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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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#2 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by 8traxrule /forum/post/20391462


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

I dunno that "chapter-skipping" is gonna find all (or even many) defects??


The only way to check them reliably is to either watch from start-to-finish or (better) use an HD-DVD drive in your computer and attempt to Read them or rip them to hard disk. This will reveal any bad sectors.
 
#3 ·

Quote:
I dunno that "chapter-skipping" is gonna find all (or even many) defects??

Maybe, but it's found several so far! Some of these are discs that otherwise wouldn't have been played for the first time maybe decades later. I've 'scanned' regular DVDs in my computer before that appeared fine but had problems on the regular player.


Just played "The Fugitive" from the beginning while doing other stuff, and it still froze. Running the others right now.
 
#4 ·
I've never chapter skipped through a title but this defect rate you're finding is crazy. Are you sure it's not the drive you are playing the discs on? I have many Warner discs and have never had any problems with any of them. I've only had problems with Universal discs and those were due to residue on the discs.
 
#5 ·
Most of these I've tried on THREE different players and they all choked at the same place, so I don't think all 3 drives are faulty. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself, but this is just nuts. Checked a few more today and all were OK except "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", which wouldn't load at all. Player tried for about a minute then displayed onscreen "Disc is not DVD format". My friend has a defective copy of "The Cowboys" that does the same thing (my copy of that is fine.)


I've contacted Warner, hopefully someone will get back to me. I don't know if they just want to forget HD-DVD even existed at this point, but maybe someone there might check them out and see that they're bad if I send them in.
 
#6 ·
I own quite a few Warner HD DVDs, The Aviator, The Departed, March of the Penquins,300, Training Day,Bonnie and Clyde, Planet Earth to name just a few. I've never had trouble playing any of them on my Samsung combo player, A2 or A3. Even "I Am Legend" a combo disc that gave some people problems played flawlessly.
 
#8 ·
8traxrule and grossi: Can you explain exactly how you go about getting these errors? Do you change chapters rapidly, do you advance a chapter and wait for the picture to be displayed, and then advance to the next chapter? Do these occur while playing through the movie from start to finish? How do I replicate this error? When did you buy these discs, who did you buy them from, under which conditions have they been stored? What firmware are you using?
 
#9 ·
I had trouble with The Matrix just as the OP stated, but on a different player it worked fine.
 
#10 ·
I'm new to this forum, live here in Austria, and I am a movie collector since 30 years.

I own about 120 HD-DVD's, and although it is very sad, it is kind of funny, that I encountered the same problem with my discs a few days ago, and I am "investigating" that case since one week now

I also confirm. that (until now) I have only trouble with WARNER discs. I own 3 TOSHIBA players (2 XE1 - it's the EU Version of the big one, and one E1) I also have also a buddy, who checks the discs on his machine.

At the moment from 35 tested Discs 10 (!) are faulty.

Following discs:


"Blade Runner" FC from the US 5 Disc Set stops after layer change

"Getaway" same

"Last Samurai" same

"Superman Returns" same

"Wild Bunch" US same

"Letters From Iwo Jima" same

"Unforgiven" same

"Blood Diamond" cannot be read by E1, with XE1 it goes to "00.00" and stays there

"Viva Las Vegas" freezes after one minute


All these discs look perfectly clean, with the exception of


"Charlie And The Chocolate Factory",


which looks brownish and works only on the XE1


That's really a pity - and I have to say, that I'm kind of fed up.

The discs were stored under best conditions and mostly still sealed.


Until NOW no problem with PARAMOUNT and UNIVERSAL...


Let's hope, that BD's do not show the same problem after a while!


All the best!
 
#11 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by alterfilmnarr /forum/post/20398997


I'm new to this forum, live here in Austria, and I am a movie collector since 30 years.

I own about 120 HD-DVD's, and although it is very sad, it is kind of funny, that I encountered the same problem with my discs a few days ago, and I am "investigating" that case since one week now

I also confirm. that (until now) I have only trouble with WARNER discs. I own 3 TOSHIBA players (2 XE1 - it's the EU Version of the big one, and one E1) I also have also a buddy, who checks the discs on his machine.

At the moment from 35 tested Discs 10 (!) are faulty.

Following discs:


"Blade Runner" FC from the US 5 Disc Set stops after layer change

"Getaway" same

"Last Samurai" same

"Superman Returns" same

"Wild Bunch" US same

"Letters From Iwo Jima" same

"Unforgiven" same

"Blood Diamond" cannot be read by E1, with XE1 it goes to "00.00" and stays there

"Viva Las Vegas" freezes after one minute


All these discs look perfectly clean, with the exception of


"Charlie And The Chocolate Factory",


which looks brownish and works only on the XE1


That's really a pity - and I have to say, that I'm kind of fed up.

The discs were stored under best conditions and mostly still sealed.


Until NOW no problem with PARAMOUNT and UNIVERSAL...


Let's hope, that BD's do not show the same problem after a while!


All the best!

I checked my Warner HDDVDs and I've found a few defective discs.


Last Samurai - stops after layer change but my X360 HD Drive played It without layer changing problems.However I have it on Blu-ray so I hope I'm in safe.



Blood Diamond - cannot read my X360 Drive anymore,my GGCH20L played it but after a few seconds the movie freezed.It's totally defective...


I have a really bad feeling about this...
 
#12 ·
Me too...

In the best case it's only the the pressing plant of WARNER (bad enough!), and we have only
to rebuy their titles.

In the worst case it was the technology per se, an it's a matter of time for the rest of our discs.


And than we will see, what the BD future shows us.


I'm really tired always to rebuy old titles...
 
#13 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by argento77 /forum/post/20400554


I have a really bad feeling about this...
Quote:
Originally Posted by alterfilmnarr /forum/post/20400689


In the best case it's only the the pressing plant of WARNER (bad enough!), and we have only
to rebuy their titles.

In the worst case it was the technology per se, an it's a matter of time for the rest of our discs.

I don't think so. This scenario has played out several times before, where AV media started to go bad inexplicably. First, there was LaserRot, then CD rot, then DVD rot, and each case proved to be (relatively) isolated. To be clear, I am not questioning the bad luck of those who have experienced this, but it has never shown to be inherent to any format. If it were, then consumers who's entire collections are going bad overnight would be coming out of the woodwork. In this case, it is more likely that certain batches were bad, or the manufacturing at specific plants was sub-par (as was the case with LaserDisc). As for CD rot, it was almost entirely attributed to bone-headed storage by J6P who should not be allowed to handle AV media (but, as has been said, many of the defective HD DVDs were stored under pristine conditions by those who know what they are doing).


Personally, I have watched all of the Harry Potter films on HD DVD (years 1-5) within the last month (all played flawlessly), as well as Batman Begins (all of which were purchased on original release). Inherent to the format? Very doubtful. Poor storage? Nope (not by those here, anyway). Probably simply a manufacturing defect specific to certain batches/manufacturing plants.


Incidentally, my players are a Toshiba A1 and an Onkyo HD-805 (XA2).
 
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#14 ·
Hopefully You are right...

I also tried 2 "Batman Begins" and (together with my buddy) 2 Sets "Harry Potter" - 1-4 only, and they were OK.

Can be, that the problem arises in two years, can be, that THIS titles last forever.

When I remember well, "Getaway", "Unforgiven", "Superman Returns", Letters From Iwo Jima", "Blood Diamond", "Wild Bunch" entered the market pretty during the same time. So it could be a manufacturing problem at that moment.

On the other hand, these are titles, which are also the oldest ones.


But yes, let's hope, that this is an isolated problem. 10 Discs will kill nobody of us "hardcore collectors", but let's see if UNIVERSAL and PARAMOUNT have also problems. I will check that, and keep You informed...


By the way: sor
ry for my bad English!
 
#15 ·
alterfilmnarr / argento - You both experience these errors/freezes during play, correct?


The OP (8traxrule) - Same? You have mentioned chapter skipping to bring out the errors.



To possibly judge age of the discs, if I recall, Warner originally packaged their discs with cases that had the rounded spine and had tabs on the bottoms so the cases could stand up. My early discs are like this, and I think most of them came with an advertisement slip for titles to come out in 2006 (like Shawshank and The Matrix). I don't remember the name of the case...something with an "S", perhaps Seastone. Then they moved to the Elite cases, which had silver painted HD DVD on top for most of the time, and at the end no paint but the logo molded into the case (all of my 2008 releases came like this).


Perhaps post matrix numbers. Perhaps there is a pattern.
 
#16 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian81 /forum/post/20403746


alterfilmnarr / argento - You both experience these errors/freezes during play, correct?


The OP (8traxrule) - Same? You have mentioned chapter skipping to bring out the errors.


To possibly judge age of the discs, if I recall, Warner originally packaged their discs with cases that had the rounded spine and had tabs on the bottoms so the cases could stand up. My early discs are like this, and I think most of them came with an advertisement slip for titles to come out in 2006 (like Shawshank and The Matrix). I don't remember the name of the case...something with an "S", perhaps Seastone. Then they moved to the Elite cases, which had silver painted HD DVD on top for most of the time, and at the end no paint but the logo molded into the case (all of my 2008 releases came like this).


Perhaps post matrix numbers. Perhaps there is a pattern.

Yeah, I saw these errors during play.But my X360 Drive cannot played Blood Diamond anymore.I bought this movie from UK in Amaray case so I think It was'nt the source of my problem.The surface of disc looked healthy so I don't understand what's happening because I've played It for a few times without freezing problems before.



Maybe this is the new age of laser rotting...but I hope It's not.
 
#17 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian81 /forum/post/20403746


alterfilmnarr / argento - You both experience these errors/freezes during play, correct?


The OP (8traxrule) - Same? You have mentioned chapter skipping to bring out the errors.



To possibly judge age of the discs, if I recall, Warner originally packaged their discs with cases that had the rounded spine and had tabs on the bottoms so the cases could stand up. My early discs are like this, and I think most of them came with an advertisement slip for titles to come out in 2006 (like Shawshank and The Matrix). I don't remember the name of the case...something with an "S", perhaps Seastone. Then they moved to the Elite cases, which had silver painted HD DVD on top for most of the time, and at the end no paint but the logo molded into the case (all of my 2008 releases came like this).


Perhaps post matrix numbers. Perhaps there is a pattern.

In my case: I have Discs from US as well from Germany and problems with both of them. I opened a thread in a German forum 3 days ago, and also there it seems, that a lot of users are finding their discs unplayable! I'm an HT dealer for myself and asked also another dealer here in Vienna, who knows also about the problem.


I think, WARNER has a real problem!


In the meantime I have 3 discs of some titles here, where one breaks in the middle, and the other two still work. But this can be a matter of a few more months...
 
#18 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by alterfilmnarr /forum/post/20404631


In my case: I have Discs from US as well from Germany and problems with both of them. I opened a thread in a German forum 3 days ago, and also there it seems, that a lot of users are finding their discs unplayable! I'm an HT dealer for myself and asked also another dealer here in Vienna, who knows also about the problem.


I think, WARNER has a real problem!


In the meantime I have 3 discs of some titles here, where one breaks in the middle, and the other two still work. But this can be a matter of a few more months...

What about Blurays from Warner (they supported and made both format almost 2 years) ? Or this is an HD DVD making/factoring issue ?


I bought these discs a few years ago and they went unreadable...It's "funny" because I have more than 700 DVD-s and every discs working like a charm.
 
#21 ·
The Harry Potter movies came out just a few months before Warner dropped HD-DVD, so it's not good that they were having problems that late in the game. I've checked a number of discs including Unforgiven, Last Samurai and The Getaway and those seem fine. I've been chapter-skipping, letting it play a few seconds of the next chapter then skipping to the next one, and the bad ones have always froze at some point trying to get to the next chapter. I then let those play from the beginning and it still froze up around the same point. There may be minor defects on others that won't freeze up the player by chapter skipping, but at least this way I can catch the really bad ones now rather than later.


ALL my discs were bought brand-new and sealed, and I couldn't see anything wrong with the playing surface of the discs either. Oddly I did get one of the "Sopranos" discs looking a bit funny, but I watched that all the way through right away and had no problems with it.
 
#23 ·
And the hits just keep on coming! First non-Warner AND combo title, The Good Shepherd- HD side won't load at all. Back on the Warner side, BOTH discs of Alexander Revisited glitch and freeze about 25 minutes into each one (the movie is split on 2 discs) and disc 1 of the Blade Runner set. Fortunately Amazon still has these rather cheap- will watch them as soon as they get here and hopefully be able to exchange them if there's any further problems. (They showed a record of my having ordered a couple of these previously, but says I'm outside the return window.)


Checked all my single-disc single-sided Warner discs now, just have a few multi-disc and combos to check. Will also be checking all the dual-layer Universal HD combos. (Most of the early combo discs were single-layer on the HD side.)
 
#24 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vader424242 /forum/post/20401033


Probably simply a manufacturing defect specific to certain batches/manufacturing plants.

That's been my theory too. I ran into three defective Mutiny On The Bountys and the 4th plays without a problem.


Wow, I'm surprised and sorry to hear about the number of disc errors some of you are reporting. My experience to date has shown limited failures as I reported on another thread here recently. I bought a large lot of discs recently that I'm slowly going through but so far so good. (fingers crossed!)
 
#26 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by alterfilmnarr /forum/post/20408825


If the discs are deteriorating...

I would say that's a big IF with the information at hand. My experience is that those that produce playing errors do so out of the gate. I've had discs that I have played many times over the last 3 or 4 years now without a hitch. The MOTB that plays without error I bought used.
 
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