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Warner DVD's not working thread - watch to make sure they still play (2 Viewers)

Robin9

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I make a point of re-watching all my discs. If I have no new disc on hand, I just browse my collection and pick whichever film I'm in the mood for.

I'm sorry to report that my DVD of Bathing Beauty from the first Esther Williams Box-set has developed a "freezing point" problem. Fortunately I have a second DVD from the TCM collection I bought when On An Island With You went bad.
 

Thomas T

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For about the last 7 years, on my master list of DVDs and blu rays in my collection, I have been adding the date of the last time I viewed the film. It's not going to stop a film from going bad but at least I know it was the last time it played okay. Example below:

Arrowhead
Arrowsmith 6/11/14
Arsenic And Old Lace
Arthur 5/8/14
Arthur 2: Love On The Rocks
Artist
Artists And Models 8/13/12
Artist's Story 1/12/14
As Good As It Gets
As I Lay Dying 11/7/13
As Young As You Feel
Ashes And Diamonds 8/2/13
Ask The Dust
Aspen 5/20/17
Asphalt Jungle
Assassin (1952) 9/28/15
Assassin (2015) 7/10/16
Assassination Bureau
Asassination In Rome
Assassination Of Jesse James 4/4/11
Asassination Of Richard Nixon
Assassino 4/15/17
Assault On A Queen 6/1/12
Assault On Precinct 13
Assignment K 3/6/17
Astonished Heart 11/16/14
Astronaut's Wife
Asylum (1972)
Asylum (2005)
At Bertram's Hotel (1987) 4/26/11
At Long Last Love 11/8/14
At Sword's Point
At The Circus
At War With The Army 10/17/15
Athena 1/4/12
Atlantic City 2/22/14
Atlantis The Lost Continent 11/23/10
Atomic Submarine
Atonement 9/26/11
Attack Of The Crab Monsters 1/24/11
Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman (1958)
Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman (1993)
Attila
August Osage County
 

Aunt Peg

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Checked a few more today.

Playback problems:

Brother Orchid
The Great Lie
Dance Girl Dance
Land of the Pharoahs (which I suspected as there were problems when I watched it back in January 2015 on one player - but it was fine in another, which is the machine I tested in today)

No problems:

The Night of the Iguana
Gentleman Jim
Libeled Lady
The Betsy
Caged (however, the later chapters were slow to skip so I better watch this one again soon)
 

Darby67

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Checked a few more today.

Playback problems:

Brother Orchid
The Great Lie
Dance Girl Dance
Land of the Pharoahs (which I suspected as there were problems when I watched it back in January 2015 on one player - but it was fine in another, which is the machine I tested in today)

No problems:

The Night of the Iguana
Gentleman Jim
Libeled Lady
The Betsy
Caged (however, the later chapters were slow to skip so I better watch this one again soon)

Yikes! Thanks for the continuing updates. The brand-new copy of Cult Camp Classics 4 containing The Land of the Pharaohs, The Colossus of Rhodes, and Prodigal that I bought on E-bay arrived today so I will starting checking those 3 discs tomorrow.
 

Aunt Peg

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More checking today:

Played fine:

The Letter
The Maltese Falcon (though I didn't bother checking the other disc with the earlier version)
Home on the Hill
The Sundowners

Would not play - both machine wouldn't take the disc even to the menu stage:

Julius Casear

Also watched Prince of the City last night and it played like a charm.
 

Blimpoy06

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Is there a theory on why this is happening on a wide spread scale all of a sudden? Or is this a common fault? I've had problems with some of the double sided Universal discs, but I've never encountered a playback issue with a movie on DVD. And I have thousands that I grab at random and play all of the time. Many of the ones mentioned here.
 

Aunt Peg

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It could be to do with the climate one lives in. It is possible that people living in humid climates are going to be more susceptible to this sort of thing happing if there was a manufacturing fault, which appears to be the case with some or all Warners titles 2006-2009.

For example I live in Sydney, Australia where the weather is fairly humid, particularly in summer. However, my house is a 19th century Victorian terrace that even in very hot weather doesn't heat up - it always remains relatively cool in summer.

By the way, I have been checking Fox titles from this period as well and have had zero problems with them. I have also never had any problems with flip side DVDs though I have read over the years about problems with them.

My Universal Gary Cooper set places fine.

Anyway, I am going to continue to test more Warner titles. On the list for testing are Pat Garret and Billy the Kid, Johnny Belinda, Now Voyager, The Public Enemy, Mr. Skeffington, All This and Heaven Too, Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood & Freaks.

I know that some of my old Warner snap cases from the very lake 1990's/early 2000s like Trick, Crash - Cronenberg, Living Out Loud, One Night Stand & Auntie Mame all play fine.

Also worth noting is that Warners titles prior to 2006 like Bad Day at Black Rock, Helter Skelter & Pennies From Heaven, all of which I've watched in the last two months played perfectly.

I'm also buy another Blu Ray player so it will be interesting to see if any of the faulty discs play in it. I'm also thinking of buying a really cheap Chinese player as I've often heard that these play anything. Will keep the thread updated and once I completed my checking I intend to send an email to Warners. My solution - re-issue all the films on Blu Ray!
 

TheSteig

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Bad Day at Black Rock is on blu ray which will solve all the problems and you should upgrade :) .
Hopefully some of the DVDs not playing well and freezing up wind up on Blu ray from WAC or WHV
 

Eastmancolor

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I've checked a bunch of my old DVD's over the weekend and didn't find any with playback problems. I checked every chapter, letting it play awhile. Also paid close attention to around the 1 hour mark. Even watched a few thru beginning to end.

I purchased these back when they first were released by Warner Home Video. They are pressed discs, not the later DVD-R's from Warner Archive.

No problems with these:
DINNER AT EIGHT
THE GREAT LIE
THE OLD MAID
ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES
HIGH SIERRA (snapper case)
BROTHER ORCHID
LAND OF THE PHARAOHS
BUSTER KEATON: SPITE MARRIAGE
FORBIDDEN HOLLYWOOD 1: RED HEADED WOMAN, BABY FACE (Extended version)


Back when I first received the BETTE DAVIS COLLECTION the disc for IN THIS OUR LIFE locked up around half way in. I bought the collection when it was relatively new, around half a year after it came out. I got a replacement set from Amazon and that disc was also bad, so that's a title I think may have had issues.
 

Aunt Peg

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Checked some more today and all were fine:

All This and Heaven Too
Stage Door
There Was a Crooked Man
Captain Blood
Stage Coach
China Seas
Johnny Belinda
Now, Voyager
Freaks (Australian edition)
Pat Garret and Bill the Kid (UK edition)
A Summer Place

Didn't bother checking Captain Courageous or The Public Enemy as the are both Australian discs and I haven't encountered any problems.

Though it was funny when I took Stage Door out of the case the disc looked terrible. All foggy. I checked it anyway, expecting it not to play, and it was fine.

I cleaned the disc and then checked it in another played and it still played fine.
 

Aunt Peg

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I find a chapter skip to skip gives a very good indication. If I notice the machine being a bit slow in skipping chapters at fast forward a bit as well. I do intend to watch all the discs that appear to be fine. However, time is a factor, so I'm going to devote Sunday nights for Warner viewing. Started with Prince of the City last Sunday. Coming up next will be A Summer Place which appears fine on the chapter skipping check.

Whenever I purchase any disc I also check to make sure that they play and skip a few chapters. However, some of the discs that I have checked that stop around the halfway mark like Personal Best, Crusing & Brother Orchid. I watched Personal Best & Crusing fairly soon after purchasing them when they were first released. Brother Orchid I last watched about 2 years ago and it was fine then. Land of the Pharaohs was fine was last watched in January 2015 but I did have some problems with the disc so played it in another machine and it was fine. Now it stops half way in all of my machines.

I watched Red Headed Woman when I first received it (it's my favourite Harlow) and it was fine. Now it breaks up minutes into the film - though Baby Face plays fine - watched it a couple of weeks ago when I discovered the problem with Red Headed Woman.

A few weeks ago when I started posting these problems I thought it was just related to Warner box sets, but when I attempted checked Shoot the Moon before watching it and couldn't can't much further than 1 hour into the film on 6 different players I decided to check other Warner discs.

One of the reasons I'm going to try and watch one Warners titles from 2006-2009 period once a week is to make sure that I have at least watched them before any more of them happen to develop problems in the future. On the plus side I have already seen all the films but I always give priority to films I purchase that I have never seem.
 

Darby67

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Land of the Pharaohs freezes so my Cult Camp Classics Volume 4 set is being returned for a refund. I will be checking Volumes 2 and 3 today (Volume 1 hasn't arrived yet). I get the sinking feeling all four of these sets I purchased will be returned for refunds.
 

TheSteig

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I watch my Camp Classics every year especially The Giant Behemoth and thank God all those discs work fine. I wish I had more time to check out Warner DVDs but Im enjoying watching my blu rays that I get in the mail all the time :D
 

jcb07

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I checked the following with no issues:
EXECUTIVE SUITE
HIGH SIERRA
JULIUS CAESAR

I read somewhere that ACT OF VIOLENCE, THE BIG STEAL AND TENSION, all from CLASSIC COLLECTION FILM NOIR DOUBLE FEATURES, were not working.. I played all three using a PHILLIPS DVDR 357SH and fair enough they froze, skipped and/or didn't play. Same thing happened when I used an OPPO-BDP-83. Then I played all three using an OPPO-VDP-203 and they all worked perfectly well.
 

Mike Frezon

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I read somewhere that ACT OF VIOLENCE, THE BIG STEAL AND TENSION, all from CLASSIC COLLECTION FILM NOIR DOUBLE FEATURES, were not working.. I played all three using a PHILLIPS DVDR 357SH and fair enough they froze, skipped and/or didn't play. Same thing happened when I used an OPPO-BDP-83. Then I played all three using an OPPO-VDP-203 and they all worked perfectly well.

Huh. Go figure.

My BDP-203 had no positive effect on my ability to play my dead disc of Dinner at Eight.
 

Worth

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It probably doesn't belong in this thread, but I just noticed that my blu-ray of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy no longer plays in any machine.
 

Aunt Peg

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I tested three more Warners title and all appeared to be fine:

Executive Suite
Random Harvest
Kid Galahad (though it was slow skipping the last few chapters and fast forwarded through tine)
 

TheSteig

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In This Our Life started skipping and freezing past the 1 hour mark - now I need to check the other discs on the Bette Davis set! :(
Station West, The Naked Spur, Libeled Lady, Forbidden Hollywood Volume 9, White Cockatoo and The Whip Hand all played fine :) Id love some of these on Blu ray !
 
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