Universal Studios Is The Pits (1 Viewer)

[Eric Peterson]

Well, as I already stated, I've tried these on multiple players, and they were expensive players. If Universal can't make discs that work, then I'm not going to support them. I believe this to be 100% the disc, because several people report problems with every Universal DVD-18 release, and eventually they are able to get a functioning disc.

As for your second point, 30 Days isn't near enough time for me to return these discs. I've owned discs for upwards of two years in the past before they make it into my player. This is especially prevalent in TV releases where it will almost certainly take me 2 years to watch an entire season. What am I supposed to do when the last disc has a problem? That then leads to another predicament, which is to say "How do I know if the replacements for the earlier discs are good?". Do I then have to rewatch the entire season again, to make sure? This is completely unacceptable to me. Personally, I can't imagine anybody watching an entire season of a TV show in such a short window. Even if I were able to exchange within 30 days, what kind of company releases product that the consumer has to replace?

I'm not entirely against DVD-18 (I don't like it though), but nearly every title that Universal has released on this format has had complaints, and this number is virtually zero from other companies. This also is true with my own experiences. This is a studio/format problem (PERIOD!)

For those of you that haven't had any problem, I'm extremely happy for you, but I'm getting very tired of replies accusing me and others who have had problems, of being superficial, or of being whiners, especially from people who keep repeating "I love the format, because it saves space!" Once again, I say that's great for you, but these discs don't consistently work for me and for many others.

 

[Randy Korstick]

I understand but please also understand that the majority of us that aren't having the problems are also getting tired of going into every new Universal TV show or movie collection thread and expecting to see discussions and reviews of the shows and films and instead find the threads full of complaints about Universal DVD18's, while many are having problems the majority of us aren't based on Universal's 2 + year continual expansion into DVD18's. These complaints belong in the studio feedback forum and not the individual release threads.

 

[TravisR]

Amen to that!

 

[Steve Tannehill]

I'll try to fix that when my review copy of House arrives. And yes, I'll be wearing a bullet-proof vest.

- Steve

 

[Eric Peterson]

You might want to take note of which thread you are posting in. I believe it's called "Universal Studios Is The Pits". What kind of posts did you expect in here?

That said, I understand that you're frustrated with hearing so many complaints when you don't have them, but we as consumers have the right to complain when a product isn't meeting our needs or expectations. Fortunately, many of you haven't had this problem, but a significant portion have. I challenge you to find a single thread about a Universal DVD-18 relase where several people haven't reported problems. By trying to minimize the problem, you are only hurting other consumers, and personally I find that offensive. You have the right to support a company for doing the right thing, but when when it's obvious that they're alienating many consumers, then it's not constructive. I'm not even asking for them to stop using DVD-18, I'm simply asking them to admit that there's a problem and fix it. As many of you have already stated, other studios are using this format with a high success rate. Why is it that Universal is so plagued with this problem? (Bad Luck? - I think not!)

 

[Randy Korstick]

Eric
I can certainly understand your frustration as I've had other problems with a few DVD's before that others also had problems with but again it is usually player related and I think you are greatly exagerrating this situation. I have seen these complaints in this forum since the 1st Monster Legacy collections 2 years ago and I see the same 10-12 people making the complaints in every thread so "many have had this problem " is a big stretch and this 10-12 does not translate across the country to a significant number which again explains why Universal continues to use DVD18's. They are not receiving that many returns compared to how many they are selling. If it were a significant amount they would change so they don't lose alot of money. Which once again leads to either a scratched disc or player related.
Why do you seem to be against trying a new player as it was pointed out you could return the player in 30 days if the DVD18's still don't play. So it wouldn't cost anything to try. I can't play DVDr's and I know I need a newer player if I want to play them but I don't go flooding the makers of DVDr's telling them to change their DVDr's because I can't play them. I also can't play many new computer games on my computer because it is too slow so I know I need a new computer. I don't go complain in games threads that the game makers need to change the game so it can play on my computer.



To Imply that in a discussion forum that someone doesn't have the right to take the other side and must join this crusade of bashing Universal is offensive to me.
Also releasing DVD's with quality transfer, uncut episodes, shelf saving packaging and usually good prices is doing the right thing in my book.

 

[Eric Peterson]

Randy,

You're missing the point. Other manufacturer's are using DVD-18 with virtually ZERO complaints. I have titles on this format from other suppliers that aren't a problem. Why is this? Why is it that this problem is virtually exclusive to Universal titles? Is that still a player issue?

I have tried multiple players,(Yamaha, Marantz, Toshiba), and that doesn't fix the problem, and none of these players are more than two years old and none of these players are low-end players. Even if that were the problem, it's still up to the software supplier to make sure that their software works on the hardware that they claim it works on. Would you buy a PS2 game, and after having problems accept a solution that it you have to buy the latest version of the PS2 to play it?

As for the small number of complaints argument, I tend to look at the HTF forum as a microcosm of the industry. When there is a thread about a particular title, there are generally 30-50 participants, and when there are 3-5 complaints, that's a 5-10% failure rate. That's not exactly insignificant in my book. As for the lack of returns, I think that there are a lot more customers that simply accept the problems, or maybe don't even know that they have them. Then there are also people like myself that simply don't want to play the game any longer.

Problems have been reported on all of the following Universal titles.

• Schindler's List
• Casino
• Universal Monster's Legacy Collection
• Abbott & Costello Legacy Collection
• Many other Legacy Collections
• Emergency TV series

Does anybody know of a faulty DVD-18 release by another company? I would love to try and compare it with one of the faulty Universal titles that I have. Then I can once and for all eliminate the "Get a new player" issue.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Eric
Lets just agree to disagree on this one.
But as to your request on other DVD18's I know Green Acres and Mr. Ed had some complaints. I know the last episode of Side one of Disk one on Mr. Ed had quite a few complaints.
These releases are by MGM. Also not DVD18's but Paramount Deep Space Nine Seasons 4 and 5 received quite a few complaints that I also had where one episode on a disc would not play. The problem was still the same freezing/pixalating at the layer change. A couple seasons of Next Generation were also reported with this problem. I accepted it as player related since the majority seemed to not have the problem even though there were quite a few who did.

 

[John Stell]

Eric -

Like yourself, I have problems on my players - a Sony, Panasonic, and JVC - with several, but not all, of the reported titles. I have found a quick way to find a problem disc without having to watch each and every show on the TV sets. On my Panasonic, I use the 100x fast forward so that each minute scans in one second. If there is a problem spot on the disc, the scan will stop at the problem area. I do this scanning process with each Universal DVD 18 now. So far, every disc that scanned OK has also played OK.

You're a better man than I am when it comes to saying, "No." Universal is releasing too many titles I want (Columbo, Night Stalker, horror franchises, etc.) to stop buying. I've just learned to prepare myself for the potential problem. I was thinking of picking up a $70 Toshiba that was mentioned as being able to play these discs but since you mentioned you have a Toshiba and still have these problems I'm now reluctant.

 

[Eric Peterson]

I have not mentioned any of these items in this thread. I generally don't think that Universal does a good job on these, but I would never let such trifling things keep me from buying a disc.

Functionality however is not a trifling thing.

 

[Gord Lacey]

The Warner Bros "Rental-ready" titles are DVD-9s. Unfortunately I can't find any examples of the disc counts since Warner appears to remove the rental titles after the next season is announced, and they've gotten away from doing DVD-18s for their hour-long shows.

Gord

 

[Randy Korstick]

This statement makes no sense at all. I have acknowledged and repeated that I understand your frustration and have had discs from other studios that did the same thing. Show me where I ever accussed you of making this up. I also acknwoledged your problem by offering a solution of trying another player since most are not having the problem that you are. Your solution is to Hold manufacturers to some impossible standard of testing every disc they put out with all the hundreds of different DVD Players out there in Homes, Portables, Computers, Car System both old and new and all different brands. Your comparison to Playstation 2 doesn't hold up because that software is designed to play only on a Playstation 2 so of course every title should work. DVD software is just like computer software too many differences and constant changes to hardware.

 

[Eric Peterson]

NO! I was OK with letting it drop, but you added another degrading comment after the fact. I'm not going to argue this anymore because it's like talking to a brick wall. You continually act as though, I'm the only person with a problem, and I'm not. For the umpteenth time, I've tried these discs on multiple players, all nice, and all fairly new, and these discs fail on them all. I'll be damned, if I'm going to buy another player because Universal can't meet the production requirements for DVD (A standard every bit as much as PS2).

We're having a very nice discussion about this in another thread in the movies section, but you continually fail to make the slightest concessions to my points, so I'm not going to even try to talk reasonably with you.

 

[John Stell]

Now this is interesting. This is a response from Amazon regarding the Season 3 Columbo set - the first Columbo set to use DVD 18s.



This seems to support the contention that it's not simply a player issuer.