How about some %^&*$ quality control for new DVDs?

The BBQ Pit
1

OK, I bought the new Simpsons Season 3 DVD box set. When I got it home and slipped in the DVDs for some Simpson heady goodness, I discovered the second disc wouldn’t play. Well, these things happen, so I went back to the store, made an exchange and sat back to enjoy the “Flaming Moes” episode on Disc 2.

It. Would. Not. Play.

:mad: Gr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r!! :mad:

Hey, DVD manufacturers, PLEASE check your factory runs before you ship them out so that I don’t have to be frustrated and pissed off. I have been through this with so many DVDs before–Babylon 5: Season 2 arrived scratched, BtVS: Season 3 had a fucked up disc (the “Homecoming” episode), Jackie Brown stopped playing during the Del Amo Mall practice run scene. . . I could go on.

Oh, and while we’re talking. .

No more snapper cases! I hate those flimsy cardboard pieces of crap that do nothing to protect the DVD inside. Plus they’re difficult to close without wrecking the case.

Take a tip from Futurama and Family Guy and put box set DVDs in individual cases to protect them. The accordion packaging used by The Simpsons and the book packaging used by The Civil War and Babylon 5 put DVDs next to each other, enabling them to fall out of their holders and get scratched or collide during shipping and get cracked.

Oh and stop the double dipping. Yes, I know you want to revisit older titles released during the early days of DVD and give them a polish and some new extras, and that’s great. But why for fuck’s sake do you release crappy versions of hit movies now? I bought Chicago and love the movie, but it is only a 1-disc release with few extras and no trailers. I know as sure as I know the sun will rise tomorrow that a year or so down the road Miramax will announce a spiffy new DVD of Chicago with 2 discs crammed full of features that THEY SHOULD HAVE PUT ON THE DVD ALREADY!!!

And stop releasing full screen only versions of movies that were filmed in widescreen. Miracle Mile is a nifty little nuclear doomsday movie that deserved a decent DVD release. Instead, the studio released it in full frame only, which infuriates me because it encourages the morons who want movies to look like TV shows, even though full frame chops out up to a third of the original film screen.

2

Some DVD’s are released full frame only because movie fans who really loved the movie will rush out and buy the movie anyways, and then 6 months later the movie studio can milk the same demographic once again by releasing Movie: Special Edition that includes the widescreen version and a couple of extra worthless oddities.

3

At least Chicago was released in both widescreen and full screen.

4

We got a faulty copy of the second Lord of the Rings film the other day. I feel your pain.

5

So why did you buy <i>Chicago</i> now if you know they’ll probably be releasing it again in a year?

And why is it wrong for them to release several versions. Nothing makes you buy it more than once.

Pesonally, I wish they would release more bare-bones DVDs and knock a couple bucks off the price. I don’t care if there is a good commentary, etc. None of that will make me buy a movie. I just want the movie, in a good transfer, with great sound.

6

Oh, please, honey, as if a show tune queen like me would be able to resist buying Chicago the day it came out.

7

But you did show remarkable restraint by not watching it the first night after Boy Meets Boy and Queer Eye. Trust me, that was a better idea than my way.

8

I’ve had a few bad DVDs (specifically “space camp”). Is your DVD player ok? Last time I bought CSI and the second DVD didn’t work. I thought it was the DVD so I exchanged it and it still didn’t work. I put another DVD in: didn’t work! I’m sure glad futureshop as a 30 day repair warrenty service. I got a new DVD player (with extra features) 9 months after I bought the DVD player.

9

My dvd player works well. It played other DVDs just fine, which is why I think that the error is a manufacturing defect.

10

That’s weird. In my several years of buying DVDs – and buying many, many, many of them – I think I’ve only had to return one (Superman: The Movie, if anyone cares. Big scratches on it when I opened the case). I do remember having to return quite a number of video tapes that were screwed up.

Fullscreen transfers and snapper cases bite the big one.

11

I hear ya gobear, I was supremely pissed after we got our first DVD player a year or so ago, with Lord Of the Rings. And 25 minutes into it, the fucking sound was off sync with the video.

I almost snapped.

12

I had to return a copy of The Big Lebowski and I have a copy of Tron that I should have returned, but I didn’t get around to watching it until it was too late to return it. Other than that, I very rarely have problems with my DVDs.

13

I got what I thought was a faulty copy of Fight Club a while ago. After getting a replacement, and noticing the same problem, I tested it on a friend’s player. The problem was in my player, not the DVD, and I had watched dozens of movies on it and never noticed any problem. Make sure you check the “bad” movie on another player to be sure.

14

Yeah, but Chicago was terrible. The queen must show taste.

15

Another bad DVD player here. The initial rush of “mainstream” DVD players are 3-4 years old now, and are starting to show their age. I had to take my DVD player in for repair, and the repair show was flooded with DVD players in need of optical re-alignment.

My player had a total optical and motor replacement, and less than two months later I’m getting pixelation and skipping again on new movies. :frowning:

16

The second exchange was the charm; this time the flawed Simpsons episodes played perfectly.

Good point. I’ve had my player for three years, and as soon as we have the spare cash to get a decent replacement (yes, I could get a $50 Chinese import, but those things are crap), this one is going to the back bedroom TV, and thus we’ll have a better DVD player to go with my surround sound and 36" screen.

I fail to understand how anyone could dis Chicago. I loved the stage production (I’ve seen it twice), and I love the movie. Catherine Zeta Jones scorches the screen as Velma, Queen Latifah channels Bessie Smith as Mama Morton, Renee Zellweger is a sensational Roxie, and Richard Gere surprised me with his musical theater ability (although I would have preferred to see Hugh Jackman as Billy Flynn.) It has imaginative staging and choreography (not Fosse’s but still excellent). What’s not to love?

17

Well at least it ain’t a crappy batch.

Flaming Moe’s is one of the best.

18

How would you know the movie has imaginative choreography? They rarely showed a whole person dancing and they couldn’t get more than 0.79 seconds without a cut.

With that kind of editing, I could look like Fred Astaire on film.

I actually didn’t hate Chicago when I saw it. Just thought it mediocre. But then seeing all the heaping praise it got fanned the faint embers in my heart.

19

But all that is off topic. Yes, they should do better quality control on discs.

But sometimes it isn’t the disc but a strangely sensitive player. For some reason, disc 3 of season 4 of MASH will not play on my primary player. It just won’t load, but it works without issue on all four of my other DVD players (bedroom TV, the PC, the Mac, and my laptop).

I’ve had this happen several times where a disc won’t play on one of the five machines but works fine on the others tried.

20

“How would you know the movie has imaginative choreography? …”

Hear hear!!! “Choreography” nowadays consists of millisecond cut-to-face, cut-to-feet, cut-to-swirling-skirt, cut-to-random-non-sequitor-scenery, cut-to-face…

At no time did I notice Renee or CZJ doing anything that approached dancing or choreography. But wow, they mugged for the quick camera cuts in grand fashion!