Old Universal discs no longer play !? (1 Viewer)

[Peter Vincent]

Thank you so much Kevin. I just finished sending the message.

 

[Richard_Gregory]

Count yourself lucky. Most studios won't issue replacements for problems like this if the owner happens to live outside of the intended sales region.

That is, Universal would probably refuse to send replacement discs to me here in the UK (regardless that they were sold to me in the USA).

It is in line with the policy that though many studios sell their DVD's directly (at inflated prices) they won't ship internationally.

Anchor Bay is one of the few exceptions, they sent me a replacement copy of The Witches that went bad.

 

[Tom Booth]

I'll have to check some of my older discs when I get home from work. My copy of "The Insider" no longer plays in anything but my PC.

 

[Mark_TS]

sigh...when DVD replaced LD, they said 'laser-rot' type problems were a thing of the past...
and who can forget those horrid SONY DADC confetti discs?

 

[JonZ]

Took some time to go skip thru.......

Apollo 13
Shadow Of The Vampire
American Psycho
American Werewolf in London
Far From Heaven
Mallrats
Midnight Run
Conan The Barbarian
Mystery Men
1941
Beyond The Mat

All worked fine.

Ive been pretty lucky I guess, the only DVDs I ever rember having troubel with were the original release of Hellraiser Hellbound which lost audio and the original release of Born on the Fourth Of july, which broke up badly at the beginning of a chapter.But that was a disc defect becuae I exchanged it and the new one worked fine.

Ive bought some of the Universal rereleases (BOFOJ,12 M,Carlitos Way,Mid Run, The Thing,etc) and my brother got the originals.

 

[Ray_R]

Hey Kevin, I'm puzzled as to what to do exactly...

"Your e-mail has been forwarded to this department for reply. Please return the
DVD, along with a copy of this correspondence and the following information:

1. Description of the problem.
2. Manufacturer and model number of your player.
3. Chapter and/or time code where the defect occurs.
4. Your shipping address, not P.O. Box (U.S. and U.S. Territories).
5. Mailing address (APO/FPO addresses only).
6. Daytime phone number.
7. A copy of your receipt for original purchase."

Ok, I have numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 all prepped but my problem is with numbers 3 and 7. The disc is defective and I don't think it applies to the number and I purchased the disc waaaaaaay back in 2001 and I don't have the receipt. So, should I just send the disc back with all the other information which applies to it or wait for your input first on what to do? I also received the shipping address to send the disc to. Thanks.

Oh, and cool Eraserhead screengrab for your sig picture.

 

[Kevin M]

Yes, just fill out what you can and explain why the rest either don't apply or can't be given (no receipt, the DVD is flat out "dead" etc. etc.) & they will send you the replacement anyway, Uni are pretty good about that part....they certainly didn't give me any guff, they just sent me the replacements in about three weeks even though I didn't have the receipt.

 

[Ray_R]

So I only need to send the disc like I did when I got the corrected version for both Back to the Future Parts II & III back in 2003? The replacement for those only took two weeks total. Guess I'll fill out a piece of paper or a 3" X 5" card... Thanks!

 

[Kevin M]

I personally just printed out the E-Mail like they want you to and filled out the answers on the bottom of the page.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Even better, I replied to the email and answered the questions, printed it out, and cancelled the reply!

Why didn't I think of that before?

Anyway, don't sweat it. I'm sure someone there knows what is going on and can look up the batch number or something like that.

Don't worry about the receipt. As long as you don't have a bootleg copy you'll be ok.

On an off note, can you imagine someone sending in a dead bootleg?

Glenn

 

[Neal K]

Bootlegs probably play better than these discs do now! Yah, I'll send 'em a blank dvdr with Vertigo written with a Sharpie and see what happens.

Meanwhile, I can't seem to get a response from WB on the "Kiss Me Kate" disc I have, which I'm told can be replaced with a correctly framed copy. Anyone have any success on that one?

 

[Stephen Lilley]

Just read through this thread and I have to say, it freaked me out. I've got a ton of titles on that list, but unfortunately am not going to be able to check them for a few weeks as I'm away at school and won't be home until Spring Break.

Has anybody had any problems with either the original releases of THE JERK or THE STING, as well? Those are ridiculously old Universal releases - older than a few on that list - that I own. I was wondering what the replacement procedure on these would be, considering I think both of these are OOP and have recent special editions.

Man, this thread really makes me want to check every disc I own when I get home.

 

[PeterTHX]

reread the thread, I had an Apollo 13 go out

this caught my eye on the DVD-18 complaints:


Sorry, but Magnavox is strictly entry level stuff. It very well may be the player in this case. I have yet to have any problems with Universal DVD-18s (Sony players, knock wood).

 

[Charlie Phogg]

a
Consider yourself lucky. I have a copy of Casino, Anniv. Edition sitting next to the keyboard here ready to ship back to DDD for a refund. It is the second one as the first one also was defective and had to be returned. That one made it to chap. 8 while this one made it all the way to chap. 10. After 2 tries, I give up and have learned my lesson with these flippers.

 

[CraigF]

Yeah, we have to stop muddying the waters by still suggesting it *might* be an individual, or a particular brand or model of player that's the problem. This has long been disproved, if you read around the forums. Whatever model of player you have and DVD-18 title that worked, somebody else has reported the same title not working on that same player.

It's just that many posters don't notice the widespread issue until *they* get a bad DVD-18, then they look around the forums and realise their player wasn't blessed. Checking an HT (largely) hardware forum like AVS should dispell any false notions. I was kinda like that, knew there was a problem, but hadn't looked into it much. Have lots of DVD-18's, just about all of them I think... No problems (obviously, or I wouldn't have kept buying them!), then two defective titles in the same week that still aren't resolved (Casino and Dune). Same player, other DVD-18's that I tried still play OK, so player hasn't suddenly gone weird.

You are playing DVD-18 roulette, you *will* get a bad one, if you play enough.

 

[TravisR]

I've had two different DVD-18s not work for me. When I got replacement copies, they both worked so (like Craig said) it had to be a problem with the disc and not the player.

 

[GregoryP]

Over the weekend I tried to watch the non-anamorphic release of The Thing and discovered that the DVD is dead. I tried it on 3 different players and none of them recognize the disc.

Fortunately I found this thread and will be contacting Universal. Hopefully they're still honoring their replacement policy.

 

[Matt Hough]

I've had two die on me: VERTIGO (orange cover) and SPARTACUS. No problem with the latter since I wanted the anamorphic Criterion version anyway. VERTIGO got replaced with another non-anamorphic with the different cover art (I saved the sleeve from the old keep case.)

 

[PatW]

I've just checked Apollo 13 and it won't load in my machine. I'll have to check some of the other titles on the list. Rats, I love that movie too.

 

[GregoryP]

Universal took about 2 days to email me back, but they sent me the standard form saying to mail the DVD back and they'd send me a replacement. I'm a happy customer.