Summer Hours (2008)

[Deep]

I own 60-70% of the entire Criterion catalog (including DVD) and never had a problem before. I got the Summer Hours BD during the July BN sale and never got around to watching it until last week. The disc was pristine (no scratches or fingerprints) but around chapter 9 the movie started pixelating badly to the point where that entire chapter was unwatchable. I did see some mention of this issue on this forum and elsewhere but saw no word of an official admission from Criterion of a problem. Being well outside the return window at BN I e-mailed mulvaney@criterion.com to see if I could send the disc in for a replacement but got no response (more than 10 days later). I am a little wary of just sending the disc in to them before hearing back from them.

Being the impatient kind I couldn't wait to finish watching the movie properly and so I ordered another copy of the title during the Best Buy sale (hoping for the best this time). Guess what ? It arrived yesterday and the disc has the same problem. How weird is that ? This has to be a fairly widespread issue with this title but there is no mention of it in reviews and no word of Criterion offering a replacement (like they have done for Carlos, White, etc which had less severe problems).

Hopefully I can return the Best Buy copy and get a replacement from Criterion for the first copy.

-D

[Eny-]

My disc doesn't have any problems.

Maybe your player has something against this movie?

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by Eny-

My disc doesn't have any problems.

Maybe your player has something against this movie?

Yeah, I would try playing it on another machine first.

[Scottie]

Several individuals in "The Criterion Collection" thread, including myself, have complained about an issue with the disc before.

My original copy, for example, would start to skip and freeze around the midway mark. Luckily, I was able to get a replacement copy and everything seemed to be fine.

[Sinthetic]

I watched mine the other night to be sure. Thankfully it played perfectly. Hope you get yourself a good copy.

[Deep]

Originally Posted by jscoggins

Yeah, I would try playing it on another machine first.

The problem definitely exists on my Panasonic BD player as well as PowerDVD on my PC (both have the latest firmware/updates). If not all the discs out there have this problem, then it is a coincidence that I got two bad discs from two different retailers.

-D

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Several individuals in "The Criterion Collection" thread, including myself, have complained about an issue with the disc before.

My original copy, for example, would start to skip and freeze around the midway mark. Luckily, I was able to get a replacement copy and everything seemed to be fine.

Originally Posted by Deep

The problem definitely exists on my Panasonic BD player as well as PowerDVD on my PC (both have the latest firmware/updates). If not all the discs out there have this problem, then it is a coincidence that I got two bad discs from two different retailers.

-D

That's too bad. This is an excellent movie. I hope that you can find a disc that will let you play the movie straight through soon.

[Feiereisel]

Aw, crud--mine player is having issues with it, too. It stops about 51 minutes in and then jumps to about 85 minutes in. This is the first disc I've had any problem with on my player (a stalwart Sony S5100) and the first Criterion I've had problems with, full stop, other than an occasional junked-up library disc.

The publishing information on the back of my case lists this as a first printing dated 2010--has there been a second one that's fixed the issue, maybe?

[Deep]

Originally Posted by Feiereisel

Aw, crud--mine player is having issues with it, too. It stops about 51 minutes in and then jumps to about 85 minutes in. This is the first disc I've had any problem with on my player (a stalwart Sony S5100) and the first Criterion I've had problems with, full stop, other than an occasional junked-up library disc.

The publishing information on the back of my case lists this as a first printing dated 2010--has there been a second one that's fixed the issue, maybe?

Sorry to hear that you have the same problem. Hopefully you are within the return window on your purchase.

One disadvantage of the binge-buying I do during the BN sales is that I don't get around to watching the movies until months later when it is too late to return my copies for an exchange. But thankfully this is the first and only Criterion title I have had an issue with.

The people that have good discs - can you please check to see if you might have a second printing of the title (that is if Criterion quietly fixed the problem).

Thanks,
-D

[Feiereisel]

Originally Posted by Deep

Sorry to hear that you have the same problem. Hopefully you are within the return window on your purchase.

One disadvantage of the binge-buying I do during the BN sales is that I don't get around to watching the movies until months later when it is too late to return my copies for an exchange. But thankfully this is the first and only Criterion title I have had an issue with.

The people that have good discs - can you please check to see if you might have a second printing of the title (that is if Criterion quietly fixed the problem).

Thanks,
-D

I'm out of the return window by...two years, at least. I'll email Criterion tomorrow to see if I can get any more information, as well.

[Deep]

Originally Posted by Feiereisel

I'm out of the return window by...two years, at least. I'll email Criterion tomorrow to see if I can get any more information, as well.

Good luck with that (let me know if you hear anything from them). Lately Criterion has been just ignoring my e-mails. They used to respond promptly in the past even for trivial stuff like replacement cover art (which they used to send out for free - not any more of course). I e-mailed them about getting the second printing of the Carlos disc as well but never heard anything from them.

-D

[Trace17]

I got curious and decided to put my disc in. For starters, I watched this in March of 2013 without issue. However tonight when I put my disc in my PS3, the first time I hit play it gave me an error and said "This video cannot be played". It then rebooted and I tried again. The disc booted into the Criterion menu as normal this time. I went to Chapter 9, and it immediately stuttered and skipped to Chapter 10. Rewinding/skipping won't do any good.

Started the disc a second time, and went to Chapter 8 to see if it would "play through". Nope, it completely freaked out and from about 52 minute mark to 1hr03min mark is unplayable and non-existent.

I then put in my PC BD drive. It's like the OP described, it "plays" but is just pixelated nonsense.

Just a weird circumstance, I am absolutely positive I watched it without issue a year ago. For the record, mine is "first printing 2010" as well. And I'll be e-mailing criterion about a replacement. Also, the last time I e-mailed Jon he responded after 11 days. So I would give him about two weeks or so before e-mailing again.

[Eny-]

I will try my disc later too. I'm sure it's also the from first pressing.

[Deep]

Originally Posted by Trace17

I got curious and decided to put my disc in. For starters, I watched this in March of 2013 without issue.

I was assuming it was an authoring issue. It would be more troubling if a disc was OK before but deteriorated over time (some sort of disc rot). I have hundreds of titles I haven't watched in years

For the record, mine is "first printing 2010" as well.

I can't find any reference to a second printing and so we have to assume there has been only one.

Also, the last time I e-mailed Jon he responded after 11 days. So I would give him about two weeks or so before e-mailing again.

It's been over 2 weeks for me without a response. I would have expected a quicker response from a company like Criterion (they used to be much more responsive in the past).

-D

[Feiereisel]

Sent my email this morning. We'll see what comes of it.

What about firmware? Could that be to blame? If the discs worked well, and suddenly stopped working with no blemish or visible sign of decay on the disc...?

I'm a bad disc detective--I don't know enough about authoring/disc production to attempt to draw anymore conclusions.

[jscoggins]

Criterion is not infallible. They have authored bad discs in the past, including the first pressing of Hitchcock's Spellbound. It would not play properly in Toshiba DVD players, so Criterion had to re-author it.

[Feiereisel]

Originally Posted by jscoggins

Criterion is not infallible. They have authored bad discs in the past, including the first pressing of Hitchcock's Spellbound. It would not play properly in Toshiba DVD players, so Criterion had to re-author it.

Oh, of course. Any company that publishes anything has stuff like this happen; Criterion is no exception. CARLOS and THREE COLORS: WHITE were also both re-pressed, and the recent L'ECLISSE feature DVD had RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11's commentary on it. I was just trying to generate some ideas beyond an authoring error.

Perhaps so few people bought the film on blu-ray that the problem is just now becoming known issue.

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by Feiereisel

the recent L'ECLISSE feature DVD had RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11's commentary on it.

[witheygull]

Originally Posted by Trace17

I got curious and decided to put my disc in. For starters, I watched this in March of 2013 without issue. However tonight when I put my disc in my PS3, the first time I hit play it gave me an error and said "This video cannot be played". It then rebooted and I tried again. The disc booted into the Criterion menu as normal this time. I went to Chapter 9, and it immediately stuttered and skipped to Chapter 10. Rewinding/skipping won't do any good.

Started the disc a second time, and went to Chapter 8 to see if it would "play through". Nope, it completely freaked out and from about 52 minute mark to 1hr03min mark is unplayable and non-existent.

I then put in my PC BD drive. It's like the OP described, it "plays" but is just pixelated nonsense.

This exact scenario was my experience as well. A copy that previously played just fine on my PS3 now exhibits the same issue everyone else is noticing. I also tried the disc on a different PS3 and on a PC BD drive with no better results. I ended up ordering a brand new copy from Amazon and it plays flawlessly.

[Trace17]

Originally Posted by Feiereisel

Sent my email this morning. We'll see what comes of it.

What about firmware? Could that be to blame? If the discs worked well, and suddenly stopped working with no blemish or visible sign of decay on the disc...?

I'm a bad disc detective--I don't know enough about authoring/disc production to attempt to draw anymore conclusions.

Same here. It just seems oddly suspicious that all of our discs have the exact same problem in the same area.

Originally Posted by witheygull

This exact scenario was my experience as well. A copy that previously played just fine on my PS3 now exhibits the same issue everyone else is noticing. I also tried the disc on a different PS3 and on a PC BD drive with no better results. I ended up ordering a brand new copy from Amazon and it plays flawlessly.

Like Feiereisel, I'm not that knowledgeable on this stuff, but if it's from the same printing, who is to say the brand new copy won't have the same issue down the road? My current copy played flawlessly a year ago...not now.

And I urge people, even if they just went and bought a new copy, to contact Criterion so we can raise awareness for the issue and hopefully they can sort it out.