Over at Home Theater Forum, some people are posting complaining of discs purchased from Warner Archive that they say are no longer playing after being fine for some time. Anyone else have that kind of problem?
I'm now going through every disc I've bought from them and in the take no chances category I'll be backing them up on new discs.
Warner Archive Disc Failure?
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 34339
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
Re: Warner Archive Disc Failure?
The only problems I've had with Warner Archive discs came when the burn itself was bad -- the disc wouldn't play properly and you could tell from looking at it that it didn't process properly.
-
Paul MacLean
- Posts: 7088
- Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2004 10:26 pm
- Location: New York
Re: Warner Archive Disc Failure?
DVD players can sometimes be persnickety with DVD-Rs. I have a player that is fine with DVD-Rs one day and then jams on them the next.
-
Eric Paddon
- Posts: 8648
- Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2005 5:49 pm
Re: Warner Archive Disc Failure?
I've gotten additional clarification and it's clear that the telltale sign of a bad disc without loading is all kinds of "ring discoloration" on the back. My one bad disc suffered from this and I really never bothered to look. But I had three other discs where it looked there was partial sign of this, and while they played fine I do wonder if this is a problem that can become more serious later and this discoloration spread and thus lead to the disc breaking down as it were.
Time will tell on that point but it is making me alert to how I need to look at the discs carefully upon receipt even if I don't have time to watch them right away.
Time will tell on that point but it is making me alert to how I need to look at the discs carefully upon receipt even if I don't have time to watch them right away.
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 34339
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
Re: Warner Archive Disc Failure?
You can definitely tell right away if a DVD-R wasn't burned properly when there is that kind of discolorization on it. It's happened to me a few times recently on the Archive titles, but I didn't notice until I started playing the disc...fortunately they don't seem to care about the length of time from your order to when you report a problem (and they shouldn't, since repressing a DVD-R is not a costly or time consuming process).
The other thing you can do -- the disc might START playing just fine, but if it is not burned properly, you might be able to tell it's bad if you start the movie and then fast-forward through it (chapter to chapter). You might come to a point when the disc won't go to the next chapter, which is also a sign it's a bad burn.
Indeed, it might be a good rule of thumb to check right away when you buy one of the Archive discs! Examine the surface and try fast fowarding through it, just to be sure.
The other thing you can do -- the disc might START playing just fine, but if it is not burned properly, you might be able to tell it's bad if you start the movie and then fast-forward through it (chapter to chapter). You might come to a point when the disc won't go to the next chapter, which is also a sign it's a bad burn.
Indeed, it might be a good rule of thumb to check right away when you buy one of the Archive discs! Examine the surface and try fast fowarding through it, just to be sure.