Old Universal discs no longer play !? (1 Viewer)

[Rick CHO]

Today I checked my copies of Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds, Apollo 13 & Backdraft. All play fine. Crossing my fingers.............

 

[John Stone]

I checked all Universal discs that I own that were released in 1998, and a couple from early 1999, as well. I checked past the layer change where applicable.

All the following play fine.

Timecop (1994) (shut up, just shut up...)
Nutty Professor, The (1996)
Casino (1995)
Apollo 13 (1995): Collector's Edition
12 Monkeys (1995): Collector's Edition
Jackal, The (1997): Collector's Edition
To Kill A Mockingbird (1962): Collector's Edition
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993): Collector's Edition
Fletch (1985)
Blues Brothers, The (1980): Collector's Edition
Fear (1996)
BASEketball (1998)
Out Of Sight (1998): Collector's Edition
Waterworld (1995): DTS

"Ghostbusters" and "Contact" both play fine, too.

I feel very lucky after reading this thread!

 

[Erwin]

I checked Apollo 13 CE in my Panasonic and in my DVD-ROM drive. I did purchase it in Dec. 1998, so, I may have one the came from an "improved" batch or something.

 

[TedD]

No problems with any of my Universal discs, either. But then I keep them in binders, rather than the original cases.

Ted

 

[FrancisP]

I think my post is germane since we are talking about
DVD-18s that Universal uses. Apparently ADV did look into the situation and found something that convinced them to switch to DVD-9. I suspect that there were a larger number of complaints or a higher rate of returns. This suggests that DVD-18s are the issue and not just Universal.

 

[jim.vaccaro]

What would that have to do with it?

 

[Kevin M]

Damn it, my Apollo 13 is dead too! Grrrrrrr....what else will die I wonder?

 

[Greg Morse]

What DVD-18's? To the best of my knowledge Universal has never released a double sided, dual layer movie. The phenomenon of discs going bad has been limited to specific RSDL discs, none of which were DVD-18. All the discs from Universal and Warner discussed here as going bad are DVD-9.

 

[Kevin M]

No offence but the "best" of your knowledge isn't very up to date, Uni has been releasing DVD-18's left and right lately and these discs have had an amazing amount of problems, even for DVD-18.

 

[Greg Morse]

Fair enough. Don't think I've really bought any Universal discs since the last incarnation of Scarface, so I wasn't aware of that. This is what happens when every movie has been released so many times, you stop buying them.

 

[Vader]

I have several Uni DVD-18's (mostly in TV series), and have not had any problems with any of them....

 

[RickER]

I am happy for the people that dont have any problems with Universal discs. But a lot of us do have problems. And the problems are worse than with ANY other studio, maybe even worse than ALL the others combined. Just hit a few Amazon DVD reviews of Universal product and see what they say. I know they have used DVD-18s on a few old movies with new releases. Mallrats, and Blues Brothers being the 2 i can think of off the top of my head. I wonder how many complaints and returns Universal gets?

 

[Mark Talmadge]

The problem is that while a very small minority of fans who have purchased Universal DVD's they are a minority. It's becomming painfully evident that there is a majority of entertainment fans who arehaving problems with their disks, more specifically the DVD-18 format. It might be that Universal could be trying to jam too much content on these disks and that the format is processing the content correctly popping back playability problems on the most standard DVD players.

While these DVD-18 disks may indeed be able to take that kind of information it may have problems accessing that content when they are played. The reason I have said this is that I have had problems with some of their DVD sets, most importantly, the A-Team Season 2 set and with ADV Films, all of the Farscape Starburt DVD's. Obviously there's a compatibility problem between the DVD-18 disks and the DVD systems that most owners have.

For instance, I purchased a brand new Magnavox MRD-120 HTIB (Home Theater in a Box) and every one of the Farscape Starburst sets I bought had playback problems as well as issues with the A-Team Season 2 set. It's definately not our DVD Players or our entertainment systems. I applaud all of you, as well, who don't have problems with your disks but it's turning that that these problem disks are not random because there are quite a few of us here that are indeed having problems with these disks and Universal needs to start addressing this problem or stop using these disks.

I wonder if Gord has contacted them on this problem with these disks and whether or not they plan on switching to the DVD-9 format.

I'm not slamming the DVD-18 format because I have purchased about 18 DVD Boxed sets from Warner Brothers over the past 18 months and I have had no problems with their disks so obviously its a content problem that Universal needs to address. Other than that, it could very well be a compression problem that Universal uses when transfering content to the disks.

 

[Richard_Gregory]

This thread was originally about old DVD's that suddenly don't play - and it is right that they are DVD-9's.

The DVD-18 problem is a recent development (hardly surprising since the difficulties/expense involved in making them has made them rare up to now) and it does seem that discs issued from Unversal are way more prone to problems than other studios (makes you think their disc manufacturer has issues).

However, given that ADV have switched back to DVD-9 from DVD-18, I'd also say that the manufacture of such discs presents problems sufficient to produce an unacceptably high error rate.

I don't think the two issues are related, other than they're both down to manufacture problems of some sort. Certainly, the problem DVD-18 discs do NOT play properly and then develop faults years down the line. They're faulty from the start.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

The one thing I have always believed in is that manufacturers/distributers of DVD's owe it their consumers to produce a quality product that will last over time. I have purchased over 800 DVD's over the past five years and have never had a single problem with a DVD disk. Before, it was just minor problems with either a scratched disk or a visual defect that was obviously a manufacturers defect.

During the past six months I have purchased a large quantity of DVD's from Japanese anime DVD's to complete boxed sets of TV DVD titles. While I have had no problem with most of my purchases, I have had problems with the Farscape Starburst DVD's. Every 2-Disk set that I purchased from the new releases I have had to exchange three or four times. That is way to excessive to exchange, with wasted time and resources, trying to purchase or obtain a defect free disk. With Universal, I have purchased Knight Rider, Magnum P.I., Battlestar Galactica (The Original Series) and Buck Rogers and have found no problem with their disks. It was only with the A-Team set that I began discovering problems with some of their disks. And I have also encountered problems with some of their movie disks as well. Most importantly, the first Ghostbusters movie as well as periodic other DVD's.

After the problem with A-Team, I had decided to hold back on buying their DVD's for the same reason, their recent DVD' releases left a lot to be desired. I don't think it's too much to ask that manufacturers/distributers of DVD's be responsible for creating a non-defective piece of merchandise.

I still have confidence in Universal's products but I think they need to re-examine that way they make their DVD's or find a new manufacturer for their DVD-making process. But, it would be nice if they took a page from ADV Films and tried switching back to the single sided DVD format. ADV Films films has went back to that format and so has Warner Brothers. It would have been nice if they had lead that revolution but it seems that Warner beat them to the draw.

 

[Kevin M]

I thought that was confirmed as the problem with Universal DVD-18's, I have at least 7 in my collection that have no problems whatsoever....the only one's I own that do have problems are the Universal discs.

 

[Brian W.]

I have the same problem!!! My original edition Vertigo simply WON'T PLAY, and hasn't for several years! I've posted this in the past once or twice. I thought I was the only one.

 

[Richard_Gregory]

I think a few people have suggested things like encoding problems with the Universal discs.

I personally don't believe this. Such problems would be consistent (always at the same place, always affecting same players) - and you wouldn't be able to "fix" it by exchanging discs.

I think that there's a problem in the way their manufacturer is producing the 18's. Whether that's bad quality control, I couldn't say.

What is interesting is that (apparently) the Kolchak discs were made in Taiwan (still by Deluxe), and not in Mexico, which is where the previous discs (Lugosi, Hammer, etc) were made.

And there have been far fewer people screaming about problems with the Kolchaks (though one guy has posted on DVDTalk that his locked in in one episode).

 

[Peter Vincent]

Can someone possibly supply me with a hotline phone # to call Universal on getting my Psycho, Apollo 13 and Street Fighter DVDs replaced? I've found specific title hotlines such as Back to The Future & Monty Python and they can't direct me to the right place. Help!

*Edit* I just found a phone number of 818-777-2100, but its a machine that asks you to leave a message. I dunno if i should cause I'm afraid they'll never get back to me!

 

[Kevin M]

Peter, THIS IS THE PAGE you want to use, it is how I got replacements for both Vertigo & Apollo 13.