LOTR: Two Towers - My disc 2 defective, too
 

I read some of the other threads here where people had problems. I just
bought my set at Best Buy and sat down to watch it tonight. It played
perfectly until just after the layer change of disc 2. Then every couple of
minutes the picture and audio would sort of stutter for a moment. When I
took it out to give it a quick visual examination, I noticed a pretty
sizable fingerprint near the outer edge. I had just opened the package and
I never touch the disc surface itself so someone touched it at some point
during production/packaging. That fingerprint wasn't big enough to explain
away the problem though since it affected the last hour or so of the film.
I also noticed that cloudy effect that I've seen on older discs and noticed
that it was pressed at WAMO which I've read seems to be responsible for
many of the titles with "DVD Rot" issues. Oh, well, I guess I'll have to
exchange it and hope for the best. I do like the movie, but now I'm going
to have to set aside another 4 hours to re-watch the entire thing to make
sure the new disc is defect free. That's kind of daunting.

Re: Two Towers - My disc 2 defective, too
 

"Whovian" <who@nodomain.com> wrote in message
news:Xns944ADCEDE8Fhelpmenodomaincom@204.127.204.1 7...
> I read some of the other threads here where people had problems. I just
> bought my set at Best Buy and sat down to watch it tonight. It played
> perfectly until just after the layer change of disc 2. Then every couple
of
> minutes the picture and audio would sort of stutter for a moment. When I

is this during the Helm's Deep scene? i have the same problem. it plays
fine on my dvd-rom drive on my PC though... please let us know if
exchanging the disk helped. unfortunately i don't have my receipt though
:-(

Re: Two Towers - My disc 2 defective, too
 

"80k" <iam80kNOSPAM@yahoo.com> wrote in news:3_AAb.2578$_r6.171
@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net:

> "Whovian" <who@nodomain.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns944ADCEDE8Fhelpmenodomaincom@204.127.204.1 7...
>> I read some of the other threads here where people had problems. I just
>> bought my set at Best Buy and sat down to watch it tonight. It played
>> perfectly until just after the layer change of disc 2. Then every couple
> of
>> minutes the picture and audio would sort of stutter for a moment. When I
>
> is this during the Helm's Deep scene? i have the same problem. it plays
> fine on my dvd-rom drive on my PC though... please let us know if
> exchanging the disk helped. unfortunately i don't have my receipt though
>:-(
>
>

It happens throughout the last half of disc 2 starting at chapter 19. If
the scenes you're talking about are at about chapter 31, those were the
worst of all, yes. I watched it using my Sony NS-300. But I just tested it
on my Pioneer DV-353 and it played perfectly. I'm still going to return the
set because that fingerprint has got me a bit concerned, and I also
discovered a pretty big and noticeable scratch on disc 4. I'll probably
wait until Tuesday because there's a new release I want to get so I'll just
make one trip, but I'll post here and let you know if the new set is any
better.

Re: Two Towers - My disc 2 defective, too
 

"Whovian" <who@nodomain.com> wrote in message
news:Xns944A211C1EF12helpmenodomaincom@204.127.204 .17...

<<I'm still going to return the set because that fingerprint has got me
a bit concerned, and I also discovered a pretty big and noticeable
scratch on disc 4.>>


Imagine that! Scratches and fingerprints on new DVDs! And I thought that
I was the only one who noticed and/or cared.

Here's what's probably going to happen: You will return one damaged DVD
set and receive another one with the same or even worse damage. For
example, instead of having a scratch on disk 4, your new pig in a poke
disk set might have a scratch on disk 2 and fingerprints on disk 1.
Therefore, you will have the best results if you arrange to have access
to both your original damaged disk set and your new, potentially-damaged
replacement disk set before you surrender one of them back to the store.

If you are able to examine all 8 disks, you can then return the disks
with the worst damage and keep those with the least damage. If you also
discovered that your original disk packaging was banged up, you can keep
the better of the two packages. This way, you will end up with the
better package and the best of the 8 disks.

Damaged disks found in new packages is a subject that I have previously
avoided because I knew that I would be accused of being too picky about
disk quality. But the problem of dealing with damaged disks is getting
worse and worse. Some on this newsgroup believe that brand new damaged
disks are perfectly acceptable as long as they still play. I strongly
disagree with this casual acceptance of poor disk quality. I paid for a
new, undamaged DVD and I expect a new, undamaged DVD. Just because the
error correction circuitry of my DVD player allows it to navigate
through an obstacle course of scratches and scuffs does not mean that I
should accept this low level of quality in a "new" product.

The presence of the fingerprint and scratch on this New Line release
does not mean that you have a used disk set. If you look, you will find
fingerprints and scratches on the individual disks in most multiple-disk
sets. I have found the presence of fingerprints and scratches to be
commonplace in Disney and Warner double-disk sets.

The only explanation is that these disks are placed in their packages by
hand. Light fingerprints can be gently wiped off the disks. But some
fingerprints are made by dirty hands and the dirt contains enough
abrasive material to scratch the disk play surface -- sometimes a
little, sometimes a lot. Other scratches are made when the DVD is
dragged across the DVD box, center hub or some other object.

To make matters worse, the disks are often stacked one on top of the
other before they are carelessly placed in the boxes. This can be
verified by looking at the play surface. Some disks have faint (and
sometimes not so faint) mirror-images of their silk-screened graphics
pressed into play surfaces. This is just more surface damage for a
player to correct.

Oops, another stack of disks fell on the floor. Oh well.

Re: Two Towers - My disc 2 defective, too
 

<< Oops, another stack of disks fell on the floor. Oh well. >>

This sort of packaging is handled differently by every company who does it, but
I used to package CDs and they come in stacks shrinkwrapped like raw CD-Rs do
after encoding... they get burned and re-stacked by a machine. If the plastic
breaks during shipping or was loose to begin with, the discs slide around and
spin around in shipping and get scuffs and scratches, then they are handled in
order to do one of two things, generally:

1. Put them in a loader magazine (which then deposits a disc in each tray) or
MORE likely, especially since we're not talking about CD trays here but a
multi-disc set -

2. It is put together in the package assembly line style one at a time by a
team of "experts" (for our company, it was interns... who gave just as much of
a **** as you can imagine).

I think you see where this is going.

Re: Two Towers - My disc 2 defective, too
 

"Wade365" <wade365@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20031207121500.21755.00000276@mb-m26.aol.com...
<< Oops, another stack of disks fell on the floor. Oh well. >>

<<This sort of packaging is handled differently by every company who
does it, but I used to package CDs and they come in stacks shrinkwrapped
like raw CD-Rs do after encoding... they get burned and re-stacked by a
machine. If the plastic breaks during shipping or was loose to begin
with, the discs slide around and spin around in shipping and get scuffs
and scratches, then they are handled in order to do one of two things,
generally:>>

I honestly didn't know for sure that some DVDs are packaged by hand. But
it's the only explanation that explains where all of those fingerprints
and scratches come from. I once got a disk which must have come from the
bottom of one of these stacks. It was really a mess -- scratches and
scuffs all over the play surface.

<<1. Put them in a loader magazine (which then deposits a disc in each
tray) or MORE likely, especially since we're not talking about CD trays
here but a multi-disc set ->>

This must be why single-disk editions seem to suffer from very few
scratches, fingerprints and scuffs, while multi-disk sets have so much
damage.

<<2. It is put together in the package assembly line style one at a time
by a team of "experts" (for our company, it was interns... who gave just
as much of a **** as you can imagine).>>

How about "technicians."? That's another good one.

<<I think you see where this is going.>>

The 4-disk edition of _Pearl Harbor_ had the worst packaging that I have
ever seen. Each of the disks was packaged inside a cardboard envelope.
Of course, all of the disks had scratches and scuffs.

Re: Two Towers - My disc 2 defective, too
 

"Scot Gardner" <Spamus@labamus.com> wrote in message
news:20031207125408.643$CV@news.newsreader.com...
> "Wade365" <wade365@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:20031207121500.21755.00000276@mb-m26.aol.com...
> << Oops, another stack of disks fell on the floor. Oh well. >>
>
> <<This sort of packaging is handled differently by every company who
> does it, but I used to package CDs and they come in stacks shrinkwrapped
> like raw CD-Rs do after encoding... they get burned and re-stacked by a
> machine. If the plastic breaks during shipping or was loose to begin
> with, the discs slide around and spin around in shipping and get scuffs
> and scratches, then they are handled in order to do one of two things,
> generally:>>
>
> I honestly didn't know for sure that some DVDs are packaged by hand. But
> it's the only explanation that explains where all of those fingerprints
> and scratches come from. I once got a disk which must have come from the
> bottom of one of these stacks. It was really a mess -- scratches and
> scuffs all over the play surface.
>

it seems as though the people that received bad disks 3 and 4 definitely got
bad disks. but is it possible that the disk 2 is just having problems with
certain dvd players? it works on my dvd-rom drive, but has some
stuttering/freezing effects on my panasonic dvd player, which is about 3-4
years old.

Re: Two Towers - My disc 2 defective, too
 

>>Here's what's probably going to happen: You will return one damaged DVD
set and receive another one with the same or even worse damage. For
example, instead of having a scratch on disk 4, your new pig in a poke
disk set might have a scratch on disk 2 and fingerprints on disk 1.
Therefore, you will have the best results if you arrange to have access
to both your original damaged disk set and your new, potentially-damaged
replacement disk set before you surrender one of them back to the store.<<


That's kind of pessimistic, but I don't think you're too far off. :) I've
been able to mix and match replacements before (X-Files season 3 and Buffy
Season 3) so I'll definitely try to do so again this time.

Re: Two Towers - My disc 2 defective, too
 

"Whovian" <who@nodomain.com> wrote in message
news:Xns944A8FA76981helpmenodomaincom@204.127.204. 17...
>>Here's what's probably going to happen: You will return one damaged
DVD set and receive another one with the same or even worse damage. For
example, instead of having a scratch on disk 4, your new pig in a poke
disk set might have a scratch on disk 2 and fingerprints on disk 1.
Therefore, you will have the best results if you arrange to have access
to both your original damaged disk set and your new, potentially-damaged
replacement disk set before you surrender one of them back to the
store.<<


<< <<That's kind of pessimistic, but I don't think you're too far off.
:) I've been able to mix and match replacements before (X-Files season 3
and Buffy Season 3) so I'll definitely try to do so again this time.>>
>>


Absolutely. If any of the 4 disks that you have are free from visible
defects and have already played without incident, you might want to hang
on to those.

A proven entity is better than an unknown.