I picked this set up ten days ago, and have watched the first seven films so far. I have experienced no problems whatsoever. This is a great set. The quality is great for such old films and I enjoy the trailers and production notes. I am sure that there are some defective discs, but this seems to be an exception.

Coco, we agree on something finally. Awesome is a good word to describe this set. I am really tired of some of the nitpicking criticism I read online. Some people seem to have ridiculous standards of quality.

My discs all played fine and I though the movies looked great. Can't even think of asking for more for $20.

Hmmm...
People who don't want their DVDs freezing, pixelating, skipping, and jittering = ridiculous standards of quality
...interesting viewpoint

Reread that HTF thread. Those people are actually complaining about the picture quality and lack of extras. This was what my comments were about. Further, bad discs happen to all companies, so why beat up Universal over something which is not an inherant disc defect?

Exactly, you give people 8 movies for $20 and they still want extras. Personally, I doubt there are many extras worth adding for these movies and I would much rather have 8 for $20 than $20 each with a short documentary and maybe a commentary. There is only so much to say about Abbott and Costello and the Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein commentary and documentary covered much of it.

The quality is fine as well. Better than the budget companies and as good as you can expect from movies this old. I had the Image versions of some of them and I don't think they looked this good. Especially Buck Privates which looks as good as I've ever seen it.

That may be, but this thread discusses technical problems with the disks--disks freezing up, skipping and all that--and, without further clarification, that is the context your comments are taken in. Praises of the abundance of special features should be moved to the Reviews and Recommendations Forum and comments about what a deal you got should be moved to the Bargains Forum, or at least to a different thread in this forum.

By the way, I thought the video transfer was nicely done for this collection, too; and I personally am satisfied with Universal's choice of what to include in the set. However, regardless of price--$5 or $50--every DVD purchased should be playable.

EPKJ, I can't wait for the next set to come out. I'm very happy with the prints used for this set. I hear Universal plans to release all the A&C movies in 3 more volumes to follow this one. If only the rest of their movies (those owned by other studios) would also be released, I'd be a happy camper. As for the technical problems many people have expressed, I'm starting to wonder whether the problem lies in the DVD players used to watch these movies. Maybe since these are double-sided dual layered discs, some of the older players might have problems playing them, such as skipping. I don't know, I only know my set played perfectly from start to finish.

CP

As my post was a direct response to Cocopugg's previous post, that is actually its correct context. You need to pay attention to quotes in responses. They often give context.

As far as quality control, I have seen no evidence that these problems are anything more than typical bad discs which afflict all releases. There seems to be no deluge of posts about defective discs.

I am looking forward to future releases as well. I especially like the informative production notes. They add just enough background to help me appreciate aspects of each film.

Well I did some further testing with my copy of Buck Privates today and determined this does seem to be a player issue. When I tried playing the first chapter of the movie on three other DVD players I own it played without any problems. However these are also my oldest model DVD players. My two newer models are the ones experiencing difficulties with Buck Privates. The players I own are a Toshiba SD 3900, Toshiba SD 3109, Pioneer DVL 909, Liteon DVD 2001, and a Denon 2900. Both the Denon and Liteon models will not play the disc properly. I was going to exchange the disc but wonder if it will make a difference. I think I will play the remaining movies and see what happens.

Both A&C DVDS played fine on my Toshiba player that is about 3 years old. For $20, I'm happy to get them all on DVD with a nice looking transfer too. Looking forward to the next set.

Well, if it plays perfectly on any DVD player, then clearly this is not a disc problem. That is good to know.