grunter

According to the official New Line Cinema website FAQ

you can write to the following email address to complain about a defective DVD: [email protected]

I suggest all persons having difficulty with the "Two Towers" DVD write in to this address and at least report the problem, such that the powers-that-be at New Line know that we're not happy with the situation.

When I pay my money for a DVD of a film release as major as the "Two Towers," I expect the damn thing to work. Let's let New Line know that they royally screwed this release up.

Please.

Iron_Giant

Here is an email I sent to New Line concerning the Chap 51 Freeze...

Please add me to the list of people who are having a problem with your LOTR: TTT DVD.

I bought a disk in a Colorado Walmart and it has the Chap 51 freeze, I tried cleaning the disk but nothing would work. So, I returned it to a Best Buy here in California. The new DVD does the same thing, freezes at Chap 51.

I have looked through several DVD forums, and all of them report the same problem (not every DVD player has the chap 51 freeze, Sony seems to be the worse. But, Sony is not a "CHEAP" DVD player).

Well, you can now add another DVD player to the list, LOTR: TTT will do the Chap 51 freeze on my CyberHome CH-DVD 300. This is the 1st time I have had any problems playing back a DVD on the player. Now we can say the that the problem is NOT only with a certain DVD player.

New Line has always had top of the line DVD with no problems (atleast for me), so my only question is:

What is New Line going to do about the Chap 51 freeze problem?

Thanks

kelemvor

Original poster, add the info about the email from above to the first post so people see it and can get lots of emails sent in.

I have an old Sony DVP-S360 so we'll see what happens...

RussG

No problems on my Sony NS715P. Maybe I got lucky.

Apocrypha

I have two copies both from Walmart
they both have no problems I have tried them in 4 different machines
RCA
Dingtian
Panasonic
Go Video

GMLSKIS

No problems on my Sony DVP-NS700P.

Being that's my main player I won't even bother with if it works okay on my computers or other player.

cello_player

I got the same ~15 second freeze/jump at Chapter 51 on my Sony 3000 (it's an oldie but still a goodie...) I got my TT discs at Wal-Mart in Nashville, TN.

Dazed

Seems fine on my PS2

TenaciousD

I got my copy from Best Buy and it skips on Ch. 51. I own a Denon 2900 and it skips 3 seconds.

Goldberg74

Best Buy. Freezes for 6 secs. Cyberhome DVD Player.

I'll play it in the other 3 that I have and see how it goes.

Josh-da-man

Got my DVD for fourteen bucks at a Wal-Mart, and it plays without any problems on my nearly five-year-old Toshiba player.

bunkaroo

I had the chapter freeze on a Philips 793C (disc purchased from Best Buy). Here's the weird part...

On Thursday I read about the glitch so I popped in the disc and went to the referenced part. No problems whatsoever.

I finally watched the film last night, and I did have the problem.

Now here's what changed between the two viewings:

1) When I checked it Thursday, the player had just been turned on. When I watched it last night, the player had been on approx. 7 hours (watching FOTR:EE and TTT back to back.)

2) When I checked it Thursday, the player was set to my S-video output and non-progressive scan. Last night it was on progressive scan and had been switched to its component outputs (I just took delivery of a 57" Toshiba 16:9 set yesterday). I can't understand why this would cause the problem, but I wanted to mention it anyway.

As a side note, I kept going back to the scene, and it kept freezing, although you could scan backward and play from any point after the freeze/jump point. I then shut off the player for a couple minutes, leaving the player at chapter 51 after the glitch. When I turned it back on, once it started inside chapter 51 I skipped back to the beginning of Chapter 51 before the glitch. This time it played through OK. I then skipped back into chapter 50 and moved forward, and I had the problem again. I'm going to test this theory again this morning. Is it possible this problem is being triggered by the chapter break?

I may go replace my copy today just for the hell of it, but I am not encouraged about getting a good replacement. As long as there is not a similar glitch on the EE, I'll be OK in the long run.

mediabear

I bought my copy at Target and had read about the problems with the freeze before I watched it. I watched it on my Philips DVD player and all went well. My husband had to leave for work during the last 25 minutes of the film, so the following day we put the disc back in so he could finish the movie. This time, the skip appeared.

Thanks for posting the New Line information. I threw out my receipt after the DVD played fine the first time.

grunter

Ok - from what I've heard and read here and there on the 'net, people are generally assuming that this is merely a bad batch of TTT discs.

If that's the case, how long do you think someone should wait before returning their defective copy before the stores have re-stocked with corrected and/or non-defective TTT discs? I've heard stores re-stock at anywhere between 7 to 10 days. Is that too optimistic? Should I wait a few weeks before getting a new copy? Will it even matter? Is the defect something inherent in the DVD manufacturing/mastering process that will show up in all future pressings of the theatrical version of the disc?

I'm really seriously pissed about this disc. But I'm unsure as to how to proceed. It seems like a waste of time - right this instant - to go out and replace the defective disc.

Has anyone had any luck returning their Ch. 51 skip-disc and finding a copy thereafter that actually worked (in their Sony player)??

Spiky

Hmm. Both theatrical and EE versions of FOTR have had intermittent problems in my Sony D360, as well as many other discs. But they always played fine in my Malata and the EE at least plays well in my new Denon. My uncle's D560 hasn't had problems like this, I think Sony seems to be prone to certain models having playback problems.

I better try my TTT quick (I've only checked out some of disc 2 so far) to make sure I don't have problems. I'd expect them in the Sony (it was never great and is dying), but it better play correctly in the Denon or I'll be pissed.

Ravenous

I tested TTT on 2 Panasonic (differrent models and features)players and it worked fine. In fact, Ive seen the movie twice already and I had no problems. But when I read about this glitch I popped it on my Sony Playstation 2 and it freezes at 51 and jumps ahead to the next chapter (somewhere in the middle). When I tried rewinding it, the thing froze and the screen went black with the words "No Information found".

This really pisses me off! Though my living room Panasonic is the main one we always watch movies on, and I rarely see any DVDs in my room, I still didnt pay for a piece of **** disc. I'll probably return it to Wal Mart right when the 30 days are almost passed

catracho

No problems with my sony dvd player ns315

I bought my TTT dvd in Amazon

grunter

Any more word on how to fix this?

Goldberg74

Tested it my 4 year old RCA 5220P, worked fine.

Tested it in my PC on a Sony DVD-Rom (DDU1612), worked fine.

Tested it on my Apple Matashita CD/DVD SR-8584A, worked fine.

Still hiccups in my Cyber Home DVD player (as noted above).

I'm befuddled...

grunter

I suppose I'm the only one whose completely livid over this situation. But dammit - I want a copy of the THEATRICAL RELEASE of this film to "effin'" work!!

I have this fear that this whole issue will be glossed over or completely ignored by New Line and we'll simply have the defective version out in the general public and no other alternatives. To me, that's a big crock o' crap.

The diagnostics menu for the Sony players that's apparently in the 500's series doesn't exist for the 300's - as far as I can tell. Unless someone can clue me in as to some "backdoor" way to get to it - some way that's not detailed in my disc player manual.

Is my only hope at this point to return the damn disc and seek out a bootleg somewhere? I know I'm obsessing over this one disc - but dammit, this is the only film I've been waiting and waiting and waiting to have come out on DVD. In fact, it's the first DVD I've bought on day of release in months and months and months.

I'm just so friggin' frustrated and pissed off about this . . .

GRRRRRRRR!!!!

bunkaroo

Update:

I got a new copy from the same Best Buy I got the original from.

No skip on this one. I went back and forth several times, and even went from chapter 50 on to allow for the natural chapter progression...never froze once. We'll see if it stays that way.

I suppose it is possible the BB I went to is selling from a second "batch", because if not I have no idea why this one works better...

TheOne

Played fine on my Toshiba SDK620

grunter

Still haven't heard diddly from New Line as to the batch . . .

Dammit.

buckee1

Played it on my Tosh 3109/2109 no problems.

Deckard-10

I didn't experience the Chapter 51 glitch on my Sony DVP-NS900V or my 6-yr old Philips DVD405AT. &nbsp The only problem I have is a layer change that stops my Sony dead in its tracks for a good 5 seconds!