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Having VERY bad luck with Warner HD-DVDs! - Page 9

post #241 of 419
12/10/11 at 9:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sheryll View Post

"the only way to tell if you have a 100% readable disc is to read it 100%"

Not true, I was able to play a copy to 'The Goodfellas' and having seen it before I got the impression that something in the movie had been cut.

The length to the movie was 140 Mins and should have been 146 Mins if memory serves. In other words a sector had been skipped.

I'm not sure what you're saying here. But the only way to make certain all the sectors on a disk are 100% readable is to put that disc into a PC's HD-DVD reader and read all the sectors, either by copying it to your hard drive, or via use of a "Verify reads" utility like ImgBurn is capable of. But just importing to tsMuxeR doesn't read every sector (the truth of this is that it only takes a few seconds).

And playback on a HD-DVD set-top box is certainly not the best indicator--settop players will try to play a disc even if it has bad spots on it, and you might not even notice a "skip".
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post #242 of 419
12/10/11 at 11:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Laserfan View Post

I'm not sure what you're saying here. ..... try to play a disc even if it has bad spots on it, and you might not even notice a "skip".

I agree 100%

Stuart
P.S Now tell me why my HD DVD's are 'Rotting"
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post #243 of 419
12/11/11 at 4:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sheryll View Post

Now tell me why my HD DVD's are 'Rotting"

I don't know--that's what we're trying to figure out of course.

I only wanted to make the point that there's no easy-or-quick way to make sure one's discs will play w/o error. You need a PC w/HDDVD drive and almost an hour to scan each one.

At least when we suffered with Laser Rot, they'd exhibit video noise, which usually was bad from the get-go or would get progressively worse for each disc side, so it was easy to rack 'em up and take a look. These digital discs don't afford us this ease-of-checking.

Of course, for you & others who have some extreme cases of "rot", a visual inspection is all you need. Anything visual means "this one's REALLY bad!".
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post #244 of 419
12/19/11 at 10:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich86 View Post

My "bag of Warner HD-DVD defects" now includes:
1 title will not load at all: Phantom of the Opera,
1 title has video artifacts almost immediately upon starting the movie and then locks up: Matrix (the 2nd & 3rd Matrix movies in the set are ok).
6 titles have video artifacts and lockup approx. 1/2 way thru: Wyatt Earp, Space Cowboy, Purple Rain, Goodfellas, Forbidden Planet & Cream: Royal Albert Hall
1 title has a minor video artifact: Training Day
That concludes my playing of unopened Warner HD-DVD titles. Not a very proud statement about Warner's QC on their HD-DVD products. The good news is, however, they have been very supportive in exchanging defective products. All these titles have been sent to Warner for replacement via their prepaid return authorization. We'll see how it works out.
Titles in my collection from other studios do not seem to suffer from these problems.

A box arrived from Warner today with replacement BDs for all of the defective HD-DVDs I sent them except 1. They said the "Cream @ Royal Albert Hall" has to be replaced directly with Rhino. They even sent a replacement "Harry Potter - Order of the Phoenix" BD just because I said my HD-DVD sometimes acts up, but plays ok if I back it up and try playing again (even though I did not send them that title for replacement).
All in all, I think I got excellent customer support and service from Warner. I hope to track down how to get in touch with Rhino now.
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post #245 of 419
12/20/11 at 1:35pm
Thread Starter 
That's good to hear- I'm sending mine back hopefully next week provided I have time, then will post a "master list" of the titles I had trouble with. Rhino's site is Rhino.com and looks like they're very accomodating on taking care of defects. I've got about 5 bad Cream discs, wonder if they'd give me something else for the extra 4?

FWIW, watched Polar Express again yesterday and it still plays with no trouble. Heard that was a problem title for some.
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post #246 of 419
12/21/11 at 12:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich86 View Post

A box arrived from Warner today with replacement BDs for all of the defective HD-DVDs I sent them except 1. They said the "Cream @ Royal Albert Hall" has to be replaced directly with Rhino. They even sent a replacement "Harry Potter - Order of the Phoenix" BD just because I said my HD-DVD sometimes acts up, but plays ok if I back it up and try playing again (even though I did not send them that title for replacement).
All in all, I think I got excellent customer support and service from Warner. I hope to track down how to get in touch with Rhino now.

What did you do to start this process? Email? Phone number? I think this is my next step is trying to get my discs replaced.
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post #247 of 419
12/21/11 at 1:11pm
I am unable to backup my copy of Forbidden Planet, so if they would replace that one I would be very grateful. Let us know the process...
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post #248 of 419
12/21/11 at 4:06pm
I contacted the Warner Burbank office asking for help:

Warner Home Video
4000 Warner Blvd
Burbank, CA 91522
(818) 954-6000 - this is NOT a toll free number.

I called them on the phone, explained my problem and asked for whatever help they could offer. They transferred me to the right place/person, who asked a few questions and agreed to help and sent me a prepaid UPS mailer. I packaged up and sent in my titles free of charge along with a cover letter indicating where these were purchased (they asked for either receipts or where purchased). They sent me blu-ray replacements.

Please note that these were brand new unopened titles that had been sitting on my shelf all this time until I played them recently and I even included the labeled shrink wrap material to support that these were newly opened titles. They were not used, scratched, dirty etc. I do not know if that made any difference, but the folks I dealt with were certainly helpful, cooperative, prompt & a joy to deal with.

Of course yesterday I opened up my "The Host" HD-DVD and it is unplayable, so I am chasing down Magnolia home video also. Grrrr!
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post #249 of 419
12/31/11 at 8:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by iontyre View Post

I am unable to backup my copy of Forbidden Planet, so if they would replace that one I would be very grateful. Let us know the process...

I know this doesn't really answer your question, but I had the same problem with my copy of "Forbidden Planet". It froze about halfway through the movie. I decided to just bite the bullet and buy new:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...&condition=new

The price was so low and I like this movie so much that I felt OK about spending the money.
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post #250 of 419
12/31/11 at 3:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by garyalex67 View Post

I know this doesn't really answer your question, but I had the same problem with my copy of "Forbidden Planet". It froze about halfway through the movie. I decided to just bite the bullet and buy new:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...&condition=new

The price was so low and I like this movie so much that I felt OK about spending the money.

Actually, I've seen it even a couple of bucks cheaper at BJ's, but it would be even nicer still to get a free replacement.
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post #251 of 419
1/2/12 at 4:33pm
Haven't read the entire thread, but out of curiosity, what players are you all using?

I've got the A1, A2, A30 and A35 - by all means, the A30/35 are rock solid, even on firmware version 4.0.

On the A1, I've had the best compatibility using Firmware 2.4. Haven't run into any "unplayable" discs *knock on wood!* outside of scratched Netflix discs all those years ago. Just watched Blade Runner TFC on my A35 a few nights ago with no hitches.
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post #252 of 419
1/2/12 at 6:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by luigionlsd View Post

Haven't read the entire thread, but out of curiosity, what players are you all using?

I've got the A1, A2, A30 and A35 - by all means, the A30/35 are rock solid, even on firmware version 4.0.

On the A1, I've had the best compatibility using Firmware 2.4. Haven't run into any "unplayable" discs *knock on wood!* outside of scratched Netflix discs all those years ago. Just watched Blade Runner TFC on my A35 a few nights ago with no hitches.

In my case - players include multiple A30s & A35s all on 4.0 firmware. These players have been excellent. In my case, the problematic discs have all been Warner labeled or manufactured/distributed. I have been watching a number of Universal titles these past couple of weeks, and they all have played perfectly.
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post #253 of 419
1/24/12 at 1:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich86 View Post

I contacted the Warner Burbank office asking for help:

Warner Home Video
4000 Warner Blvd
Burbank, CA 91522
(818) 954-6000 - this is NOT a toll free number.

I called them on the phone, explained my problem and asked for whatever help they could offer. They transferred me to the right place/person, who asked a few questions and agreed to help and sent me a prepaid UPS mailer. I packaged up and sent in my titles free of charge along with a cover letter indicating where these were purchased (they asked for either receipts or where purchased). They sent me blu-ray replacements.

Please note that these were brand new unopened titles that had been sitting on my shelf all this time until I played them recently and I even included the labeled shrink wrap material to support that these were newly opened titles. They were not used, scratched, dirty etc. I do not know if that made any difference, but the folks I dealt with were certainly helpful, cooperative, prompt & a joy to deal with.

Of course yesterday I opened up my "The Host" HD-DVD and it is unplayable, so I am chasing down Magnolia home video also. Grrrr!

Well, it took a while, but I just heard back from Magnolia this morning and they say they are sending me a "replacement product" for my defective "The Host" HD-DVD today. I'm assuming it will be the blu-ray of this title, but we'll see . . .

And today I heard back from Rhino concerning the "Cream - Royal Albert Hall" HD-DVD with a message saying they are sending out a replacement post haste to me. Once again, we'll see how this works out.
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post #254 of 419
1/26/12 at 6:16am
I'm going through my back log of HD DVDs after a long layoff.
It seems the only disc I have an issue is Willy Wonka.
Unfortunately, that is the most expensive one to replace on Blu-Ray.
I guess I'll lob a call to WB.

My options is to buy the extremely overpriced box set for $30-60 that includes the same video content as the HD DVD or ebay the OOP UCE version which cost the same.
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post #255 of 419
1/29/12 at 5:11pm
I just pulled out my Universal copy of "King Kong" last night and it exhibited the disc rot spoken of here. Luckily I had bought an xBOX 360 HD DVD drive which came with a copy of King Kong. It was still in the box and unopened. It worked great.

I emailed Universal to see what, if anything, they will do to help me. Seems like it is time to pull out that HD DVD drive and backup all of my HD DVD's to my PC while I can.

Picture
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/11...//KingKong.jpg
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post #256 of 419
1/29/12 at 5:40pm
Thread Starter 
Did that King Kong disc look like that when you first got it? I've got a couple discs that have that cloud-like stuff on the surface, but I watched them all the way through with no problems. (That's actually why I was so surprised at the number of bad Warner discs I ended up with, as they appeared to be perfect.)
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post #257 of 419
1/29/12 at 7:22pm
No it did not look like that. I checked my others and they all have the "wavy" look to the data side. I actually put it in my player without noticing the issue. The player (BH200) gave up and spit it out (ejected automatically) after about 2 minutes.
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post #258 of 419
1/29/12 at 9:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich86 View Post

Well, it took a while, but I just heard back from Magnolia this morning and they say they are sending me a "replacement product" for my defective "The Host" HD-DVD today. I'm assuming it will be the blu-ray of this title, but we'll see . . .

And today I heard back from Rhino concerning the "Cream - Royal Albert Hall" HD-DVD with a message saying they are sending out a replacement post haste to me. Once again, we'll see how this works out.

Replacement HD-DVDs have arrived from both Rhino (Cream - Royal Albert Hall) and Magnolia (The Host). I was surprised these folks still had a HD-DVD supply - and very grateful for their customer support.
I tested the areas where the originals failed, and they play through those spots just fine. Looking forward to running these titles all the way through (especially the Cream title with it's DTS-HD Master audio).
------
Update: I have now played the "Cream - Royal Albert Hall" title completely - and it plays perfectly. And what truly awesome PQ and AQ. My wife and I are big Eric Clapton fans, and hearing this Cream concert audio with DTS HD Master 5.1 was excellent.
------
Update: My replacement "The Host" HD-DVD from Magnolia also played everything just fine.
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post #259 of 419
1/30/12 at 12:07pm
I havent visited this site in a while...

I tried to play Christmas Vacation over the holidays and it would not play in either of my players. (35, A2) I guess I need to go through all of my titles and have a look. Many of mine are still unopened.
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post #260 of 419
1/30/12 at 1:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sivartk View Post

I just pulled out my Universal copy of "King Kong" last night and it exhibited the disc rot spoken of here. Luckily I had bought an xBOX 360 HD DVD drive which came with a copy of King Kong. It was still in the box and unopened. It worked great.

I emailed Universal to see what, if anything, they will do to help me. Seems like it is time to pull out that HD DVD drive and backup all of my HD DVD's to my PC while I can.

Picture
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/11...//KingKong.jpg

I got a quick reply where they are willing to replace with a DVD version. I'll politely explain how my lemon "Lexus" shouldn't be replaced with a new "Toyota"
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post #261 of 419
1/30/12 at 6:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sivartk View Post

I got a quick reply where they are willing to replace with a DVD version. I'll politely explain how my lemon "Lexus" shouldn't be replaced with a new "Toyota"

The first time I told Warner about a problem with a title (Lethal Weapon, as I recall), they offered a DVD replacement also. I told them I already had the DVD of that title & did not need another one, and had purchased the HD-DVD to upgrade that title to high definition. Then they agreed to send me a blu-ray replacement, since they no longer had any HD-DVDs. Hopefully that will work for you with Universal also.
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post #262 of 419
2/1/12 at 12:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich86 View Post

The first time I told Warner about a problem with a title (Lethal Weapon, as I recall), they offered a DVD replacement also. I told them I already had the DVD of that title & did not need another one, and had purchased the HD-DVD to upgrade that title to high definition. Then they agreed to send me a blu-ray replacement, since they no longer had any HD-DVDs. Hopefully that will work for you with Universal also.

I sent a nice reply explaining how the DVD version wasn't an acceptable substitute and they agreed to do a one time swap for the Blu-ray version as long as I send the "complete package" (vs. just the disc) back to them. No problem at all as I really don't have a use for the HD DVD case / sleeve when I get the blu-ray copy. I'm awaiting their return envelope now, so I'll see what happens.
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post #263 of 419
2/2/12 at 6:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sivartk View Post

I sent a nice reply explaining how the DVD version wasn't an acceptable substitute and they agreed to do a one time swap for the Blu-ray version as long as I send the "complete package" (vs. just the disc) back to them. No problem at all as I really don't have a use for the HD DVD case / sleeve when I get the blu-ray copy. I'm awaiting their return envelope now, so I'll see what happens.

Warner required me to send complete originals for replacements also. Of course I swapped out perfect red cases for marginal ones . . . (you know what I sent them is hitting the recycle bin, so what the H . .)
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post #264 of 419
2/17/12 at 4:04pm
Thread Starter 
Just got a box from Warner (they used the same box I sent the HD-DVDs in) with Blu-Ray copies of most of the discs I'd sent them. A couple movies I got 2 Blu-Rays of since I'd sent them 2 bad HD-DVDs, but they also threw in a Blu-Ray of Batman which was nice (I was planning on getting the box set later.) Only got 2 regular DVDs for the 2 bad Willy Wonka HD-DVDs I sent them, there was a note saying the box set was the only Blu-Ray of that movie currently available and they didn't "get approval" to send me that. Still better than nothing. They all appeared new except Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was in a thin-pak, which must have been taken from a box set. (It has a lot of different languages on it, different from the HD-DVD.)

I sort of wish I'd also sent them my bad Blade Runner, Nip/Tuck and Smallville (season 6) sets, but I sort of wanted to keep the good discs from those just in case any discs in the playable sets I have went bad later.

Good thing about all of this is I now have plenty of material to compare both HD formats. Of course it's a dead issue now, but should still be fun. (Since I'm obsessive I WILL end up watching all of these straight through in addition to the HD-DVDs! Might take about 80 years to do it, but I'll do it!) Noticed a lot of titles that have Dolby Digital Plus on the HD-DVD only have regular Dolby Digital on the Blu-Ray (Purple Rain says it has a Dolby Digital Plus track on the cover, but just checked it and it's just regular Dolby Digital and also a TrueHD track- the HD-DVD has DD+ and TrueHD), The Fugitive still has the same blocky transfer, and the Blu-Ray of Blood Diamond has a PCM track but doesn't have the "In-Movie Experience" or online features that the HD-DVD has. Also noticed these don't have the zoom or bookmark functions either, and no clicking sound effects on the menus though their more recent Blus have that.
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post #265 of 419
2/26/12 at 1:38pm
Thread Starter 
And since the hits just keep on coming, I've run into more troubles with Cinram-made discs, this time from Eagle Vision- I watched "Santana: Hymns For Peace" a 2nd time, the first time I watched it a few months ago it played fine but this time it froze up around 1 hour 25 minutes, so these are definitely rotting. Got a 2nd copy and it did the same thing. Seller of that disc has already sent me another one, so will see how that turns out.

"Pat Metheny- The Way Up" is also rotting. I also watched that a while ago with no problems, now it's glitching during the opening logos and main menu. Concert still seems fine but since it might get worse over time and I'm obsessive enough anyways for this to bug me, I got a 2nd copy of that too. That copy ended up freezing during the interview segment. I've now ordered another copy from Germany which should be exactly the same content, but probably made by a different manufacturer.

Will contact Eagle and see if they'll give me something for the bad discs. A lot of their stuff is harder to find so I hope this won't affect any more of their titles; all the ones I have from them were made by Cinram.
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post #266 of 419
3/26/12 at 4:37pm
9 out of 71 HD-DVDs backed up with makemkv so far with no issues... though if there was one place I could mail all 71 too and get bluray replacements I would. For 3 bucks each couldn't go wrong. They've been sitting around a few years now though. I'm debating using handbrake to compress them but in a few years we'll have 6TB drives and space will be no problem. Hard drives are still not down to last summer's prices though. I won't have room for all 71.
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post #267 of 419
3/27/12 at 7:29pm
Thread Starter 
Got a good copy of the Santana disc, have tried 3 more copies of Pat Metheny and they all glitch either during the intro or interview segment. Can't find any more sealed copies for a decent price so will have to keep looking out.
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post #268 of 419
3/30/12 at 8:10am
no problems so far backing up any of my HD-DVDs that have been sitting unopened for 3 years except for The Interpreter.
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post #269 of 419
4/17/12 at 4:12pm
I have checked all my Warner HD DVDs and those are the ones that cannot be played back anymore:
  • Space Cowboys (GER)
  • Poseidon (GER)
  • The Reaping - Die Boten der Akopalypse (GER)
  • Goodfellas (GER) (original shrink wrapped)
  • Die Insel (GER, The Island)
  • Rio Bravo (US)
  • Getaway (GER) (original shrink wrapped)
  • Forbidden Planet (US)
  • Firewall (GER) (original shrink wrapped)
  • Der Polar Express (GER)
  • Ein Duke kommt selten allein (unzensiert) (GER, Duke of Hazards)
  • Der Schwarze Falke (GER, The Searchers)
  • Ocean's 13 (GER)
  • Prestige (GER)
  • The Adventures of Robin Hood (US)
  • Matrix Reloaded (US)
  • Lethal Weapon 2 (US)
  • Bullit (GER)
  • The Cowboys (UK)
  • The Departed (US) (original shrink wrapped
  • Mutiny on the Bounty (US) (original shrink wrapped)
  • Enter the Dragon (UK) (original shrink wrapped)
  • The Fountain (US) (original shrink wrapped)
  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (US) (original shrink wrapped)
  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (US) (original shrink wrapped)
  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (US) (original shrink wrapped)
  • Ocean's Eleven (GER)
  • Ocean's Twelve (GER)
  • Operation Espadon (Password Swordfish) (FR)
  • Phantom of the Opera (US) (original shrink wrapped)
  • Viva Las Vegas (US)
  • Troy Director's Cut (US)
  • Superman Der Film (GER)

Most of them I bought from Amazon.de and I have been told that they cannot help me anymore.

Amazon US even told me I should have returned the movies in 30 Days (but they did not start to go bad back in 2008 when I bought them).

The ones I own from Warner look different, on all the ones that failed to play back I see strange patterns when I look at the discs, they seem to have some sort of optical rainbow or oil effect that is visible inside of the discs, not on the outer protective layer.

Most of the Warner discs that do play back fine have either less visible traces of that oily reflective stuff or they do look just like a CD or Blu-ray, no patterns can be seen on the surface. The Blade Runner HD DVDs have some cloudy patterns but that seems not to be an issue.

I have checked my HD DVDs with either the European HD DVD Player XE1 or an US LG BH200 player.
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post #270 of 419
4/17/12 at 10:11pm
I'm not sure the "format" is the problem here - more likely very shoddy manufacturing and non-existent quality control on the part of the manufacturer Warner contracted with.
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