ATTN Universal: No More Double-Sided Discs! (1 Viewer)

[ChrisRowley]

No more double-sided discs. They are an abomination. Especially coming from a majot studio whose archives have yet to be fully explored for DVDs. I may never buy another collection frm Universal after being burned again this pat Tuesday.

I thought we had been freed of the double-sided disc except in the case of full-screen/widescreen flippers which are acceptable. But I recently spent way too much money on Law & Order Season 2 and Northern Exposure Season 1 to swallow double-sided discs. Personally I use Sony 300 disc changers (and not the onjes with the flipper feature) and have one loaded up with TV sets (seven season of friends, six of Buffy, six of Stargate, the full run of Babylon 5, and many more), but even if I was just using one of the five-changers (or the seven-changer JVC that I boughtjust because of six-disc releases) I'd feel pretty cheated here. It's not like these are cut-rate priced sets either, Northern Exposure costing more than Buffy Season 6 (released the same day) while including only three flipper discs and no insert compared with six beautiful discs and an insert that tells me where to find the episodes (though Buffy/Angel continue to ignore detailing where to find the commentaries and extras).

I'd like to know who to get in contact with to stop this in the future. I want to buy and collect all my favorite shows and have them accessible when the mood calls, but for now I'll skip all the Law & Order releases and be looking out for Universal's logo on any TV set in the future. And there should be a label, and site should indicate this horrible packaging choice.

Chris Rowley

 

[Jesse Skeen]

DVD is a 2-sided medium, and there are changers available that will flip discs automatically.
My only complaint with Universal over this is there is NO printed label on side 2 of Schindler's List (side 1 just says "Side 2 on other side")- that's pretty cheap-looking.
I'm sick of all the needless multi-disc sets where each disc is 1 side!

 

[David Coleman]

I have to agree that I actually LIKE the dual sided approach to the LAW AND ORDER set! True I don't have a changer but I also hate, I mean HATE unfolding those 6/7 disc digipaks! This one comes in a nice compact "tri-fold" pack.It's very orderly and nice looking and most importantly does the job!

I'm not normally a proponent of "dual sided" but in this case for TV box sets I like the economy of size.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

How about "ATTN Sony: No More Single-Sided Players!" or just stop buying deficient equipment.

 

[david_slater]

im with ChrisRowley.
i like lables on my disks.
and im vary short on space for my shows.
with 1000's of shows it takes up lots of space but i still like to have lables on my disks.
i wish all box sets was made like the Babylon 5 box sets.
made like a book with a box to keep the dust off of them.
simple!

 

[Rolando]

well looks like people are split on this one. darn it too bad because I hate 2 sided disks. I am more careful with these babies then a mother with her newborn but sooner or later one side is bound to get finger prints, smudges, grease and/or scratched.

sure the risk is with all DVDs but those double sided are just prone to it. Odds increase with big collection.

I won't get into renting them...

 

[Carlos Garcia]

The packaging of alot of these Universal double-sided discs leave alot to be desired. I recently bought the Best of Abbott and Costello Volume 2 and when I opened the packaged, one of the discs had come loose and since it's double-sided, the disc got scratched on the top. Needless to say it skipped on my DVD player, so I sent it back. I returned it to Amazon.com got a replacement, when I opened the box...the same thing! I got so ticked off that I returned it and just asked for my money back. Now I'm scared of buying any DVD when I find out it's on double-sides. I think I'll pass until they either fix the packaging so the discs don't come loose, or they repackage the sets as 4 single sided discs, instead of 2 double-sided.

 

[Devin_C]

I have no issue with 2 sided discs - as was said earlier, it's a two sided medium. I'm sure there were folks that complained about two sided cassette tapes and having to get off their duffs and flip 'em. :rolleyes

If there's labels on the inner portion of each side that say "eps 1-4" or whatever, then it's all good. Who needs to inflate their disc count or lose more shelf space? Take good care of your discs, and be pleased the material was released.

 

[John Berggren]

The pricing on Northern Exposure should allow for SSDL discs. However, I'd be happier if they just reduced the pricing.

 

[David Lambert]

Doesn't this belong in "studio feedback"?

 

[ChrisRowley]

That DVDs can be two-sided doesn't make DVD a a dual-side medium. If there is any driving design feature of DVD beyond quality, it is convenience. The speed of chapter jumps. Menus. All the features that made us drop VHS so quickly and made us happy for skipping LaserDiscs. Convenience is a feature, and far more important than "shelf space". Dual-sided content isn't just a frustration for the lazy (of which I am a charter member), but for the casual user. Inner labels are already frustrating for many people who I've loaned discs to, but the lazy are already catered to from the feedback that has altered TV sets. Take "The Simpsons" and "Futurama" as an example. While FOX should be commended for pricing, packaging and quickness of relase, their discs mostly suffer from no "Play All" function. "The Simpsons" and "Futurama" shared this until their later releases which now have a "Play All", most likely a response to criticism. Yes, "lazy" and "convenience" often dance through the lillies hand-in-hand, but we are paying for convenience. On tape "Play All" is the default, why should we be penalized for going with newer technology? And there is no analog to cassette tape, where you just didn't have the space, so you had to flip, so they made auto-reverse decks. Tell me how many flipper players are on the market? I own nine DVD players, including top-of-the-line, HD-up-converters and mega changers. Not one supports auto-flipping. Cost per unit? Gimme a break, it costs pennies to press discs! And in the case of "Northern Exposure", they've already excluded a booklet that tells me where to find the episodes and/or summaries, how much money could be saved by giving me two episodes per side of marginal quality? "Buffy" gives us four episodes per side of better quality. Other TV sets get as many as five episodes on a single side. I cannot fathom any argument in favor of two-sides beyond full-frame/widescreen flippers. Not cost, certainly not packaging. I'll agree with those who prefer Warner's "Babylon 5" and "Smallville" packaging, particularly in comparison to "Alien Quadrilogy" whose fold-out seems only designed for photographic stills of its humongousness, not the owner's convenience. But "getting off my lazy butt" isn't the only reason to hate flippers, it defeats good programmable players (like the mega-changers where I can arrange every episode across discs to play sequentially). As a lazy person I'm paying for that convenience. And I'm left with the task of ripping and re-burning a $60 set just so I can use DVD as designed, for quality and convenience, not as a "double-sided medium". Double-sided is an option, and when it makes sense, use it, but only to provide alternative languages/video formats, not to hide or hinder access to content.

Chris Rowley
Really, really lazy, but willing to pay for that vice to be fed

 

[Andrew Bunk]

I think dual sided discs are more prone to manufacturing defects, especially DVD-18's.

If they must be dual sided, it would nice they could at least do something like this (using WB's West Wing as an example):



Disc 1 Side A: Episodes 1-4
Disc 1 Side B: Episodes 13-16
Disc 2 Side A: Episodes 5-8
Disc 2 Side B: Episodes 17-20
Disc 3 Side A: Episodes 9-12
Disc 3 Side B: Episodes 21-22

This way you'd only have flip discs once if you have a changer. Just a thought...

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Oh great- that sounds like those LP sets where they're arranged for the drop-down changers, so you have to continously switch records on a regular turntable!
2-sided DVDs were out before there were any changers, so I've always thought non-flipping changers were a bad idea and I certainly won't be getting one. With a single-disc player it's much more convenient to flip a disc than it is to take it out, put it back in the case, take the next one out and put it in. Whenever I have to do that I curse the people who don't like 2-sided discs!

 

[david_slater]

ChrisRowley is right.

plus as i said i like lables on my disks.
im vary picky like that.
im like Rolando about my dvd's being like my babies.
i take pride in my shows and take vary good care of them.
i hate flippers, and i hate digipaks.
digipaks are a pain geting the disks out without droping the damm things.
they should make all box sets like Babylon 5 box sets are.

 

[david_slater]

I curse the people who like 2-sided discs!

 

[Rolando]

PREACH ON BROTHER!

 

[Rob Gardiner]

There are many ways to put material on a DVD and we all have our preferences and gripes. There is no possible way to satisfy everybody. But Chris, if you have a double-sided player, you would have nothing to complain about, and your equipment would then be able to accommodate EVERY disc on the market. It looks to me like your changers are deficient and you should be complaining to SONY instead of Universal.

 

[Carlos Garcia]

If you owned a 300 disc DVD changer with a FLIP button, you would never want a single sided disc ever again. Instead of 300 movies, I can store 600 on each player (with double sided discs). I don't have to worry about any labels because the player comes with a title option, where you can name and see every title for every disc that's in your player. Because the discs live inside my player, I don't ever have to touch them, so I don't need to worry about getting fingerprints on them, or them ever getting scratched. I also don't need to take them out of the player, and forget where each DVD is. This saves alot of room in my apartment, because I don't have thousands of DVDs all scattered throughout. They are all conveniently living in the player, so they can never get lost. I can also daisy chain more DVD changers, so I can add more double-sided discs. Since I currently own 3 of these DVD changers, I can have 1,800 movies or TV shows in my player (if they were all double-sided). Anyone who owns one of these players would want nothing but double-sided discs ever again.

 

[GarySchrock]

No, they definitely shouldn't use that set as the model. I'd like a case where my discs actually stay on the hubs. The B5 sets were notorious for have floaters.

However, double sided discs should be banned to the depths of hell. I'd far rather see a set of single sided discs in something like a slim 6 case.

 

[david_slater]

the B5 sets only came off is shipping.
if you massed them in middle thats what makes them come off.
that dont happen at home. the samething happens with single cases.