Random 'Beetlejuice' bizzarity... (1 Viewer)

[Patrick H.]

Okay, here's a true oddity. Just before and after Halloween I loaded up on some holiday-appropriate titles. Among these was Warner's ancient release of Beetlejuice, because it was cheap and I've given up all hope on any sort of remaster on this title in the near future. I just got around to taking a look at it the other week, and I still got a kick out of it despite the somewhat grotty old transfer. However, something odd occurred...at 1:12:23, the disc froze for a few seconds on my Sony carosel, then jumped ahead and resumed as normal. This was a spotless new disc, with no layer change to worry about (it's a WS/FS flipper), so I tried it on my DVD-ROM and had the exact same problem, except this time it just locked up totally. Figuring I had a bad disc, I took it back to Borders and exchanged it, only to encounter the freeze-up once again. Wondering now if Borders had a whole bad batch in stock, I hit upon the idea of comparing it with a rental disc from Netflix, just out of curiousity.

And here's where it gets interesting...

The Netflix disc was obviously a different printing, as it has the old standard Warner hub with a white "fullscreen" on one side and red "widescreen" on the other. It plays through just fine. My copy of the disc, however, just has print on one side of the hub, black on white, with a "fullscreen, widescreen on reverse" label. So I checked at the hub numbers. The number on the old disc is 11785.1.A/B (fullscreen/widescreen). The number on the printed side of the new disc is also 11785.1.A for fullscreen. Fair enough. Flipping it over, though, stamped into the hub foil is 11785V2.1.B. So, the widescreen side has transfer "V2." Taking a look at both, I can't see ANY difference between them (same compression artifacts, same print damage), except that "V2" seems to lock up at the aforementioned spot to varying degrees on different players. I therefore can only conclude that this is a glitchy repressing of some sort? Anyone else encountered this?

 

[Greg Black]

Whoa, I'm glad that I'm not the only one with that problem. I was thinking about taking my DVD back until I read this thread. I bought the disc a couple of months ago, but just watched it for the first time tonight. That glitch occured at the same exact spot you mentioned, on all the players I tried it on.

However, my copy has "Standard" in white printing, and "Widescreen" in red printing, and just the 11785.1.A/B on either side. Nowhere is there V2. That's pretty weird.

 

[todd s]

It's just a spell from the "Handbook for the Recently Deceased"....Telling everyone that its time for a new Special Edition.

 

[Rodneyk]

I reckon there is no way to tell this externally?

I bought this in the last month and have not taken off the shrink-wrap. Maybe I should just return it (I am sure I don't have the receipt anymore).

Rodney

 

[Greg Black]

Rodney,

Unfortunately, it seems as if it's not possible to get the original pressing (sans error) unless you are extremely lucky to find one that's been hidden on a shelf for a few years.

Since (the also unfortunate fact that) Warner Bros. doesn't seem to be interested in re-visiting Beetlejuice with a new transfer, etc., I'd say just keep the disc you have. The glitch is very minor, but it's still annoying that something like this happened.

Cheers

 

[Rodneyk]

Greg,

I don't mean any disrespect, but how is this glitch minor? It seems to lock up completely for some.

I believe I will be returning it...guess I will have to wait until I can complete my Tim Burton collection.

Rodney

 

[joshEH]

Don't you mean, "Handbook for the Recently Diseased"?

 

[Eric DiPiazza]

How can one tell if a store has the original pressing or this glitchy new one?

 

[Greg Black]

I mean minor in the sense that it's approximately two seconds of missing footage. True, it locked up in Patrick's DVD-ROM drive, but that's all I've heard about.

I tried it in five DVD players: a Denon 2200, Oppo 971H, Sony 550, Panasonic DMR-E75V, and Sony SLV-D61P, and also three different DVD drives on PCs (2 Plextors , 1 NEC) with PowerDVD and WinDVD, and none of them locked up. All of them more or less exhibited the same behavior of pausing for a second, displaying a frame, pausing again, displaying a frame, and then continuing on as normal.

Add to that that there's no replacement edition on it's way or any way to get a correct copy (that I know of), and that's why I suggested keeping it.

 

[Rodneyk]

Greg,

Thanks for the research on all of the players! I was under the impression that the problem was more serious after reading the first post and your first one.

I will probably keep it...what was it like, $7 or so?

Rodney

 

[Christopher_H]

No, he was correct, Handbook for the Recently Deceased.

 

[Greg Black]

Rodney,

I should have mentioned more specifically the problem I was experiencing in my first post :b I was very perplexed by it, as my disc was brand new without any scratches, so I wanted to try them on every player I had to make sure.

Yeah, I also figure I got it for pretty cheap, and it is one of my favorite movies, so I guess we just have to live with it. I really hope Warner Bros. revisits this one soon and we get a new transfer and some special edition features.

-Greg

 

[joshEH]

"Recently Diseased"...in-joke from the movie.

 

[StephenA]

I had a problem with mine as well. I watched it in my room on a cheap Emerson I got for my room, and it pixilated a little with some areas going green and black, but didn't skip. I even think it was around the same time in the movie. I chalked it up to the player because it has done that a couple times with other discs, and the other discs played flawlessly on my other players and my Playstation 2.

 

[Matthew Marino]

I had the same problem and exchanged it a while back. The problem remained. I noticed the difference in the disc construction as well. This was on my Denon DVD-2200. On my computer the skip was more severe. It went to the next chapter.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Hmm, that is just too weird. I checked this out from the public library and it has the same problem, right where Catherine O'Hara is clapping. The foolscreen version of course plays fine, and I can tell it no longer has analog Macrovision on it (Warner used it on all their titles up til the first Harry Potter came out then none of their titles afterwards had it, and I can tell when it's there even though none of my players are run through a VCR!) though the date on the disc still shows as May 1997 when checked on the computer. I haven't checked any other new printings of older titles to see if they've had Macrovision removed as well, but maybe I ought to. I'm guessing that's what the "V2" means, as there don't seem to have been any other problems with the disc. (I have the first South Park volume with a "V2" stamped on it, to correct the audio problems on that disc.)

At any rate, how'd they let this get out like that? I REALLY hate how most 2-sided discs now only have printing on side 1. I'm one of the few who actually LIKES 2-sided discs, but having no label at all on side 2 just really looks cheap. Makes it look like you're putting it in the player the wrong way!