Strange New Worlds: Science Fiction at DEFA (1960-1976) Eureka

[PGW]

Originally Posted by Eureka Entertainment

We will not be issuing a disc replacement scheme for this set as the high initial production costs on this project and its relatively low RRP mean that this is simply not financially viable for us.

Perhaps, if there's a follow-up set somewhere down the road, they can acquire and include the version of the film with genuine human beings in the cast rather than a series of grotesque, computer-generated imitations.

That said, I'm pleased they recognize the problem, evidently don't like it any more than we do, and quickly put out a statement explaining exactly what happened and the things they're doing to make sure it doesn't happen again.

[exidor]

Originally Posted by Mr. Thomsen

That's really unacceptable. I understand the issue of costs, but they are still leaving the customers with a highly flawed product.

Unfortunate rather than unacceptable. It's a strange situation - if they'd released a 3 film set for the same price with everything except Dust, I'd still think it was pretty good value. The fact that there's a flawed film on there, even if it's probably not something I'd watch all that often (it's about on a par with a season 2 episode of Space 1999), makes it feel like a worse deal somehow.

The information's out there now so people can buy or not as they see fit. I'll be keeping my set. Everything else on it looks fine to me and I've still got plenty of extras to dig through. Might double dip on Dust if someone provides conclusive evidence that the DC release doesn't have these issues.

Originally Posted by mar3o

Totally agree. Eureka has the money to do the right thing here.

I really doubt that their margins are that high. Sinking money into fixing this means that something else has to be dropped.

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

That's unfortunate. Does anyone know if Deaf Crocodile's release has the same AI issue?

Michael Brooke over on the criterion forum said he's going to check his copy when he has a chance. Also said it's not likely to be soon.

[Hiruko]

Originally Posted by mar3o

The set was just released. I literally received it just the other day from Diabolik and I pre-ordered it months ago. It took just days since people started getting their sets for the first few comments to roll in about this issue. Pro-reviews don't count because they often miss even bigger issues than this.

Since you're nitpicking my comment just so you can keep repeating the same two things you've already said twenty times in this topic before, let me clarify what I was saying :
There were already discussions of a different problem with the disc, and people were on the lookout for issues, yet these AI "enhancements" were unreported at the time. Therefore I was making the point that those must not stand out that much especially during casual viewing.

That's beside the point however, because I was precisely saying that even with a messed up transfer I still see value in the set.
But don't let me get in the way of your circlejerk!

[oddbox83]

Has anyone actually read Eureka’s post or does everyone know Eureka’s finances better than Eureka themselves?

They’ve quite clearly said it’s not financially viable for them to fix in this case. It’s unfortunate but it’s open and transparent, unlike other labels who can just ignore issues.

[WaverBoy]

Glad that they’ll be more vigilant in future and will add that language to their contracts, but man, what kind of QC wouldn’t catch such obvious digital shenanigans?

[wabrit]

Originally Posted by WaverBoy

Glad that they’ll be more vigilant in future and will add that language to their contracts, but man, what kind of QC wouldn’t catch such obvious digital shenanigans?

I feel like I ought to hand in my forum card for this, but I suspect if I hadn't read this thread I wouldn't have noticed anything amiss. Maybe I could get a job in QC!

That said, I did notice some problems with the Raro disk of Shoot First, Die Later - shop signs, telephones etc. that jumped all over the place. Took me back to the old days of some dodgy Anchor Bay DVD mastering.

[Eidolon]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

Has anyone actually read Eureka’s post or does everyone know Eureka’s finances better than Eureka themselves?

They’ve quite clearly said it’s not financially viable for them to fix in this case. It’s unfortunate but it’s open and transparent, unlike other labels who can just ignore issues.

Eureka have basically become the UKs answer to Shout Factory. An outfit that likes to put on the air of caring and doing good, but it doesn't take much for the mask to slip.
It started around the time when they jumped on the Asian films bandwagon and released things like Zu warriors with bad subtitles that weren't checked by anyone prior to the discs being manufactured. And it's just carried on from there.
Look at the farce of Pandora's Box with the damage done by an automated image clean-up. Did they care about that? Did they fix it?

Point is that they make the mistakes in the first place because they clearly don't care in reality.
Their claim about it not being financially viable is just their way of saying they can't be bothered. These things should never happen in the first place, end of.

Anyway, I was really looking forward to this particular set, but now it's a no sale here.

[Sommerswerd]

I remember their release of The Daredevils was advertised and labeled as having a Mandarin audio track but it turned out to the Cantonese. I emailed them about the mistake but they never responded back. Not even an explanation or acknowledging it left a bad taste in my mouth.

[Terok Nor]

Very disappointing. I only became aware of the issue after my copy had shipped from Eureka, and I don't know if it will be worth the effort of sending it back.

Now, for alternatives for Dust: if the Deaf Crocodile release doesn't have the issue, what's the best way of ordering their titles from the EU?

And has anyone seen the French release from Artus Films?

[evilzedar]

I have watched a little of "In the Dust" and can see a little green in places, but it doesn't bother me too much, yet. Maybe it will bother me more on a full watch.

I have been very loyal to Eureka and bought many of their releases, but the recent issues are not a good look at all...

[gpn]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

That's unfortunate. Does anyone know if Deaf Crocodile's release has the same AI issue?

I can't remember the reason, but Deaf Crocodile did a replacement for their disc of In the Dust of Stars, and while I haven't received my set yet due to it being grouped with pre-orders still to be released, I have received the replacement disc. I went to the scene shown in post 43 and just watched the guy with the weird thing going on with his face and didn't see anything like that at all. If anyone wants to give me some times for any other anomalies on the Eureka disc, I can try to check those too.

Edit: I just went to the scene shown in post 20 and there weren't any green highlights on the foreground character's clothing, so it looks like the Deaf Crocodile release doesn't have the issues the Eureka does.

[exidor]

Originally Posted by mar3o

No idea what they charge to ship to the US though.

Probably quite reasonable as they're a US label.

[Tigon89]

This isn’t the issue Deaf Crocodile did the replacement programme for. They announced that they were fixing audio and video glitches during one section early in the film and subtitle dropouts. DEFA are separate entities in the US and Europe and probably supplied different masters.

[Spud_Almighty]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Yeah, very torn here. As somebody who loves vintage sci-fi and appreciates the practical effects, I was looking forward to this set. I wonder now what to do. I could try to send the sealed box back to Diabolik, or keep it for the other three films and extras. I feel there should be a discount to keep a defective box, but it's not Diabolik's fault and I doubt they would offer that, so I won't bother them about it. It's either keep it for what it is, or send it back.

It's going back haha. I'm not accepting that quality.

[Doomhunter]

This set is worth it for The Silent Star on blu-ray, regardless of issues with Dust

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Sounds like Deaf Crocodile likely caught and fixed the issues. Wouldn't Eureka be able then to get the corrected master from them? I guess Eureka would still have to make the new discs though which is what they don't want to do.

So the next question then is how can we purchase the film from Deaf Crocodile from the US? Is it available as a standalone release?

Edit: Ah, I see it on their shop. There are standard and deluxe editions and they're sold as a 2-pack with Signals. No idea what they charge to ship to the US though. And it's easily half the cost of this set I'd have to spend again, especially with shipping factored in.

Deaf Crocodile is a US company. The release is also sold at other places like Diabolik DVD

https://diabolikdvd.com/product/sign...-ray-preorder/

[Spud_Almighty]

Originally Posted by Doomhunter

This set is worth it for The Silent Star on blu-ray, regardless of issues with Dust

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie but it's not worth £45. I just got my return confirmed. I'll probably buy it if they sell this movie separately.

[MifuneFan]

Here's what Deaf Crocodile mention in their Disc Replacement program for the film back in March. They didn't specifically mention any AI tinkering, just audio and video glitches, and some subtitle issues.

Deaf Crocodile Disc Replacement Program

It’s come to our attention that there are errors with the IN THE DUST OF THE STARS disc in our recent DEFA Sci-Fi two-disc set. They include a short period of audio and video glitches early into the film and a number of subtitles had the last few characters of the text dropped.


We pride ourselves on providing the best possible viewing experience and realize these errors can be quite distracting.

Here’s what you need to do:

• If you purchased your disc from either our shop directly or through DiabolikDVD you needn’t do anything. We’ll send you a replacement disc automatically.
  
• If you purchased your disc from another retailer, please email us your proof-of-purchase to: disc-replacement@deafcrocodile.com and we’ll have a replacement disc sent to you.

We’ll follow up again once we’ve received the replacement discs and begin shipping.


This is the first time we’ve ever had to deal with errors like this and we have already made process changes that will keep this from happening again. We hope you understand how frustrating this is for us as we understand how frustrating it is for our customers.

We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience.

Craig & Dennis

[WaverBoy]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Here's what Deaf Crocodile mention in their Disc Replacement program for the film back in March. They didn't specifically mention any AI tinkering, just audio and video glitches, and some subtitle issues.

Video glitches caused by AI tinkering?

[WaverBoy]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Both Eureka and Deaf Crocodile have said they're putting measures in place to catch and avoid certain issues going forward. But how they're handling their release of this film, both having their own issues, couldn't be more different:

Eureka:

"We will not be issuing a disc replacement scheme for this set as the high initial production costs on this project and its relatively low RRP mean that this is simply not financially viable for us."

Deaf Crocodile:
"We pride ourselves on providing the best possible viewing experience and realize these errors can be quite distracting. If you purchased your disc from either our shop directly or through DiabolikDVD you needn’t do anything. We’ll send you a replacement disc automatically."

I do understand it must be expensive to issue a disc replacement program. Eureka says it's not budgeted in for this set. Yet somehow I doubt Deaf Crocodile is a giant label. This will cost them money. But they care about the final product and did the right thing and issued a corrected disc, both to make the customers happy, and to be proud of the release they worked hard to put out.

I'm glad there's an alternative at least with the Deaf Crocodile release. I'll probably order either through Diabolik or direct from them. But this wasn't really in my budget. I just bought these two films. Now I'm considering buying them again because Eureka says it's not in their budget to fix it.

Kudos to Eureka for acknowledging the issue, and vowing to do better in the future, but more kudos to Deaf Crocodile for actually replacing their disc (even though it may be a totally different issue; the fact remains they goofed but owned up to it and fixed it).

Agreed 100% on all the above.