Defective Warner TV On DVD

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by cuzzin

Dammit. I found this thread trying to investigate what was going on with my Veronica Mars season one set. I get to disc five and I can't get my Blu-ray player to even start the third episode on the disc. I then try putting it into my PS4 drive, and the disc itself wouldn't even load. I know this is a new problem with the disc because I have watched this set through before. I'm re-watching it now in anticipation of the coming series revival on Hulu.

I don't see any thing resembling the rot posted earlier in this thread on the disc either. Looks pretty pristine from where I'm sitting. But it is a Warner TV disc. This is when collecting physical media can suck sometimes. We always rag on streamers, telling them they'll never truly "own" their collections and so on, but I don't see their digital collections rotting away either.

Do you have the original Veronica Mars season sets from the late 2000s? Or the more recent reissues? I assume the former but just want to check.

[cuzzin]

Originally Posted by neo_reloaded

Do you have the original Veronica Mars season sets from the late 2000s? Or the more recent reissues? I assume the former but just want to check.

Yeah, it was the original releases. I just ended up buying the newer releases and swapping those discs into the better, older packaging. No problems after that.

[captainsolo]

I was just searching to see if there was a thread on defective WB DVDs as I've found more in my collection and read the HTF forum again which reveals is a far more widespread issue than most realize.
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/com...l-play.351260/

I'm now going to check ALL of my WB DVDs from the period of 2006-2009 or so. It seems it has been identified as being the era in which Warner was using Cinram plant resulting in many titles from the years of 2006 or so through to perhaps 2010 possibly having rot failure issues. Once they switched to the Mexico plant there have been no real issues which means that you may get lucky on some discs that were later reissued in 4 film favorites sets or other releases but sadly for others it's a crapshoot.

Before this I've only had three DVD discs go dead on me for no reason. One was MGM and an early disc where there were known rotters. Both of the other ones are WB and from this period. Last night I went to pull a disc from the Errol Flynn Signature Collection Vol. 2 and sure enough it wouldn't play at all. I checked and three of the five are completely shot so I guess I'm lucky that two work. One disc in the Katharine Hepburn boxset is shot and now I have to go check all my others. I'm lucky in that some boxes are ok as they are from 2005 and before and some boxes I missed and was only able to get the later TCM 4 pack releases so those discs are flawless. Also WAC MOD DVDRs are fine and do not suffer this problem.

In short you can't just go by the underside of the disc being discolored or hazy. If you have a Warner DVD from 2005-2010 just pop it in and check it out. It's a crapshoot if it will work and a crapshoot if:
-You have a boxset with affected titles or merely certain discs.
-You have a working copy of something that was rotted for someone else. For example I recently picked up a used copy of the original Nancy Drew two DVD release and it plays perfectly.

[HorrorBlu]

^ It's worth adding that this primarily effects dual-layered discs. Which is why TV on DVD is one of the biggest offenders. Single-layered discs from Warner should be fine. If you look at the back of the case, it will typically say DUAL-LAYERED in the bottom left corner.

I also haven't noticed this on any of their releases in the old snapper cases, but these were probably pre-2005.

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

Re-posting from another thread: I recently started re-watching The Sopranos on the old DVD sets. And, while they all worked fine when I first watched them back in the 200X's, this time around I've had numerous problems with these disks:

Season 3, Disk 1: Episodes 1,2, and 4 play perfectly. But, Episode 3 will barely play - it skips & freezes.

Season 3, Disk 03: Episodes 9 & 10 also skip & freeze.

And I'm less than half-way into this series. I suspect I'll have issues with future disks as well. Very frustrating. This is especially egregious because I bought these Sopranos DVD sets when they came out back in the 200X's, and they were very expensive at the time - even when compared to other TV shows on DVD sets from that era.

[Somebuddy]

My 2007 edition DVD copy of Straight Time wont even play on my PS4. It says "encrypted data". Has that happened to anyone else? Does that mean disc rot?