I just bought ADV Reg1 2001: Lost Memories last week and spun it up on Saturday. [The DVD was released about two weeks ago] When I reached chapter 17, the center channel audio shot off into the right front speaker and stayed there for the remainder of the film. No more audio info was coming from the center speaker at all. At this point, the experience was blown with this film so I stopped the DVD and did some testing .. come to find out, if I were to complete the movie on Saturday without the unacceptable distraction, I would have to switch to English dubbing (I subtitle all my foreign movies). This time, the audio information for the center channel was coming from my left rear surround speaker. Unusual

So, I proceeded to do some more testing and can confirm that it is a fault of the the DVD itself, I'm 95% on that. I emailed ADV films Saturday and am waiting for a response. I'm interested in what they have to say.

I'd say it is fair game to start wailing on their name online like this since they have yet to respond to my problem.

Anyone else have any similar problems with this disk? Secondly, has anyone here had to deal with ADV Films' customer support? Any luck ... ?

Thanks

ADV is usually pretty good about addressing problems with their DVDs with customers.....I watched 2009 the other day, but had it on English dub....

Instead of an e-mail, I'd suggest a phone call...it's harder to ignore you when you're on the phone.

(713) 341-7100 Option 1 (customer service)

Thanks for the info trib ... I'll give it a shot tomorrow.

No prob. BTW, I thought Jeff Robinson's review (www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=13349) was spot on: really neat premise, really great ideas, but it ends up being like so many movies before it. The 'what if' start of 2009 really could have been expanded on, but instead just becomes backdrop for the action.

Heh .. when I get past chapter 17, I'll better be able to offer up some feedback on your opinion

ADV seems to be having a few issues like this recently.

Their recently released Rahxephon : The Movie (anime) had the same problem, but in reverse. The first half of the movie had all vocals coming from the right front speaker, then eventually shifted back to center.

I contacted ADV HERE

and they sent me a corrected version free-of-charge. Sometimes they will send you a pre-payed UPS shipping slip and ask you to send the defective copy in before they ship the replacment, other times they send you a replacement right away.

Was there any resolution on this, visitor Q? I spotted this at Best Buy for $10.99, and I thought I might pick it up.

The bad news, yes and no!! While ADV did send me another copy, it too had the identical problem as the first. They said they would send me a "corrected" copy once one was available (even without having to return the original), but I can't quite lock onto what exactly they fixed.

Needless to say, I completed the film after the second viewing as distracted as Hell - and wasn't impressed with the film content after that point .. so I've decided I won't pursue this any further as I got it at an almost "throw away" price anyway. The next time something gets released by ADV, I will look for other region releases before committing to them again.

My impression with their customer service was sincerity and dilligence towards my problem (they called me at work the following day of my initial call to clarify their intentions), but their follow up was sorely bland. More care definately could have gone into quality control before sending out another defective disk.

If I were you, I'd carefully review what version you buy. Perhaps they will do a rerelease with the correctly pressed soundtrack, but I haven't seen any of the older versions disappear off the shelves - so there will be a mixed bag in inventory floating around out there. If you want this film, check out some other region .. as I'm aware of two others floating around. And I believe one of them might be a region 0, but I can't be 100% on that.

Best of luck ....

ps .. as a side note, ADV did confirm that this is a known defect .. so beware.

Thanks for the (bad) news. I am curious about this film, and while I do have multi-region viewing capability, I can think of a lot of other films I'd rather import. The ADV release would have been an easy way to use up the remaining balance on a gift card, but I guess I'll use it on something else.

I asked about this title a while back and was basically persuaded to stay away from it as it really isn't as good as the trailers leave it out to be. Basically the idea of Korea doing sci-fi stuff is just not a very good idea.

Awwwww, Mike. I can't .. well, actually can believe that you said that. With 2009, they actually penned a fairly intriguing story .. recycled or not. It's just that after about 50% in, the pen blew up and God only knows what happened next.

I know there's a thread hanging around out there somewhere in DVDTalk about S. Korea's sci-fi offerings, and I think S. Korea has some promise going forward even though their record is flawed. I suppose it's not so good to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed Natural City even through it's whacky pacing. At least they are developing. With the new Korean "Hollywood" in the works and a strong interest in Korean film from other areas of the Asian world, I think there will be some great film coming out of their direction right around the bend - including Sci-fi. Their technology is there already, they just need some drivers.