Defective DVD-18's - article (1 Viewer)

Gord Lacey of tvshowsondvd is planning an article on this and is asking people to send in details of the problems they've experienced

Click Here to Go There

Though it's on the TV shows site, I imagine that reports of DVD-18's with other material would be welcomed. The Universal Lugosi and Hammer discs spring immediately to mind.

Ok, I'm going to show my ignorance in this area here but what exactly is a DVD-18? I had no idea that there were different types of dvds. Whats the difference? How can you tell which type of dvd it is?


Tabbi

Tabetha, a DVD-18 is a double sided, and double layer DVD. A good number of Classic Universal TV shows are on them. They seem to have a lot of playback problems. Not to mention they are easy to scratch, and hard to keep finger prints off.

Tabetha, bear in mind that that is a matter of opinion, I have not scratched nor have I had any playback problems with any of my properly manufactured DVD-18's (of which not many Universal DVD-18's are) & have no problem handling them without smudging them.

Your Milage May Vary.

If you want an example of what a DVD-18 is, the WB Superman DVD is one, the original T2: Ultimate Edition is another, the MGM Outer Limits season sets are as well.

Both the recent Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Alfred Hitchcock Presents Season One sets are DVD-18. And guess what? I had playback problems with two copies oF Alfred Hitchcock.

- Steve

This my friend is quite frankly, horesehit! Maybe, the scratching and fingerprinting are opinion, but the functionality of these discs are not in debate. Countless people including professional reviewers have had problems with these discs and across multiple brands of players. Some people have had extremely good luck, but opinion is not involved.

It very much is a debate since I've never had ANY problems with a DVD-18. Am I just lucky? I personally don't think so.

Refer to the proper care and storage of optical media for remedy...

Eric......I love it, so anyone who has a different experience with the exact same product is clearly full of "horse shit", eh? Okey-dokey. :rolleyes

I see a lot of Universal TV product, and have been having freezing problems on a number of the more recent ones including Columbo and Emergency. I couldn't get Gord's form to work, it errored out.

Nope! There you go putting words in people's mouths again. Experiences are one thing and opinions are another. When you accuse people who have had different experiences of just having different opinions, that's where I take a very strong opposition, and that's what I said in my quote. As I have said in countless threads, I'm very happy for those of you who don't have problems, but I don't understand, why those of you who haven't had any issues continue to attack those who have.

Personally, I have never touched the surface of a disc in my lifetime except on accident, and I own over 2000 CDs and nearly 1000 DVDs, but for some strange reason every DVD-18 that I have owned is a problme. Well then, it must be my hardware right? WRONG! I've played these on anywhere between 3-5 players (As have multiple professional reviewers, but I'm sure it's just their opinion!)

Everyone has a right to an opinion and a right to state their experiences. All I ask is that you don't try to minimalize the problems of others, and I don't think this is asking very much.

Holy crap dude, take a chill pill! The only person "attacking" anyone here is yourself.

Eric, the only person around here attacking and screaming is you. You said the functionality of these discs are not in debate, but clearly they are as I and many others have not had these problems with....and I repeat the underlined point...properly manufactured DVD-18's, in my previous post and my posts in the other thread I have never doubted that badly made DVD-18's have problems, but the notion that ALL DVD-18's are inherently faulty is something that take exception to. The idea that we who do not have problems are merely "lucky" is ridiculous.

Don't yell at me because I have not had the problems that you have had, and don't assume that your experiences are universal and not open to debate because clearly that isn't the case.

I would highly recommend that we provide input to Gord's site. Hopefully it will prove useful in defining problems and trends. I know that I had absolutely no problems with DVD-18 until, ironically, today. Never say never.

I would also suggest that anyone wanting to truly help the cause tone it down in language and personal attacks on this forum.

- Steve

I submitted the form yesterday and shared my experiences with my first copy of Las Vegas season 2. That was the first DVD-18 set that I had any problems with and I have quite a few of them now. I haven't watched every one of my DVD-18 discs yet so now I'm a bit worried that I may have others that won't play that I don't know about.

I don't think so either but I guess I'm full of horsepoo

To be honest I don't know of anyone personally that has had issues with DVD-18's. A few posts here and everywhere else but considering how many are made, there are bound to be a few bad apples.

Kevin et all,
This discussion is nearly a dead horse with Eric. The last time we dicussed this we had the same problem(someone was lying but they weren't, accusations etc etc) and went the same place(nowhere).

For what it is worth, I have been through three copies of The Best of Abbott and Costello volume 4 (dvd 18). I have tried it in five dvd players. It does not play properly in two of the five. One of the two it has problems with is my main player a Tohsiba SD5700, which plays all my other dvds just fine.

There have also been many reported problems with earlier volumes of these sets.

Kevin, I'm the same as you. 12 Universal sets--along with DVD-18s from other companies--and no problems. One of my Kolchak discs was even off the hub, and it was fine. Denon player.

Just making sure both sides are represented.

Does anyone know for sure how many different manufacturers are making DVD-18s? WAMO (Warner Manufacturing, now sold to Cinram) was the first company to make them, the only other ones I've seen are from Technicolor (and I can tell only because Universal foolishly decides not to put any printing on side 2), which has plants in both the US and Mexico if I'm not mistaken. The ones from Mexico seem to have had the most problems, so far I've only gotten one set made there but it was fine.

It seems like they should first narrow down where all the problem discs are coming from and take action there. I'm tired of having DVD-18 made look bad from the defective discs that have gotten out and caused people to give up on them altogether, since when they are done right they are the greatest thing since sliced bread

Both of my bad Hitchcock sets are from Mexico. The Kolchak set (which so far is good) is not marked.

- Steve