criterionforum.org

A little off-topic, but just the other day, I overheard someone make the critical remark "if I could wipe my ass with this [DVD]..." and naturally I thought of this thread title.

Graham wrote:

Bruce wrote:I'm in the UK and I received my replacement disc of 'Walkabout' yesterday - that was earlier than I was expecting, so well done Criterion!

Did you have to send the faulty disc to the U.S.?

Yes.

A quick question: I have a Monterey Pop box set, which I bought new from Criterion when it was released, and right now both play just fine. One disc clearly has the codes for the potential problem discs, the other does not seem to have any codes at all.

Are these box sets typically assembled later on? I'm just wondering if both discs should have come from the same pressing plant - like, because of the way the sets are assembled, it would be unlikely that discs manufactured from different plants/companies would be used in the same set.

I received my replacement for Monterey Pop today.

How long is the turn around generally? I think I mailed my two discs two weeks ago.

Some people got their replacements after a little over a month, but FWIW, I think it depends on the stock they have for certain titles. For example, titles that weren't on their original list seem to take longer. (I get the feeling the ones on the list were re-pressed first, but again, it took awhile to get them - they definitely didn't have them on hand when they made their first official announcement.)

I waited for the initial rush to die down. Sent in my discs (all on the official list except for Summer Hours) and received the replacements in about a week and a half... including both OOPs.

I finally got around to assessing my potentially affected BDs. I owned every one on the official list plus every one on the various worrywart lists. My only bad one was Summer Hours, defective in exactly the anticipated place and way.

But dig this: I mailed it back to Criterion, got my replacement BD clearly stamped 2nd Pressing, and it has a similar problem. Not nearly as severe as the 1st Pressing disc which froze irretrievably at the prescribed place, this 2nd Pressing disc skips and jumps at about the same place but I am able to FF or chapter skip ahead of the problem and watch the rest of the feature.

I emailed JM twice and have gotten no response. I wouldn't blame Criterion if they think I'm confused or stupid, but I'm not in this case. The 2nd pressing Summer Hours that I was sent as a replacement has essentially the same problem.

Aw, crap, thanks for the heads up. Gonna have to try mine out now too.

warren oates wrote:Aw, crap, thanks for the heads up. Gonna have to try mine out now too.

I dread returning mine with or without correspondence from JM. Whatever intern opens the envelope is going to see the 2nd Pressing stamp and send it right back to me.

Does anyone know if Criterion is still exchanging discs?

Yes. I just sent in a Solaris disk I had an issue with. So long as their players can replicate the problem I was told I would get a replacement. Don't see why they wouldn't do the same for a brown disk.


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Since I recently bought a bunch of these titles I opened them to check the codes and I was surprised to find that my copy of Bigger Than Life has no information at all printed on the data side of the disc. I would say that maybe it's a bootleg but I ordered it directly from the Criterion store.

Mine's the same and I ordered it when it came out right from Criterion (it was, in fact, the release that tipped me to finally get a Blu-Ray player!)

Same here for /Bigger Than Life/. I also will add that playback problems with my allegedly corrected copy of /Summer Hours/ have gotten worse since I originally posted on the subject last July.

I watched my replacement of Summer Hours a few months ago and it played just fine.

Glad to know my Bigger Than Life isn't an anomaly. I just scrubbed through it and it seems to play fine. Have any issues with this title been confirmed?

I compared it to a lot of recent Criterions and I think a lot of Blu-rays are just somewhat bronzey in complexion to begin with. Compared to Summer Hours, which I still haven't traded in and which has literally begun to seep sticky glue (?) from the edges, it looks fine! I'm more worried about trading in my Pierrot Le fou disc

domino harvey wrote:I'm more worried about trading in my Pierrot Le fou disc

Simple - just call Criterion pretending to be Anna Karina's agent and say she needs a replacement for the copy she got from the closet.

Has anyone else had trouble with their House disc? I watched mine over the weekend, and around 51 minutes or so (around the layer change) the disc skipped forward 5-10 minutes. I checked my disc and it doesn't look scratched or bronzed.

I bought it right when it came out--has there been an updated printing?

Well, my copy of MONTEREY POP has gone to hell. It played fine when the bronzing issue was first announced so I thought it had been spared, but here we are a few years later and even though the disc itself looks fine, it freezes right at the start of the feature.

And a newly acquired copy of REPULSION is doing that as well - freezes at chapter 8 and beyond. Both have the dreaded "10K7" pressed very faintly on the hub.

subliminac wrote:Yes. I just sent in a Solaris disk I had an issue with. So long as their players can replicate the problem I was told I would get a replacement. Don't see why they wouldn't do the same for a brown disk.


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What sort of issues were you having with Solaris if I may ask? I was encountering issues with that one myself.

The disk began skipping right around the climactic zero gravity scene and remained unwatchable through the end.

subliminac wrote:The disk began skipping right around the climactic zero gravity scene and remained unwatchable through the end.

Oh, that's what mine is doing, skipping around the 2-hour mark.

Has anyone had issues with Vivre Sa Vie? I notice my player takes an uncharacteristically long time to load that one for some reason, although the feature doesn't appear to have playback issues. The only thing is in the supplements there's a slideshow with an essay, and it doesn't flip through the slides properly, skipping over them occasionally.