disc problems?

[ddenoff]

I've received many emails from people who've experienced problems with certain discs - picture jumping, 'pixellation', etc.

perhaps our fine moderator can figure out how to set up a survey that would help me poll everyone and determine if there's a pattern to the problems, i.e. all on the same episode.

what do you think, o wise moderator? can you do this and make the results accessible to me, or everyone?

thanks

doug

[algebra74]

I have never experienced any of this "picture jumping", but I have noticed that a few of my discs have "stalled" at time. That is, after playing an entire episode, it will not take me back to the main menu; rather, it will freeze the black screen and I will have to eject the disc and put it back in, in order fo it to work.

[David VP]

Hi Doug............

I've written you privately in the past about the "blurry"/"out of focus" problem experienced on several episodes (but a small pct. of shows in total).

I haven't had any episodes or discs "pixelate" or "freeze". But there is a "blurry" problem with portions "Punch Thy Neighbor", "A Word A Day", "44 Tickets" (all from S.1), plus a few eps. from Seasons 2 thru 4.

These "blurries" do not consume the WHOLE episodes in questions. On average, each slightly-blurry segment lasts about 7 to 8 minutes.

Image knows of these fuzzy sections, and wrote me the following explanation ...................

"Dear David,
The "blurriness" apparent during sections of these episodes is the result of damaged source material; more specifically this problem is caused by warped film. Image Entertainment has done all it can do to eliminate this problem using the technology on hand and hopefully new technological advances in editing will allow this problem to be corrected completely at some point in the future. Thank you."

[SawgrassSteve]

I've played mine at work and at home with never a single problem.

Steve

[Dorothys BestPal]

Ditto,

I have had problems before, but it turned out to be the DVD player, a quick disc cleaning and the problem went away.

[Christina E]

I haven't had any trouble with any of my four seasons either. I've even watched the spacific episodes mentioned, and I never noticed anything. I'm not one who's likely to notice unless it's really bad though.

Christina

[David VP]

How big is your TV screen, Christina? The bigger the TV, the more these "blurries" reveal themselves. On a 50-inch boob tube, "Punch Thy Neightbor" (for 8 minutes) is definitely blurry-looking. Plus the others mentioned.

Although I must also say --- these shows (overall) look sensational.

[Christina E]

Originally posted by David VP
How big is your TV screen, Christina? The bigger the TV, the more these "blurries" reveal themselves. On a 50-inch boob tube, "Punch Thy Neightbor" (for 8 minutes) is definitely blurry-looking. Plus the others mentioned.

Although I must also say --- these shows (overall) look sensational.

I have a big screen that is probably around 50-inch and I also have a 27-inch. I usually have a disk loaded at each TV, so I can't say I could recall which episode I watched on which TV. I will try to get a chance this weekend to watch the episodes you are talking about on the big screen.

Christina

[Lolac]

I haven't noticed any problems.

Lolac

[Carrie]

Me either. They're all top quality.

[ScottD]

I think I have noticed a few instances of blurriness like David VP describes but really haven't went back to check. I guess I really didn't give it much thought when watching since it seemed so minor. I don't remember them lasting as long as 8 minutes though, although my screen is 36 inches so maybe it wouldn't be as noticeable. I did watch Three Letters From One Wife last night though, and the episode sort of flickered for almost the entire length of the show. It actually was pretty distracting and I'm wondering if maybe the disc is defective because it wasn't a blurriness like mentioned above, more of a flickering. Anyone else notice this during this particular episode?

[David VP]

I did watch Three Letters From One Wife last night though, and the episode sort of flickered for almost the entire length of the show. It actually was pretty distracting and I'm wondering if maybe the disc is defective because it wasn't a blurriness like mentioned above, more of a flickering. Anyone else notice this during this particular episode?

Yes, that episode "flickers" for the last 10 minutes.

Your disc isn't defective. Mine does it too. If you'll look closer, you'll find it doesn't "flicker" (or go fuzzy) for the entire program. It's just the last 10 minutes (starting at the 15:33 mark).

Luckily, that is the ONLY S.4 episode that I have yet noticed that suffers from any fuzziness problem. Hopefully I won't find any more.

[JudgeGarth]

I, too, noticed the flickering problem on 'Three Letters From One Wife.' It's not too bad during the episode itself, but it's especially noticeable during the closing credits.

[Lolac]

I'm going to go back and watch that episode today and see if I have that problem.

Lolac

[SawgrassSteve]

Originally posted by Lolac
I'm going to go back and watch that episode today and see if I have that problem.

Lolac

I did that, Lolac,
And it does flicker, but I never noticed it before. Maybe it's because it's one of my favorite eps, and I spend so much time laughing, I thought the flickering was coming from me.

Steve