Space: Above & Beyond Defect
 

...and no I don't mean the appearance of Babylon 5 in the menu.

I had trouble playing disc 1 side A during episode 3. Pixel breakups and freezes. I took out the disc and noticed a line of dots going across the outer third of the disc. You have to get a light to reflect off the surface just right to see them. No other discs in the set had the dots.

So, I exchange it with Best Buy and look at my new disc 1A and notice a ring of the same dots go around the outermost edge. Pop it in my player and scan through ep 3 just fine, but double check the other eps just in case. Ran into problems during ep 2. Looks like ep 2 is futher out physically on the disc than ep 3 since my original defect (ep 3) was further in the disc than the new error.

Anyway, I go back to Best Buy (The Colonial Best Buy in Orlando, FL), and take a look at a 3rd copy... dots on the surface again. At this point I got a return refund as opposed to an exchange and decided to drive across town to the Waterford Lakes store and had them open a copy at the customer service desk and yet again, dots on the surface.

At this point I gave up after coming across 4 bad copies and will just get Space from somewhere else down the line when it's no longer a Best Buy exclusive.

So, the moral of this story. Check at least your 1st disc, especially if you're in Orlando. I didn't play test the rest of the discs, but on the 2 sets I brought home, there wasn't a dot pattern on any of the other discs, so I'm assuming that the problem is related.

Looks like this is more widespread then FL. I have the same problem with a set I purchased today in southern Wisconsin - same line of dots. Causes pretty severe skipping & stalling in both my set-top DVD player & PC DVD drive.

Maybe we should contact Fox about a replacement, they were pretty good about the Star Wars Episode IV replacement.

Was just about to post something about this myself. I've only watched the pilot and 2nd eps so far but I didn't run into problems at the tail end of the 2nd :( I figured I'd try to finish the set before determining what to do about it.

bought my set in VA and it was fine. sorry to hear about that from others.

That's good to hear. Maybe this means we have a chance of exchanging at Best Buy without going through Fox.

Is it possible to take a photo of the "line of dots" on the disc? I picked up a copy in MA today and don't see anything physically abnormal about the discs. Haven't had a chance to watch any yet, though.

I'm not sure it'll show up very well in a photo, as it is you have to kind of look at it at an angle reflecting a strong light (atleast that's how I was able to see them). It's like a band of bubbles in a arc across the entire disk.

Sorry to hear about that. I got through the first disc without any problems showing up and don't see any dots on any discs. This was bought in Raleigh, NC.

Just looked at mine from Portland and the arc of dots are there :(

Picked mine up in Indiana...

No problems on the first disc or any other.

Mine's from Tulsa, Ok and it has the dots. :(

-Jason

I always wonder...how does this happen? How do lines of dots that cause the discs to skip somehow show up on DVD's shipped all over the country? What could have happened during production to have caused dots to appear on the disc? It's weird.

I'm still :lol: about Babylon 5 on the menu. Talk about announcing to the world that you don't give the slightest shit about your program. Someone at Fox was like "Quick -- put some sci-fi crap on the menu so we can get these to Best Buy pronto!"

It's like they used "space" in google image search and started copy and pasting shit.

Hey now, that sounds like a quality production method.

Actually it wouldn't surprise me if it was someone's idea of a joke that they figured would be caught up the line but never was.

Ok. I just finished the first disc, and even though mine had the line of dots I didn't have any problems with any episodes.

I'm playing it on a Panasonic S77. Might try it on one of my other players and see if it glitches.

-Jason

No playback problems so far. I've finished 2 1/2 discs.

Fingers crossed for the rest.

Well I tried to exchange it today but I guess since I bought it via that special deal w/ Millennium s#3 they would only let me return/repurchase it. Since it's now $12 more I just walked out the door, so essentially a free rental from Best Buy :D I'll probably pick it up again later during one of DDD's sales, hopefully by that time the defect will be completely worked out.

got mine in southern wisconsin also, some pixelation in the 2nd and third episode, but not enough where it was annoying or distracting. Hopefully the rest of the discs will be okay...

Got mine in North Carolina and so far so good! I am on the third disc in the set.


Update! Watched my whole set and all discs played perfect!

Seems like it's up for preorder on Amazon now and one of the "user comments" mentions "It appears that this DVD set has been recalled with a new version on the way (without the illegal use of the Babylon 5 station which was totally inappropriate)." Anyone heard anything about this?

Sounds like a fanboy rumor. Likely they are talking about the wide-distribution release of the set, which is supposed to be identical but I suppose could theoretically get corrected menu screens. I've heard nothing about the Best Buy exclusive being recalled.

Okay, this is even more of a reason for me to wait for the general release.

I picked mine up at the Lynnwood, Washington BB and it had the problem (pixelation, stuttering, pausing and starting) at about 14 minutes into the 2nd episode and continued until about 17 minutes where it froze and stopped altogether. I exchanged it and the exchanged set had the same problems in about the same area of the 2nd episode.

Waiting now to hear if Fox will be exchanging the first disc.