Anthony Neilson

Drop-off In Quality Of Dvd Manufacture ?

Is it just me, or has there been an overall decline in the quality of DVD pressings recently ? There was a day when I very rarely encountered a defective DVD and yet this year I've had several discs that are either badly pressed or mastered. I only joined the HTF this year but I'm getting the impression that I'm not alone in thinking this.

What's your opinion on this ? Am I imagining it ? Or has the success of DVD led to a decline in the quality of manufacture ? If so, why ? Cost-cutting perhaps ?
And what can we do about it ?

I\'ve been going to bed early . . .

nicholas_g

I have been thinking the same thing, but for R2 in the UK. I have been suffering from cracked discs for Star Trek TNG and DS9. It is the packaging at fault and the discs are made by Technolor. They are in my opinion the worse manufacturer in the uk. Unfortunetly, they are the also the biggest.

DVD has got to big and the companies just want to manufacture as many DVD's as possible. The quality control has gon downhill.

I don't think R1 has the same problems.

Todd Robertson

it's called poor quality control at the pressing plants. it's time for people to snap out of their denial haze and wake up. but you wont get much help....forum and industry leaders run like scared rabbits when anyone suggest that discs are becoming more and more faulty...and may not last as long as promised. do you blame them? who in the hell wants to think about losing 1,000 dvds to poor bonding? too bad...we may have been able to nip this in the bud. now we just keep ignoring....and ignoring....

My DVD/Film Library
dvd folders under construction:wink:

Rob Lutter

Quit complaining...

DVD prices on new mainstream titles in the USA cost NOTHING compared to what they do in different countries. If you feel like you are getting a raw deal, then just don't buy the DVD or buy it from a different region (and see what other people have to pay).

You people always complain and bitch about the cheap product you get. If there's something wrong with your DVD, bring it back and get a different title (or, GASP, a nondefective copy!)

EDIT: Sorry, I was being an idiot. Bad day and this was the first thread I opened.

Anthony Neilson

Jesus, Rob - that came out of nowhere !

Nobody said anything about cheap product - and certainly not me, living in R2. Even if someone had, that's hardly the point ; there's no use in product being cheap if it's defective.

The purpose of this thread is not to complain as such.
I'm just GENTLY trying to figure out if there IS a genuine trend here or not. I've not decided that there is ; but I think it's a subject that's of legitimate interest to HTF members, don't you ?

If you disagree, fine. But nobody needs to be spitting fire.

I\'ve been going to bed early . . .

GarySchrock

I don't know about the quality of the discs themselves going down, but I'm firmly convinced there's a lot less quality control in putting the discs in the package these days. In the last month I've been going through a lot of returns because of scratched discs, where it's pretty obvious that the disc was slid over the hub when it was packaged. Up till then, I don't know that I'd had more than 1 or 2 returns for scratches (with the exception of the B5 sets, the packaging on those has always been inexcusable).

My DVD collection

John Watson

We often get what we pay for - or less.

Klutzy software, clothes that fall apart, tape that won't stick.

I wouldn't be suprised if more disks getting printed faster for a mass market has an impact.

And I haven't said anything about the quality of the movies either

Michael Reuben

What kinds of problems are included in the phrase "badly pressed or mastered"? In the last year or two, I've certainly seen more discs that stuck, skipped or stuttered, and usually an exchange solved the problem. I seem to get these in clusters, followed by months when every disc I buy plays perfectly. These are the kinds of defects that I would regard as "manufacturing" problems.

Then there are problems that are repeatable throughout an entire run. For example, most of the the box sets for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine have an audio flaw in the 5.1 remix that causes problems on certain Panasonic players. That's what I'd call a "mastering" problem, and I do believe they're increasing, primarily because there are so many varieties of hardware out there, not all of them up to spec.

Now if you're talking about transfers and image quality, that's a different subject altogether.

M.

"Most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything." -- Chinatown

"What kind of movies would there be if everyone in them had to do what we thought they should do?" -- Roger Ebert

HTF Beginner's Primer and FAQ

Anthony Neilson

Point taken, Michael.

I guess I mean your first two examples, as the quality of individual transfers is indisputably higher (in general)than it was five years ago.

Let's just say problems that require an exchange rather than an admonishment to the studio.

Now, an exchange might not seem like so much of a problem because in R1 most of you can complete that transaction fairly quickly. But for the thousands of us who have to rely on overseas mail-order, it's a considerably more complicated process.

BTW, Rob - we've all had them, mate. In my short time as a member of the HTF I've been consistently impressed by the fact that its members are always willing to admit when they're wrong or when they've blown off irrationally. It takes some balls to do that and it's this kind of civilised and dignified discourse that sets the HTF on another plane entirely from forums on sites like AICN.
Good on you

I\'ve been going to bed early . . .

Michael Reuben

Gotcha.

Whenever I get a run of discs that require an exchange, I become convinced that the incidence of manufacturing defects is increasing. Then, after I've had a run of acquisitions with zero problems (as I have recently, knock on wood), I figure the quality control must have improved. Of course, neither of these statistical "samplings" means much.

I appreciate what you're saying about mail order, because I still do much of my shopping online. Of course, overseas shipping involves more cost and more time.

M.

"Most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything." -- Chinatown

"What kind of movies would there be if everyone in them had to do what we thought they should do?" -- Roger Ebert

HTF Beginner's Primer and FAQ

Dome Vongvises

Mo money, mo problems.

Of course, I'm implying a linear relationship here. With greater numbers comes a greater chance of product quality drop off.