Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

I just sent Jon an email to confirm that I will receive a replacement disc if I send this one in before I include it with the others that have problems.

My present conundrum is whether or not to send in the listed discs that I own, which presently are playable. Without any way to identify if a disc is part of the "bad pressing," my main fear is that I might have a bad disc that simply hasn't turned yet.

Walkabout is completely bronzed and unplayable.

M is not really bronzed, but you can see some cloudiness around the outer edge of the disc and my PS3 could not play it 2 out of 3 times. The one time the disc loaded, Chapter 1 would not play, it skipped to Chapter 2, then froze.

The Pierrot Le Fou disc looks fine, but freezes up during Chapter 14 around the 01:01:05 mark.

So, I'm weighing whether or not to send in Howards End, The Seventh Seal, and Paris, Texas even though I was able to skip through each of them lest they simply "turn" sooner rather than later. I'd hate to wait and then have them turn at a point when they may be OOP.

Any one else sending in discs "to play it safe?"

For what it's worth here are the purchase dates for each:

Pierrot Le Fou - 10/6/09 (released 9/22/09)
Walkabout - 5/18/10 (released 5/18/10)
M - 5/24/10 (released 5/10/10)
The Seventh Seal - 7/22/09 (released 6/16/09)
Howards End - 11/12/09 (released 11/3/09)
Paris, Texas - 7/13/10 (released 1/26/10)

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

They have padded envelopes For DVDs? And then what we get reimbursed for shipping?

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

:lol: no. It'll cost you a few dollars tops to send just the discs out. Criterion will obviously cover the shipping for the replacements, as they'll likely put them in some form of protective sleeves.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Well, just checked my copy of "M" - Bronze City here I am. Haven't checked to see if I have any play issues yet but this is disappointing.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Are International customers out of luck in this exchange program? That post doesn't mention anything about us. I have a few that I need to replace including Pierrot Le Fou.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

So my Paris,Texas and Days of Heaven looks fine... don't see any bronzing whatsoever. Am I fine, or could it start bronzing now that I've unsealed them?

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Play it just to be sure. I had a new never watched copy of Che that looked fine but was defective when I started playing it.

FYI, I had zero issues playing my copy of Days of Heaven that I unsealed a few days ago.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Interesting that Yojimbo and Sanjuro are not on the replacement program list yet. You would think they would know all titles that were produced by the bad site and have them all on the program at once. No reason to play the "If we learn that other titles are similarly defective" game if they know the root cause.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Mark me down as another person with a copy of Walkabout that is now defective. I couldn't even get the menu to come up. I hate feeling like I have a bunch of movies that are ticking time bombs. Ugh.

I need to check the rest of my discs. The best thing to do would be just to fast-forward through the whole thing? Would that work?

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Probably the most definitive way of checking, would be to extract the bluray disc's undecrypted iso in its entirety on the computer. If any bad sectors are encountered, most likely the disc is at the end of its useful life.

I'm in the habit of doing this for every new dvd/bluray disc I purchase. Also once in awhile, I'll do it for some older discs I have (chosen semi-randomly).


I do this largely out of ocd based paranoia over bad sectors. One of the first dvds I purchased back in the late-1990's, was defective where it froze within 20 minutes into the movie. This is the main reason why I never collected large quantities of dvds/blurays back in the 2000's decade.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

UPDATE: One player wouldn't load the disc. The second one loaded but skipped throughout the first 9 chapters.

God, I have some which haven't even been opened yet which I have to check now! Major mistake, but kudos to Criterion for being manful and fixing it.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

(As a tangential aside).

Back in the day I knew myself well enough to know that my ocd compulsive collecting/hoarding could go into overdrive, and (in principle) fall into a pattern of buying a lot of dvds without opening up the packaging.

But it was after one of my first dvd purchases turning out to be a defective disc with bad sectors (back in the late 1990's), which very much short circuited any potential interest I had in a dvd collecting hobby at the time. (In hindsight, this may very well have been a "blessing in disguise").

Compounding this, were other aspects of my ocd mentality (ie. perfectionism, etc ..) which would have demanded that my dvd discs be in perfect working order with no bad sectors. But back in the late-1990's I had no idea how to go about checking for bad sectors, other than watching through every dvd disc from start to finish and all the "extras". It would have been a major "chore" watching through tons of crappy movies from start to finish. I wouldn't have it that way.


Fast forward to the present day, the main reason my ocd collecting/hoarding went into overdrive on dvds/blurays, is because I found out it's very easy to check for bad sectors on dvd/bluray discs. This is the main reason why I don't have any "unopened" dvds or blurays. (As soon as I get home from the store, I check every newly purchased dvd/bluray disc thoroughly for bad sectors using the computer).

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Yes. Why take the chance?

This is a possibility. (Seems I'm not the only one with sealed Criterion Blu-rays!) Seriously, although not airtight, the shrinkwrap did prevent air and moisture from getting at your disc. Now open, the process may start or accelerate.

No. You need to play the disc. FF may allow errors to be skipped over, at least that's what others have said on blu-ray.com forums. I've been playing all discs identified as problematic, although I have not gone into the special features.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

It seem some of the Well GO USA disc are having the same issue too. I had an unopened copy of IP Man 2 and it has the bronzing problem. I am not sure opening them matters at all.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Good to know. I'd rather they go bad now if they're going to go bad. I can't see this replacement program lasting forever.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

I lived through the days of Laser rot....this is like a bad flashback :(

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Criterion is not saying much.Posted in another forum they do not have any of these OOP tittles left.
Kind of sucks,might be best to call them if you have one of these bad OOP tittles.
I own Pierrot Le Fou and Howards End.They look okay,but I still need to
watch them to make sure.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

I was late to the blu party, so thankfully most of my discs are the later pressings. Of the ones I do own in the 'danger range', my affected discs are:

- Walkabout
- Wages of Fear
- Sanjuro

Yojimbo and Howards End look ok, but if they are offering replacements, I'd certainly take them. That said, for OP titles, I'll be making absolutely sure they are, in fact, replacing anything I send them, especially if they play fine right now.

Just to be clear, is this 'bronzing?' It looks a bit more severe than some of the other pics I've seen:

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3929/...41361493_n.jpg

That's Sanjuro, my most affected disc, but the other two have the same square pattern, just not quite as dark

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Wow, I have never seen one that looked like that yet. Most seem to have a Gold/Bronze tint starting from the outside towards the center. It seems to be darker on the outside portion.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

square?

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

It freaked me out, too! I'd played all the discs in the past with no issues and they certainly never looked like that, so it was something of a shock when I pulled them out of their sleeves to see that!

FYI: Here's all three (from R to L: Walkabout, Sanjuro, Wages)

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2949/...18a05bf2_m.jpg

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Wow, i thought the square pattern was a reflection. That's jacked.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Yep. I live overseas, and while I don't mind shipping the defective discs back, it would be nice to have Criterion provide replacements for everything that's effected with one transaction, including Yojimbo and Sanjuro which haven't yet made the official 'problem' list but clearly are suffering from the same problem.

Thankfully, Howards End seems fine, but I'm checking it again now. I figure there are worse things to watch while I double-check my whole Blu collection!

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Yeah, the seventh seal and Walkabout are the only fucked up ones for me still.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Okay... that's really weird. The discoloration shouldn't be so 'geometric.' It should either be spreading out from the edges or certain points on the disc, not in straight lines.

How were your discs stored? In their retail cases, or did you keep them in binders or some other kind of alternative storage method?

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Those aren't the right codes. The L0 represents layer. 0 and L1 represents layer 1.

The codes you're looking for, usually, follow IFPI (i.e. IFPI L021, IFPI LB24, IFPI 10K6, etc.)

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Thanks for the heads up! Luckily, all the Well Go USA stuff I have is on DVD.

This is good to bring up, as Fry's Electronics has been selling many Well Go USA's BD titles for dirt cheap the past few months.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

In paper sleeves, stacked vertically. Probably not the best method, but I live in a smaller apartment overseas, so it's the best I can do. I did wonder if that didn't help things; stacked vertically, it does put pressure on the discs, but checking my collection, none of my other discs had this issue.

Perhaps I should invest in a bunch of binders? As much as I wish I could use the retail cases, it just isn't an option right now :/

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Possibly a chemical reaction been the discs and the paper sleeves?

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

I only had time to check one disc tonight and it was the Pierrot le fou one and it played fine. Granted, it doesn't have the bronze rot, so that was cool. It'll be interesting to see how CC replaces OOP ones. I take it that CC may have a digital archive of the film stored on a server or something. Who knows.

I have a nasty feeling as regards the OOP releases that at most they'll reimburse people, I don't think they'll be able to do anything about it. I'm agree with the earlier post about hedging my bets and looking at what's on the list and sending them in regardless just in case. But I have a very unpleasant sense that those out of the country and OOP are just SOL. Hopefully Criterion will find some solution.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

As of now, since le fou works for me, I will not be sending it in.

I'll check the other ones this week. Summer Hours and Walkabout are definitely getting sent in, though.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

I guess it's a possibility. I ordered two larger binders today, so I'll transfer everything as soon as they arrive.

Double-checking my entire collection, only two other discs show the same problem: Jaws and Battle Royale. Nothing too difficult (or expensive) to replace.

I did email Criterion about the issues and included the pics I posted here. Fingers crossed they can explain it and are willing to provide replacements to my US address.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

I checked Stagecoach and Ride With The Devil over the weekend and there is no discoloration/bronzing. I fast forwarded both discs and saw no problems. I did see an uneven brown circle on the inner ring on some of my Criterions.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Yeah. That's why I just keep them in the cases. Typically there's nothing to fear if they stay in the cases

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

(On a tangent).

If I had known about stuff like disc rot, bronzing, etc ... before 2011, most likely I would have never started buying a lot of dvds and blurays in 2011.

Previously, I never came across disc rot, bronzing, etc ... in my music cd collection. My oldest cd discs from the mid-late 1980's could be still be played/ripped. I was largely ignorant of such phenomena like rot/bronzing.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Well per the notice John Mulvaney sent out, it looks like they're going to replace the OOP titles. I have Pierre le fou and it does have bronzing, so I'll send it in for a replacement.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

It's nothing new.

"DVD Rot" has been around since the format was introduced. Occasionally, a disc will become unplayable, though it doesn't seem to be systemic problem with the format, only isolated manufacturing defects.

I know that there were a number of earlly Anchor Bay titles that had problems with bronzing/rot... I seem to remember Heathers, Kentucky Fried Movie, and Frankenstein Created Woman having problematic pressings. (The problem with the AB discs was whoever manufactured the actual discs used sub-standard materials that caused the discs to become bricked.)

And, similarly, there was also a problem with bronzing CDs from a certain UK distributor about twenty or so years ago.

Personally, out of thousands of DVDs and blu-rays, I have only discovered three that became unplayable.

1. My Walkabout blu-ray.

2. The Howling SE DVD. This was a DVD-14. DVDs with multiple layers and sides (DVD-14 and DVD-18) can be difficult to manufacture and are more prone to failure than DVD-5, DVD-9, and DVD-10s.

3. One pornographic DVD. Which was probably manufactured by an unlicensed DVD presser to avoid licensing fees.

Re: Criterion - disc rot/'bronzing'
 

Well, after stumbling across this thread while I should be sleeping I discovered this problem. I went and checked my copy of Walkabout and sure enough it was bronzed and would not even be recognized in my PS3. My copy of M played after two attempts and it looks like Paris, Texas is ok. I, however, am a bit worried about all of this as I don't want to be sending movies in to get replacements on a regular basis. I also don't want to feel paranoid and have to sit and check discs every few months.

Also, all of mine have been stored in their original cases since day one and Walkabout and M have been affected by this.