Read the review of the Bela Lugosi collection and the reviewer had a problem with one of the discs. The Raven freezes and then jumps a chapter 35 min. into movie. He tried it on four different players/four different brands. Read at another forum that people have had defect problems with all the Universal DVD-18 sets: Monster Legacy, Abbott/Costello, Munsters Season 1, Buck Rogers and Dragnet Season 1 were all mentioned. I've got most of these but have never got around to watching them. Anybody had any problems?

Fortunately, I haven't sufferred any of the described problems.

I did have ONE issue with an Abbott&Costello set that had a scratch on a disc.

I think a lot of these problems are more likely the result of nature of the double sided DVD's and the crappy packaging that Universal uses. With DVD-18's, there is no "safe" side...every side of the disc is sensitive. Universal seems to be asking for trouble with the way they stack a lot their discs inside the packaging.

But, other than that one problem with A&C, I've had no trouble so I doubt if there is any inherent problem with the way discs are authored.

I only had a problem with the Creature Legacy set when I bought it. The main menu would appear on the screen but none of the movies or extras would play.
I took it back to the store and exchanged it for another Creature set and that one worked fine. All of the Monster Legacy sets that I have ( Drac, Frank, Wolfie, Mummy, Invis, and Creach ) work just fine.

- GJS

I haven't had any problems, either.

No problems with mine either.

Since we're in a DVD discussion, maybe some enlightened board member can answer a question. I recently purchased a bunch of homemade MST3K discs from an EBAYer. None of the discs play in any of my three DVD players.

I wrote back to the guy and he said I need a DIVX DVD player. I am familiar with the DIVX technology that was around a few years ago and flopped. I doubt the two are related in nay way but name. The seller said I could buy one from him (what a surprise).

Any ideas as to how I can get these to play?

I wrote back to the guy and he said I need a DIVX DVD player. I am familiar with the DIVX technology that was around a few years ago and flopped. I doubt the two are related in nay way but name.

Any ideas as to how I can get these to play?

The short answer, unfortunately, is that you really do need a DIVX player. You are correct in your assumption that this is not related to the old system by the same name (with all the letters of the alphabet, you'd think they could come up with a new name!).

The good news is that DivX players are becoming more common and they aren't expensive. I got a flyer in the mail this morning for a $59.00 Koss player that's DivX compatible and has a 7-in-1 memory card reader.

I have quite a few of the home made MST3K episodes I bought from @bay as well, they play fine on both my DVD players. However, on our fancier older Samsung, you have to change to audio setting from "digital bitrate" to "PCM" to get the sound to work. Our newer cheaper basic Apex model apparently can do that automatically.

The quality of most of the home made episodes is pretty good, I have "Kitten with a Whip"(with John Forsyth, Oscar Goldman and a creamy young Ann Margeret),, The Projected Man,Phantom Planet, SF International Airport, and the entire "Radar Men of the Moon" shorts. And a "SE" of the MST3K movie that was so clear I sold my Universal version for some decent bucks on @bay.

Here. Read them for yourselves:

www.dvddrive-in.com/reviews/a-d/belalugosi3234353640.htm (http://www.dvddrive-in.com/reviews/a-d/belalugosi3234353640.htm)

Home Theater Forum: Harris Comments on LUGOSI LEGACY (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=240828)

- GJS

THANKS FOR THE INFO. I REALLY APPRECIATE IT. I GUESS I'LL BUY THE DIVX UNIT AND TRY TO FIND A PLACE TO STACK IT! AT LEAST IT'S NOT EXPENSIVE.


IS THERE ANYTHING ON THIS BOARD THAT CAN'T BE ANSWERED? I LOVE IT.

This was posted on another board by another person who got an advanced copy. Be forewarned:



I am steaming!!!!!! I just tried playing THE RAVEN on the new Lugosi Collection, and I had problems at the 21 minute mark. All sorts of freezing and problems which did not cease - see the DVD section....

------------------------------------
"It's MORE ... than a hobby!"

Edited by: Joe Karlosi (http://p075.ezboard.com/bmonsterkidclassichorrorforum.showUserPublicProfil e?gid=joekarlosi) at: 9/1/05 8:55 pm


Here's the entire thread, for anyone who is interested:

http://p075.ezboard.com/fmonsterkidclassichorrorforumfrm38.showMessage?top icID=260.topic

- GJS

Anyone else remember the good old days when we believed the sales propaganda about CD's and DVD's being easier to listen to and/or watch than albums and videotapes because the technology was so much more advanced? :p

I have all of the Universal Legacy DVD's, the Munsters First Season, and a few other Universal DVD sets. I suppose I've been fortunate because I haven't had any problems at all.

Remember that XVID files ( a close cousin of DIVX) will not play on most, if not all DiVX players, and that often times the files must be formatted to certain sizes and framerates, especially on the cheaper players

You can just watch them on your computer by going to Divx.com and downloading the codec, and it's a simple matter to convert them to MPEG-2 and burn them

Of course, this seller is a profiteering freeloader. Keep circulating the tapes, never meant sell them, and there are plenty of tape traders and other sources out there for the eps Rhino has not been able to acquire who will run them off for free.

Anyone else remember the good old days when we believed the sales propaganda about CD's and DVD's being easier to listen to and/or watch than albums and videotapes because the technology was so much more advanced? :p



Despite some reported problems, I still think it's VERY true that CD's and DVD's are significantly superior to other media.

I can tell you that I actually had several VHS tapes eaten by players. I once paid $20.00 for and ABBOTT&COSTELLO tape that didn't get past the opening credits before the VCR ate it for lunch! I've got a few more VHS tapes that have sufferred notable degradation after several viewings.

I have a huge number of DVDs. I don't know how many. I lost track a long time ago but I'm guessing.it's a couple of thousand. I can count the number of failures on one hand. In fact, most of the failures can be traced to known manufacturing faults...like the WICKER MAN "Limited Shelf-life Edition" (so named by DVD collectors because they started to fail almost immediately :)).

Like many people, I've never had a problem with the Universal Legacy sets (save that one scractched disc that actually played fine on my newer players). I notice that it's often the same people that seem to have most of the difficulties and I have to wonder if it's equipment related.

About 18 months after getting my very first player, I started having a lot of problems. I began to think this whole DVD stuff was a scam! Discs were "failing" all the time. Then I got a new player. Suddenly ALL of those failed DVD's were playing again. The sad fact is that every player I've ever seen starts to degrade after a year or two. Oh, it may still work fine 95% of the time...but little glitches and sensitivities will start appearing. That's not an acceptable situation in my opinion but it seem to be the reality.

In fact, I'm actually going shopping for ANOTHER player today.

I agree completely players seem to not last very long. Our older Samsung now has picked up the annoying habit that whenever there's a sudden difference from dark to light, the pictures goes black for about 4-5 seconds. In movies, explosions, lightning, even the move from dark credits to picture black out the screen for an annoying interval. The odd thing is if I rewind the dvd back a bit to before the blackout started, it will play perfectly a second time.

And the lousy thing is it isn't quite bad enough to justify replacing it. This is a first, all the other players we tossed just quit reading most disc.

I've got a 3 year old Sony 5 disc changer that I work like a slave. No problems yet. I keep expecting the belt or whatever turns the carosel to go out but takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

I've got a Samsung upscaling (or upconverting) DVD player that outputs a 720p signal through a DVI interface.

For the most part, it's been an excellent player. The picture quality is outstanding and it's dead silent when operating. The first annoying glitch it developed was the occasional refusal to play through the DVI which forced me to watch the component signal. That's not a big deal since both connections are present so it just meant pressing a button on the remote.

Unfortunately, it has recently developed a dangerous habit which, ironically, affects only DVD-18's. For reasons which are beyond my understanding, the player seems to be unable to sense when the disc is fully inside the player. This has caused several occassions where the drive spindle has risen into position before the disc was in place. That forces the disc up WHILE THE DOOR IS STILL CLOSING! On a couple of occasions, the door has closed with part of the disc sticking out of the machine.

Given the number of shows now being released on DVD-18, this is no longer an acceptable situation.

I did some research and just (today) purchased a Pioneer DV-588A-s. Both DVD players are now hooked up to the TV. But no DVD-18's will go into the Samsung.

I had a problem with my Dracula hanging up on scene 13 if I remember correctly.
I simply returned it for an exchange. I watched only Dracula and the new one played fine. I have all of the other sets except the Invisible man but have only watched Frankenstein. I have to pray that my sets are okay since I have had them for a while now and cannot return them.

Cheers,
Max Bryant

At another forum some guy had freezing on The Raven, Black Friday, Evil of Frankenstein and Curse of the Werewolf. Re-calibrated his player and they all worked fine. If you have a problem try that.

I have now watched:

THA BLACK CAT
THE RAVEN
THE INVISIBLE RAY

...and from the Hammer set:

BRIDES OF DRACULA
NIGHT CREATURES

ALL of the above movies have played perfectly. Not one single glitch.

I understand many people are upset with Universal but, in my opinion, people having difficulties are experiencing an incompatibility that is more likely a player issue.

I was just following this issue on another forum a few minutes ago. Yesterday, I suggested that people looking for an upgraded DVD player should consider the Pioneer DV-588A which has impressed me over the last few days. This is NOT to suggest that everybody with problems must buy a new player. But if it's time for an upgrade anyway, the Pioneer is worthy of consideration.

Anyway, in a HAMMER forum, one user said yesterday he was "sorry to report" that he was having trouble with several of the movies from the Hammer set with his Sony player. He also added that he was going out that night to buy a Pioneer DV-588A (I have no idea if he saw my comments or if it was coincidence). He reported today that all of those problem movies now play perfectly.

Nevertheless, there seems to be no inherent problems in the discs themselves. Many of us are quite happily watching glitch free movies. But certain players don't seem to be cooperating with all of the DVDs. Whether that is Universals "fault" (as many people want to believe) or whether they have pushed the DVD spec to the limit beyond which some players are capable of...I do not know. All I can say for sure is that everything is working 100% with my set up.

The only problem I've had with Universal is with the Bucky Rogers set, the first disc literally cracked at the hub when I removed it from the packaging. It nearly required a crow bar to get the disc out BTW. I was gonna replace it, but read here that other people had similar problems with discs being cracked and broken, that when I was offered a refund, I took it.

Curse of The Werewolf froze up on me tonight but I'm watching on a nearly 4 year-old, heavily used Toshiba which also won't play CD-Rs or DVD-Rs. I'm going to buy a new player this weekend before I attempt to return my copy of The Hammer Horror Collection.

At another forum some guy had freezing on The Raven, Black Friday, Evil of Frankenstein and Curse of the Werewolf. Re-calibrated his player and they all worked fine. If you have a problem try that.

What exactly do you mean by re-calibrate?

I've had zero problems thus far with my Lugosi Collection dvd. I've watched Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Raven completely through. I've watched portions of The Black Cat and The Invisible Ray plus all of the trailers. No glitches, freeze frames, pixilation, etc... So far, it's worked just beautifully.

- GJS

What exactly do you mean by re-calibrate?

I'm curious about that too, I can't find anything in my DVD player menu, and I lost the instructions long ago.

I watched PARANOIC from the Hammer set last night, specifically because I'd read of people having difficulty with it. Again, it played perfectly without even the very slightest glitch. Of the six movies I've now view from both the Hammer and Lugosi sets, playback has been flawless.

As I view the emerging pattern of complaints, it seems very clear that the same people who have trouble with one set, have trouble with the other set. This MUST be a compatibility issues related to the players in use. One guy reported glitches at a certain point in one of the films and got a replacement set with the same glitch in the same spot. Yet many people are having no trouble...did this guy actually buy TWO defective sets with the same "defect" at the same spot? Highly unlikely. Is his DVD player having trouble at that spot? Probably.

I watched The Black Cat tonight. Again, no problems.

- GJS

Anybody got a reasonably priced DVD player/recorder combination they can recommend? Any good reason not to buy a player/recorder combination?

Anybody got a reasonably priced DVD player/recorder combination they can recommend? Any good reason not to buy a player/recorder combination?

All dvd recorders are also players. Panasonic makes the best recorder. Get one with a hard drive and it also works for just recording stuff to watch and then delete.

There have been many reported problems with Universal's use of DVD-18s, lots of bad discs. It's being investigated. DVD-18s are from the beginning 4x more likely than DVD-9s to be defective, Universal's goal seems to be to reduce the amount of shelf space their titles take up (entire seasons in 1 keepcase of space using those horrible "please scratch the disc" trays that stack 2 discs on one another (Earth2, Cleopatra 2525, Dukes Season 4)

Two sets glitching in the same spot is definately a player issue. I don't know what they mean by re-calibrate either, unless they mean restore to the factory settings or updating the BIOS

Curse of The Werewolf froze up on me tonight but I'm watching on a nearly 4 year-old, heavily used Toshiba which also won't play CD-Rs or DVD-Rs. I'm going to buy a new player this weekend before I attempt to return my copy of The Hammer Horror Collection.

Replaced my 4 year- old Toshiba today with a new Sony DVP-NS50P ($80 bucks - about a third of what the Toshiba cost new) - and am happy to report that Curse of The Werewolf plays just fine. So do CD-Rs and DVD-Rs.

just got my creature collection, so far it plays just fine (knock wood)
the liner notes have some interesting defects however. the notes for "revenge" and "walks" list john agar and jeff morrow as portraying THE CREATURE! :freak:

I was reading the liner notes for the Lugosi set. Except for "Murders In The Rue Morgue", it's really a Lugosi/Karloff set, and Bela is really a peripheral character in "Black Friday". However, the liner notes state that Lugosi is the professor who receives the brain-transplant - the main character in the movie! (Who, by the way, does a GREAT job of acting - I don't know his name, and I can't remember ever seeing him in any other film.)

It's too bad that the copy writers don't actually WATCH the films they're describing.

"The Raven" froze at the 17 minute mark, but I have a feeling it'll work on one of my other players. It's probably due to the density of the data on the disc. I don't mind, because it's basically a superb print of an obscure film and it only cost me $4. I have a feeling that the bean-counters at MCA wouldn't be releasing this films AT ALL if it weren't for these crammed-to-the-max packages.

It'd be great if they released "The Mad Doctors and Lunatics Collection" on DVD - how about "Murders In The Zoo", "Island Of Lost Souls", "Murder By The Clock", "Supernatural", "Man-Made Monster", "The Mad Ghoul", and "The Monster And The Girl" in one box?

My ebay/homemade copy of Monolith Monsters only plays on my laptop! I just transferred it to digital8 and back thru the movie editing software and made a better copy to DVD. shame I had to spend 5 hours on the whole process!

My eBay (http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-1606754-2202639)http://www.awltovhc.com/image-1606754-2202639/homemade copy of Monolith Monsters only plays on my laptop! I just transferred it to digital8 and back thru the movie editing software and made a better copy to DVD. shame I had to spend 5 hours on the whole process!

If you have the equipment your're better off buying a source(tape/ld) and making your own(that's what the seller did). If I buy something on questionable media I always retransfer it to a quality disc, even if it plays fine.
Not sure if it's legal because you're circumventing the copy protection but if a store bought dvd won't play in your player but plays fine in your computer, just burn a copy and play it on your player.

I have a feeling that the bean-counters at MCA wouldn't be releasing this films AT ALL if it weren't for these crammed-to-the-max packages.



BTW, it shold be noted that the compression on these films is very low. In fact, they are less compressed than the average new movie on a Warner Brothers disc. CORVETTE SUMMER is more compressed than the Lugosi set.

The DVD-18 is the equivalent of a pair of normal dual-layer discs. It has almost the same storage capacity as 4 single layer discs. Most of the Lugosi movies are only 60 to 70 minutes long.

My Pioneer DVD players have transfer rate meters which display a real time graph of the compression. These movies have a higher than average bitrate which means LOWER THAN AVERAGE COMPRESSION!