Early Blu-rays that may have playback issues (Criterion, Well Go USA, etc.)

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by spawningblue

I also mentioned this earlier, but my copy of Drillbit Taylor had bronzing, and my copy of Valkyrie just stopped working over time as well. I have a rather large collection, kept at room temperature, so these were definitely not ruined by anything I did. Anyone else have problems with these discs?

Drillbit Taylor is another early Paramount BD, like Cloverfield (which has also had some reports of bronzing).

Is the mold SID number on your bronzed Drillbit Taylor disc (or anyone else's bronzed Cloverfield) the same as the Criterion discs in question?

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by spawningblue

You should add Godzilla vs. Biollante to the list. Rear channel was missing from one of the audio tracks on the original release. They temporarily offered an exchange program, sometimes shipping the exact same disc back. I'm pretty sure this has been remedied with Lions Gate's release.

I've added this to the OP. I need a little more information about Drillbit Taylor and/or Cloverfield before adding them to the OP.

[spawningblue]

Originally Posted by neo_reloaded

Drillbit Taylor is another early Paramount BD, like Cloverfield (which has also had some reports of bronzing).

Is the mold SID number on your bronzed Drillbit Taylor disc (or anyone else's bronzed Cloverfield) the same as the Criterion discs in question?

Unfortunately I trashed the disc a few weeks ago when I bought a new replacement copy which seems to work fine.

[PGW]

Originally Posted by BAMJoe

I own 6 of the 7 blus on the official list. So far, just M is not working. I am considering sending in all 6 of my discs just i case they have problems in the future. Is anyone else doing the same?

Yes. I sent in every disc on their list that I owned (none of them looked right anyway). If it's turning bronze, it will surely continue to do so and fail at SOME point.

It's been weeks now, though, and I wish that reports of replacements were coming in - or at least an update from Criterion what they're doing about the problem. Hello... anybody home, guys?

Not to mention WellGo USA, who don't seem to think the issue of a bunch of discs self-destructing is important enough to even mention on their webpage.

[Freeza]

Originally Posted by dwk

I don't know how they got the clearance to do it, but I think they are repressing the OOP discs.

I mentioned this in the main Criterion thread, but last Friday someone on another forum said they called Criterion and were told it would be at least another week before the replacement discs started shipping out because they(Criterion) were still waiting for the replacement discs to arrive.

DVD Talk? That was me. I've posted it in this thread too, but with it being a catch all thread sometimes it jumps too fast and posts get missed.

[dwk]

Originally Posted by Freeza

DVD Talk? That was me. I've posted it in this thread too, but with it being a catch all thread sometimes it jumps too fast and posts get missed.

Yes that's the one. I also missed your post here 'cause this thread is too unwieldy. Anyway, thanks for the update.

[Freeza]

I asked Well Go by way of their Facebook page last night if there was any update and this is what they replied with: "It's been just over two weeks. We're putting the link on our website early next week. We just had to get the Canada part in place. Stay tuned."

The Canada part they're referring to I believe is to cover folks who purchased their discs at Canadian retailers.

[Five Inches]

Figured I'd play one of my discolored discs just to make sure it would.

Set "M" to play and when I returned it was at the main menu. If it would've frozen the PS3 usually displays a playback error message. While not a final test, watching these movies is not in my pipeline at the moment.

While the edge looks a bit darker than the rest, I'm still not convinced this is a bronzed disc (for me). The discolored areas seem to align with the print on the label side.

[wormraper]

I'm still rather annoyed at Criterion. not a reply to emails, not an update over the other TON of titles bronzing...just silence on their end, not even a press update. Not a good way to handle customers, especially just before another criterion SPONSORED sale at Best Buy

[Feiereisel]

Originally Posted by wormraper

I'm still rather annoyed at Criterion. not a reply to emails, not an update over the other TON of titles bronzing...just silence on their end, not even a press update. Not a good way to handle customers, especially just before another criterion SPONSORED sale at Best Buy

Isn't this a little harsh? I think they've done a fine job. They're planning to replace out of print titles, even.

We can sit here and obsess all day, every day and have a couple of dedicated, terrific members collate the data--a luxury, if you want to call it that; Criterion on a nine-to-five, five-weekday schedule. To let our genuine concern boil over into angry entitlement is ridiculous, and nobody benefits from it.

And though they benefit from it, I can't imagine Criterion initiates or "sponsors" any of these retail sales in any official capacity--"Hey Best Buy, go flog our stuff--tut-tut!"

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by Feiereisel

Isn't this a little harsh? I think they've done a fine job. They're planning to replace out of print titles, even.

We can sit here and obsess all day, every day and have a couple of dedicated, terrific members collate the data--a luxury, if you want to call it that; Criterion on a nine-to-five, five-weekday schedule. To let our genuine concern boil over into angry entitlement is ridiculous, and nobody benefits from it.

And though they benefit from it, I can't imagine Criterion initiates or "sponsors" any of these retail sales in any official capacity--"Hey Best Buy, go flog our stuff--tut-tut!"

actually the twice yearly Barnes sales are subsidized by Criterion, that was proven years ago

and actually criterion hasn't come out and said JACK since their initial listing of those 7 titles....right now it's all guess work as many of us have sent MULTIPLE emails without a single response, or even a single press release updating their "list". I have 10 bad titles, and only ONE of them is on that puny little list. I'm not hating on them, but I AM disappointed that they have been pretty clammed up since the initial begrudging list of 7 titles was announced

[Feiereisel]

Originally Posted by wormraper

actually the twice yearly Barnes sales are subsidized by Criterion, that was proven years ago

and actually criterion hasn't come out and said JACK since their initial listing of those 7 titles....right now it's all guess work as many of us have sent MULTIPLE emails without a single response, or even a single press release updating their "list". I have 10 bad titles, and only ONE of them is on that puny little list. I'm not hating on them, but I AM disappointed that they have been pretty clammed up since the initial begrudging list of 7 titles was announced

I'll concede on the sale thing--I don't know from marketing.

But--from the posted response on Criterion's site:

If we learn that other titles are similarly defective, we will add them to this list and continue to replace them as well.

That's enough for me and my defective but as yet unlisted Gomorrah disc. I might send an email, but right now, I'm content. I don't know what the email situation is about. For the record, I did get a response having only sent one. Who knows.

My interpretation was that they'll replace the bulk of these discs, then announce a few more replacement titles, then replace those discs, then add a couple more titles, etc, to keep the cost of replacement manageable.

[Five Inches]

Played through "Ride with the Devil" and "In the realm of the senses" as well, no problem. Sets my mind at ease a bit about those.
(These were "discolored", I am aware they're not on the first list from Criterion)

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by Five Inches

Played through "Ride with the Devil" and "In the realm of the senses" as well, no problem. Sets my mind at ease a bit about those.
(These were "discolored", I am aware they're not on the first list from Criterion)

I wouldn't be set at ease. if they're "discolored" (as in bronzing) it's a matter of WHEN they fail, not if

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by Feiereisel

My interpretation was that they'll replace the bulk of these discs, then announce a few more replacement titles, then replace those discs, then add a couple more titles, etc, to keep the cost of replacement manageable.

But that makes no sense for us, since we need to pay the return shipping, and some people send them from other countries, they should understand that for us it is preferably to send all our bad discs in one go, this way they would probably save on shipping too.

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

But that makes no sense for us, since we need to pay the return shipping, and some people send them from other countries, they should understand that for us it is preferably to send all our bad discs in one go, this way they would probably save on shipping too.

Agreed. It costs THEM and us more to do it that way

[BasiliskFang]

Originally Posted by Five Inches

Figured I'd play one of my discolored discs just to make sure it would.

Set "M" to play and when I returned it was at the main menu. If it would've frozen the PS3 usually displays a playback error message. While not a final test, watching these movies is not in my pipeline at the moment.

While the edge looks a bit darker than the rest, I'm still not convinced this is a bronzed disc (for me). The discolored areas seem to align with the print on the label side.

Did you use a timer alarm to see if the film messed up?

[Feiereisel]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

But that makes no sense for us, since we need to pay the return shipping, and some people send them from other countries, they should understand that for us it is preferably to send all our bad discs in one go, this way they would probably save on shipping too.

I was thinking more in terms of (re)production costs, though I'm sure shipping also plays into their calculations as well. It stinks for everybody--there's no way to do a replacement program that isn't at least marginally annoying--but I think complaining that they haven't done or aren't doing enough is disingenuous.

Glancing at the list this morning it seems like the discovery of problematic discs has slowed down, if not stopped.

[Five Inches]

Originally Posted by BasiliskFang

Did you use a timer alarm to see if the film messed up?

I set one to see if it had played through, it may of course still have skipped without any error messages from the player. Like I said it wasn't a definitive test. I wanted to do a cursory test to see if they would freeze, which they did not. My bronzed discs won't even load.

Originally Posted by wormraper

I wouldn't be set at ease. if they're "discolored" (as in bronzing) it's a matter of WHEN they fail, not if

I wouldn't jump the gun and call those two bronzed (on my end). I am of the opinion that the discoloration I'm speaking of is due to the yellow/brown print on the disc rather than the "rot" that has beset my "Summer Hours" and "Walkabout". Same thing with "Monterey Pop" and "Moonsoon Wedding", they look brownish, but not bronzed in my opinion. They too have yellows and browns on the label. "M" is a b/w label so not as sure about that. "Monterey Pop" skips the first 3 mins, and "Monsoon Wedding" skips 10 mins between 1:35 and 1:45, but it may be caused by other issues.

Pictures of my discs can be found here:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...45#post9830645

"Ride" doesn't look bronzed at all, nor does "Ai no corrida" (not pictured). I compared them to a random disc - "Seconds" - and they look just the same to me.

This is my conclusion based on my discs, not anyone else's, obviously.

[Louisville Slugger]

This thread is scaring me. I dealt with something very similar with HD-DVD, specifically Warner titles. I believe they were manufactured by Cinram. I had 6 or 7 titles replaced with Blu-ray equivalents.

Now this. I'll have to check some of my discs when I get home.