As a result of approach WB manufactured their DVDs, just about all discs pressed between 2006-8 are unplayable now.
UPDATED: In the previous couple of days since we posted this piece, the story has gone viral, and now Warner Bros has reached out to us with an announcement from their Residence Video division providing to make good on the ruined DVDs – if potential.
Right here’s the assertion in full:
Warner Bros. Residence Entertainment is conscious of potential points affecting choose DVD titles manufactured between 2006 – 2008, and the corporate has been actively working with customers to interchange faulty discs.
The place potential, the faulty discs have been changed with the identical title. Nonetheless, as among the affected titles are not in print or the rights have expired, customers have been supplied an trade for a title of like-value.
Customers with affected product can contact the client assist group at [email protected].
For me, that is sort of a excellent news/ dangerous information state of affairs, as whereas will probably be good to get replacements, MANY of the titles I’m most involved with are not in print, largely because of the truth that the rightsholders have modified, and as such are not out there in any type. When you occur to reap the benefits of this supply by WB, please contact me at [email protected] together with your expertise so we will observe up on this story.
ORIGINAL POST:
I’m an enormous fan of outdated motion pictures. Now, once I say outdated I don’t imply motion pictures from ten, twenty, and even thirty or forty years in the past. I really like motion pictures from the Golden Age of Hollywood, particularly the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. I’ve at all times beloved this era, and given how exhausting it’s to seek out many of those motion pictures on streaming, I’ve made an effort to purchase as many of those motion pictures on bodily media as potential. As such, I’ve 1000’s of outdated motion pictures on DVD, and amongst my most treasured titles are just a few dozen DVD field units Warner Bros put out within the mid-2000s, as they management one of the best library of basic movie.
A number of months in the past, I dug into an outdated Humphrey Bogart field set to observe a favourite of mine, Passage to Marseille. After about an hour, the disc merely stopped working. The identical factor occurred with one other film from the set, Throughout the Pacific. I truly thought my outdated Blu-ray participant was in charge, and on condition that I used to be in want of an improve anyway, I purchased a brand new UHD participant and simply forgot about it.
Flash ahead to a couple of week in the past, once I determined to throw on an outdated Errol Flynn film referred to as Determined Journey. The identical factor occurred. This was extra regarding to me, as, not like the opposite motion pictures I discussed, this has by no means gotten an HD launch and was unavailable digitally. I did some research on-line, and to my horror, I landed on a number of dwelling theater discussion board threads (and a few good movies) confirming this was no fluke.
It seems that just about each Warner Bros DVD disc manufactured between 2006 and 2008 has succumbed to the dreaded laser rot, the place discs merely cease working because of a rotting of the layers. As soon as it occurs, it could’t be undone. This was a frequent drawback with laserdiscs again within the 80s and 90s, but it surely wasn’t an enormous drawback with DVDs. The problem comes right down to the best way the discs have been authored. Lots of the titles affected, which vary from classics like The Wild Bunch and The Shawshank Redemption to TV collections like The Dukes of Hazzard, have been reissued on Blu-ray or digital HD. A number of the titles, similar to most of the titles within the Looney Tunes Collections and most of the Golden Age of Hollywood motion pictures, haven’t, making them, in a number of instances, misplaced media.
So, what will be completed about this? Nothing. As acknowledged on this RetroBlasting video, we had ticking time bombs on our arms, and the one approach round the issue was to tear our faves to one thing like PLEX, but it surely’s too late for almost all of discs. Warner Bros, in fact, has but to touch upon this, so individuals like me have 1000’s of nugatory discs cluttering our cabinets. Right here’s essentially the most complete record of titles out there.
To this point, Blu-ray Discs aren’t affected, though all HD-DVD discs put out by WB on this interval are mainly costly coasters.
Whereas it could be nice of WB was to attempt to make good to customers by no less than providing us alternative MOD discs from the Warner Archive, I’m not holding my breath. Provided that the discs solely went dangerous after fifteen years or so, I’m positive they really feel like we obtained our cash’s value – which we actually didn’t for my part. Particular shout out to Rattling Idiot Idealistic Crusader, an outstanding Residence Theater YouTube Channel that was approach forward of this story.
UPDATE: In accordance with one in every of our readers, FilmFan-89, WB will substitute some discs should you contact them straight, with a catch. They may solely substitute discs which are at present in print, and sadly, most of the faulty titles usually are not. Attain out to them by way of the WB Retailer and maintain us posted within the remark thread if they arrive by way of with replacements.
What do you consider this drawback? Tell us within the feedback!
