The Bela Lugosi Collection and related dvd problems (1 Viewer)

[John Hodson]

Universal's 'contact us' page is here;

http://www.universalstudios.com/home...gi?email_id=10

 

[Paul Arnette]

Phew. I made it through The Hammer Horror Series with no problems on my Pioneer Elite DV-59AVi. What a great set, assuming you can get it to play without error.

On to The Bela Lugosi Collection...

 

[DavidBC]

I just made it through Lugosi without problem, which really surprised me because I had to exchange The Mummy, The Invisible Man and Abbot & Costello V3. Frankenstein I had to exchange twice! Side Two I can take or leave, but the three movies on side One are great!

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Crest National was the culprit behind the bad lacquer on a bunch of Anchor Bay discs a few years ago. There are problems with nearly every disc mfr. at some time or other.

I thought I was going to make it through this set scot-free, but the last film on the set, Black Friday, skips at 33m:50s to a random chapter. This isn't a layer change, so I don't know what the problem is. I also tried cleaning, to no avail. It doesn't work on my Sony or Toshiba players, stalling at the same spot (though the Tosh plays about a second more than the Sony does before it pukes). So back it goes. This is my first bad Universal DVD-18, though. No problem with any of the Abbott & Costello sets. Haven't tried the Hammer set yet.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Well, The Hammer Collection's EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN locked up on me at the 22.53 mark. This is really aggravating, especially since I'd finally found one of my machines that played THE BELA LUGOSI COLLECTION properly after IT screwed up on ANOTHER machine, too.

Universal's DVD-18's are a disgrace. I thought I was home free after finally being able to play the LUGOSI set after bouncing to a new machine. So this new machine of mine now plays Bela, but not Hammer. That studio stinks.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

The Hammer Collection played fine except no way no how could I play Curse of the Werewolf. I'm taking it back to BB too to try to swap disc 1 out for a new one (since disc 2 works fine & who wants to risk a bad one on the replacement if you don't need to). The replacement copy of Bela Lugosi Collection worked fine on all five movies, so I'm hopeful. I've never had any trouble with the first three volumes of A&C, so here's hoping that that trend continues....

Primarily using a Sony NC650V, but I double checked the bad Bela on several machines including Malata and Technics, and it wouldn't work on any of them.

 

[Jeff Swindoll]

It appears, in the instance below, that Alfred Hitchcock Presents also has problems. If fact, that is pretty much all the review is about!

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=18026

 

[Dave Mack]

Good for that reviewer. I'm really getting annoyed by this. I want the "Kolchak" set but after the last time with my A/C set being all wonky I have been VERY hesitant to buy one of these "Universal" dvd-18 sets. Yeah, "Universal". They universally don't work consistantly anywhere!

d

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Dave do what I do I buy the set and immediately rip 2 episodes per disk to DVD-R, in essance creating my own DVD9. With the price of blanks this is a no biggie

 

[Dave Mack]

Hiya Dave!

Would if I could but we only have a humble little DELL laptop with no DVD-RW drive. :frowning:

 

[Jeff Swindoll]

Stuart Galbraith's Alfred Hitchcock Presents review at DVDtalk is truly a thing of beauty and if only Peter Finch were still alive to do an audio version of it .

However, I see the Universal copy now:
"gorgeous black and white transfer" - Stuart Galbraith

Besides the whole "it doesn't play" argument the thing that I've always scratched my head about is should'nt the MSRP be even lower than it is since they've squeezed a 6 disc set onto 3?? However, even if you paid $1 you still expect it to play.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

What astounds me is that - with all the obvious returns, complaints, and bad publicity - Universal does not cease making these DVD-18's, and return to the tried and true DVD-9's. Just unbelievable.

 

[Paul Arnette]

All,

Final update to this thread regarding the 'playability' of the Hammer Horror Series and Bela Lugosi Collection, I was able to play both without any incident on my Pioneer DV-59AVi. I feel very fortunate in that regard.

It is disappointing to hear that there are more problems with the Alfred Hitchcock Presents set, but it is not surprising. Its really come to the point now that I will only buy a Universal DVD-18 if 1) I absolutely have to have the DVD, and 2) I have the time to watch it within a 30 day window. Surprisingly enough, I used to not worry too much about the second point, which is evident by my huge backlog of unwatched DVDs , but these Universal DVD-18s make this mandatory now.

*Sigh* Why does Universal seem to have all the content I want to buy on DVD, yet is one of the worst DVD studios. Oh, cruel irony.

 

[JeffMc]

So, any word on the new KOLCHAK set? Are there going to be widespread problems with that as well? I luckily got through the BELA set with no glitches (at least on the Philips player I tried it on), but the HAMMER set pixeled and froze on BRIDES OF DRACULA so I just gave up there and it's going back. I also have a huge backload of titles to watch and I don't appreciate having to try to watch 8 films straight through just to hope that they play OK - and then if they don't, supposedly have to do that all over again with replacement copies? I think not! Maybe if Universal gets enough returns, they'll open their eyes to all of this. Somehow I don't think they care, though, so it's basically a consumer call if you want to support this kind of release or not.

I'd like to pick up KOLCHAK, but the notion about having to watch (and possibly re-watch replacement copies if the first ones are defective) of 20 more hours of this crap is not sitting well with me. I think I'll buy something else instead - there's plenty of other studios producing quality product that I don't need to support these cheaply made defective releases.

 

[Ruz-El]

I just finished the Bela set, and low and behold, I had no problems! I can't believe it, the rumors are true: Universal IS able to have Deluxe Digital Solutions manufacture a DVD-18 that actually plays! It's the first one I've ever encountered from them, EVER! I hope my luck holds out on the Hammer set. Hell, maybe my luck is changing period! I'm going to pick up some lotto tickets, see you all on the front page!

A DVD-18 that works, praise the GODS!!!

 

[Joe Karlosi]

On another site, someone said the episode THE VAMPIRE locked up on him.

 

[Mario Gauci]

"Quote (originally posted by Joe Karlosi):

On another site, someone said the episode THE VAMPIRE locked up on him."

Ouch! Here we go again....

I intend to buy the Kolchak and Alfred Hitchcock Presents Season 1 sets as well but it seems they aren't free of playback glitches either...

In any case, I should be receiving the Bela Lugosi and Hammer sets around the end of next week and I'll be apprehensive until I've viewed them in their entirety:frowning:.

 

[Jeff Swindoll]

Well, I had whittled down my list to American Gothic and the Munsters. I decided to just stick with my VHS tapes on Kolchak since Universal was having these problems and I never had a VHS tape lock up on me . I think that I'll just keep away from Universal until these problems are addressed. I was looking forward to American Gothic too :frowning:. I do love DVDtalk's review of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

 

[Jim Peavy]

Yeah, I was pretty much set on the Hammer set, but this is too much of a headache. I'll wait a while and see if these problems are addressed. Plenty of other DVD content I'd like, from studios that do put out decent product.

 

[JimWICKS]

Update: Since I like these films so much, I've splurged and bought another copy from amazon. All five movies including Black Friday play perfectly. I did not return it to my local Tower store as it likely that any replacements may have come from the same defective batch.