Finding LOTS of defective HD-DVDs... (5 Viewers)

[Jesse Skeen]

Don't know if this is the right area to post this but don't see anywhere else that mentions HD-DVD. Yes, it's a dead format, but for me that's part of its appeal.


Anyways, long story short is I have almost every HD-DVD title released in the US, and over the past 2 weeks have found 16 bad discs, 15 of which are from Warner. I bought all of these discs still-sealed and have 4 different players, none of which will play them properly. They either glitch and freeze up during the movie, or won't play at all. Bad discs I've found so far are:


Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2 copies!)

Swordfish

Blade Runner (disc 1, rest seems to be fine)

The Wild Bunch

Purple Rain (2 copies)

Viva Las Vegas (2 copies, neither will load)

Alexander Revisited (both discs freeze up!)

Blood Diamond (3 copies!)

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (3 copies!)

The Adventures of Robin Hood

Superman: The Movie (2 copies)

Training Day

The Fugitive (2 copies)

Gods and Generals

The Good Shepherd (only non-Warner disc to have trouble so far- wouldn't load, but got a replacement copy that played fine.)


Again, I've tried these on FOUR different players, and a few at a friend's house as well, so it's very unlikely that this is just an equipment problem. There seems to have been a very serious problem at Warner- either these were defective from the start, or they developed disc rot after just a couple years.


I've found replacement copies for most of these on Amazon and Ebay- some appear to be fine, while others are still having problems. "Gods and Generals" really hurts because I paid about $20 for that, and now can't get a new one for less than $30.


I'd heard Warner would replace defective HD-DVDs with Blu-Ray copies, but when I contacted them they told me that I had to have the receipts for all of them! I save a lot of crap, but not receipts. They also said they wouldn't replace any that weren't from an 'authorized retailer', so any that I bought from Amazon Marketplace or Ebay are out, even though they were sealed and unused when I obtained them. It's simply inexcusable for this many discs to be faulty, dead format or not. The other HD-DVDs I watched up to now have been great, but if I had known there'd be this many bad ones I wouldn't have bothered collecting so many of them.


If anyone else has a lot of Warner HD-DVDs they've never watched, I'd advise them to check them as soon as possible.

 

[Matt Hough]

Very interesting. I have a fair number of HD-DVDs but very few from Warners since I also had Blu-ray as well during the time of the format wars and most of the Warner issues I wanted (apart from Forbidden Planet, Casablanca, and Mutiny on the Bounty) were also being issued in Blu. I played Casablanca (not on your list, I know) about a month ago and it played just fine. I don't think I've got any of the HDs on your list to check out.

 

[ShowsOn]

Originally Posted by Jesse Skeen I'd heard Warner would replace defective HD-DVDs with Blu-Ray copies, but when I contacted them they told me that I had to have the receipts for all of them! I save a lot of crap, but not receipts.
.

LOL! What a load of nonsense! What is it with big companies doing everything to get out of their obligations? They have effectively accussed you of stealing them!

 

[Chuck Anstey]

I know you have tried on 4 different players but have you updated any of them to the latest firmware? As usual there are some tolerances that are in a gray area between the player and the disc and the latest firmware can help. I had two discs that wouldn't play in my A2 (Smokin' Aces and Bourne Ultimatum) that played just fine after the firmware upgrade.

 

[Ethan Riley]

All I can add to this is that I have first-generation Blu-ray copies of the Harry Potter films, and those too are glitchy.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

If you're still having trouble with the discs, and Warner won't easily grant you an exchange, here's what I'd do.


Look up whoever the CEO is of Time Warner - the entire company, not just the home video department (you should do the same for the other studios parent companies as well). Write, via snail-mail, a politely worded letter stating that you bought these discs and that they no longer work; that they're not visible damaged; and that you know a studio with as good of a track record as theirs wouldn't intentionally release a defective product and that all you wish to do is have a working copy of something you bought a couple years ago - expecting a disc from two or three years ago to play isn't an unreleasable expectation. In the case of Warner, mention that you had tried to contact customer service and were told that you needed a receipt, and that three years after the fact, you didn't think you'd ever need it again as you expected the discs to still work. That you had to bother the head of a company with something trivial like this but that you feel what happened wasn't right, wasn't representative of the customer service and high quality product you've come to expect, and that you're hopeful that they can help arrange an exchange on the defective titles for working copies.


If you do that, writing directly to the CEO, I would guess that you'll get further than you have at any point thus far. In my experience with customer service departments for many companies, whether it's Warner Home Video or some electronics company or even an airline, there's a limit to what the customer service people are authorized to do; it's not that they don't want to help you, it's that they simply don't have the authority to do so. Every time I've run into one of those situations where I felt strongly that I was in the right and that normal customer service wasn't able to resolve my problem, I've written to the head of the company. Happened with Apple when I had sent an iPod back four times because it kept freezing up and their customer service kept diagnosing it as being OK, returning the same one only to have the same problem a day later; happened with United Airlines after a dreadful flight experience where my issue had to do with things that were entirely within the airline's control; and happened with Epson when I ordered a projector that never arrived and that their customer service was unable to replace it since that model was discontinued. In each of those cases (and more), someone from what was basically Top Secret Double Super Customer Service contacted me and did whatever was necessary to make the situation right, usually right away. I think the reasoning behind that is that the CEO of the company (and therefore, the person opening his/her mail) doesn't want to be bothered with what is (in relation to the size of the entire company) a minor problem, and coming from the top, they have the authority to just wave their hand and say, "Just fix it, whatever it takes."


I think if you write to them as I described, using a very politely worded letter where maybe you play up that you're "confused that customer service is unable to help" or "don't understand why something you purchased recently suddenly stopped working", mention that you've tried the discs on multiple players, have had no problems, would be more than happy to return the discs to them, etc., as opposed to being like, you guys suck and it's not right that you're screwing me like this, I think there's a really good chance you'll get the replacements you're looking for.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Yeah, I was thinking about just sending the bad discs addressed to whoever the head of Warner Home Video is now- I don't even know who that's been since Warren Lieberfarb got ousted. I could tolerate maybe 1 or 2 bad discs, but 15 and counting is just ridiculous. I've bought literally hundreds of movies in every existing format that I haven't had time to watch and might not until decades from now, and if a large percentage of them have a chance of not playing (not due to bad equipment) then I'll just have to stop buying any more unless I plan to watch them the very day I buy them.


It seems like disc rot is the culprit here, as I've heard on other forums that people have checked discs that played fine when they got them and they now have problems. Blood Diamond seems to be the worst offender.


And yes, all my players have the 4.0 firmware. I've heard conflicting opinions about whether older firmware is actually better at handling bad discs or not.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Jesse - obviously you're free to do what you want, but I'd suggest not blindly sending the discs away just yet. The thing is, if whoever opens the package doesn't have the authority to do anything about it or knowledge of the background of the situation, you'll be out the proof you have that the discs stopped working. If you thought it was hard to get a response from someone with the discs in hand, imagine how difficult it would be if you couldn't produce them. I know my suggestion to write to the CEO of Time Warner (as opposed to the department head) might seem extreme, but that in my experience is the best way to fast-track something like this. The way it usually works is the person in that office who's the big boss' assistant calls the head of the department that actually could fix it, and all of a sudden when it's coming as an instruction from The Man At The Top to just fix it, its funny how quickly that kind of situation gets resolved. And I happen to think you're in the right here. I don't think you bought a crapload of discs from a garage sale that looked defective just to try to pull one over on someone, I think you like many of us here bought discs that you wanted when you had the chance to do so, planning to watch them when you got around to it - that's the beauty of ownership. You're not asking for anything for free or trying to profit; if they still made the HD-DVD discs you'd be happy to take those, but since the format didn't last - you just want the equivalent of what you purchased, and besides the format being different, the content is the same on HD-DVD or Blu-ray, so you're not in any way profiting from this. I understand why a studio might have that kind of rule in place about not doing an exchange without proof of purchase, because plenty of HD-DVD discs were either supposed to be destroyed or were sold at clearance prices, and the studio has a right to make sure people aren't buying discs for a dollar at a yard sale or junkyard for the sole purpose of trading them in for something new. But I think if you give someone at the top a chance to quickly read essentially what you've said here, I think it's immediately obvious that you're a collector of movies and that you're the kind of customer they want to keep happy. And hey, if you write to Time Warner's CEO and don't get a response after a few weeks or a month, you could always write to Warner Home Video after that. But as a paying customer I think it's your right to express your concern to the person in charge of the whole enterprise, and going from my experiences whether it's a problem with a DVD or a bit of electronics or really anything else, writing to the CEO of the company has worked for me each and every time. I'm never unreasonable, never demanding, never impolite; I just state my case, throw in something nice about how you like the work the company does and know they care about their customers, and each and every time I've ever written a letter like that, I've had whatever my issue was resolved, usually incredibly quickly too. As I mentioned before, most corporations do have a sort of secret customer service department that's "executive service" if you will and is empowered to do way more than the normal customer service people are; but this kind of service isn't usually advertised, so you'd never know it -- the times I've dealt with companies and gotten the "secret" customer service, I was usually given a special phone number to call and (I swear I'm not making this up) a password that I had to type in after dialing before I could be connected to the person authorized to handle my case - so it's a well kept secret. (Now, is it right that in theory one has to reach so far up the food chain to get the desired result? That's debatable. But usually if you put in that little bit of time to do it, they respect that and bump you to the head of the line so to speak.) I apologize for rambling over and over about this - the only reason I do so is because I'm absolutely convinced that that's your best chance to get the result you want in the quickest time possible. (And as a side effect, when they do respond - you'll then have the contact information of someone who can really get things done if you ever have any problems in the future, and that can come in handy too.)


I used to keep discs without playing them, buying them when there was a good deal vs when I felt like watching them, until I discovered I had a few bad DVDs way past the date I could return them (and lacking the original receipts anyway). Since then, I will usually take a brand new disc the day or week of buying it, open it up, throw it into the player just to make sure it loads, and usually hit the "next" chapter button til I get to the end credits. It's a little bit of a pain, but in terms of protecting my investment it's proved to be worthwhile.

 

[alter filmnarr]

Good morning!


In bunch of 35 WARNER HD-DVD's, I found as well 10 faulty discs. I checked them on 3 different TOSHIBA machines (2 x XE-1, 1x E-1).


Coming from Austria, I opened up a thread in a German forum, and since two weeks the users there are checking their WARNER titles too - with the same shocking results... GREAT!!

 

[Mark B]

I only purchased five discs before the coffin closed on HD-DVD, and four of those discs no longer load/play.


SPARTACUS and THE STING from Universal

2001 and HARRY POTTER 5 from WB


The only disc still working is IMAX - BLUE PLANET

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Blue Planet is the only one of those that is single-layer, so your machine may be having trouble reading dual-layer discs (most HD-DVD titles are dual-layer). Have you tried them on more than one player? Mine have been checked on FOUR different ones, so I'm 99% sure my discs are faulty and not the players. (Just found one more tonight- Dead Silence, a combo disc from Universal made by Technicolor, dual-layer on both sides- at least that one's still readily available for under 5 bucks so I can order one and check it right away and return it if it won't play.)

 

[alter filmnarr]

To let You know my experiences (and those of fellow collectors):


There seem to be 2 possiblities until now:


1) The disc does not load anymore or freezes right after the beginning.

2) The discs break up, after the layer change (in the middle of the movie).


MOST faulty discs behave this way.


What puzzles me, is that now also two UNIVERSAL discs are mentioned. To this point I did not find any problems with other discs than WARNER's - now I have to check them all.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Combo discs seem to have the most problems, at least where the HD side is dual-layer, whether made by Warner or Technicolor. I haven't had any problems with a 1-sided Technicolor HD-DVD yet, though I expected those to have the most problems as their standard DVDs had a pretty high defect rate. In fact, Universal got a lot of bad press here for so many of their DVDs being defective a while ago.

 

[moovtune]

I started watching my import HD-DVD version of "The Island" a few days ago, a Warner release overseas, and it froze up in at least two places and wouldn't play past, only start over (message said disc is unplayable). I stopped watching, figuring I'll just get the new Blu-Ray when released. Two years ago when I last watched it, it was perfect. Now, from that and this topic, I guess I have to start checking my 328 HD-DVD's for problems. Makes me very hesitant to continue adding to my 931 title Blu-Ray collection.

 

[Jeff Robertson]

I think I will take a closer look at my Warner HD-DVDs this weekend, also. Fortunately, I only have about 15 or so. I have a handful of Paramount and Universal titles too, but I will check the Warners first.

 

[moovtune]

Looking over your list, I picked the two titles you had trouble with 3 copies of and checked them out this weekend. I watched "Willy Wonka" all the way through and watched the first hour of "Blood Diamond" and had flawless playback. I also recently watched all three Mission Impossible films from Paramount and they all were flawless. So I'm not sure why you've had so much trouble with certain titles. Today I'll look over "Fugitive" and "Harry Potter Chamber..." because it's been awhile since I played those. If I have no trouble, then I'm thinking the problem is not particularly widespread or perhaps it's not a disc issue but an HDMI issue in your setup.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

I haven't done the red to blu WB echange yet. Maybe its time for me to take advantage of that. There are some titles that aren't covered (Wonks, Grand Prix, etc) but at least the bulk of them will be.

 

[moovtune]

I watched 1 hour 25 minutes of "Fugitive" with no problems and then 1 hour 13 minutes of "Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets". I was about to stop when I got a freeze and the dreaded 408bc504 error code. I wiped the disc off and tried that spot again with the same error. Last time it was played it was fine (although on a different player, the XA-1). This time it was the Onkyo 805. I'm going to try the soap and water cleaning process suggested in some old threads about this problem and try that title again. If it works I'll post again. Otherwise I guess I'll slowly start replacing titles - but with 328 of them, it'll take awhile. (And not all are available on BLU yet.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

Very bad news. I have a bunch of HD DVDs also and haven't tried most in years. I did notice my Planet Earth set looked cloudy but I haven't played it yet to know if it has gone bad. What a mess if these discs go bad, I will be very disappointed to say the least.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

I am playing my Planet Earth Disc 1, Warner BBC edition and the surface looks cloudy, the disc has been playing problem free using an LG BH200. I also have an HD-A1 connected in the same system so I will try it and that will be interesting to see if it has problems with this disc which at least looks defective. I do recall playing the first 5 Harry Potter films last year, I have the HD DVD box set and everything worked and looked great. I have the the 6th and 7th films on Blu-ray.


To those that are having problems are there any visual hints by looking at the discs? I have saved most of my receipts, since must were purchased online and some were purchased used and some were purchased directly from Warner.