Abbott & Costello Vol 1 Problems ?
 

Has anyone experienced any problems with these disks ?
I've heard a lot of people are having problems with disks freezing up.

Re: Abbott & Costello Vol 1 Problems ?
 

I've only played one movie on the first disk, but no problems so far.

Just curious though, when you say "I've heard.....", where are you hearing this?

Re: Abbott & Costello Vol 1 Problems ?
 

Link, please?

Re: Re: Abbott & Costello Vol 1 Problems ?
 

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...=&pagenumber=3

Thanks for the link to the "Best of A&C, Vol. 1" discussion. I'll start watching the disks this weekend and see if I discover any of the reported glitches. God, I hope not; my fingers are crossed.

I'm not happy with the substantial drop in quality of manufacturing of DVDs lately. Many disks being released nowadays seem unplayable or at least unplayable on a number of DVD players. I bought and watched about 150 DVDs in 2003 without any problems, but about 20% of the disks I've gotten in 2004 have been defective, i.e., the disks pixelate, freeze and/or skip. Someone at the New York Times should do an expose on this rising issue.

Argh! I was going to buy this today. Now I might hold off.

I hope this alleged problem is solved before Universal's upcoming Monster Legacy set is released.

I watched them all, they look fine. The problem is probably with people who have older DVD players. With newer players, you will get the slight layer change pause, but then the movie plays fine. It does for me.

CP

Encouraging. Sounds like the problems listed on HTF are hit or miss - all related to layer changes.

Mine seems to have a problem on Hold that Ghost (the only one I've watched so far). In the scene were Costello is about to be grabbed from behind as he sits in bed (right around the Ch12/13 break) it skips back nearly to the beginning of the movie. It did it on a Sony 5DVD player (don't recall the model # off hand but it's been a solid player so far) but on the player in my computer it seems to be fine. There was a blemish on the disk itself so maybe that was the problem.

I just got this from Amazon. Had to send it back because there was a huge scratch across the second disk. Probably due to the packaging, which, when closed, forces both discs against each other. If they line up correctly, the hubs should prevent actual touching. But, if not, the hubs look as if they can actually damage the discs. I hate this kind of packaging. The "Green Acres" set came like this as well. I wish there was some sort of separator in between the discs. I also ordered "3 Days of the Condor" and had to send that back as well. The cover was bunched-up all the way past the top opening, and when security tape was removed, it ripped the whole top part off.

I've only watched the 1st 2 movies, no problems here. I don't understand why they didn't put the layer break in-between the 2 movies instead of partway thru the 2nd. Another thing, I had a hell of a time figuring out which side of the disc was which, that was some small print!

I'm not dumping the set, but if I run into any layer-change problems on the other side/disk, I may end up ripping and burning 8 individual DVDRs.

$2.00 a movie, guys!

Everything plays fine on mine, except ...

The Andrews Sisters sound so much worse than what I remember as a kid. Ugh!

I watched Hold That Ghost yesterday, and there indeed were a couple of seconds of pixelation/jittering/skip when the bus first pulls up to the haunted house. I'm using an Onkyo DVD player purchased new in 2003, so I wouldn't blame the players. It's looking like poor quality control of the disks.

I noted that Deluxe Global Media Services, Inc., was the company that manufactured the disks for Universal. I thought Universal did a fairly good job with the video transfer and with the DVD design (including at least trailers and subtitles for each movie), so this company is the one that should probably get the blame, even though Universal should really be more adamant about ensuring quality from their contractors.

http://www.disctronics.co.uk/index.htm
http://www.bydeluxe.com/home/

Quality control from Universal? You're kidding, right?

The real question is what will Universal do about this? If one has a faulty disc, will one be able to return it to the company for a disc which is functional? I had success returning a fullscreen disc to them when the BACK TO THE FUTURE set was released and they sent the appropriate widescreen disc a couple weeks later.

I wonder if it is the fact that more discs are being manufactured faster... that is causing quality standards to go down... but I agree that somebody should look into it...

I have only had time to watch Who Done It and Hold That Ghost and they both played fine on my Toshiba.

Finished watching the last of them today and the only one that had a problem was the aforementioned Hold That Ghost.

Hmm, I knew that things might sound too good to be true with this set. But at this price point per film, I'll take the chance and buy it.

Hold That Ghost played fine on my Sony 725P.

No problems with either disc on my JVC 600 that'll play everything. Damn, I love this set so much, can't wait for Vol. 2!.

Hammer, you hit the nail on the head <g>. Abbott and Costello were the funniest guys ever for Universal, I'm so happy they are finally releasing the boy's work on DVD. The quality of the set looks awesome. No problems playing either disc for me either. Can't wait for the next volume!

CP

Hold That Ghost played fine on my Toshiba SD4700. I like the look of the DVD case too. Kinda has a retro look to it sitting next to the newer movies. One quibble I have is that calling this "best of" is a bit of a misnomer. It's really just the first eight movies.....unless of course you consider all of their movies to be their best.

Anyway, loved Hold That Ghost. Have no clue how long it's been since I last saw that.

I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy these. Being a huge Abbott And Costello fan (I actually memorized the enite 'Who's on First?' skit in the second grade, I still remember it.) I would have had them on their orignal release date if not for all the problems people were having. I wanted yo ask about the packaging, is it presented in a double alpha? or a cardboard sleeve with two slimline cases inside?

I just got a copy of this DVD and found out tonight it's defective. The opening chapter of Buck Privates freezes and pixelates. I see someone in the HTF thread had the same problem with the movie. Once I skip to chapter 2 the rest of the movie plays fine. I'm not even going to bother with the other movies until I exchange this one for another copy. I tried playing it on 2 of my DVD players and they both had the same problem.

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.