Amazon Steps Up: Places Warnings on Double Sided DVD's

While it's nice they state they have double sided disc, I'm not sure I see how it does much good for the average consumer if they don't also explain that a higher incidence of playback issues are possible.

Even the best of double sided disc I've encountered (Such as The Waltons and Gilligan's Island which aren't known to be as problematic as things such as Universal's early double sided releases) still occasionally exhibit occasional  issues in some of my players.

Would be nice to see a major retailer finally acknolwedge that a consumer is more likely to experience issues due to being double sided.

But from what I saw of the warning it doesn't state anything about the possible difficulties in playback. The only people that would heed this warning are those that have already been bitten by the issue not those that may just be about to experience it for the first time after they make the purchase. This warning is just to stop complaints from buyers that think they are missing episodes because they didn't think to flip the disk.

Also, most people I've seen posting issues with double sided disk have issues with the combination of dual layer and double sided, and not just double sided. So if they post the overall content length and disk count (correctly) most should be able to infer which they are, but not all might do that.

So, yes it helps those already informed about the issues involved, but would be better served if they were more open about the issue, and just stated that DVD-18's may have playback issues in some players. That would be more upfront.

^Agreed.  All the "warning" does is stop returns from people who are too dense to flip a disk to look for more episodes.  In reading some of the product "reviews" it's sometimes frightning how many people just don't get this simple concept!

Really? You must hang around a whole different crowd of consumers then I. Most I know don't have a clue what is in their collection regrading double sided disks, nor do they care or make any buying decisions regarding this approach. Just curious where you get the idea that the Majority of consumers are distrustful? While I will agree their is a loud contingent that is I would hardly view them as a majority of the consumers.

I too wish that warnings regarding possible playback issues were added to Amazon listings.  Other than The Waltons, I don't purchase any double-sided discs any longer, since I have been bitten a few times by these types of discs.  I've since stopped buying several series due to these issues.

But the notice has nothing to do with errors, or difficulties of the disc.
Just a reminder that there are episodes on both sides.

Your the only individual I see that continues to insist that these things aren't problematic.

In a very significant amount of DVD players, the fact is that these disc are susceptible to playback issues. I've only been able to eliminate them with high end players like my Playstation 3. Any midrange DVD player I've ever had that most consumers purchase has encountered issues with double sided DVD's from a variety of publishers.

We're annoyed that Amazon only put a notification that they're double sided and not a disclaimer warning consumers that they're more likely to encounter playback issues as a result of being double sided.

I agree it is not all double-sided disks. I generally only see references to it with DVD-18's and not all of them. I have as of yet not experienced the problem (not that I may not ever) and so I won't try to say for certainty which do and which do not.

Kemcha, as you state if it affected the majority of people you would think they would remove it from their website. But since it obviously does affect some (I would think enough) as is reported in their own feedback sections, you would think they would include that in the warning. That is why many here feel this warning has no "teeth" to it. Their warning does nothing to help a first time buyer or someone that can't read between the lines. Does it help a little, sure, but it could have gone a step futher in many of our opinions. And of all the sellers, Amazon would be the one I would hope to take the extra step.

Also, I like Amazon but they do straddle a gray line at times. I recall a HGWT set being sold once extremely cheaply while other related sets maintained normal pricing. Many jumped on this deal only to find out over after a while the disks turned cloudy and stopped playing. Many posted feedback here and on Amazon. Those disks continued to be sold through Amazon way after people complained of the issue. Based on how it all occurred, it sure appeared like someone new what was going on and wanted to get rid of the stock.

Someone can correct me if I errored in the description of the HGWT problem. but that is how I remember it.

I haven't had a single problem with any of my many Dallas dvd sets...not a one. However, "The Big Valley" season one was hell to play, let me tell you. I honestly have more trouble with BluRays than with dvd-18s. But this is just a case of amazon covering their hide, because lots of dvd-18s have playback problems; go filter through this forum, you'll see. Amazon did the same thing a couple years ago when they started warning that dvds are prone to slipping out of their packaging during shipping, and therefore getting scratched up. This did happen to me with one tv show and they replaced it immediately. Amazon is probably more aware of disc problems than anybody, because they sell everything, and they get to hear all the many complaints. I wish they'd get a little tougher on dvd manufacturers about these issues...it's clear to everyone which kinds of discs and which kinds of packaging are prone to the most problems.

Ethan,

Yes, this would be a very good thing IMO (getting tougher on the manufacturers and with regard to the packaging).  And I'd also add that the boxes that some of these items are shipped in cause problems some of the time.

Side note: Has anyone ever had a skipping or freezing problem with single-sided discs? I have not. I'd be interested to hear if these problems exist at all with single-sided discs.

True, Amazon is posting something, and something is better then nothing. Like I say, I think I'd be more positive about it if they posted a warning on what I think is the more frustrating issue for the consumer, which is disks not playing at all or not after a period of time then someone forgetting to play the other side of a disk. One is a major problem while the other is easily remedied. Especially since neither affects everybody.

At first I was going to reference how BR disks always come with a warning about playing issues as a reference as to how things should be done. Then after thinking about it, the BR disk makers are putting all the blame on the players not on the disks themselves. I guess the moral is that warnings come easy when you are going to defelect all blame.

As for shipping, I've had some of my worst experiences with B&N and Borders where they use oversize boxes, put the DVDs on the bottom and some folded up paper across the top. Nothing on the sides or to prevent the cases from bouncing all around from side to side. In my experience DD and some others will use smaller packaging to at least limit the amount of banging around on the inside.

I will give extra credit to Amazon in being better about how they ship then most. When Amazon is at their best, they will shrink wrap the DVD containers to a cardboard base that just fits the box causing the least issues. However, this isn't consistent and I've never taken the time to see if this is more evident from certain warehouses or not.

As for issues with manufacturing packaging, there doesn't seem to be any other explanation to me other then that the marketing department doesn't spend anytime listening to consumer feedback (or very little), or just doesn't care. Especially, with full series collection. The number one priority seems to be "looks" first and functionality last. You would think by now someone would have come up with the perfect case design that is compact, protects the disk, and allows for easy removal and putting back.

Like I said it isn't a "warning", it's a "notice" to inform consumers the set contains double sided discs.

I don't think this notice will hinder casual consumers from buying sets of shows they like.
If it were in fact a warning, then that would actually hurt sales of a product Amazon sells.  Why would they want to do that?

I've never had a problem with a single sided disc either but I'm sure that it happens.

Yes, the third disk in my "Man with a Camera" set is single sided and made a rumbling sound when playing like it was slightly off balance while spinning. My standard player skipped and froze in spots. It was too late to return it but I was able to burn a DVD-R as a backup to watch and keep for the future. I recall one of my "Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" disks making a similar sound but playable in this case. These were both probably dual layer though. So there are times when even single sided disks can be error prone.

Well, I think the more compression a single disc has, the more trouble-prone it can be. Some of those Sony discs crammed 9 episodes of a sitcom onto one disc...some of my Jeffersons discs had a hard time with playback.

Amazon is giving out this warning, but they are also very good about replacing damaged or unplayable discs. I ordered the Snow White BluRay...the "bonus" disc didn't play at all, and they sent a replacement. This time...the movie disc didn't play. So I simply took the movie disc from my first set, the bonus disc from the second set, and sent the crummy ones back to amazon. Let them yell at Disney...amazon has far more clout in this regard than I do.

Remember--it was Walmart who was behind all that trouble a couple years ago when China was shipping toys with lead paint in 'em. If amazon can get these dumber dvd manufacturers to step up production of more reliable discs and packaging, then God bless them. Sony & Warners are the worst offenders when it comes to packaging problems...CBS/Paramount seems to have the right idea with their slimmer packages. Maybe they have the best idea.

Thinking back, in my case with the "Man with a Camera" the disk was defintely a dual layer since it took me two DVD-R's to burn the contents. So I don't believe compression was an issue since it only contained four 30 minute epsiodes per layer.

Kemcha,

Can you elaborate a bit on All In the Family?  I just purchased the first two seasons of this series (on single-sided discs), and thus far the discs have been fine.  Maybe I bought a reissue (or a second edition, if you will) of the series?

Are those dual layer or single layer disks? I've typically found that four 25 minute episodes per layer is usually okay (eight for a dual layer disk). Above that and the quality does usually begin to suffer. 

However, most of my examples are from b/w shows and not color. While I'm not sure technically why, For me, b/w shows always appear more watchable then color when squeezed into the same amount of space.

Kemcha, you claim that a DVD can hold only 4.7 GB.  Are you aware that single-sided discs can hold 8.54 GB if they are dual-layered (and I would guess that probably the vast majority of single-sided discs currently released are dual-layered), and that is sufficient to hold two average full-length feature movies, or at least four episodes of a one-hour TV series, or at least eight episodes of a half-hour TV series, with no problem.

The pause on dual-layered discs is a very minor annoyance *at worst*, and is often not even noticeable at all (especially when they take care to split the layers at an unobtrusive point in the program).

I *was* taking into consideration menu screens, etc.  I concede that I was *not* taking into consideration substantial special features, because what I mentioned were the movies, or the episodes--not special features; however, most major studio releases put major special features on separate discs, or put fewer TV episodes on the discs that contain the major special features.  And many of the double-feature discs (or quadruple-feature 2-disc sets) leave out most of the special features, which are available on the single-movie editions.  The space taken up by additional commentary tracks is usually quite negligible.

I wouldn't even begin to compare major studio releases with the budget companies such as Mill Creek.