How Now Brown Blu-rays

[domino harvey]

It sounds like it was only this batch from this plant, so I wouldn't start to panic yet

[Noiradelic]

hoping that SWO is correct and fast forwarding clearly shows the problem and I don't have to watch every second of every movie again).

The bigger concern I have is whether or not this is becoming an on-going problem and from now on I have to constantly check the discs.

If you want to be a bit more thorough, you could also just play the discs from the 50 to 52 minute marks.

I think it would be prudent to check any of the 4 identified titles you have once or twice a year.

Pierrot le fou has crept into the discussion, but does anybody have an unequivocally defective copy?

[warren oates]

Pierrot le fou has crept into the discussion, but does anybody have an unequivocally defective copy?

And especially a copy that clearly appears to be browning/bronzing. I'd ask the same about Days of Heaven. Almost all people with much earlier playback problems on that title weren't mentioning browning. If there are more board members out there where either title looks as discolored as some of the images of the other discs that have been posted above, please speak up.

[jfish226]

Can someone post a photo of a disc browning for reference?

[domino harvey]

See here

[bevilacq12]

If you have a BD-ROM drive, there's a simple way to test your discs for this issue, assuming they aren't showing the obvious browning. Nero CD-DVD Speed (http://www.afterdawn.com/software/cd_dv ... _speed.cfm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) is a free Windows application (more like a little tool, you just run the .exe., no install necessary) that can scan CDs, DVDs, and even BDs.

What the program checks is if the laser of your optical drive is able to read all blocks of data on the disc without error. This is great for ruling out player incompatibility issues and the like. If the read scan fails, the disc is physically damaged. If the read scan passes, any issues experienced must not be physical disc issues and instead be software ones.

You go to the last tab, ScanDisc, and press Start. The program reads every block of data on the disc and provides as output both percentages of good/damaged/bad blocks and a visual representation showing the layout of any affected blocks. For an undamaged disc, the scan should yield 100% good (green) blocks. The scan can take up to a half an hour (on my drive at least, maybe there are faster BD-ROM drives since I've purchased), and it takes all the ambiguity and time expenditure of having to watch the entire disc out of the equation.

For DVDs, you need to get past the CSS encryption first (i.e., run AnyDVD and then start Nero CD-DVD Speed). For BDs, the encryption appears to be entirely at the software level, not hardware, so no decryption is necessary - reading the encrypted blocks is just as informative as reading the decrypted ones when it comes to the physical health of the disc. I'd actually recommend NOT running AnyDVD or similar applications while scanning BDs as it can cause some odd behavior.

[Jakamarak]

Pierrot le fou has crept into the discussion, but does anybody have an unequivocally defective copy?

My copy of Pierrot Le Fou shows no signs of browning. However, like someone who posted earlier in the thread, even though the disc used to play perfectly, and even though its surface shows no signs of scratches, fingerprints, etc., it started freezing at 1:01:01. I tested it on multiple players and got the exact same results. Also, it freezes on several of the supplements and some of those links jump to incorrect places.

It's very possible this is a completely different from the browning issue. I only brought it up in the forum because I saw someone had introduced the possibility of Pierrot Le Fou being affected and asked if anyone had similar trouble.

[EddieLarkin]

When I first bought Summer Hours in 2011, it would freeze around the 50 minute mark and not progress until after a few minutes were skipped over. I promptly arranged a replacement from the retailer, which played fine. That replacement disc has since started to visibly brown, but it still plays fine. I had the original disc lying at the bottom of the draw, and it has not browned, yet naturally it still freezes.

Weird.

[bdsweeney]

How can you tell if a Criterion blu is a first release/edition copy?

[tenia]

Pretty good idea to try CD-DVD Speed.

On my Walkabout disc, it shows : CD-DVD Speed actually can't go past 50.9% of the disc (20606 MB) before stopping and not going further (I actually had to reboot my computer after because it froze CD-DVD Speed). That's already one down, though I thus don't know how many sectors are damaged.

On Days of Heaven, I'm at 51.3% of the disc (23136 MB) and am starting to record problematic sectors (1.4% are damaged and 0.1% bad). Speed is decreasing to 0.19X, so it might stop soon.

Funny thing though : my Panasonic BDT-110 was able to read flawlessly Walkabout and Days of Heaven. So while the disc is clearly problematic, it seems some players are still able to read it.

[Rupert Pupkin]

I can post a photo of my Blu-Ray browning surface-layer of "Walkabout" (I emailed it to J.Mulvaney)

someone on dvdclassik (El Dadal)also mentionned "The Seventh Seal" which has a browning syndrome, and I've never seen this title listed so far. At least on page 1.
I'm not sure if he check the disk and his disk has the "browning" syndrome or if he plays the disk and has some playback issues.

The thing is that when the "browning" syndrome" has started it's really not a good thing. It certainly won't go better.
Even if your disk looks physically intact today... who knows, if it comes from the bad batch of pressing it could start to brown the next month...

Even with a blu-ray "browning" you can still find a stand-alone blu-ray player which could play it just fine.
But it's the time to make if you want to an accurate rip to your hard-disk (then burn it later on a DVD-DL layer).
Thus you'll see if there are some sectors of the disk which are irreversibly damaged.

It's sad to make our own copy on DVD-DL... those silver blu-ray should be more reliable (a title bought in 2010... 4 years only! and I'm sure that some shops still have the original pressing- and we don't have a hint so far to know which title has been repressed or how clearly to I.D the matrix of the bad batch)... or let's start a Criterion-saving-the-movie-community.....

even in this state of "browning" my copy of "Walkabout" can be ripped in accurate mode without a single error.
It can play just fine on a stand-alone blu-ray player (a Panasonic), but would freeze on an OPPO.
It depends on how sensible your stand-alone blu-ray player is.

But this is clearly a chemical reaction; and it won't go better....

Mind you, it's not the same thing that with a blu-ray title with a bad authoring (which would cause frame skipping or compatibility problem with some stand-alone blu-ray player) and a Blu-Ray which wouldn't have been mispressed; and could - in a next so distant future - rot, bronzing, or "browning".

The "finger test" with the finger touching the edge of the disk is a good test to see what titles which are not "browning" now could be a problem in a next so distant future : if it isn't smooth but rugged/rough; well there could be a problem with this batch.

Fortunately, I've checked a few disks from the 2010 year and if some seem to be from the same plant/batch (with a A01/A02 marked near the matrix of the inner-circle (A01 = first layer?) (but I have another "Walkabout" disk which is just fine with no browning and bought at the same time of his "brother") some other or obviously from a different plant (the "finger test" with the edge of the disk is perfect-smooth, and matrix on the inner circle are totally different)

so far this is the only title I have from the 2010 era with the browning syndrome.

[tenia]

Days of Heaven froze CD-DVD Speed too to the point Windows told me the program had stopped working.
I went up to 64.2% of the disc (28952 MB) and got 7.3% of damaged sectors and 0.3% of bad one. I don't think there is much more than this, because just before it stopped, the speed got up again, and the damaged sectors were more and more sparse.

[ImaginaryPogue]

I've noticed this on my Summer Hours and Walkabout Blu-rays (the former would've been purchased close to the release; I don't recall when I bought the latter though it was my third purchase - not for damage/defective reasons).

I see no browning on my Seventh Seal or Pierrot Le Fou disks, fwiw.

[AtlantaFella]

Add me to the list. Walkabout looks like it was damaged in a fire. It plays until I chapter ahead toward the 50 minute mark at which point my player just spins and whirs.

M is just starting to discolor but will not play the feature at all. (The menu loads but then digital mayhem ensues when I try to play the movie.)

No problems at this point with Days of Heaven.

I will monitor this thread for a few days before contacting Criterion... thanks everyone for the heads-up and those who have been in contact with Criterion please keep us posted.

[Bando]

Hypothetically speaking, if Pierrot Le Fou discs (or any other OOP releases) have this issue, Criterion can't replace them, right? Or would they sort of just skirt things and send out dead stock replacement discs?

[domino harvey]

I think we'd be SOL if Perrot le fou starting fouling up. I just checked and no one's mentioning this on Criterion's Facebook page-- now would be the time, as there will be a lot of traffic tomorrow looking for the new release announcements, so we'd get the most views if something were posted to the wall now (in theory). I don't like the radio silence being reported back from those who've contacted Criterion...

[EddieLarkin]

My brown Summer Hours refuses to back up despite playing fine on my player. Pierrot le fou has backed up successfully, which is a relief.

[DeprongMori]

For the record, unlike Eureka, I've very rarely seen Criterion engage in answering questions raised by posters on their Facebook page, which I find very disappointing. (I've maybe seen a reply to a substantive question only once or twice in the several years I've been following.)

So, good luck getting an answer on the page. It might at least help inform other customers about the problem.

Hoping we see an official response this week, even it it's just an acknowledgement of the problem and a promise to get to us soon with a solution.

[domino harvey]

Yes, to be clear, I don't think we'd get a desired response from Criterion by posting about it, but the more people who know and then contact Criterion, the better

[AMalickLensFlare]

Add me to the list. Walkabout looks like it was damaged in a fire. It plays until I chapter ahead toward the 50 minute mark at which point my player just spins and whirs.

M is just starting to discolor but will not play the feature at all. (The menu loads but then digital mayhem ensues when I try to play the movie.)

No problems at this point with Days of Heaven.

This is the condition of mine as well. Walkabout is the worst, M is noticeably bronzed, and Days of Heaven looks fine (as does Pierrot Le Fou). I haven't tried playing them yet, though.

[AtlantaFella]

I should say that Jon Mulvaney with Criterion has always been helpful and responsive when I've had issues in the past. Would be interested to know if someone receives (or has received?) a response from him on this one.

[Wood Tick]

My M, Walkabout, and Pierot Le Fou look normal. Summer Hours is quite altered, although when I played it in May there were no problems.

If it says "first printing" does it necessarily mean it came from the initial pressing? And is it safe to assume that all copies from a given printing/pressing are compromised?

[Valin Kenobi]

For the record, unlike Eureka, I've very rarely seen Criterion engage in answering questions raised by posters on their Facebook page, which I find very disappointing. (I've maybe seen a reply to a substantive question only once or twice in the several years I've been following.)

To be fair, posts on Facebook company pages are generally only a step or two above YouTube comments in terms of quality, so I can't blame them for not wanting to wade into that morass any more than they absolutely have to.

[Yaanu]

For the record, unlike Eureka, I've very rarely seen Criterion engage in answering questions raised by posters on their Facebook page, which I find very disappointing. (I've maybe seen a reply to a substantive question only once or twice in the several years I've been following.)

To be fair, posts on Facebook company pages are generally only a step or two above YouTube comments in terms of quality, so I can't blame them for not wanting to wade into that morass any more than they absolutely have to.

There used to be more fan interaction in the past, but after Facebook put user posts in the sidebar that interaction has dropped to nothing.

[DeprongMori]

Well, I made a post to Criterion's Facebook page about the issue. We'll see if there is any official response.

So far, no reply to any of my emails from last week to Jon Mulvaney. I suspect they'll wait until at least tomorrow to respond publicly to the question so as to not steal the thunder from today's announcements (which I suspect will be mostly stellar given their recent track record.)

There seems to be lots of conversation on this issue in other fora. Blu-Ray.com, CriterionCast, and a few others have been sorting through it.

(And, yes, Facebook screwing around with Pages and their visibility has really taken its toll on conversation in The Criterion Collection page as well as many others. The participation there is much better quality than YouTube comments certainly, but pretty diminished these days compared to say a year ago.)