Possible problems with the new STAR WARS DVD's.

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by cleandan, Sep 23, 2004.

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  1. cleandan

    cleandan Senior Member Thread Starter

    I picked up my widescreen DVD set yesterday. So, of course, I had to watch one of them, right? The STAR WARS, (real title is A NEW HOPE) but it will always be STAR WARS to me, DVD has a flaw in it while playing. When the DVD gets to the scene where the Princess, and Grand Moff Tarkin are talking about where to locate the rebel base, the DVD just stops, then shuts down and goes back to the beginning of the movie. I tried to FF past this just to see what happens and it will FF, then plays for about two seconds, and stops again. After the FF the screen has the blocky broken digital image, where the stopping during normal play has a perfect screen like a pause. The DVD looks physically perfect with no scratches, cracks, delaminations, or anything else. I hope this is just a fluke with this one DVD. I will take it back today and get a different set and see what happens. Take time to view your DVD's before the return limit runs out.
     
  2. LtPepper

    LtPepper Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Many, many people on other forums have reported the same problem in the same place. The good news is that they reported that after exchanging their copy, the new one was O.K. It seems to be a batch of bad disks. As Dan said, check your copy!
     
  3. fjhuerta

    fjhuerta New Member

    Location:
    México City
    DRATS! I got mine from Amazon! If mine is from that bad batch, I'm stuck with it!!! :(
     
  4. dcooper

    dcooper New Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    This is f**king ridiculous!!! Digital Bits reported a sound drop-out during that exact scene (although not the glitch Dan reported) and Lucasfilms arrogantly blew it off in a statement and said there were no problems with the discs.
     
  5. -=Rudy=-

    -=Rudy=- ♪♫♪♫♫♪♪♫♪♪ Staff

    Location:
    US
    Not sure about Mexico, but Amazon in the US offers customers the ability to print out a prepaid postage label to put on a return package, and they will send out a new product to replace it. The one return I had (a DVD that got trashed) was replaced very quickly by Amazon, and it didn't cost me a penny.

    Check the "ordering" section of your account profile to see what they offer. By all means, if it's bad, you are entitled to a replacement!
     
  6. Jeff H.

    Jeff H. Senior Member

    Location:
    Northern, OR
    Watched my Star Wars disc the other night and I didn't have any problems. Played flawlessly.
     
  7. Johnny C.

    Johnny C. Ringo's Biggest Fan

    Location:
    Brooklyn, USA
    The force must be with you... :p
     
  8. therockman

    therockman Senior Member In Memoriam


    Amazon has a great return policy. I had a couple of DVDs that did not play on my equipment and they exchanged them with no problem.
     
  9. Todd Fredericks

    Todd Fredericks Senior Member

    Location:
    A New Yorker

    The force was with me too, no problems (just a slight pause on the layer change)....
     
  10. Jeff H.

    Jeff H. Senior Member

    Location:
    Northern, OR

    tee, hee... :D
     
  11. btomarra

    btomarra Classic Rock Audiophile

    Location:
    Little Rock, AR
    I first mentioned this problem on the other Star Wars thread.

    I bought mine from Circuit City. It has been my experience that the large discount chains get B-quality product. I have bought CD box sets with scratches. I return them three times and the quality of merchandise is equally defective. I then buy it at Barnes and Noble and....problem free! I returned a few Star Wars DVDs and all showed the defect.

    I tried that with Star Wars. I went to Barnes and Noble. I paid $10 over Circuit City's price. I played the scene...viola! No dropouts! There, you pay more, but the quality is better!

    Brian
     
  12. cliff barua

    cliff barua New Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    I'm not overly familiar with the movie (scene-wise). Can anybody provide a time / chapter reference for this problem, so that I can quickly check mine (in case it needs to go back).

    Thanks.

    Cliff
     
  13. Tyler

    Tyler Senior Member

    Location:
    Hawaii
    I had no problems with my widescreen copy of "A New Hope". I've watched about half of "Empire" and haven't run across any problems.
     
  14. MikeT

    MikeT Prior Forum Cretin and Current Impatient Creep

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    Not sure if this is entirely true. Yes, some times the large chains get "special" runs of product with special inserts, etc. It could even be possible that they get discs that might be manufactured at different sites than the stock destined for smaller stores, but I have never experienced any special defects (scratches, etc.) that I would consider their stock to be "B-quality".

    For the record I purchased my Star Wars DVD set at Best Buy, and when the problem with the first movie was uncovered, I watched a few minutes before and after the specific "problem" area. My copy of the disc played fine through that point. I assume then when I play the disc straight through I should have no problem.

    I think we have to understand that the Star Wars DVD set was one of the most anticipated DVD releases in quite some time. I am sure the projected sales numbers were quite large, so that the number of sets made might boggle the mind (maybe not). When so many discs are being mass produced, at probably different factories to meet demands, there becomes more chances of "defects" hitting at street level. The fact that some sets play fine, while others are defective, leads me to believe that, as has been mentioned, a certain batch of discs may have been rendered defective during duplication (and it has nothing to do with the master copies produced by LucasFilms used for mass production). It may just be coincidence that Barnes and Nobles always seems to get "good" product over Best Buy or Circuit City - but you have to remember that the number of units they stock (company-wide) is probably a drop in the bucket when compared to those other stores.
     
  15. GabeG

    GabeG New Member

    Location:
    NYC

    Well put. It's a little paranoid to think Barnes & Noble would have gotten a differently manufactured version than Best Buy (or Circuit City) because of pricing issues. Most likely luck. I also imagine it has something to do with individual dvd player compatitibility.

    For what it's worth my discs were made in canada and are problem free. I usually don't pay attention to this, but I have a few other Fox discs that were also made in canada.
     
  16. AKA

    AKA Senior Member

    No problems here, either. I'm sorry so many of you have had issues.

    This reminds me of when The Simsons Season One came out in late 2001, and there were a batch of sets with bad "disc three"s. I had to exchange mine three times before I got a good copy.
     
  17. btomarra

    btomarra Classic Rock Audiophile

    Location:
    Little Rock, AR
    Well, one forum member tried it on several systems and all of them picked-up the defect. I don't know if its a DVD player problem when the same player picks up the defect in the same spot (58:24) on different discs.

    And I apologise if it seemed I was implying that B&N is getting differently made DVDs than Best Buy. I don't think I'm paranoid. I was basing it on how many returns I have had to make at Best Buy to get a good copy of a CD or DVD that is defective (usually it takes 3 to 5 trips, and each copy has a similar problem, so I ask for in-store credit), as opposed to B&N, where I have had to return one item once. I used the term "B-quality" merely to describe a defective or scratched disc (CD or DVD) that's sealed. Since they get more CDs and DVDs than the samller B&N. then yes there are more chances of those kind of items popping up. Maybe my local BB store is getting a bad run in their shipments. And no! It doesn't happen all the time. Not most of the time. But the few times it does happen, I can never seem to get a replacement copy free of the defects.

    Understand, it gets pretty frustrating how many times I have had to waste gas and time running to the store and standing in line to return a CD or DVD only to have the next one have the same problem. Maybe I can keep it going to finally hit the one that is fine (based on their large stock). But how many tries is too many?


    Certainly didn't mean to impugn BB or imply anything negative about their business. Just expressing my personal continuing experience of the condition of the unopen product of one store versus the other.

    Please accept my apology, folks!

    Brian

    :)
     
  18. JohnG

    JohnG PROG now in Dolby ATMOS!

    Location:
    Long Island NY
    I use a Panny RP91 and "A New Hope" played flawlessly. No glitches and the layer change is in a good spot (as far as they go).

    Most of the complaints seem to be Lucas continueing to futz around with this movie. Now he's changed the score!
     
  19. Mal

    Mal Phorum Physicist

    A large store like Best Buy will have large quantities of a popular item coming in as one order and therefore if there is a bad batch of discs made at the pressing plant they are likely to get a whole load of bad discs. B&N will not get so many items in each of their orders and so by the time you go back to return a disc the replacement may well come from their next order which consisits of discs from a completely different, problem free batch.

    :)
     
  20. MikeT

    MikeT Prior Forum Cretin and Current Impatient Creep

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    I can understand you frustration - I would feel the same way if what you describe kept happening to me.

    No need to apologize for BB - I don't work there and have had my share of "customer service" issues with them. I choose to buy there because they are close to where I work and generally have the best prices. You can say whatever you want about BB as far as I am concerned. :laugh: :laugh:


    Maybe I am just lucky.. since I have thousands of CDs, SACDs, DVD-A and DVD-V discs, and I generally find very few real "defects".
     
  21. btomarra

    btomarra Classic Rock Audiophile

    Location:
    Little Rock, AR
    Thanks Mike and Malc,

    I think Malc's explanation seems to fit what I run into. BB just got a big batch of ones with the defect. Thanks for your understanding.

    Brian
     
  22. cleandan

    cleandan Senior Member Thread Starter

    Dagnabbit!!!!! The second set of DVD's has the flaw too. Took the first bad set back to Target. The exchange was simple, easy and I explained to the manager that they might get many more returns because of this. Tried to watch the second set last night. Same problem, but slightly earlier in the film by about 40 seconds. Back again tonight for the third set. How many sets should I try before I demand my money back? I think three is enough.
     
  23. FredCamp

    FredCamp Senior Member

    Location:
    Virginia
    I had this problem with the first disc of the first set I bought from Best Buy. When I took it back, the guy at the front said that they'd had several returns for the same problem. He also mentioned a similar problem on the third disc, somewhere around the first shot of the Ewok village.

    I am through the first two films in the new set, and so far so good. Anyone experienced the problem on disc 3?
     
  24. RDK

    RDK Active Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Could these problems be player dependent?
     
  25. cleandan

    cleandan Senior Member Thread Starter

    I thought of that RDK. I do not understand how the exact problem, in the exact place on the disc, could occur on a different machine and still be machine dependent. What could make this problem machine dependent? If other DVD's (non-STAR WARS) work, why should this particular DVD be different? If the DVD was not going to work in my machine, then shouldn't it not work at all, instead of working a little bit? I am using a Pioneer Elite DV-47a. This may not be the utmost in disc perfection, but I think it is a capable machine. Please help me out with your therories, I am willing to listen at this point.
     
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