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

[Dave Jessup]

Want to add my thanks for the reports of defective playbacks & where to look for same.

Lugosi set:

On my Panasonic A120 I hit a freeze-up/pixilation on Black Friday right at the vintage Universal logo / main titles area. I've only chapter-hopped, so will be checking other areas later.

We passed on purchasing the Hammer set.

 

[Nick Eden]

On a Pioneer player I have watched all the Lugosi titles except Invisible Ray and all have played. I didn't watch any of the trailers and the DVD froze at the start on the NEW Universal logo at the beginning of Black Friday- I just skipped that chapter and it then played fine.
I think that these problems should be addressed. I am having to watch all 5 titles at once and then go onto the 8 Hammer titles- I do not want to be left with a faulty disc that I cannot exchange later on! In addition, my enjoyment is muted whilst watching, as I am sitting there expecting the screen to freeze any moment!

 

[FrancisP]

The Lugosi discs worked perfectly on my RCA DRC 8000. I had absolutely no issues with it. I should count my blessings. I have had very few issues with Universal's discs.

 

[MichaelGH]

I just got my copy the other day. This morning I pulled out The Raven to watch since that was already the movie I most wanted to rewatch. I was playing it on my myth tvpc on a sony dvd-rom drive and it played without any hitches at all.

I'm tempted to go out and get the hammer set now that I've successfully gotten through what seemed the most problematic movie of this set. I still haven't gotten the other universal monster collections (I've got the first 8 of the old monster releases and just haven't upgraded yet).

I don't mind dvd-18's myself but with all the reported errors, Universal should really do dvd-9's as has been suggested here.

Michael

 

[Nick Eden]

Seen all the Lugosi films and all play fine on a Pioneer.
Saw Curse of the Werewolf and it breaks up seconds before the end on both a Pioneer and a Panasonic.Am now going to have to wrap it up, post it and await a replacement only to have to watch the film again (no guarantees of course that this second disc will work). This issue now needs to be seriously addressed by Universal!

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Maybe Universal (and some of their supporters) would recommend us buying a brand new DVD player for each separate DVD they release? We can own one player to play the LUGOSI set; another to play the HAMMER set; another to play the ABBOTT & COSTELLO franchise sets, and then we can just use any of those three to play all our other 1,000 discs...

The following false claim is a bit harder to defend, and is written on the back packaging of these latest HAMMER and LUGOSI "Region 1" collections:


"THIS DISC IS COMPATIBLE WITH ALL DVD PLAYERS DISPLAYING THESE SYMBOLS ."

 

[Jerry O]

Finished watching both sets and i had no problems at all. 13 films with great picture quality for a low price = good stuff.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Universal isn't going to stop using DVD-18s so those having problems will certainly have to decide something before future releases.



How many here own region free players? How many of them announce they're region free or did you have to hack them?

 

[Jonathan W]

If no one here complains and allows Universal to go on as if their product were not faulty and unreliable, then it will only get worse until Universal finally sinks to a low that no one will tolerate.

What I know from these releases is that both the Hammer Disks and the Lugosi disks play terribly on one player and fine on another (the latter case being my very old Sony player that keeps escaping retirement). My new Sony plays just about every disk out there, but hits a problem, it seems, when playing the fourth layer on the Universal DVD-18s. With each layer you add to a disk, you increase the odds of incompatibility.

It is clear that Universal knew that these disks had compatibility issues (George Reis's site alerted us before the street release) and yet, they still released them to these mixed results. It's like what Ed Norton's character does in FIGHT CLUB -- knowing that there is a fault in the product, a calculation is made regarding the cost for a complete recall versus letting the defective product go and paying for a few replacements. In our case, think how many defective disks are out there that no one will report. That is the large percentage that Universal will count on. Then, there's the large faction of us who are dying to have these films and will put up with a certain amount of trouble if we can have at least a couple of the movies working on our players. Therefore, it is left up to those of us that know we have these forums and other means of contacting Universal and getting the message through to them.

We want these movies, we are glad Universal decided to release them, but we want disks that work. There is no good reason why my New Sony player (no obscure company, that one) should not be able to play a Universal disk.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Universal knew these problems two years ago when they first started releasing these DVD-18s. Two years later they're still using them so apparently no one there is listening or they don't think the "issue" is big enough to change their releases. The upcoming TREMORS set will (I think) use DVD-18s so if the HAMMER and LUGOSI sets were "issues" to them, they'd hold off the TREMORS set and change their policy. I personally don't see this happening.

Certain players can't play DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and so on so isn't it plain logic that some won't be able to play DVD-18? This "issue" is at every single message board and it's clear there are more problem free folks than those suffering any problems. This might be why Universal isn't going to change on this issue.

DVD players aren't created equal so to speak so some of these items aren't going to work in everything. This might be a weak excuse but if Universal has rolled their eyes at the past two years there's no reason to think they'll change due to these sets. I guess we'll see in a couple months when TREMORS is released.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Upon actually watching Side A of the LUGOSI COLLECTION on my Pioneer DV-333, MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGE and THE BLACK CAT played perfectly, while THE RAVEN had major problems (freezing/pixillating/locking) at the 41-minute mark, and again (after getting to the next chapter via the "Stop>Menu>Scene Selection" method) at the 43-minute mark. The same thing happened, in the same places, when played on my Panasonic DMR-E30.

I don't expect (or necessarily want) Universal to abandon DVD-18 discs. Apart from these playback problems, these are well-mounted collections, and a real bargain. I do want Universal to announce a recall of these faulty discs and replace them with re-pressed DVD-18 discs that will play properly. Universal (and other companies) have released DVD-18 discs without these widespread problems in the past, and have had exchange programs for such things as the mis-framed BACK TO THE FUTURE discs, so this should be no different.

If the problems reported thus far have something to do with, say, a faulty adhesive, even those with problem-free discs may have ticking timebombs on their hands. I'm no expert on these matters, but the fact that errors are occurring at different places, on different brands and models of players, doesn't sound like the sort of authoring problems I've occasionally encountered with DVDs in the past, and I fear a situation like Anchor Bay's batch of ill-fated FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN discs a few years ago.

And how will this bode for some of the upcoming Universal TV collections I've been very eager to get my hands on, namely KOLCHACK: THE NIGHT STALKER, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS: SEASON 1 and LEAVE IT TO BEAVER: SEASON 1?

 

[Jim Peavy]

How can one get in touch with Universal regarding these problems? Do they know and not care, or do they not even know?

 

[Jonathan W]

I have now viewed the majority of the Bela Lugosi collection and I find that my problem with this DVD-18 is currently identical with the Universal Hammer Horror Collection. It would seem that anything that is Side 2 Layer 2 has problems playing on my Sony DVP NC685V -- this includes pixilating, freezing and flashing spots of digital color. So far, these trouble areas play fine on my Sony DVP S500D.

Sony DVP NC685V :
BLACK FRIDAY starts out fine, but ten minutes in, it just keeps freezing.
EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN has the same problem. A few warning flashes of green spots of color, then, about ten minutes in, sporadic freezing.
PARANOIAC was by far the most insidious, playing fine until light pixilating and freezing with less than 30 minutes to go.

Those are the three Side 2 Layer 2 films in question. Why they play fine on a considerably older player is beyond me. I agree with another poster here who says that these disks are ticking time bombs, and I really don't want Universal to continue to do this -- especially to Alfred Hitchcock Presents!

I can see where problem disks can be sneaking by, playing fine on some players, but many of you who buy another player and choose to watch these disks again may be in for a rude awakening. I don't give a s*** about TREMORS. I don't know anyone who likes that series, but I know a lot of people who love THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF, Peter Cushing, Oliver Reed, and will buy anything with Boris Karloff in it. TREMORS fans may have failed to get respect from Universal, but that doesn't mean that we have to take it.

 

[Richard_Gregory]

Michael Elliott wrote
Certain players can't play DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and so on so isn't it plain logic that some won't be able to play DVD-18? This "issue" is at every single message board and it's clear there are more problem free folks than those suffering any problems. This might be why Universal isn't going to change on this issue.

No. This "plain logic" would violate the DVD standards.

Players that comply with the DVD standard should be able to play all the variants of DVD, so long as those discs also comply.

You should find, in any decent brand of player's manual, a statement to the effect that the machine will play the DVD variants, including two-sided, dual layer. Even my old Pioneer from 1999 has this.

AFAIK a player must meet these standards to carry the DVD logo.

The DVD standard always included DVD-18, from the start. There are a few things - such as seamless layerchange - which although possible, are not part of the standard and which are not implemented on certain players. For example, Pioneer players - even the latest ones - don't support this.
And no truly compliant DVD should utilise it, for this reason. On the other hand, seamless branching is included, and owners with machines that don't work with it should rightly complain to the player manufacturer.

There should be no difference in playing one side of a DVD-18 and the single side of a DVD-9. The physical structure may differ, but to a player, it should look the same.

A DVD standard compliant disc should work in any DVD standard compliant player. If it doesn't, then either the disc or the player doesn;t meet the standard.

Given the very broad range of players having trouble with these Universal discs (and not just isolated examples, but nearly every one they have issued) and the manufacturers involved (such as Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer), I find it hard to believe that it is the players that are not meeting these exacting standards. If it were simply a range of cheap Chinese clones, then I could accept it as a pure player problem, in that those players may not be fully compliant.

This view is reinforced by the fact that those same players are not having issues with DVD-18's by other studios, such as Warner.

It is the DVD standard that makes it, at least in theory, for any player, made anywhere, to play any disc, made anywhere (region coding allowing, of course). So long as player and disc meet the standard, there should be no issues.

I fear that Universal aren't addressing this because they don't get enough complaints about it. For one, not everyone is affected. Second, there are probably a lot of discs out there with faulty sections that never get played (I would be unlikely, for example, to ever sit right through all eight films on the Hammer set, because I'm not that bothered about a couple of them). Third, probably some owners will get the problems and not care enough about it to complain...if it's just a frame or two of pixellation, for example.

 

[Chris Monk]

I watched The Brides of Dracula without incident last night but this afternoon, I watched Curse of the Werewolf and it messed up at the same location as the above poster. I was able to skip to the next chapter and the rest of the movie played fine. This was on a Toshiba 2109.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Richard, if what you say is true then people should be taking a look at those who made their players and not Universal, correct? I think you could take the "bad discs" here and make them work in a different player so perhaps some of this attention should be going to these DVD player companies that are having issues here. From the two booklets I currently have, one mentions DVD-18 while the other doesn't.

The sidebar (for lack of a better word) mentions what will and won't play but not even this is 100% correct.



That's my thoughts as well. I think the majority will have to have issues before Universal takes blame or does something about this. If 10-20% of people complain, with that number Universal would say it was their player. If you follow this from board to board, most people aren't having any issues with this. Those with the problems should certainly bring it to Universal's attention but again, if that number is small then it's highly unlikely Universal would do anything.

Again, this isn't a new issue. This "problem" has been going around since the first A&C set and they still haven't done anything. Even then, the majority of people were having a problems and I think that's why Universal continues to use DVD-18. It would seem if 80% were getting returned then Universal's would lose enough money to take a look at using something else.


I'm not sure how many here are in my shoes but I've got 3 A&C, 2 Ma and Pa, all the Monster Legacy, Smokey and the..., Airport, Brando, Cooper, Lugosi, Hammer and I think a couple others. There hasn't been a single issue with any of these so it's pretty hard for me to bash Universal when I personally don't think the discs are bad. However, like Joe, I might change my views after I personally have issues with a disc (knock on wood).

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Just to add fuel to this discussion I received my rental disks of Hammer and Lugosi from Netflix today. Both are Dual Layer Disk with two movies on each on a DVD9. These must be made especially for Netflix I remember the quincy disks were the same way. The Menu's still allude to flipping the disk over to the other side but the pouch tells you to ignore this.

Universal acknowleges then that DVD18's will not last and I'm sure initially Netflix probably started with their DVD18's and returns must've prompted them to go this route, that's only my opinion thou.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

But you haven't watched any of the Hammer films as of this moment if I'm not mistaken, is that accurate?

 

[Michael Elliott]

I haven't even bought it yet but I don't expect any issues. I'll have to update people on this in October.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

I said the same thing right here in the beginning of this thread, but I was mistaken. I honestly don't expect you to have any problems with the Hammer set either.