How Now Brown Blu-rays

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FrauBlucher
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 8:28 pm
Location: Greenwich Village

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#351 Post by FrauBlucher » Tue Oct 07, 2014 1:07 pm

manicsounds wrote:It's just that I'm going to New York tomorrow, thought I'd just drop them off at their doorstep, and hopefully get some replacement discs from the closet....
FYI... I dropped off my problematic M at their office. They said, as soon as they get the replacements in, Jon will start mailing them out. So, maybe you shouldn't expect to take home the replacements.

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AMalickLensFlare
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:22 pm
Location: Las Vegas

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#352 Post by AMalickLensFlare » Tue Oct 07, 2014 1:54 pm

Maybe not the right place for this, but speaking of Jon, is Jon Mulvaney a real person? Has anyone here ever seen or met him?

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johnnysnatchclub7
Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2013 3:49 pm

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#353 Post by johnnysnatchclub7 » Tue Oct 07, 2014 1:58 pm

On a recent vacation to New York, I just HAD to visit their office. They were all super nice and gave me lots of postcards. The one question I asked was if Mulvaney was real or just an alias for all of them. They assured me that he was oh so real and really does love answering all our emails. But again, I didn't see him.

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Paul Moran
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:06 pm
Location: UK

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#354 Post by Paul Moran » Tue Oct 07, 2014 5:08 pm

I've checked my copies of the 7 titles in the Criterion email. They all seem OK, for now. I'm keeping them out of the general population, in a separate pile, to make it easier to recheck them in the future.

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Yaanu
Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2013 12:18 am

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#355 Post by Yaanu » Tue Oct 07, 2014 11:35 pm

Did they come out with a statement about Howards End yet and how they'll replace that? I'm still a bit ambivalent about sending mine in until then.

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Mouse
Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:10 pm

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#356 Post by Mouse » Wed Oct 08, 2014 12:27 am

Howards End probably won't be replaceable. Seems to have had a single print run and Criterion's relationship with Merchant Ivory didn't end on good terms to say the least. They'll probably just offer a completely different movie as replacement, don't really see what else they could do.

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AMalickLensFlare
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:22 pm
Location: Las Vegas

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#357 Post by AMalickLensFlare » Wed Oct 08, 2014 12:46 am

Mouse wrote:Howards End probably won't be replaceable. Seems to have had a single print run and Criterion's relationship with Merchant Ivory didn't end on good terms to say the least. They'll probably just offer a completely different movie as replacement, don't really see what else they could do.
If this were the case, though, wouldn't they have said so? They've named Howard's End as a problematic title and haven't excluded it from their instructions for replacing the bad discs.

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captveg
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:28 pm

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#358 Post by captveg » Wed Oct 08, 2014 2:59 am

Like I said, since mine was completely unable to load I went ahead and sent my copy of Howards End in. I'll certainly let you all know what happens when I receive a reply (and hopefully a new disc).

At the very least I could swear there were some copies of Howards End visible in the Friedkin closet video, so maybe they'll just crack those open and send 'em out until they run out?

Bruce
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2009 6:14 am

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#359 Post by Bruce » Wed Oct 08, 2014 5:28 am

Is it known whether ANY pressings of Howard's End were produced at a facility other than the problem one?

Dbarnes84
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2014 6:39 am

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#360 Post by Dbarnes84 » Wed Oct 08, 2014 7:02 am

I have both Howard's End and Pierrot le Fou that have the "ccxxxxxx" marking on them and they play fine. I've watched them both twice out of paranoia. Howard's End DOES have very, very slight discoloration... But then I held it up to natural lighting and given the color of the front of the disk, I'm not worried yet. The only disk I have that shows all the sign and has problems with playback is Summer Hours. What worries me is that HE and PlF have the same "ccxxxxxx" marking as SH... Are they ok or is it a matter of time before they become defective as well. Ugh.

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willoneill
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:10 am
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#361 Post by willoneill » Wed Oct 08, 2014 7:55 am

With the huge caveat that I'm not a lawyer, I wonder if Criterion can actually press new copies of their OOP titles. In theory, they just needs rights to sell those titles, right? But in this case, all they're doing is replacing, at their own cost, defective copies of a product they've already sold. I don't know much about how home video rights work, but maybe's there's a loophole for this kind of situation.

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jindianajonz
Jindiana Jonz Abrams
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:11 pm

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#362 Post by jindianajonz » Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:51 am

Given all the hoopla around file sharing services, it looks like the law covers more than just selling media.

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Drucker
Your Future our Drucker
Joined: Wed May 18, 2011 9:37 am

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#363 Post by Drucker » Wed Oct 08, 2014 11:38 am

I assume they also can't "distribute" the titles, as well.

Perkins Cobb
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2008 12:49 pm

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#364 Post by Perkins Cobb » Wed Oct 08, 2014 4:12 pm

AMalickLensFlare wrote:Maybe not the right place for this, but speaking of Jon, is Jon Mulvaney a real person? Has anyone here ever seen or met him?
Sure he's real. And his new sitcom tanked, so I guess he'll be back at work cramming replacement Criterions into envelopes real soon.

rwiggum
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2012 10:11 pm

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#365 Post by rwiggum » Wed Oct 08, 2014 7:02 pm

Perkins Cobb wrote:
AMalickLensFlare wrote:Maybe not the right place for this, but speaking of Jon, is Jon Mulvaney a real person? Has anyone here ever seen or met him?
Sure he's real. And his new sitcom tanked, so I guess he'll be back at work cramming replacement Criterions into envelopes real soon.
Hey now, I'm not going to tolerate any John Mulaney jokes. However bad his sitcom may be (pretty damn bad) he's a national treasure.

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Jeff
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:49 pm
Location: Denver, CO

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#366 Post by Jeff » Wed Oct 08, 2014 8:22 pm

johnnysnatchclub7 wrote:The one question I asked was if Mulvaney was real or just an alias for all of them. They assured me that he was oh so real and really does love answering all our emails. But again, I didn't see him.
He's the world's oldest intern. Been stuffing envelopes since 1984.

Perkins Cobb
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2008 12:49 pm

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#367 Post by Perkins Cobb » Wed Oct 08, 2014 8:24 pm

rwiggum wrote:Hey now, I'm not going to tolerate any John Mulaney jokes. However bad his sitcom may be (pretty damn bad) he's a national treasure.
Yeah, but c'mon -- don't you think of "our" Mulvaney every time you see his name?

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Max von Mayerling
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:02 pm
Location: Ann Arbor, MI

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#368 Post by Max von Mayerling » Wed Oct 08, 2014 8:25 pm

willoneill wrote:With the huge caveat that I'm not a lawyer, I wonder if Criterion can actually press new copies of their OOP titles. In theory, they just needs rights to sell those titles, right? But in this case, all they're doing is replacing, at their own cost, defective copies of a product they've already sold. I don't know much about how home video rights work, but maybe's there's a loophole for this kind of situation.
With the huge caveat that I am not a copyright lawyer, I am pretty sure it is quite easy to violate U.S. copyright law without selling anything to anyone.

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jedgeco
Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2004 11:28 am

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#369 Post by jedgeco » Thu Oct 09, 2014 5:42 pm

Max von Mayerling wrote:
willoneill wrote:With the huge caveat that I'm not a lawyer, I wonder if Criterion can actually press new copies of their OOP titles. In theory, they just needs rights to sell those titles, right? But in this case, all they're doing is replacing, at their own cost, defective copies of a product they've already sold. I don't know much about how home video rights work, but maybe's there's a loophole for this kind of situation.
With the huge caveat that I am not a copyright lawyer, I am pretty sure it is quite easy to violate U.S. copyright law without selling anything to anyone.
Yes, all you have to do is make a "copy" to violate COPYright law; no requirement that you sell or profit. There may be some provision in the licensing agreement that addresses replacement discs, but I'd kind of doubt that.

Prickly
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 6:20 pm
Location: London

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#370 Post by Prickly » Sat Oct 11, 2014 7:55 pm

domino harvey wrote:According to a commentor on the Blu-ray.com site:
The problem titles seem to have been made by Sonopress. They have IFPI codes of L021 or LB42 on the inner rings of the data side. They're very small and you'll probably need a magnifying glass to spot them (let alone read them).
EDIT: This doesn't appear to be accurate though: My Summer Hours is IFPI 10K7
Mine is IFPI 10K7 as well. Won't go past 51 minutes but no browning on the disc at all. So discs that look okay may still have problems.

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DeprongMori
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 1:59 am
Location: San Francisco

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#371 Post by DeprongMori » Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:47 pm

Question for you all: From my first viewing of PARIS TEXAS on Criterion Blu I had noticed a slow pulsing and drift of the blacks in two scenes -- in the laundromat lobby on the road where Travis and his son catch a night's sleep, and the second (I think) scene in the peep show booth. It looks like an amoeba moving across the lower portion of the screen, mostly lower right. I've never seen this problem with any other Criterion disc, so researched and asked in various fora at the time. I think one other person had noticed it.

Now that it's in the list of "bronzing discs", I'll have to go back and check the codes on the inner ring against those of my affected SUMMER HOURS and WALKABOUT. It might just be the beginnings of disc breakdown. Curious if anyone else has seen this issue. I'm still trying to determine whether it is an artifact of the mastering or original source materials, or a deteriorating disc.
Further research shows my PARIS TEXAS to be code "IFPI L322", so unlikely to be a deteriorating disc. So, the "drifting blacks" seem to be either an issue with the source materials (not mentioned in reviews), or inability of my playback equipment to deal with large fields of black well (which I've not observed on other discs.) This remains a mystery. Is anyone else seeing this?

After spending a bunch of time combing through my discs with a magnifying glass, I've got some "LB42" and "L021" code discs which have not manifested any deterioration yet. (Fortunately including "Howards End", which I finally had an excuse to sit down and watch.) I'll be giving the rest of the suspects another viewing before putting together a package for replacement.

My flawed SUMMER HOURS is a code "LB42".

Strangely, though my WALKABOUT is an "LB42" and won't load, it looks like the problem may be due to a physical "crease" in the plastic near the inner ring rather than deterioration. (Looks like a crack, but is a flaw.) It did load on my old player, but won't on my new one. In any case, back it goes for replacement.

Iode
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2012 8:32 pm

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#372 Post by Iode » Sun Oct 12, 2014 11:16 pm

DeprongMori wrote:
Further research shows my PARIS TEXAS to be code "IFPI L322", so unlikely to be a deteriorating disc. So, the "drifting blacks" seem to be either an issue with the source materials (not mentioned in reviews), or inability of my playback equipment to deal with large fields of black well (which I've not observed on other discs.) This remains a mystery. Is anyone else seeing this?

After spending a bunch of time combing through my discs with a magnifying glass, I've got some "LB42" and "L021" code discs which have not manifested any deterioration yet. (Fortunately including "Howards End", which I finally had an excuse to sit down and watch.) I'll be giving the rest of the suspects another viewing before putting together a package for replacement.

My flawed SUMMER HOURS is a code "LB42".

Strangely, though my WALKABOUT is an "LB42" and won't load, it looks like the problem may be due to a physical "crease" in the plastic near the inner ring rather than deterioration. (Looks like a crack, but is a flaw.) It did load on my old player, but won't on my new one. In any case, back it goes for replacement.
I see the "pulsing blacks" on my blu-ray of PARIS, TEXAS too, so it's not just you. It's annoying but I always assumed it was a defect that was on every discs and that there was nothing that I could do about it.

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Nadsat
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 9:03 am
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Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#373 Post by Nadsat » Mon Oct 13, 2014 10:36 am

Iode wrote:I see the "pulsing blacks" on my blu-ray of PARIS, TEXAS too, so it's not just you. It's annoying but I always assumed it was a defect that was on every discs and that there was nothing that I could do about it.
The UK edition have the "pulsing blacks" too (the theatrical trailer have also the "pulsing blacks".), so I assume it is in the source material.

rrenault
Joined: Wed Nov 17, 2010 3:49 pm

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#374 Post by rrenault » Wed Oct 15, 2014 6:12 am

Hmmm, my *Pierrot Le Fou* disc is rough around the edge, but I don't see any discoloration on the underside, and there don't seem to be any playback issues, at least not yet. There may be a few minor manufacturing gaffs on the playing surface, but they've never posed a problem. With that said, there can't possibly be any copies of Pierrot without a CCxxxx marking, considering it went OOP back in early 2010, so every copy probably poses a risk. Oh well...we'll see what happens.

I exchanged Walkabout a while back when I first got it. By the way, is it not possible there are minor variations in coloration from disc to disc, sort of like how some DVD undersides are gold-colored while others are entirely silver?

I bought M in late 2012 and Lola Montes last Christmas, so they're later pressings that don't even have the CCxxx numbering, so nothing to worry about there.

Come to think of it, 'back in the day' I rented both Revanche and In the Realm of the Senses from Netflix, and they both skipped, so maybe it was a manufacturing issue rather than disc damage, since I don't remember the undersides looking all that bad. Since then, I've rented blu rays of both Melancholia and Vertigo from Videofutur here in France, and those looked much worse but played right through, so...

Orlac
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:29 am

Re: How Now Brown Blu-rays

#375 Post by Orlac » Wed Oct 15, 2014 1:36 pm

rrenault wrote:Hmmm, my *Pierrot Le Fou* disc is rough around the edge, but I don't see any discoloration on the underside, and there don't seem to be any playback issues, at least not yet. There may be a few minor manufacturing gaffs on the playing surface, but they've never posed a problem. With that said, there can't possibly be any copies of Pierrot without a CCxxxx marking, considering it went OOP back in early 2010, so every copy probably poses a risk. Oh well...we'll see what happens.

I exchanged Walkabout a while back when I first got it. By the way, is it not possible there are minor variations in coloration from disc to disc, sort of like how some DVD undersides are gold-colored while others are entirely silver?

I bought M in late 2012 and Lola Montes last Christmas, so they're later pressings that don't even have the CCxxx numbering, so nothing to worry about there.

Come to think of it, 'back in the day' I rented both Revanche and In the Realm of the Senses from Netflix, and they both skipped, so maybe it was a manufacturing issue rather than disc damage, since I don't remember the undersides looking all that bad. Since then, I've rented blu rays of both Melancholia and Vertigo from Videofutur here in France, and those looked much worse but played right through, so...
I got the CC "In the Realm" second hand, and it's skipped too, starting at 50min. I returned it and got the UK edition.

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