Problem with Dracula Legacy Collection
 

Is anyone else experiencing problems with "Dracula: The Legacy Collection"?

On "Son of Dracula" mine freezes up about halfway thru chapter 14.

Is anyone else having this problem?

Mine would freeze up during Son of Dracula. Can't remember exact scene but seems like it's at a jail. My disc was a floater like so many and I assumed it was just scratched. Exchanged it and had no further problems.

That's exactly where mine freezes!

mine has no visible scratches however,

now my next question...what's a floater?

A floater is when you get a new DVD and it's not on the hub... floating loose in the case. This is why, before you buy a DVD in a store, you gently shake the case to hear if it rattles.

And even if it does, you buy it anyway, because DVD scratches, 99.99% of the time, do no damage and the disc(s) play just fine.

Sorry, had to say it. I've never understood this obsession with scratches on CDs, game discs, or DVDs. I've had discs that look like they've been thru blenders, and they always play fine. But maybe I've just been extremely lucky with eleven thousand or so discs over the last 20 years.

I had issues with my Invisible Man Legacy Collection. I just chalked it up to Universal's shitty disc manufacturing.

I've received a few floaters through buying online and have not had a problem. But if you have a floater there's always the chance the hub is broken. If I have a choice, I'd rather not take a chance and buy the non-floater.

True, I admit to doing that as well. But if the last copy is a floater I'll still buy it. I've accumulated enough empty cases to swap out ones with broken hubs or corners pretty easily.

And I'll echo the disdain for Universal's often crappy disc manufacturing. They have several sets I want, but would rather not get the DVD-18s with all the reported problems.

This is the problem with DVD-18 manufacturing. My Dracula set plays fine on my PS3, but on other players it will freeze. I think mine freezes on Dracula's Daughter, but it has been awhile since I tried it. Thankfully Universal finally stopped producing these, but I had similar issues with other Universal DVD 18s like the Bela Lugosi collection, Abbott and Costello Franchise sets and Orgasmo. The odd thing is some players can handle these discs and get past the errors that freeze other players. The PS3 for some reason can and when I owned an Denon player it also could play them without freezing.

The issue is definitely with the disc manufacturing though and that is why Universal stopped producing them after all the complaints.

Personally, I feel like I paid for a clean disk I should get a clean disk. Second, I don't necessarily watch what I purchase right away so I don't know if it will play or not when I do get around to it so again I want that comfort level. Third, scratches if they are deep enough could cause problems done the road that didn't initially. Lastly, scratches can hurt resale value if you do decide to sell any later on the used market.

I also do the shake test before purchasing and I will always return disks I receive where case hubs have been damaged since that can result in scratches down the road. If the disks have any scratches or scuff marks other then the very lightest I will also return them for replacements.

My feeling is I pay good money for them and I want to try to get them to last as long as possible and that means staying in pristine condition.

Here is a good thread with a list of the Universal DVD-18s and many of our frustrations dealing with them.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread....ghlight=dvd-18

Thankfully DVD-18 manufacturing isn't happening anymore, but old releases (mostly TOD titles) most likely won't get a re-release on a Single or Dual Layer disc. I don't think I had any problems with the Legacy discs, but I had problems with Universal's Kolchak: The Night Stalker release. I think it was the end of the second episode where it start skipping and little compression blocks were all over the screen. It happened at the beginning of the third episode as well and after that I just took it out and got an exchange. The exchanged set had the same problems, so I just gave up and didn't watch anymore of the episodes.

I think that is the only trouble I have had with Universal's DVD-18s. I had more hiccups with FOX's DVD-18s. The Pretender and NYPD: Blue both had skipping issues on a few episodes. Other than that I have been pretty lucky.

As you studiously ignore the smirks and stares of store employees.

Update: Of course the "Dracula: LC" was the last copy at the store I bought it from, so I had to buy it somewhere else.

This time disc 2 WAS a floater and had visible scratches and it performed fine! The previous one (which would freeze up) was locked into the hub and had no visible scratches.


...bizarre.