Brent Gair
05-15-2006, 02:12 PM
Here's a twisted tale.
I recently received my DVD of WAR IN SPACE. It's one of those Japanese adventure films from 1977.
Several of these Toho films have been released in the last couple of years and, for the most part, they look great. Previously, they had been released by Media Blasters. The rights to more recent films have passed to Discotek. War in Space is the first Discotek disc of the Toho films. Looks good on paper: 2.35:1 anamorphic, original Japanese, English dub, 5.1 and 2.0 sound.
36 minutes into the film, the transfer takes a crap. It displays unwatchable combing artifacts which are often the hallmark of a PAL transfer that has been improperly transfer to NTSC. This was bad. I mean, I've seen bad but this was REALLY bad. I just stopped watching it.
I checked around the net and discovered that everybody else found the same problem. That's the problem with pre-ordering a disc...I wouldn't have bought it if I'd known this ahead of time. But the disc shipped before any reviews were published.
Today, I discovered that there is a replacement program. Unfortunately, it called for the RETURN of the disc in exchange for a fixed disc. Yeah, well I'm in Canada, and I can't just put a $.50 stamp on it and drop it in a box. I'd probably end up blowing a lunch hour, standing in line at the post office and spending half-again the price of the disc to send it back to Florida. I don't mind paying for my own mistakes but I'm not thrilled about picking up the tab for the person who sold me the defective product in the first place.
However, I brought this to the attention of Discotek who sent me this very accomodating reply:
"Hi,
sorry about the inconvenience, just send me your address and I will ship you
a new disc now.
Thanks!
Selby
Discotek"
Well, that's certainly good of them! It's encouraging when a company actually listens to a customer and takes the appropriate action to rectify things. I'm feeling much better**.
But you still have to wonder how these things happen. Discotek certainly aren't the first people to release a screwed transfer (not by a longshot). You would think companies would take the simple expedient of actually WATCHING their own discs. Just hand out a few early pressings to their employees to watch over the weekend before release day. Discotek does their fist Toho release and EVERYBODY discovers the awful transfer glitch when they try to watch it....everybody except Discotek?
**Although I'm feeling better, I have to wait until I actualy get a disc before I'm completely satisfied. When Warner Brothers screwed up the original Superman TV release in Canada, they also promised replacement discs. I sent the proper request but had to follow up with three more emails and wait four months before I actually got a new disc.
I recently received my DVD of WAR IN SPACE. It's one of those Japanese adventure films from 1977.
Several of these Toho films have been released in the last couple of years and, for the most part, they look great. Previously, they had been released by Media Blasters. The rights to more recent films have passed to Discotek. War in Space is the first Discotek disc of the Toho films. Looks good on paper: 2.35:1 anamorphic, original Japanese, English dub, 5.1 and 2.0 sound.
36 minutes into the film, the transfer takes a crap. It displays unwatchable combing artifacts which are often the hallmark of a PAL transfer that has been improperly transfer to NTSC. This was bad. I mean, I've seen bad but this was REALLY bad. I just stopped watching it.
I checked around the net and discovered that everybody else found the same problem. That's the problem with pre-ordering a disc...I wouldn't have bought it if I'd known this ahead of time. But the disc shipped before any reviews were published.
Today, I discovered that there is a replacement program. Unfortunately, it called for the RETURN of the disc in exchange for a fixed disc. Yeah, well I'm in Canada, and I can't just put a $.50 stamp on it and drop it in a box. I'd probably end up blowing a lunch hour, standing in line at the post office and spending half-again the price of the disc to send it back to Florida. I don't mind paying for my own mistakes but I'm not thrilled about picking up the tab for the person who sold me the defective product in the first place.
However, I brought this to the attention of Discotek who sent me this very accomodating reply:
"Hi,
sorry about the inconvenience, just send me your address and I will ship you
a new disc now.
Thanks!
Selby
Discotek"
Well, that's certainly good of them! It's encouraging when a company actually listens to a customer and takes the appropriate action to rectify things. I'm feeling much better**.
But you still have to wonder how these things happen. Discotek certainly aren't the first people to release a screwed transfer (not by a longshot). You would think companies would take the simple expedient of actually WATCHING their own discs. Just hand out a few early pressings to their employees to watch over the weekend before release day. Discotek does their fist Toho release and EVERYBODY discovers the awful transfer glitch when they try to watch it....everybody except Discotek?
**Although I'm feeling better, I have to wait until I actualy get a disc before I'm completely satisfied. When Warner Brothers screwed up the original Superman TV release in Canada, they also promised replacement discs. I sent the proper request but had to follow up with three more emails and wait four months before I actually got a new disc.