Bought the Complete Epic Series yesterday. Side 1 of disc 1 played fine, but side 2 of disc 1 began to skip during part 2 of "Lost Planet of the Gods" (around 18 minutes into it). It was during the wedding, right after the lone star appears. It skipped to the end of the disc, then the disc stopped playing altogether. When I tried to play the disc again, my player said "disc error." I couldn't get it to play the disc after that.

Today, I exchanged the set for a new one and tried to play the same episode at the same point. The disc loaded fine, but after I selected the episode and hit play the disc stopped. I hit play again and it began to play at the start of the episode, but when I hit chapter skip to get to the wedding scene it jumped to the start of each subsequent chapter momentarily, then stopped playing when it reached the end of the disc. I hit play again and it loaded fine, but when I tried to choose the chapter I wanted from the chapter menu the disc stopped again. I finally gave up trying to view this episode.

Anyone else having problems like these? I'm playing it on a Zenith DVD/VCR combo XBV342. It's fairly new, and I've watched dozens of other DVDs on it with no problems whatsoever. Even more complicated DVDs with seamless branching play fine on it, so I tend to think the problem is with the disc. I haven't tried the other discs in the BG set because if even one disc doesn't work I want a new set.

I know what you're saying. I'm hearing voices that sound like cheap plastic robots. A muffled "By Your Command" or something.

Could be a bad batch.

Well, I agree with you on that. But, having a 6-disc set, I’d get curious before I made a trip back to the store.

How bout trying a coupla more discs to test a theory of mine. Let’s say, disc 3, side 2 and disc 6, side 2.

I tried watching the same episode on another player. It played fine on a JVC XV-D723GD. I guess there's just a compatibility issue between the disc and Zenith player. I'll try the rest of the discs on the Zenith to see if they're compatible or not.

I don't understand why there are still compatibility issues between DVDs and players these days. DVDs have been around for years now, so why isn't there an industry standard for discs that guarantees they'll play on all of today's players? For instance, the subtitles on The Phantom Menace won't play correctly on the JVC XV-D723GD, and Back to the Future II won't play beyond the menu on the same player; yet both discs play just fine on the Zenith XBV342. Now this Battlestar disc will play on one player but not the other. It's so frustrating.

I thought I saw a pciture that had 6 discs with pictures on them. Did they change the release to be 6 flippers?

I don’t know the pic you’re referring to, but the back of that gawd awful box clearly shows disc art. Deceptive advertising?

There’s a mix of DVD-14s in there. Now, I didn’t even know there was such a thing until I did some research last night.

I feel compelled to bitch about the “flipper” nature of the discs. I thought we were past that sort of thing. And I really dislike handling two-sided discs.

But, more importantly, the DVD-14s seem to be fubar. Joe Schmoe is having trouble with disc 1, I’m having trouble with 3 and 6. And all the problems are on the single-layer side.

Coincidence?

I'm having trouble with disc 3 (the single layer side)

It looks like disc 4 and 5 are not flippers but all the other ones are.. and some of the flippers are different format? The way they made the discs just had no rhyme or reason.. almost like Universal said "I don't care what's best, just fit everything onto 6 discs, no more no less!!!.. Quality, looks and ease of use comes second.."

It's also hard as hell to pop the discs out of the holder.. I've been very disappointed at Universal lately--botched BTTF set, forced trailers and now this!!

--mike

It sure is! I'm afraid to crack the damn discs! Any way we can chisel the holders down to make them more accessible??

Yep. Get yourself a 6-disc Alpha case and wait for the inevitable cover from DVDCoverArt. This also eliminates the problem of what to do with that ubergeek box.

I've never had such trouble prying discs out. On the other side of the spectrum, the discs in the Babylon 5 sets will fly out if you fart in the same room.

Came up with a solution: Take a nail file and gently sand the bottom two clips on the Battlestar center rings. The discs are still held snugly, but do not bend or resist when you pull them out.

I haven't tried discs 3 or 6 yet because I'm watching the episodes in order. I tried the first episode on disc 2 (side 1) last night. When I selected the episode and hit play, the disc stopped. I hit play again. It played fine, but I don't know why the disc first stopped.

As for the discs, they're all flippers except discs 4 and 5, so none of them have artwork. There's nothing on side 2 of discs 4 and 5. Cosmetically speaking, I could care less that the discs are flippers. The inner 6-disc case and booklet have enough artwork, and they look great. If Universal had put artwork on the discs, the set would have required 10 discs. That would have been ridiculous.

I don't understand what the big deal is with the box. I like it, but if you don't, you can toss it and put the inner 6-disc case on your shelf along with your other DVDs. I agree it's tough to get the discs out, but I doubt they'll crack when you try to remove them. I once tried to snap a CD in half by bending it like a taco shell, but it returned to its flat shape as soon as I released it. CDs and DVDs are pretty strong.

Oh no, they can in fact shatter. I did it once when I tried to extract some CDs from a very tight double jewel case. Thankfully they were only some CD-Rs I had made.

-HM

Joe, feeling a bit cranky today?

Yup, they can crack. I’ve had two crack (delaminate) at the center hub

10 discs? Uh, not quite. Since BG is 1.33:1, it doesn’t take up as much disc space as an anamorphic presentation. You can easily get 245 minutes on a DVD-9. Of course, there’s extra space needed for the commentary track on the pilot episode. But even so, it comes out to – guess what – 6 discs with plenty of room for extras.

“Cosmetically speaking,” I couldn’t care less about disc art. But, as I mentioned, I dislike handling two-sided discs. The reason should be obvious.

Oh, another thing about disc art: try putting disc 4 or 5 in a computer dvd drive the wrong side up. Just make sure you have a way of manually extracting it before you try.

Wizdar,

Where did you hear that Full Frame takes less space than anamorphic widescreen?

Anamorphic Widescreen is squashed when encoded (ie: that's how it is on the tape)

Whether your final image is widescreen or fullframe, it's still 720x480 (NTSC) on the DVD.

Seems I read it somewhere (The Digital Bits, I think), that an anamorphic transfer has more lines of resolution.

Which is neither here nor there, because even if I’m wrong, you can still get at least 245 minutes of 4:3 program in a DVD-9.

(BTW, welcome to the forum.)

Drama....

I blame it all on those pesky Ovions.

…and intrigue.

I conned the guy at my local Sams into exchanging my set. (I got the first set by mail from Canada.)

All is well.

I still wish they had spent the money they paid on those stoopid boxes to clean up the prints a little. But whatcha gonna do?

What really pisses me off, though, is I never thought to use “felgercarb” in any of my previous posts, and now the opportunity’s gone.

Frack!

http://www.rixgrafix.com/index_048.htm

Andrea, very cool! Now my day’s complete.

Thanks.

As a bonus, I got a look at what my DS-9 set will look like when it’s complete.

Thanks Andrea!!!

Wizdar,

Thanks for the welcome. I didn't mean to dispute the amount of video you can fit on a DVD-9 (Thought I had left that bit out of the quote!)

BTW: How does the picture quality look on the set? Have you noticed any compression artefacts and whatnot? 245mins on a DVD-9 I make to be about 4Mbs which aint brilliant.

Matt

Cranky? Just a tad disappointed that this thread has gotten way off topic, but oh well!

I guessed 10 discs because they originally used 6 discs but not all 12 sides. They used 10 sides, so I just figured if they put artwork on side 1 of each disc, they'd end up using 10 discs.

Ok, now that I got my BG set, where do I get a 6-disc Alpha case ? Anywhere locally in San Diego?