Summer Hours (2008)

[Deep]

Originally Posted by No Name

Count me as another one with the same problem as well. I remember purchasing the disc when it first came out and played with no problems. Yesterday I checked this thread and decided to look at my disc and it had the same brown discoloration on it and froze around the 51 minute mark.

*On another note, I found the same discoloration on my Walkabout Disc and it had problems playing around the 50 minute mark. I know Criterion issued a replacement for the title as it affected some of the players they listed but my player wasn't one of them. I too, have sent an email regarding both titles. I wonder how many other titles have this same problem?

I saw no discoloration on either of my Summer Hours copies that have the problem. Also if the problem is caused by some kind of disc rot, it must be manifesting itself as a problem at the 51 min mark because that is where the transition from one layer to another (in the dual layer disc) happens (just speculating).

I have the second printing of Walkabout. No discoloration on that either. But I have to play it to be sure it still plays fine.

-D

[Mr.F]

Well, I just bought one from Amazon last week. Hopefully I won't have the problem when it gets here.

[Trace17]

Originally Posted by Freeza

I had watched my disc when it was first released and it played fine, but upon opening the case now it appeared as though the data side had tarnished (uneven yellowish/gold coloring that differed in darkness as you got closer to the rim). Attempting to play the disc yields the same results as a lot of the replies here, freezing around the 51 minute mark, followed by a jump forward to much later in the film.

Like Deep, my copy of Summer Hours shows no discoloration. Though it looks normal, it is non-functional as described earlier.

Originally Posted by No Name

Count me as another one with the same problem as well. I remember purchasing the disc when it first came out and played with no problems. Yesterday I checked this thread and decided to look at my disc and it had the same brown discoloration on it and froze around the 51 minute mark.

*On another note, I found the same discoloration on my Walkabout Disc and it had problems playing around the 50 minute mark. I know Criterion issued a replacement for the title as it affected some of the players they listed but my player wasn't one of them. I too, have sent an email regarding both titles. I wonder how many other titles have this same problem?

However, you got me curious so I pulled my copy of Walkabout. It does seem to show some discoloation, but not in the manner Freeza described - it was gold-ish around the edge, to me. But like you, it had issues at the 50 minute mark and could not recover until 1hr15mins.

Not sure on the correlation, but Walkabout and Summer Hours were released within 30 days of each other. Could be from the same batch of discs (before pressing)? Out of curiosity, I checked M and Vivre sa Vie, released in the same time frame, but had no issues with those (though I have acquired them more recently than Walkabout and Summer Hours).

Edit:

I found the Criterion release about Walkabout manufacturing issues, guess I had never come across it before.

http://www.criterion.com/current/pos...turing-problem

We have been alerted to a manufacturing problem with our Walkabout Blu-ray edition that occurs on a limited number of players. The affected players are:

Sony BDP-350 and BDP-360
Pioneer BDP-05FD and BDP-120
Sharp BD-HP22U, BD-HP21U, and BD-HP20U
Memorex MVBD2520
Insignia NS-2BRDVD

The disc will not load in the Insignia and Memorex players, and with the others, about fifty minutes into the feature, the audio and video begin to skip and stutter. We are working with the pressing plant to resolve this issue as soon as possible. If you have our Walkabout Blu-ray disc and own one of these players, please e-mail Jon Mulvaney so that we can notify you as soon as replacement copies become available.

After seeing this, it seems pretty obvious Summer Hours has suffered a similar fate, imo.

Second edit:

After further research, I found that there is a code that should dictate where the disc was manufactured. I'm not sure on accuracy of this, so maybe someone more knowledgeable can weigh in, but both Walkabout and Summer Hours have sid codes of IFPI LB42, or as it appears to me. It's so tiny it could be IFPI L842. But they are the same to me.

And Vivre sa Vie had the same code, released the same day as Summer Hours.... no issues yet on that one....

[Eny-]

It seems I have to test Walkabout as well then.

At around which minute does it skip?

[javi92]

So to update my earlier post, I watched the whole of Summer Hours last night with no problems whatsoever. Haven't yet made it through the special features, but no problems at all with the main feature. I have also watched Walkabout within the last three months without any problems. Played on an Oppo 103. Very weird. Guess I'll need to keep an eye on these two discs.

[Deep]

I have to check my copies of Vivre sa vie and M as well. It would really scary if any titles other than Summer Hours and Walkabout (first printing) had similar problems.

-D

[Freeza]

Originally Posted by Trace17

Edit:

I found the Criterion release about Walkabout manufacturing issues, guess I had never come across it before.

http://www.criterion.com/current/pos...turing-problem

After seeing this, it seems pretty obvious Summer Hours has suffered a similar fate, imo.

If Walkabout truly is a player related issue, then unfortunately this is different, as my copy of Summer Hours played through properly upon release, yet now the data side is tarnished and it freezes, hangs and skips, all while being played on the same player. To me, due to the uneven discoloration and erroring out at what seems to be the layer change, this appears to be disc rot/oxidation.

Walkabout, which I am spinning right now, at least for me if I'm remembering correctly, has always had a darker tinge to the data side of the disc, but it's not quite the same, nor is it showing the unevenness that my Summer Hours is.

[Eny-]

My Walkabout disc is OK. Just watched the movie and extras without an issue.

[Deep]

Originally Posted by Eny-

My Walkabout disc is OK. Just watched the movie and extras without an issue.

Do you have the first or second printing ? I am assuming the second printing is OK.

-D

[pedromvu]

Just checked my Summer Hours disc and unfortunately i have the same issue, i purchased this on september 2013 directly from criterion and i remember checking all the chapters and it was working fine, today it skips from around minute 52 until about minute 92, i too can see the disc has some kind of brown tinge around the borders just like my bad disc of Walkabout (which CC already replaced and the new one doesn't show those colors and works fine).

My guess is that all the discs are from the first press and for some reason just now they decayed enough to start having problems, seems to be only report of one user in here that doesn't have the problem.

Going to email Criterion.

[Eny-]

Originally Posted by Deep

Do you have the first or second printing ? I am assuming the second printing is OK.

-D

First pressing. The disc also looks fine. No discoloration like the Summer Hours disc.

[fdm]

Been meaning to get to Walkabout for a while. Summer Hours played fine back when I first played it. Probably got both around release day.

Guess I'll get on the stick and check them out again.

(Recently I got around to Howards End and it played fine, I recall it was another that may have had some issue or other, though no recollection of what the issue was.)

[kazama]

I bought my copy in 2011 and watched it immediately, it worked fine (first printing).

I only had time to check a few scenes and watched the film from 45min-60min and there were no problems with it (LG BD550). I also checked the data side of the disc and I think I also see that stuff around the borders though.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by Eny-

First pressing. The disc also looks fine. No discoloration like the Summer Hours disc.

Depending on when you bought it, it may be the fixed one, i checked my replacement Walkabout disc and it doesn't mention anywhere that it is a second pressing like the replacement disc for White, so there is no way to know which pressing it is.

[pedromvu]

For anyone with a working disc, does it actually says "first printing" on the disc? or it just doesn't mention it? I just read over criterionforum one user that mentions his doesn't have the problem and that it says first printing, but my problematic disc doesn't say which printing it is.

[javi92]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

For anyone with a working disc, does it actually says "first printing" on the disc? or it just doesn't mention it? I just read over criterionforum one user that mentions his doesn't have the problem and that it says first printing, but my problematic disc doesn't say which printing it is.

It should say which printing it is at the very bottom of the licensing information on the back cover.

[Mr.F]

I just got mine from Amazon today. It says first printing, but the disc didn't have the brown ring or whatever and I tested it and I had no problem at the time people said it skipped. I doubt the package was tightly, vacuum-sealed, so it may not be from the defective batch. But if there's a mass recall, I won't risk it and I'll get the new disc.

[Deep]

I am also going to wait for an official response from Criterion before sending my disc in for a replacement. But it could be a while. I originally sent them a mail on 08/23 and still haven't seen a response. Lately mulvaney@criterion.com has been a black hole (I never got responses to my other mails in the recent past).

I am hoping that the deluge of mails in their inbox (OK maybe a dozen mails) regarding this issue forces them to issue an official response.

-D

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by Deep

I am also going to wait for an official response from Criterion before sending my disc in for a replacement. But it could be a while. I originally sent them a mail on 08/23 and still haven't seen a response. Lately mulvaney@criterion.com has been a black hole (I never got responses to my other mails in the recent past).

I am hoping that the deluge of mails in their inbox (OK maybe a dozen mails) regarding this issue forces them to issue an official response.

-D

Maybe he lost his job?

[ElliesDad]

Seemed to recall that the "Summer Hours" flaw was bounced around on the 'Criterion Collection Discussion' thread on this site some time ago. Just quickly searched the thread and this was indeed the case~ a year ago (Aug. 19, 2013) the following was posted along with a number of posts complaining about the same issue (post 79782, pg 1547 if the link doesn't work): https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...rs#post7954815

Will try an e-mail tomorrow and see if I have any better luck; will try and take a decent picture of the discolored rim and attach that to try and avoid having to send the defective one back.

Point is, this is clearly a flaw that is well-known to Criterion. Not sure why anyone would therefore have any difficulty getting an immediate replacement, given Criterion's usually excellent customer service.