Yes, especially with a release of this magnitude! It plays fine on my Toshiba SD-1600 but by pausing and frame-forwarding I do see what the problem is. Every fourth and fifth frame has a "shake" wherever there's an action sequence. (ie. arms moving, whatever.) Even though it plays fine on my current player, who's to say it'll be okay on the next one?

Remember HOLY GRAIL: SE and the subtitle glitch? Luxury!

Yeah, I've seen the "light" - I did the freeze frame progression and I saw the blurring. Just glad I can't see it normally!

It plays fine on my Integra DPS-9.1, but I also see the jiggling when I pause and frame-forward. *whew* :-)

Interactual is Win 98SE and newer only

I didn't read every thread in this post, so maybe somebody else has posted this DVD Review comment on this release. Scroll down to the title "Universal screws up yet another time".

I can't believe another MP disc gets screwed up. Why does it keep happening? I'm glad I didn't bite so quickly on this disc as I did with Holy Grail. I'm also glad that I still have my OOP copy to help me wait until they fix the problem.

I just received an email from Universal asking that I turn off progressive scan to see if it still happens. But my Panny is not PS?

Universal screwed up, plain and simple. It's obvious there are more bumbling idiots at that company than competent DVD makers. Their suggestion to try turning off progressive scan makes me want to puke all over them.

I'm having the same issues with my cheapo APEX AD-1500, so some non-progressive scan machines cannot play this disc as well. I just finished sending my email complaint to Universal, asking to be informed on the "sooner-or-later" recall of this title.

The Progressive scan email was a form letter sent to everyone by Universal. Hopefull they have gotten enough responses to recall and replace the discs.

They sent me an email saying
To turn progressive scan on to see if that helps, I don't have a progressive scan player yet.
Gee thanks Universal, just make with the replacement discs already.

I guess I lucked out on this one! It played just fine on my Sony 530D. I almost feel like bitching to Universal just on principle though!

If it jitters on pause, slo-mo or fast forward, I highly reccomend you complain, just because it is watchable doesn't make it a good disc! You are also allowing Universal to turn a blind eye to the flawed discs by ignoring the problem and potentially leaving a percentage of viewers without the ability to watch this film because you can't be bothered to complain about this flaw. Please, for those of us who love this film and cannot stand to watch a great transfer ruined by a bad quality control mistake, go to you emails and scream... I AM MAD AS HE-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!

And what's up with DVD Talk's official stance on this? They seem to keep trying to minimize the problem as well. Their review still lists the disc as "recommended" and the brief mention of the problems is modified with a "my machine handles these problems quite well"-type statement.

Now on the main page I see a news item that says, "Apparently there are some compression issues which effect 2 out of every 5 consecutive frames, this results in a shaky or blurry image on some DVD Players (not all)."

What's with the pussyfooting around? The disc is friggin' defective! The above statement makes it sound like the complaints are all about still frames, which completely misses the point. The complaints are that the disc is completely unwatchable on a wide array of players. And I suspect that those who claim they have no problems just aren't seeing the same degree of picture break-up. Like I said above, I've got a Panny (one of the machines that people are saying the disc plays fine on) and I still see some ghosting during movement.

I'm guessing Geoff is limited on what he can say about stuff like this on the site. (Convoy is another example) Perhaps it is the fear of lawsuits (though DVD Review blasted this DVDs problems and Universal on its front page) or perhaps he is trying to keep good relationships with the studios to help get content for the site. I do miss the DVD talk of old when Geoff himself started a major campaign to get Princess Mononoke released with the original Japanase soundtrack and he was more involved with threads and discussions in general.

I agree the site seems rather apathetic of late, but we probably don't know all the reasons why. On a positive note Trigger's request for the word shit to be allowed was approved.

All I know is that with the recent Universal screw-ups, I will not purchase another of their DVDs until after I have seen what people on here say about them. And possibly not buy anything from them anymore until they have gotten past all the quality issues.

on my progressive toshiba sd-4700, if my player is set to "auto", everything plays fine. interestingly, if it is set to "video" it plays fine. but if it is set to "film", i get the distortion lines, ect.

so the content flag is wrong. film SHOULD be fine, not video. they're got it backwards...

You guys can count me in on this one. I got my copy the other day, and when I put in the first disc, and played the movie, it didn't take long to see that this disc is screwed up. I was not very happy at all.

I'm going with what Schmegga said. I'll never buy another Universal DVD untill I see that people aren't complaining much. I made a mistake this time I will not make it again.

I will be sending my polite, but angry E-mail to them tomorrow.

If Universal's response to complaints about this product (not to mention all of the negative press this has garnered all over the web) is simply to email a form letter suggested people turn off progressive scan, they should be publicly flogged. This is typical of big business beurocracy... ignore the problem and hope it goes away. Universal should have been investigating this issue after the first couple of complaints (hell, they should have stopped delivery after having the product "quality controlled" - which, I believe, was never even done).

I don't believe in playing "devil's advocate" and trying to imagine what scenario would let Universal off the hook. This was simply a massive SNAFU that is becoming all too familiar with Universal's product.

Eric

I don't remember if this question was asked and answered.
If this is indeed a mastering problem the question might be stupid....but since I know little about the process and standards....here goes...

Since there are both the theatrical and the director's versions of the film on disk one....are both versions funky?

Here's what Universal sent me today:

"Thank you for contacting Universal Studios. With the advent of cutting-edge technology in the DVD format, a small number of DVD players do not have the technical capability to take full advantage of the "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life" disc format. Universal Studios Home Video has become aware of a player specific issue which results in the appearance of jagged video interlacing, on disc 1 only. Disc 2 is NOT affected. Consumers with an incompatible player may mail back Disc 1 to Universal and receive a replacement. To obtain a pre-paid USPS envelope in which to mail back the original Disc 1, please call 1-800-433-4673. Replacement discs are currently scheduled to be available mid-November 2003.

We appreciate your patronage and hope you continue to enjoy our products.

Sincerely,
Universal Studios Home Video"

....notice how this email suggests that the disc's imperfections are the fault of my lousy DVD player? Man, does Universal HV ever need to clean house.

As I wrote earlier in this forum, I was in fact able to circumvent the problem by switching video modes on my MALATA, but the fact remains that I have over a thousand DVDs and I have not, before now, run into the problem of a particular title being...er, too advanced for my system.

So I got that going for me.

Be a little greatful there on this so fast! It took quite a while for CTHV to even admit there was any problem at all with 'Holy Grail'. Sure it would be nice if this didn't happen but none of us are perfect. Personally I'm more angry at Universal for sitting on thier 'classic horror and sci-fi titles' than for messing up on a couple titles (OK 3 0r 4). They always make good in the end.

I called the number (1-800-433-4673): They'll read the above statement (Thanks you for contacting Universal etc., etc.), ask for your zip code, name, address phone-number, where you purchased the DVD and thats it. A pre-paid return envelope (disc one only) is on the way (same deal as 'Back to the Future').

Glad they are offering a quick solution, but its sad they have to lie about what is causing the problem. Its sad we live in a society were no one ever can admit to making a mistake. At least they are fixing it though so I give them credit for that.

Like darkside says, glad they are fixing it... but disappointed that they just can't say 'we screwed up'. Much like the BTTF fiasco, the description of the issue from them is full of misinformation. Incorrect 3:2 pulldown has NOTHING to do with 'incompatible hardware'. It has EVERYTHING to do with screwing up the transfer to disc.

And, just when is Universal going to realize that hiring a single, capable QA person would cost them significantly less than all of these through-the-mail recall/replacements? Hell, they could just send out the test masters for the discs to DVD web sites prior to replication and catch 99.99% of these issues.

It would save them time, money, hassle... and also prevent the bad vibe that they currently have. I cringe every time I buy a Universal title now thinking "What are they going to screw up this time?"

Big thanks for providing that number....weird that the guy that I talked to could barely read...T--th-thank You for C--call-in-ng Mont--y Py--thon I thought I was talking to a NY cab driver for a second!