DVD Rot! My Sweet Hereafter has gone to the sweet hereafter (1 Viewer)

[steve jaros]

I've owned a copy of the 'sweet hereafter' since when it came out in 1998. I played it about a month ago with no problems.

 

[Mark_vdH]

I have only once experienced this problem, with my copy of The Seventh Seal (Criterion), which became "unplayable" after 11 months.
Unfortunately, Amazon.com wouldn't replace it, as they only have a 60 day warranty for defective discs.
Criterion was more helpful however, and replaced the disc free of charge.

 

[Julian Reville]

I've posted previously about this, but just to reiterate:
Disc 4 of From the Earth to the Moon and Fantasia 2000 have both experienced extreme pixilation & full lockups, reproducible on:
Panasonic A110
Pioneer Elite DVL-90
Toshiba SD-4700
Panasonic RP-82
all in the same places.
So, to me, it's a disc problem.

 

[Jefferson]

I had forgotten this: My OLIVER! is a "flipper"...
and the pixelization is on the beginning of SIDE B (Chapters 01 and 02). It didn't used to be. And the problem is there on three different DVD players, but...I must admit, that it plays fine on my computer. hmmmmmmmmm....

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

My copy of The Sweet Hereafter has suffered the same fate. Although it is in fine physical condition it just refuses to play now. This is not the only film that this happened with to me, others being Contact, Primary Colors. By the way I know for sure that the problem is nto with my player.

Sanjay
Member since 1997

 

[Thomas T]

I must be as lucky as Todd Hochard! As I mentioned previously I've never had a disc go bad yet in my 1,000 plus collection. I put on The Sweet Hereafter on my low end $200 player and it played just smoothly.
I'd better stop gloating before the DVD gods strike me down!

 

[Michael Harris]

For me, "From Earth to the Moon" has been my problem set. Disk one does not let me access chapter one of the third episode and disk three is totally unplayable. I watched the entire series at least twice within a couple months of purchase with no problems. About a year later the above mentioned problems cropped up. I've tried them numerous stand-alone players and DVD-ROM players and no dice. While a perfectly made DVD may not exhibit something called "DVD rot", a poorly made one may not last. I've read about problems with FETTM on the Studio Feedback forum so its out there.

 

[Todd Robertson]

Previous posters are correct in saying some people are in denial. I'm not happy that this is happening to anyone, but more and more I see that I am not alone.

you are far from alone. even those with 5,000 dvds and no problems....know there is a problem. at least they should. the dvd world sucked me in with all the promises and candy-coated descriptions. now approaching the 1000 title mark, it's becoming more difficult to just turn my head and hope the problem goes away. I've put way too much $ into it all and this includes the need for a good home theater. if all my dvds are worthless after 5 or 6 years, somebodys going to pay. but I would much rather they just notice and admit the problem, and start working on solutions while keeping us informed. they need to do it BEFORE all these hot dvds go OOP and become un-available. I mean how long do you think they will supply you with new copies? when they stop, you will be S.O.L., as will the rest of us. the question is whos gonna just sit and not do squat, and who will keep voicing the concerns in the hope that some industry spokesman with brains and half a heart might see a thread like this one.

 

[Julian Reville]

Micheal, I sent you a PM about FTETTM. Please reply if you want to use your good discs and my good discs to make one good set.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

One of the big problems with this format, is that those who buy the largest number of titles are the ones most likely to run into this the most, but are also the ones least likely to discover the problem early, since even visually examing 1000+ discs would take hours, let alone having to replay an entire library and all the special features to discover a problem. It could be years before someone stumbles on a defect, by which time the title could be long out of print.

It would be useful is someone set up a database of defective titles, cross referenced with the mint marks, since this problem isn't going to affect every disc pressed of a title, but will affect batches.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Jeff is exactly right-- I tend to learn about these problems through threads like this. I looked at most of the "problem" discs reference here and came up roses... until I put in "The Sweet Hereafter," which predictably wouldn't play at all after the layer switch. Agh!

 

[Todd Robertson]

It could be years before someone stumbles on a defect, by which time the title could be long out of print.

this is an echo of what I've been saying for the last 18 months. it helps to try and rewatch as much as possible, but yes, it does take time. each night we watch at least 2 older dvds, 3 if there is not a new release to watch. alot of other days I may just pop one in the player while going about my normal chores. I dont always watch every minute, but as long as you check on and off, you'll notice problems. but yes, this would take...forever. and with me still sucking the dvd worlds bone by buying dvds at a rapid pace....it may indeed only get worse. being able to back up a personal collection like we could with vhs/lp/cd/ would make me feel a little better. and not being able...pisses me off.

 

[JohnRice]

Steven,

I didn't read the whole thread, but I think there may have been a bad batch of The Sweet Hereafter. I rented it down the street and it did the same thing. it wasn't until the last 15 minutes or so that it became unplayable, but before that, the sound had been twitchy since the layer switch. At the point where Nicole's father comes into her room the day before the disclosure hearing, it finally gave up completely. I tried it on four different units and it didn't work on any of them. The disc was spotless. I have used two other copies and they both worked fine.

 

[Michael Warner]

I had the same problem with my "The Sweet Hereafter" DVD about a year ago. Tried it on Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Sampo, and Malata players and all froze right at the layer change. I spent months trying to get a response of some sort from New Line through email and snail mail to no avail. I finally just pitched the disc. It's a film I would like to own but I sure wasn't about to buy another copy.

 

[RickER]

My worst case was Heathers, which would only go to the main menu. If i tried to play the movie, it locked up at the new world logo. If i went to a chapter, the player wouldnt be able to find it. I have a very high end player, a sony 7700. In the case of heathers, it played once, and never again...it acted like a computer glitch...i could do anything i wanted except watch the movie. I have a continuing experiment with an old copy of Halloween II, it is a drink coaster, all scratched to HELL! and yet it still plays like new. It has been a drink coaster for 3 years now. Why does it play, and yet a disc with the smallest flaw will lock up? Anyway, in the last 5 years i have had 7 or 8 discs of my 500 go bad..and if a disc is scrathed, back to Best Buy it goes even if it plays now...will it in another 5 years? (oh yea...i do wash my coaster BEFORE i play it LOL)

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Heathers is known to have problems and Anchor Bay has been very good about replacing the first batch. This is one of the group done by Crest National with bad materials--Frankenstein Created Woman and The Witches are also in this category.

 

[RickER]

After reading some of the discs named as problems...my Ghostbusters is fine...but my Kentucky Fried Movie is fried. Remeinds me of my laserdisc days...only now DVD is owned by 40 million strong, and laser was only 1 million...how will the masses feel when they find out?

 

[Todd Hochard]

So, if the problem lies with certain disc (as is apparent based on posts), that doesn't mean that all dual-layer DVDs are doomed to the same fate. And, that's the real point I'm trying to make. The sky isn't falling. Places like HTF will help identify the "problem children," and hopefully they'll get replaced prior to being out of print.
FTETTM and Heathers first run still going here. Ok, I'll stop.

 

[Paul_Scott]

just chapter skipped thru my copy and it seems to be ok.

i'm concerned that the problem with dvd rot is that it isn't limited to certain titles. my copy of Contact and LA confidential still played up to about a month ago (havent checked since), but a copy of The Hot Spot went bad only 1 year after i bought it.

i don't understand how people with 1000+ collections can make blanket statements about this formats integrity.
the frustrating thing about this is that it's when you finally get the craving to pull out the movie and watch it again, only to find you can't , that you realize the problem.
i have about 500 discs, and there is no way i'm going to spend hours each month chapterskipping thru my entire collection to saftey check.

i'm just hoping that when another goes bad, it will still be in print.

 

[John_F]

Has anyone found a good quick way to test for the problem?

Paul said that he "chapter skipped" thru his copy, but I would think this isn't very reliable.

A couple of years ago, when I had a panasonic A110, I used to "fast forward" thru DVDs and this seemed to detect problem discs. I haven't tried this method with my latest players.

I have had problems with several discs, The Devil's Advocate (the first release) and Contact I definiatly recall returning. I have had to return Contact twice (my most recent return was about 6 months ago, after owning the DVD for about two years). Whenever one does go bad, I just return it to a/any retail saying I received it as a present and it doesn't work.

Regards,
John Flegert