ACK! TWO dvds that no longer play! (1 Viewer)

[Andrew s wells]

I thought at first this may have been an isolated incident with my drgonheat dvd which i have tired in no less than 4 different players just to be sure it wasnt an issue with incompatability. I was all set to watch daylight the other day and the exact same thing..the message comes up saying " try a different disc. There are no fingerprints or scratches,( i have tried cleaning them anyway from center to edge of course, with an appropriate cloth-- no luck) they are always put back in the case after watching them, and they are not near any source that would possibly cause damage. ( like extreme heat).. the problem is, i have owned both for at least a year and a half, so exchanging them is out of the question. I e-mailed universal last night, but as of yet have not gotten a reply about an exchange (IF they would do that).. anybody else had this happen where the movies, for NO reason at all just won't play anymore. This really stinks. Makes me wonder how many other dvds are going to do this.

 

[JohnJB]

Just a suggestion but why not buy another copy of them and then take back the faulty one the next day and ask for a credit or refund, worst case if they insist on just a replacement, then sell it of on e-bay.

I know this is just a short term solution, but I think you've just been unlucky if there really was a DVD rot or similar problem I can guarantee that it would be big news, DVD's are more popular than religion and I've played most of my 400 discs twice some over 30 times (Jackie Chan & adult titles) without a problem, but yes a product manufatured for a bout 50 cents will occasionally have a fault, I'd say DVD's failure rate is very very low.

 

[Jason Hughes]

Go to the digitalbits, go to their studio contact and get the phone # for Universal. Ask for the guy in charge of DVD (its Rene Wolfmen or something like that). He is very nice and will give you an address to send it to for a replacement. It will take about a month or so...

I asked him about so called DVD rot, and basically what he said was if it worked and then did not work, and there were no blemishes at all and it was not a player problem, then the disc was defective from the beginning and it was just as much as a fluke that the thing worked at all...still kind of scary, but I have only had 2 of about 1000 go bad (Gladiator and the orginal pressing of Ghostbusters which seemed to have a 100% fail rate).

 

[BrianP]

I recently had my copy of a Bridge Too Far go bad on me. The disc played fine until the layer change and then the movie began to have audio dropouts and pixelation of the picture. I tried it on two other players with similar results. Also the disc was clean and without any scratches or visible flaws. The DVD was purchased new about two years ago and played fine.

I contacted WAMO who was the manufacturer of the DVD and they are going to replace it for free, but I have to send them the defective disc at mine expense first. So it is actually costing me a $1.50 to replace the DVD.

I own over 500 DVDs and this was the first one in my collection that went bad over a period of time. I had a few others with this type of problem but they were brand new.

 

[TheLongshot]

I still have a bad copy of Blade sitting around. It was good at one time, but when I lent it to a friend, we found out it didn't work. Anyone know how I can contact New Line? I haven't found a phone number yet...

Jason

 

[Tim_Prasuhn]

my copy of Stargate went on the fritz a while back for no reason: picutre jerking forward, pixelating, then finally just skipping to the next chapter. Odd since the disc was in perfect condition.

The weird thing is, it works fine now. I can't figure it out. Oh well.

My old MGM DVD of 2010 self-destructed for no apparent reason also. Never recovered like the former, unfortunatly. Thankfully this was at the exact time Warner released their "new" (not) version, so I just picked that one up.

I also must have a very robust DVD player, because I have some scratched discs (I don't loan anything to anyone anymore because of it), and they still work fine.

 

[Mark_vdH]

I recently had my copy of a Bridge Too Far go bad on me. The disc played fine until the layer change and then the movie began to have audio dropouts and pixelation of the picture.

I had the exact same problem with The Seventh Seal: Criterion Collection. Although I purchased it in April 2001, and despite the fact that I live in The Netherlands, I received a replacement copy without any trouble.
Thank you Jon Mulvaney & Criterion!

 

[David Ruiz]

Same thing happened to me last week, when I went to play "Dracula 2000" for the SECOND time. The first time, it was perfect, and it played all the way through, but the second time, it was extremely pixalated, and it kept skipping throughout the entire movie. I ordered another copy, and I am sending the defective one back. They told me that they are going to send me ANOTHER copy of it, and they will *NOT* return my money, or give me credit :frowning:
Oh well, I can sell the still-sealed copy on ebay.
This is the first DVD that went bad on me, and I have 200 titles, so I guess, I should be glad that it doesn't happen more often.