I was re-watching my DVD of The Yakuza for the first time since the Robert Mitchum Signature Series set came out 13 years ago, and a little more than halfway through the movie it starts freezing up and stuttering. I switched players (twice), same deal.

The ironic thing was I was thinking about how good the DVD looked on my HDTV by DVD standards as I was watching the movie. I was really happy with it, and then I couldn't finish the movie.

The real bummer is I was REALLY enjoying the movie and wanted to finish it!

I had a similar problem with Warners' Babylon 5 The Lost Tales DVD. It froze in the the middle of the movie, too. And then I bought another one on ebay only to have IT freeze at the exact same spot. (And I found out a B5 group that it was a common problem with that run.)

I'm really hoping that this is the last one this happens to, because I'd hate to have more DVD's go bad on the shelf.

This seems to be a common occurrence with Warner DVDs caused from the pressing plant they used between 2004-2007. I've had titles like Prince of the City, Cruising and The Hand all fail on me. The titles are usually dual-layer discs and failed at or near the layer-break.

Many of the Warner HD-DVDs suffered the same problem which was not the fault of HD-DVD format itself but the pressing plant that happened to make them at the time.

It's an unfortunate oversight in the manufacturing process which does not reflect the longevity of the format itself.

I believe it was Cinram. Many of the dual-layer DVDs pressed during that era from WB are suspect, though it's not strictly limited to that studio alone.

I haven't checked lately but Warner's customer service can be pretty good about replacing defective DVDs/BDs if they still have stock on hard.

Is that replacement program still going? Because unfortunately I have some 15 HD-DVD Warner titles which are no longer playable.

Does Warner still replace them with DVD/Blu-rays?

They replaced some of my HD-DVDs a few years ago but they were acting like they were doing me a real favor and implied that I shouldn't ask again. I've counted a total of 58 HD-DVDs that have gone bad altogether. I had a few regular DVDs go bad also, they're usually more accommodating replacing those if they're still in print. I sent back several seasons of Tales From the Crypt a while ago which had multiple bad discs and they were replaced with new copies made by Technicolor.