Blu-ray Review Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection Blu-ray Review - Recommended (1 Viewer)

[Charles Smith]

Mine plays fine in both 2D and 3D, starting at 57:00 and continuing for five minutes. Oppo 93.

Could it have been something wonky happening only when played straight through from the beginning?

 

[Johnny Angell]

I do have a bone to pick with Universal on the way they've authored these discs. I've only watched the Creature so far, so perhaps I should not assume all are this way. I have the UK set.
I put in the disc into my Oppo 93 and you get the Universal logo and then have to select a language. Than it goes into this 100 years of Universal thing and top menu and pop-up menu are disabled. I have to chapter ski through it. Then you get a menu with symbols and no text. There's a play symbol, a little book, an asterisk, and I forget what else. I figured out what the play did. The book could mean bookmarks, but i's really the chapter list. The asterisk is special features. Ok, I figure they did that to avoid having multiple menus for each language.
While I'd prefer they spell out the menu features that's not my big complaint. I'm in the middle of the movie, I hit stop on my remote, and then hit play. On other blu-rays the oppo can go right to where it left off, but Universal has disabled that. The disc behaves as if I've just inserted it and I've got to go through the whole magilla again. That sucks.

 

[David Weicker]

Ok so am I the only person who's Creature from the Black Lagoon disc (2D version) plays in slow motion with sound drops beginning approx. 58:00 to the end of the film? VERY unhappy. Plan on contacting Universal tomorrow.
And yes of course I checked for dust and fingerprints; and tested it on a second machine as well.

I also had a problem with my Creature disc. When I examined the disc, there appeared to be a 'bubble' in the plastic - it looked like what you see with one of those cellphone screen protectors. My other seven discs seem to be OK. I am getting a replacement set from Amazon UK.

I do have a bone to pick with Universal on the way they've authored these discs. I've only watched the Creature so far, so perhaps I should not assume all are this way. I have the UK set.
I put in the disc into my Oppo 93 and you get the Universal logo and then have to select a language. Than it goes into this 100 years of Universal thing and top menu and pop-up menu are disabled. I have to chapter ski through it. Then you get a menu with symbols and no text. There's a play symbol, a little book, an asterisk, and I forget what else. I figured out what the play did. The book could mean bookmarks, but i's really the chapter list. The asterisk is special features. Ok, I figure they did that to avoid having multiple menus for each language.
While I'd prefer they spell out the menu features that's not my big complaint. I'm in the middle of the movie, I hit stop on my remote, and then hit play. On other blu-rays the oppo can go right to where it left off, but Universal has disabled that. The disc behaves as if I've just inserted it and I've got to go through the whole magilla again. That sucks.

I have found this annoying as well. Especially since I had the problem with the Creature disc, I kept trying different things and was getting sick of that opening.
David

 

[Nelson Au]

Hi, it's a Sony S-380

Thanks Ken, my player is the S550. I'll try to find time to try my disc and see if I have any issues. This player has had firmware updates, the last was probably 2 years ago. But I haven't had any issues with any discs recently.

 

[Randy_M]

I do have a bone to pick with Universal on the way they've authored these discs. I've only watched the Creature so far, so perhaps I should not assume all are this way. I have the UK set.
I put in the disc into my Oppo 93 and you get the Universal logo and then have to select a language. Than it goes into this 100 years of Universal thing and top menu and pop-up menu are disabled. I have to chapter ski through it. Then you get a menu with symbols and no text. There's a play symbol, a little book, an asterisk, and I forget what else. I figured out what the play did. The book could mean bookmarks, but i's really the chapter list. The asterisk is special features. Ok, I figure they did that to avoid having multiple menus for each language.
While I'd prefer they spell out the menu features that's not my big complaint. I'm in the middle of the movie, I hit stop on my remote, and then hit play. On other blu-rays the oppo can go right to where it left off, but Universal has disabled that. The disc behaves as if I've just inserted it and I've got to go through the whole magilla again. That sucks.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get to my bookmark that is successfully created (according to my Sony player). I expect to find them on the chapter list, but nothing doing. The yellow button on the remote doesn't seem to bring them up either, as it does on other discs.

 

[Nelson Au]

Ken, I just had a free minute to play The Creature disc. I started from the beginning. I played it for about 35 minutes, then skipped ahead to 50 minutes and played it from there to about the point they discuss trying to tranquilize the creature, about 1 hour and 10 minutes and it played okay on my Sony S-550. I'll sit and watch the rest later uninterrupted. It looks pretty good, I realize some parts are soft, and others are sharp, but it wasn't too distracting.
So I didn't experience the slow motion problem.
I'm really looking forward to a proper sit down to watch Frankenstein.

 

[bgart13]

My copy of CREATURE pooped out on me today. 2D version, US set, after the first 45 minutes. I've sent an email to Universal, posted an inquiry on FB too (but that appears to have disappeared). Tried calling the only customer service number I could find, only to be told to send an email. Crossing my fingers I get help with this.

 

[JoHud]

I do have a bone to pick with Universal on the way they've authored these discs. I've only watched the Creature so far, so perhaps I should not assume all are this way. I have the UK set.
I put in the disc into my Oppo 93 and you get the Universal logo and then have to select a language. Than it goes into this 100 years of Universal thing and top menu and pop-up menu are disabled. I have to chapter ski through it. Then you get a menu with symbols and no text. There's a play symbol, a little book, an asterisk, and I forget what else. I figured out what the play did. The book could mean bookmarks, but i's really the chapter list. The asterisk is special features. Ok, I figure they did that to avoid having multiple menus for each language.
While I'd prefer they spell out the menu features that's not my big complaint. I'm in the middle of the movie, I hit stop on my remote, and then hit play. On other blu-rays the oppo can go right to where it left off, but Universal has disabled that. The disc behaves as if I've just inserted it and I've got to go through the whole magilla again. That sucks.

Exact same annoyances. I may also add that once the screensaver is activated, I was unable to restart the movie pressing "play" (or pause, ff, etc). So I'm forced to press "stop" expecting to continue once I press "play" again like countless other blu-rays, but I have to go through all of that bloated nonsense just to get to that menu again.
And those icons are really bogus, though I suppose I can condition myself to know what some of the more arbitrary icons stand for in Universal-land. Would it have killed them to have translated simple text below each icon into the different languages, given how everything else is translated?

 

[JohnS]

Exact same annoyances. I may also add that once the screensaver is activated, I was unable to restart the movie pressing "play" (or pause, ff, etc). So I'm forced to press "stop" expecting to continue once I press "play" again like countless other blu-rays, but I have to go through all of that bloated nonsense just to get to that menu again.
And those icons are really bogus, though I suppose I can condition myself to know what some of the more arbitrary icons stand for in Universal-land. Would it have killed them to have translated simple text below each icon into the different languages, given how everything else is translated?

For me, when it goes in screensaver mode, all I have to do is press the enter button and it goes back to the movie

 

[JoHud]

Hmm, I'll keep that in mind next time I run into a Universal screensaver
Thanks for the tip.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

They play fine on US players.

Cool! At the $100+ for the US version, it was going on the Christmas list. For the price Amazon UK is offering, might just have to order that now..

 

[TravisR]

Hmm, I'll keep that in mind next time I run into a Universal screensaver
Thanks for the tip.

If that doesn't work, the Pop-Up Menu button would get rid of the screensaver on a Samsung player that I used to have.

 

[Christian Preischl]

Then you get a menu with symbols and no text. There's a play symbol, a little book, an asterisk, and I forget what else. I figured out what the play did. The book could mean bookmarks, but i's really the chapter list. The asterisk is special features. Ok, I figure they did that to avoid having multiple menus for each language.

Yup, that's how all non-US Universal discs appear to be mastered these days. Doesn't make much sense to me as they still have to master different language menus because of the special features section. Reminds me of the days of DVD when European chapter menus only had chapter numbers under the image whereas the US versions had full descriptive text (this seems to be a worldwide phenomenon on many Blu-rays though).

 

[David_B_K]

I, too was annoyed by the setup time one has to go through on the menus of the UK discs. The little menu icons are annoying as well-sort of like the icons one sees for computer monitors (though less annoying than the crap one has to skip through).
I played the Creature disc in 3D from about 53:00 to way past 60:00 and had no problems with a Sony S480. It does sound like there are some defective copies out there, though.

 

[John Stockton]

Someone told me that the Dracula on the UK version is missing one of the commentaries which is included in the US one. Can anyone please confirm this??

 

I have the US set, but I know several people who have the UK set and they say it is missing one of the commentaries on Dracula.

 

[RolandL]

I have the US set, but I know several people who have the UK set and they say it is missing one of the commentaries on Dracula.

Yes, it only has the commentary by David J. Skal.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by RolandL /t/324286/universal-classic-monsters-the-essential-collection-blu-ray-review-recommended/30#post_3988433
Yes, it only has the commentary by David J. Skal.

Which is the one I would've chosen to keep if I had too. I'll keep the DVD with the other commentary anyway.







Crawdaddy

 

[warnerbro]

Here's my wish list for Volume 2:
THE OLD DARK HOUSE
THE RAVEN
THE BLACK CAT
THE WEREWOLF OF LONDON
SON OF FRANKENSTEIN
FRAKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN
HOUSE OF HORRORS
THE BRUTE MAN

 

[Nelson Au]

Because of the issue people are reporting of The Creature From The Black Lagoon not playing at full speed past the 58 minute mark, I finally finished watching my copy on my Sony S-550 player. While I didn't watch it all the way through in one sitting, my copy played fine past the 58 minute mark.