What the ******* is wrong with my DS9 DVD:s?
- Thread starter Lynx
- Start date
I actually did that. One of my neighbors has a new, region-free DVD player and the same thing happened on that device at the exactly samescene. The same happened also when I tested it on my computer.
Lance wrote:
Well, I have them stacked vertically, as all my other DVD:s. I must also point out that I have never experienced this before awith any of my discs and I have discs which are 10 years old. I bought my Voyager DVD:s in 2006 and they works fine.
Just out of curiosity, which episodes are defect on your DVD:s?
Voyager: Lifeline
DS9: The Nagus, The Jem´Hadar, Melora, The magnificient Ferengi
Episodes I watched more often than others, I must add.
Totally different from mine.
As you can see in my original post, my defect DS9 episodes are "Move Along Home", "Civil Defence" and "Fascination".
"Civil Defence" and "Fascination" were defect from the start while "Move Along Home" worked fine the first time I watched it but was defect when I tried to watch the episode again about one year later.
I bought Voyager's seasons 1,2 and 3 in 2006 and they still work fine. I also have all of TNG and so far no problem there either.
The impression I get is that there are a lot of people, mostly in Europe who have the same problem as I have with certain Star Trek DVD:s, mostly the DS9 DVD.s.
So I have to ask: What the **** is wrong with Paramount? Why are they shipping substandard crap to Europe? Why are they not doing anyting about this problem and why don't they reply to messages sent to them about this subject?
Are they a bunch of criminals who deliberately cheat the fans? Are we just easy-fooled idiots to them?
Is there no posibility to sue them or take any legal actions against them in this case?
I don't want to fill the wallets of those crooks by buying DS9 DVD.s over and over again.
I will never buy Star Trek DVDs again as to quality issues. I stick to the novels, all the authors do a great job, keeping the fandom alive. Even stories that are avarage are worth more than the f****** DVDs. Some people claim that Blue ray is better. I´m not sure: it might be just a promise to make people buy. Just to quote Quark: the flimsier the product the highter the price!
And that's why I took excellent care of my VHS tapes.
Then my player died. Then they stopped making vhs players.
Then my player died. Then they stopped making vhs players.
I feel duty bound to tell anyone with deficient Trek DVDs that they are all available for download from the usual places. If you've paid for legit discs that stop playing, I see no problem in getting a free copy from elsewhere.
I've still got DVDs from 1999, and as far as I know, they all still play. The only disc I've ever had a problem with over time was the original UK release of The Terminator from about 2000. That took all of 4 years to undergo some strange sort of cloudy metamorphosis on the playing surface, but it was nothing washing up liquid and warm water didn't cure.
I've still got DVDs from 1999, and as far as I know, they all still play. The only disc I've ever had a problem with over time was the original UK release of The Terminator from about 2000. That took all of 4 years to undergo some strange sort of cloudy metamorphosis on the playing surface, but it was nothing washing up liquid and warm water didn't cure.
It sounds like you might have DVD rot. If you look up "Laserdisc Rot" you can read what happens, but with DVD's the risk of rot is smaller than with Laserdisc But I've seen it happen, and I know that the problems you are describing is from rot. One DVD type that I've found this problem on are the DVD-18's (the dual-sided discs). I've bought 3 copies of Dragnet 1967 over a 4-year period, and all 3 sets had the rot set in in the exact same places after only a few plays (hopefully Universal will get around to re-issuing this set using DVD-9's like they have done with other titles that were released on DVD-18's).
But I've also seen this happen on DVD-9's, including the last disc of Voyager Season 7. Sometimes you can see the holes that the rot creates, but other times the holes are the size of a pin-prick or smaller. And unfortunately there is no known fix and rot occurs from possible a crack in the outer or inner rim of the disc allowing air to get into the disc and oxidize the metal layer, to the flexing of the DVD while trying to remove it from the case casing the materials to pull apart.
But I've also seen this happen on DVD-9's, including the last disc of Voyager Season 7. Sometimes you can see the holes that the rot creates, but other times the holes are the size of a pin-prick or smaller. And unfortunately there is no known fix and rot occurs from possible a crack in the outer or inner rim of the disc allowing air to get into the disc and oxidize the metal layer, to the flexing of the DVD while trying to remove it from the case casing the materials to pull apart.
^ Yes, people think that a digital storage medium can't deteriorate, but it actually can.
Well, 1080 lines of resolution is definitely a huge step up from 480 lines. If you have an HD TV, there will be a difference. I generally can't stand the way DVDs look on HD TVs.
The quality of the source materials is also important, though. You can see the difference on the TNG blu rays in certain shots where they didn't have film elements and so they had to use videotape sources. Those shots look just as bad as DVD. Was DS9 mastered on film or videotape?
Kor
Well, 1080 lines of resolution is definitely a huge step up from 480 lines. If you have an HD TV, there will be a difference. I generally can't stand the way DVDs look on HD TVs.
The quality of the source materials is also important, though. You can see the difference on the TNG blu rays in certain shots where they didn't have film elements and so they had to use videotape sources. Those shots look just as bad as DVD. Was DS9 mastered on film or videotape?
Kor
I can understand that things like that can happen.
But so far, it has only happened for me with the DS9 discs.
OK, we have this example too (quote from one of my previous posts):
A person I know (no, it wasn't me, I'm not the kind of guy who do such thingsonce bought a double CD box with a collection of a half-famous European rock band. Everything was OK until a couple of years later when the guy decided to listen to the records again and found that they were unplayable.
The guy went down to the local CD dealer who fortunately had two copies left in the store. They decided to test those CD:s there and they were unplayable as well. Something had happened to those CD:s after some years.
The record dealer wasn't that interested of bringing in more copies of the box, or maybe they were no more copies available from the record company. So the guy with the defect records wrote a letter to the record company about the problems.
Two months passed and no reply, in fact up to this day there has been no reply at all from the gentlemen at the record company.
So after two months, the guy thought that enough is enough and started to look for other options. Finally he found what he was looking for and downloaded the whole box from some "special" site on the Internet. And the CD copies he burned of the downloaded stuff are still playable.
If that what's the company wanted with their policy, let them have it.
Otherwise, ALL of my CD:s and DVD:s are playable, the CD:s I first bought in 1990, my Voyager DVD:s bought in 2006, copied CD:s, burned CD:s, even the scratchy DVD with the movie "Cape Fear" I bought some days ago and everything else I own in CD:s and DVD:s as well.
But not the newly bought DS9 DVD:s!
If you read through this thread, you will see that this problem isn't only happening to me. They are others who have the same problem with DS9 DVD:s as I have.
What actually annoys me most is that Paramount refuses to reply to the mails I've sent to them where I politely pointed out the problems and also pointed out that I want to discuss a solution to this
^ Big faceless corporations like Paramount don't really deal with individual customers.
If you are able to obtain contact information for their home video distributor in your area, you might manage to get a polite canned response that just says "sorry, we can't help you."
Kor
If you are able to obtain contact information for their home video distributor in your area, you might manage to get a polite canned response that just says "sorry, we can't help you."
Kor
That would at least be a reply.
But here we have a company which ships out non-functional crap and selling it for a high price. Then they refuse to do something about it, they don't even have the dignity to reply to the complaints.
That's why the words "thieves and con men" pops up into my head.
If it hade been, let's say "Captain Hank's cheap DVD store" with cheap pirate DVD:s who had sold those DVD:s to me, I would only have myself to blame for buying from them.
The same if I had been alone, obtaining those damaged DVD:s. OK, bad luck twice, I would have thought. But this seems to be a common problem.
So here we have this big, big company, one of those who cries like spoiled kids when the words "pirate copy" and "illegal download"is mentioned. And then they more and less force the fans to start looking for pirate DVD:s and illegal downloading.
Personally, I'm starting to become real annoyed with Paramount. First they humiliate and destroy my favorite Star Trek character and now this.
^ Ah, I see.
I used to love watching TOS DVDs on my PC, using PowerDVD software.
Since I was previously used to watching it on VHS or Laserdisc on a standard tube TV, DVD on a PC was the absolute *best* video quality that I had ever seen on TOS in my entire life. On close-ups of the characters' faces, I could see the pores on their skin!
And PowerDVD did a great job upconverting to my monitor resolution without all the weird digital artifacts that you get when up-converting a DVD on a blu-ray player on an HD TV.
But now I have TOS on blu ray and watch on an HD TV, and it looks even better.
Kor
I used to love watching TOS DVDs on my PC, using PowerDVD software.
Since I was previously used to watching it on VHS or Laserdisc on a standard tube TV, DVD on a PC was the absolute *best* video quality that I had ever seen on TOS in my entire life. On close-ups of the characters' faces, I could see the pores on their skin!
And PowerDVD did a great job upconverting to my monitor resolution without all the weird digital artifacts that you get when up-converting a DVD on a blu-ray player on an HD TV.
But now I have TOS on blu ray and watch on an HD TV, and it looks even better.
Kor
I've started buying DS9 on DVD (in the UK), I need the room and those VHS tapes that I have nothing to play on, have to go. I'm keeping the sleeve art though.
This thread has got me wary, so I ignored the complete series collection, and have opted for the single season thinpacks. Halfway through Season 1 so far and no problems.
But I have had DVD delamination issues in the past, and I've always got in touch with the studios to deal with them. Warners changed out my Lethal Weapon discs when they went bad, Fox changed out my X-Files S2 when I discovered a poorly pressed disc six months after I bought it, (the replacement went bad as well ten years later, but by then I simply bought the set again on budget for £10, as opposed to the £110 I originally paid for the SE) MGM replaced my Terminator discs when they went bad. By the time I realised my Sleepy Hollow disc was dodgy, it had been deleted, and no replacement was available. It's always worth contacting the distro to see what they can do.
Now I'm upgrading stuff to Blu-ray, the distros have a way out, when their discs turn out to be incompatible with your player. The electronics company blame the studios for not coding their discs properly, the studios blame the manufacturers for not building up to spec players. Ain't no one accepting responsibility!
EDIT: I always used the BVA to get contact details for their members, although that's in the UK
http://www.bva.org.uk/about-us/our-members/full-members/
This thread has got me wary, so I ignored the complete series collection, and have opted for the single season thinpacks. Halfway through Season 1 so far and no problems.
But I have had DVD delamination issues in the past, and I've always got in touch with the studios to deal with them. Warners changed out my Lethal Weapon discs when they went bad, Fox changed out my X-Files S2 when I discovered a poorly pressed disc six months after I bought it, (the replacement went bad as well ten years later, but by then I simply bought the set again on budget for £10, as opposed to the £110 I originally paid for the SE) MGM replaced my Terminator discs when they went bad. By the time I realised my Sleepy Hollow disc was dodgy, it had been deleted, and no replacement was available. It's always worth contacting the distro to see what they can do.
Now I'm upgrading stuff to Blu-ray, the distros have a way out, when their discs turn out to be incompatible with your player. The electronics company blame the studios for not coding their discs properly, the studios blame the manufacturers for not building up to spec players. Ain't no one accepting responsibility!
EDIT: I always used the BVA to get contact details for their members, although that's in the UK
http://www.bva.org.uk/about-us/our-members/full-members/
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