E.R./West Wing - man those hubs are tight! (1 Viewer)

Just got the E.R. Season 2 set and once again, these multidisc digipak hubs are a real pain in the neck.
Pushing the hub where indicated fails to release the disc as it appears the two lower retaining tags don't want to let go.
I need three hands to get these damn things out of the packaging!
I end up having to press the hub while simultaneously working my fingers around the entire circumference to try and force it out - this puts a hell of a lot of strain on the DVD and I'm sure it's not good for the longevity.

Has anyone figured out how to modify these packs (without replacing them entirely)so the discs can be removed more easily?

Probably better suited for the Television SOftware forum....

And once again, I got a bad ER set. Bad freezing/unplayable three episodes into the second disc. Took two exchanges to get a playable Season 1.

I've only had a handful of problems with netflix discs. All my movies and tv sets play fine (although there are quite a few I've never 'tested' thoroughly... there may be undiscovered problems awaiting me 'someday'...). But there's a big, big problem with these ER sets.

As such, because they're also dvd-18s, I skipped buying West Wing 1. It's just hard to have to watch or fast-forward through 22 hours of tv to determine if you've got discs you don't need to return.

Warner Bros- I'd pay a bit more for seven-disc sets than those with 4 double-sided discs that have a high probability of being flawed...

On topic- yeah, those hubs ARE tight, I agree. But manageable. I'm more upset about the bad video.

The hubs loosen up after you've taken each disc out several times. You'll notice the difference after you've owned them for a little bit. Most of my Warner digipaks have started like this and are now pretty manageable.

This is the opposite problem that the larger 6 disc Warner cases have. Those ones are so loose that the discs come off and get all scratched up.

The only problem I've had with a Warner DVD-18 disc occured with The West Wing Season 1, and that glitch was only a problem on Macs and Sony players (very small glitch).

Gord

?????
Isn't ER-2 up to par with ER-1 (which had very good PQ, IMO)??

No, it's better. Season 1 had a lot of dust, but season 2 has none at all.

Gord

Thanks Gord.

Glad to hear that.

I guess Dax P. must have mighty high standards then ... because I'd rate ER-S.1 as occupying the "very good" category (PQ-wise).

But, then again, opinions on PQ are like anal cavities...well, .... you know the saying.

It must be me then. I thought E.R S1 was one the worst DVD presentations I have in my collection now.

The hubs in the package for Battlestar Galactia were so tight I thought they'd snap the discs every time i tried to remove them. So I took a nail file and gently sanded them down a bit, and now they work perfectly.

Why? What's so terrible about it?
Looks great on my 50-inch screen.

I don't own either of the titles mentioned in the subject of this thread, but I've seen some tight hubs recently myself. As Dane mentioned they will loosen up over time, and I know that someone on HTF would take those AOL discs and continually place them in and remove them from those packages to losen the hubs, that way the hubs would free up and no important disc would have to be sacrificed.

I generally hate digipacks longer than 4 discs.

What kind of glitch was that?

A small breakup on Episode 21 - 26:37 in "You bought me a pen." I asked WB about it and they told me it was only a problem with Sony DVD players, and Macs, both of which I have. When I got my Panasonic DVD-R I popped in there and there wasn't a problem.

Gord

Generally it's OK, the detail, contrast, color are all fine. It's the print damage that really bugs me. It mainly manifests itself as white lines like scratches. I thought it might of been just my eyes deceiving me (it has been a while since I watched it) so I got it out and skimmed through a few scenes to see if it really was there. One scene I found that was pretty bad is episode 4 "Into That Good Night" the first few minutes of chapter 4 especially just as Lydia opens the door and speaks to Doug Ross, down the left side of the picture there are all kinds of white spots and lines and this sort of stuff is scattered through the whole set. Some places worse than others.

I must say after watching the first 2 discs of S2 they've done a great job. No complaints whatsoever with this set.

Mind you after watching ER in HD for the past few months, DVD will always be a step down.

i found the picture to be a bit dark. i rarely adjust brightness on my tv, but with ER (both seasons, actually) i have to do a +10 in brightness.

cheers to WB for making the exact same packaging for both season, i think it's pretty cool (also considering it's a hospital show). other WB packages like West Wing and Friends only change colours.

Picture quality (on ER, both seasons) was fine... I was just bitching about glitches where everything would freeze and jump ahead five or seven minutes... experienced this with two separate discs on two boxes of Season 1 before getting one that was all good (except a small glitch in one of the featurettes- but I can live with that- it was the episodes I was concerned with...).

Got luckier with Season 2- got a good set on the second try.

Anxious to listen to the commentaries, but it might be awhile before I get to them...

Dax, what kind of player do you have?

Gord

You're not alone Dax. I had the same issues with ER season 1...may still have . I just don't have the inclination to spend my valuable time checking and rechecking products that should work out of the box. I tried them on a Panny RP62, Mintek and Pioneer(computer).
I have noted that most of the sets I have seen numerous complaints about are the double sided discs. ER season 1&2 and Abbott and Costello sets 1&2 both drew complaints about freezing and pixiliation.

I had a problem with the ER Season 1 disk also.

It's been a while, so I don't remember the name of the episode, but during the episode where the car crashes into the ER in the beginning there was one point where it would freeze and skip to the next chapter. I think the freeze started where they were betting on the BAL of the drunk. It skipped over the introduction of the Dr. Lewis' sister. I think it skipped about 5 minutes. I could rewind and get 4 of those minutes back before it would freeze again. This was on a Toshiba player.
I tried it on my computer and it worked flawlessly, so I never took it back. That was the only glitch I had with the first season.

I'll probably start watching the second season this weekend and I'll report if I find any glitches this time. I hope not.