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Having VERY bad luck with Warner HD-DVDs!

129K views 770 replies 128 participants last post by  Laserfan 
#1 ·

I've been collecting HD-DVDs ever since they were being sold at fire-sale prices (I collect failed formats in general, having every CED videodisc title put out, lots of 8-tracks and some D-VHS movies too) and now have almost every title put out in the US (all bought still sealed and properly handled). I haven't had a lot of time to watch them, but after trying to watch all the Harry Potter movies in order it seems like Warner had a serious problem manufacturing these.


Long story short, one copy of the first movie was defective, freezing up in the middle (I replaced it with a good one), and went through THREE copies of the 2nd one- I have four different players which I tried these on to verify that the problem was with the disc- again, the discs were bought brand-new and were clean with no scratches. Being a bit concerned that such a large number of discs would do that, I started randomly pulling other dual-layer HD-DVDs manufactured by Warner and chapter-skipping all the way through them- so far I've found FOUR other defective discs (Superman, Training Day, The Fugitive and Swordfish.) I'm going to have to check at least 5 discs every day now until I've checked them all, while I still have a chance of finding replacement copies. (I've heard Warner has been replacing defective HD-DVDs with Blu-Rays so I'm going to try and get that out of them, but still want functioning HD-DVD copies as I'm an obsessive collector.) I'd be REALLY mad if I'd paid full price for these and just now got around to watching them!
 
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#378 ·
Jessica needed a favor
 
#379 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by ITALIAN926  /t/1332907/having-very-bad-luck-with-warner-hd-dvds/300_100#post_22989490


Hi all, will Warner do anything for people without receipts? My god, I rarely keep receipts, and quite a few of these I bought on ebay a few years back. Ive got a bunch of discs with problems , I have 104 HD-DVDs, and 34 of them are Warner. I cant test all these discs, should I just test Warner?

Warner did not require receipts from me. They just wanted to know where I bought the defective titles.

I would definitely focus on Warner titles - the Warner titles manufactured by cinram seem to be the problem ones.
 
#380 ·
What did it COST to replace the 5?
 
#381 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich86  /t/1332907/having-very-bad-luck-with-warner-hd-dvds/360#post_22993496


Warner did not require receipts from me. They just wanted to know where I bought the defective titles.

I would definitely focus on Warner titles - the Warner titles manufactured by cinram seem to be the problem ones.
Well, I quickly went thru all my Warner discs, and like 10 out of 35 were bad. Im waiting for delivery of a Toshiba HD-A20 and I will try them all on there. For ****s and giggles, I also ran through about 10 combo discs by Universal, and Knocked Up and American Warewolf in London are fried. Im so happy I came across this information, a little late buying an A20 and blu-ray player as a replacement, but its nice to know there probably isnt anything wrong with my up5000.


Is there a way to know which discs are "cinram" with certainty?, or are all warner discs cinram, thanx. Im asking because if its a mixed bag, I will go back and test the cinram discs more thoroughly. Do the other studios have cinram?
 
#382 ·
Look at the way the inner ring is printed. (I'm too lazy to take a picture right now, but might later if someone asks real nicely
) Eagle Vision also used Cinram for their HD-DVDs, and Magnolia used them for a number of theirs but not all. The worst non-Warner titles I've run into are Pat Metheney- The Way Up, One Last Thing, and Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room. Gone through several bad copies of these.
 
#384 ·
Just received my 5 replacements from Warner this Saturday afternoon. Took about 3 weeks, from the time I delivered my movies to FedEx to when I received my movies. Received a signed letter thanking for my patronage and that Warner is sorry for the trouble I had gone thru. I just wished they would have replaced all of my 30 bad movies, or at least half of them.


Good luck to all.
 
#385 ·
Started my backup checks on my hd-DVD collection - I was surprised that I only had 20 Warner's titles out of roughly 100 discs. So far I've checked 15 (via an xbox hd-drive and my mac mini) and three have failed - Blood Diamond, A Clockwork Orange, and the original Robin Hood.
 
#386 ·
I have been through all 93 Warner titiles I own. The list of bad titles for me is as follows:


Phantom of the Opera

Blazing Saddles

Goodfellas

Blood Diamond

Lethal Weapon

Wyatt Earp

Last Samurai

Blade Runner 5 Disc set (only the final cut disc won't play)

Forbidden Planet

V for Vendetta

Excalibur

The Adventures of Robin Hood

Gothika

Ocean's Eleven (12 and 13 play fine)

Space Cowboys


So, that is 15 out of 93 for a 16% fail rate. I have contacted them and they are having me send them in for replacement.
 
#387 ·
that's the way read it; so I can get rid of all my Warner titles that are available under this program and then SOME more...
 
#388 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by oleus  /t/1332907/having-very-bad-luck-with-warner-hd-dvds/360#post_23078814


Started my backup checks on my hd-DVD collection - I was surprised that I only had 20 Warner's titles out of roughly 100 discs. So far I've checked 15 (via an xbox hd-drive and my mac mini) and three have failed - Blood Diamond, A Clockwork Orange, and the original Robin Hood.

adding Perfect Storm - so far, 4 failures , 14 passes, 2 to go....really curious to see if i can get these replaced by Warners!


kind of scared to start going through my universal/paramount titles - this will take weeks lol
 
#389 ·
larrimore, I have several of the same ones failing, but some that failed on my samsung bd-up5000 did NOT fail on my Toshiba A20, in fact they played perfectly on the Toshiba. My failed discs on BOTH players are Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Blood Diamond, Superman The Movie, Batman Begins, and Polar Express.
 
#392 ·
Blu rays; my post above, is in response to a post, since DELETED where someone pointed out you don't have to send in the HD DVD, or DVD...but ANY commercially recorded DVD (Disc ONLY); so you can pick any 25 you want, with FREE shipping; worked out to $5.27 each...

http://www.dvd2blu.com/
 
#394 ·
any Blu ray from that list...
 
#396 ·
don't see it offered under this program; but, if you call them...
 
#398 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by oleus  /t/1332907/having-very-bad-luck-with-warner-hd-dvds/360#post_23081484


7 total Warner failures out of 23 -


The Oceans Trilogy (all three from boxed set failed)

The Perfect Storm

Blood Diamond

Adventures of Robin Hood

A Clockwork Orange



going to start apprehensively checking my universal combo discs next !!

sadly I have to add FORBIDDEN PLANET from the nice special edition box - ARGH.


I've gone through about 20 Universal combo discs and the only failure has been SLITHER.


On monday I'm going to call the Warner number listed earlier in the thread and see if i have any luck.
 
#400 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by vinnie97  /t/1332907/having-very-bad-luck-with-warner-hd-dvds/390#post_23086811


Slither, something you (still) couldn't get on Blu if you (domestically at least) wanted.

yeah, so far it's the one that i need to replace that is not cheaply replaceable. i don't assume warner will replace these. I also realized i haven't checked my Blade Runner set, i think i need to prepare to get bummed out
 
#402 ·
Surprisingly, SLITHER backed up on the second try. None of the Warner failed discs worked on a second try, though.


So, after more than 40 Universal disc checks, no failures from them. Seems isolated to Warner discs for me. I checked my Universal combo discs first.


One thing I"ve noticed are significantly larger average file sizes on Universal discs. A lot of those older Warner HD-DVDs seem awfully small for an HD transfer..
 
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