A Few Thoughts About....Blu-ray/DVD FLIPPER DISCS (1 Viewer)

[SteveJKo]

Originally Posted by Man-Fai Wong

The Bourne films can be had on BD w/out flippers....

I didn't know this, thanks for the info! However I still hope to find out why my BD35 will not play the Blu-Ray side of flippers.

 

[Roco]

I played both out of africa and the jackel with an lg370 on my 56 inch zenith tv and they looked great

 

[Spottedfeather]

I am completely against flipper discs of any kind. After all the garbage I had to deal with with the Universal Legacy monster sets (movies skipping, player freezing), I refuse to buy a flipper if I know it's a flipper before hand.

 

[Charles Smith]

My feeling exactly. Having suffered the same lousy, disappointing experiences with the Universal Legacy monster sets, the Hammer Horror set, and probably a few other examples that escape me at the moment, there's no room for a single additional instance of that crap in my movie-buying life.
 

 

[TravisR]

It's been discussed to death already but many people use the DVD-18 as an excuse for why they don't want dual sided Blu-rays but since there haven't been the same problems* with dual sided Blu-rays, it doesn't really make much sense.
 
* Personally, I haven't read of any but somewhere in the world, there must have been defective ones.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

IMHO, the inevitable extra risk of going w/ a double-sided format just for the sake of adding a DVD version of the movie is just not worth it (at least for most of us who are already invested in BD and not still using DVD as our primary format). But yes, that would just be IMHO, and I'd be perfectly fine if studios offered us a choice (between BD-only and the BD/DVD flipper), which Universal (and maybe a couple other smaller distributors jumping on that bandwagon) does not seem to be doing.
 
It's pretty meaningless to say there are no significant reports of problems so far since there really hasn't been much going on yet w/ that. It's not like there has been millions of these flippers already sold (as far as I can tell) and in use for a few years afterall.
 
Anyhoo, I really hope Universal (and whoever else) will relent and at least give us the option to buy BD-only versions of such releases (w/out paying a premium or losing anything). As it is now, I just noticed that the recent release of Ghost Writer is apparently only available on BD/DVD flipper, and that will probably be the first case that will actually impact my decision to *NOT* buy the title (at least for the forseeable future)...
 
_Man_

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Man-Fai Wong
 
It's pretty meaningless to say there are no significant reports of problems so far since there really hasn't been much going on yet w/ that. It's not like there has been millions of these flippers already sold (as far as I can tell) and in use for a few years afterall.

It certainly didn't take very long or millions of discs sold for problems with DVD-18s to appear.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

 

Originally Posted by TravisR
It certainly didn't take very long or millions of discs sold for problems with DVD-18s to appear.

That doesn't tell us anything about how long it'll take for actual problems to show up w/ these flippers. It only means that they did a better job of QC-ing the process for the short term, but doesn't tell us anything about the long term -- and I buy BDs to keep them for many years, not just a year or two, especially since I really don't forsee a need for anything better than BD (unlike DVD).
 
FWIW, even w/out the flipper issue, there are already more playback problems w/ BDs than DVDs at the same stage in each format life cycle. I don't see the point in taking on additional potential playback issues, especially since we're only talking about backward compatibility for DVD players.
 
Again, if the studios want to offer backward compatibility using flippers, then that's fine w/ me as long as they also offer us the option to choose BD-only w/out any drawbacks.
 
_Man_

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Man-Fai Wong
Â
That doesn't tell us anything about how long it'll take for actual problems to show up w/ these flippers. It only means that they did a better job of QC-ing the process for the short term, but doesn't tell us anything about the long term -- and I buy BDs to keep them for many years, not just a year or two, especially since I really don't forsee a need for anything better than BD (unlike DVDs).
Â
_Man_

But by that logic, all your Blu-rays could fail at 5 years so why buy them? /img/vbsmilies/htf/smile.gif

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

 

Originally Posted by TravisR
But by that logic, all your Blu-rays could fail at 5 years so why buy them? /img/vbsmilies/htf/smile.gif

What logic is that? You mean the one that do not simply assume flippers are completely reliable for the long haul based on essentially zero data? Or that there had been previous problems w/ other kinds of flippers even though this new flipper seems more reliable (at least at the outset) given extremely limited data?
 
Hey, FWIW, I also didn't buy into BD until a couple years after the format came out (and the format war was nearing the end). I'm not a bleeding edge kinda guy, but you're very welcome to be the guinea pig, if you want. /img/vbsmilies/htf/smiley_wink.gif /img/vbsmilies/htf/biggrin.gif And it's not exactly like the studios (and CE makers) have been model citizens for giving us quality, reliability, etc. afterall.
 
Anyway, all I'm asking for is an option to choose BD-only, which makes perfect sense under the circumstance. I'm not demanding they also provide separate, non-flipper BD+DVD combos afterall although I'd certainly prefer they do that in some cases where it matters at all to me (eg. new family-oriented day-and-date releases where it'd be nice to have the DVD for roadtrips and such). But I could easily live w/out the inclusion of the DVD version either way...
 
_Man_

 

[AaronMK]

Quote:

Anyhoo, I really hope Universal (and whoever else) will relent and at least give us the option to buy BD-only versions of such releases (w/out paying a premium or losing anything). As it is now, I just noticed that the recent release of Ghost Writer is apparently only available on BD/DVD flipper, and that will probably be the first case that will actually impact my decision to *NOT* buy the title (at least for the forseeable future)...

 
 
Get the Canadian version. It is not a flipper. Also, if you care about that sort of thing, language censored in the US version to make the PG-13 cut, is left intact in their release. Unfortunately, you do have to pay an import premium, but at least it is not a "non-flipper" premium.

 

[Paul.S]

Thank you for that Canadian version Amazon.ca link. Excellent movie.

 

[Sam Favate]

Bumping this old thread in the wake of Universal's use of the double-sided blu-ray/DVD discs for the latest season of The Office (season 8). Having had lots of problems with the old Universal double-sided discs used in the Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica sets, as well as the North and South mini-series, I was skeptical of using the concept for blu/DVD, but I went ahead and bought The Office season 8. Big mistake. From the first episode, I encountered the same kinds of problems I had with those old flippers - freezing, jumping and having the player either revert to it's home screen (not the disc menu) or spit out the disc. The extras also had the same symptoms. I contacted Universal, which was gracious enough to exchange my blu-DVD set for simply a DVD set (I didn't mind losing the extra cash I paid for the blu set if it meant I could actually watch the show, plus I got to send them a message about their double-sided discs). The person I spoke to at Universal said they had no problems playing the discs I sent. I said I tried them on three different players and had no success, and that even the DVD sides froze, jumped, etc. I don't care what the content is, I will never again buy a double-sided disc of any kind. Take note, studios, and please drop the format. These discs do not work! At least not to my satisfaction.

 

[Mike Frezon]

But now you're stuck watching Season 8 of The Office, Sam.
I think the gods were trying to intervene on your behalf...

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Wonder who made those discs? I see Universal is still using Technicolor in Mexico for most of their discs, in spite of the large number of defective discs they put out a few years ago. I will constantly defend 2-sided discs as I think they're neat but I don't like the recent trend of putting printing only on one side, and obviously Technicolor needs much better quality control. I don't see the need to have standard-def copies of stuff I've bought on Blu-Ray anyways. The number of redundant discs in some sets these days is getting ridiculous, and it seems Disney is now taking to STACKING discs on top of each other!

 

[JSul]

Glad to see updates to this thread topic.I was very familiar with the Legacy sets from Universal, so I tried to avoid buying any of the sets marked w/made in Mexico discs.....but in some cases, that was all that were available....bought all the sets, except Creature set, took them home and over a few weeks, viewed every film. At that time, the only defective disc was Werewolf of London, from the Wolf Man set, and my local retailer gladly replaced it....all others played flawlessly on my Sony NS77H dvd player.In December, purchased Panasonic bdt320 bluray player, along with a number of bluray titles, including the Universal Monsters set....all is right in the world.Until a week ago... Having not watched anything from the Legacy sets, for some time, or the Lugosi collection set, I pulled out the Dracula Legacy and started to watch Son of Dracula. To my dismay, it has trouble even loading up, then freezes or skips throughout, on my Panasonic....so, no problem, right...just pitch it into the old reliable Sony and sit back and enjoy.Rats! It skips during credits and freezes up during several opening scenes, then plays ok, after the first 15 minutes or so.I contacted Universal Home Video and wrote a polite, lengthy email, explaining the well known problems with their dvd-18 discs...and my SoD disc...and fear of future failures with other discs I have, rest of the Legacy discs and Lugosi collection.They are sending me the double feature disc w/Son of Dracula-Dracula's Daughter, as a replacement, as they do not have any Drac Legacy sets in stock....fine by me as I don't want anymore of these flipper discs.I am now taking time to re-watch all of the other 'flippers' and hope they play ok, either on my or Sony or Panny bluray.

 

[Scott Burke]

This sucks. I didn't know about this and just bought all of the bourne films like this.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I still avoid BD+DVD flippers like the plague, but my wife does buy an occasional set of DVD-18s for stuff that don't matter to me -- I never liked flippers at all. Still, I have come across rare cases of flakey, non-flipper BDs even though there are no readily visible signs of issues w/ them. Problem is I often don't get around to watching new purchases for quite a long while (and still have a very sizeable backlog), so can't easily return faulty discs for replacement. Best to just minimize potential for faulty discs by avoiding flippers me thinks... _Man_

 

[Scott Burke]

Just an update. After reading this thread, I kind of freaked out and contacted Universal to see if they would be willing to exchange the flippers for standard blu-rays since I had already opened them. They stated it is not their policy to exchange discs that are not defective.

I realized the logic in that statement and tried to watch the films. The first movie played fine. The second started to freeze and skip about 2 to 3 minutes into the film. The third film would not play at all in my PS3. I tried to return them to the store that I had bought them from, but since they did not have the exact same discs, their hands were tied. I reached out to Universal again explaining the situation, and thankfully they have agreed to exchange all of the discs for standard bluray discs.

VERY thankful to Universal.

 

[Mark Booth]

Flipper Disc: A double-sided disc that requires you to flip it over and play the other side to continue watching the movie. The terminology dates back to the DVD days, well before Blu-ray or HD DVD was available.

Combo Disc: A double-sided disc that has Blu-ray (or HD DVD) on one side, and DVD on the other side.

I know I'm late to this party but "flipper disc" is the incorrect terminology. They are COMBO discs. The HD DVD folks got it right and called them exactly what they are, combo discs. A combination of HD DVD (or Blu-ray) and DVD.

That said, I don't believe I own any Blu-ray combo discs. I've got several HD DVD combo discs and they all continue to play just fine.

Mark