many problems with some of them that this is likely good news (tm).

 

[Roger_R]

It's great they're going for DVD-9s instead. I'm also relieved to hear that they're using 4 discs instead of lowering the bitrate and go for 2.

 

[KyleC]

So if they're going to 4 discs, that would be 2 discs (approx) per disc. So now there really isn't any reason for those that bought the original release to upgrade. I only own the Starburst but for others this stinks now.

I have to say though of all the TV shows I own on DVD (besides Band of Brothers) this show looks/sounds the best by far. The 5.1 is superb and the picture is very high quality.

 

[Roger_R]

Huh? 2 DVD-18s= 4 sides and 4 DVD-9s= 4 sides.
So after the change, they're actually getting a bit more space to play around with since the first layer of a DVD can hold more data than the second layer.

 

[Will_B]

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

ADV has listened! That is almost unheard of. Very pleased. I applaud their decision, and I thank Gord for his inquiry.

Making 4 discs instead of 2 is fine with me, since these Starburst editions are so much more than just repackages. I've appreciated the new commentary tracks (new to the United States, anyhow), and the new extras that the producers of Farscape created for this.

If they can keep the packaging slim that would be nice, but the important thing is that these discs will actually PLAY! Halleluja!

 

[Will_B]

And in related news, from deep down in the sub-basement of ADV, emanating from behind the closed doors of the art department, a blood curtling scream went up from the throat of the person who had already designed all the Farscape covers to fit the standard Amaray case...

I sympathize for that person, but this must be done. Good for ADV to step up to it.

 

[Roger_R]

Well, they could always just make a slightly bigger spine and stack all 4 DVDs ontop of each other... or maybe not.
Wouldn't put it past them though. That's what game companies do here in Europe when they release games on multiple CDs.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

While I do applaud ADV Films for making this decision I'm severely upset. My main reason for buying the new DVD's was the new slim packaging. ADV Films should have just lowered the prices on their current boxed sets.

 

[Gord Lacey]

Their plan was to offer slim packaging as well, but that wasn't working so they had to adjust the sets. I'm sure most people would prefer larger cases with discs that actually work.

Gord

 

[Mark Talmadge]

Yeah. Between you and me Gord, I would have prefered working DVD's, even if they were DVD-18's, with the slimmer packaging. My sad concern is that they'll use the same concept for the Andromeda DVD's. But, after this fiasco, ADV Films has made right decision in correcting the current problem. AT least they are beginning the new format with Season 3 instead of midway through a season.

Volume 7 begins the third season of Farscape and at least the DVD's won't take up much space.

I'm curious if ADV Films is going to offer an exchange for the earlier disks then because I'm cure they won't keep producing more copies of the DVD-18's that were used for the first volumes.

 

[Will_B]

If they want to maintain slim packaging there are of course 4-DVD cases that are the same width as single-DVD cases. They probably mentioned the Andromeda style cases because that's what they are familiar with. But perhaps their replicator/packaging people will mention that cases have slimmed down since then.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

It's possible to use the DVD Packagiung format similar to what Warner Bros did with their format for the recent Dukes of Hazzard Season 4 so that they could keep the slim packaging.

 

[Gord Lacey]

Will, do you know some of the companies that make them? If you're able to send me a list of companies/models (do DVD cases have "models") then I can pass it on to them. I'm sure they'll want to keep the packaging similar (from the outside) if they can. What if they went with an overlapping-style package? Would you view this as being worse than the DVD-18 situation, worse than a wider cage...?

Gord