Info and forum posts by 'cw2000'

RE: Crappy Reservoir Dogs Transfer

review: http://www.dvddebate.com/article.php?sid=3003&mode=threaded&order=0

RE: Atlantis, The Lost Empire, Region 2 will not play on ALBA DVD108

Disneys dvds do adhere to the dvd standard (just), they take some parts to the limit (this is what causes the problems with cheapo players) but are still within spec.

Although Disney use a modified DVD logo, they are still bound by the dvd spec as it still contains "DVD", which is a trademark of the dvd forum.


One of the most common problems with disney discs are the menus, Disney maxes out the menus, this causes problems on players which have had cut backs to buffer memory (normally the budget ones) this causes either slow loading or failure to load because the player doesn`t have enough memory to allocate to the menus.

Firmware updates can normally correct the problem as they allow a reallocation of buffer memory.


A lot of dvd producers have to make cut backs to the dvd spec when designing their discs due to budget and older players lack of compatability. For example the maximum bitrate available on dvd is not used because first gen players can cope with it (Pathe originally released R2UK Austin Powers with peaks at full bitrate, but they had to reissue it with lower peaks because of playback issues). Many companies avoid seamless branching because many budget players lack the buffer memory to cope with branches over a certain size (thats why some budget players have playback issues with seamless branching discs, ie. repeating chapters etc). Another example is The Matrix which had playback issues, this was because Warner mastered the disc with one of the layers at near to the maximum allowed data area allowed by the dvd spec, problem was not all players (mainly budget) could cope with this because their laser pickups were not setup to cope with the larger data area, most players fixed via firmware updates which set the maximums to correct values. (Toshiba has even admitted that The Matrix playback problems on some of it`s players were it`s fault and so issued firmware updates). Even Layer change problems can occur on budget players when the layer change takes slightly longer than normal.

RE: Which Evil Dead DVD Should I Buy?

within the woods isn`t on any of the Evil Dead discs (Raimi blocked it)

RE: Chicken Run disk problems?

No probs on my Sony 725

RE: Buffy season 2

Whenever I have used Futureent they have reshipped from within the UK to avoid customs charges.

RE: posted by Anil Khedun on Sunday, 25th August 2002, 10:29

The R4 reviews at http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/ normally say if a disc is dual region coded or not.

RE: Blade Runner Box set

The SE release of Blade Runner was due late 2002, but now looks like it will be early 2003. Current specs are 3 discs, with upto 4 versions of the film (original, dc, mixture, final dc) + loads of extras.

RE: Halloween

Halloween: The Ultimate Collection (6 Discs) is currently £39.59 (ex P&P) at http://www.mvc.co.uk (its a bank holiday discount)

RE: Sexy Beast/Gangster No1/Limey - Misprice at Streetsonline??

marksparks99, they normally cancel misprices, they did this with everyone who ordered Babylon 5 Season 1 at the lower price (they were using the wrong RRP). But you can get it by complaining using Which Webtrader

RE: Anyone know where you can get firmware upgrades for Oritrons?

Master Care (dixons, currys etc) used to have them.

Some are also downloadable

RE: Is it worth waiting for the "extended cut" of LOTR - what extra scenes are included!?

It couldn`t be fitted on 1 disc without compromising picture quality (most companies avoid putting over 3 and half hours on a dvd, especially with visually intense films with lots of detail and action because thats the first they that suffers), so they split it and because they then had loads of addition space they added the DTS track,

RE: Sexy Beast/Gangster No1/Limey - Misprice at Streetsonline??

Streets normal cancel misprices.

But, If they cancel yours email them saying that the have violated the Which Webtraders Code of Practice (they are a member) by cancelling the order. They should then let you have it at the lower price (normally they get you to reorder at full price, you email them the details and they discount it.

The Which Webtraders Code of Practice says that the contract to supply you is formed when the supplier (streets) sends you email (etc) containing your name, order number, item, price, and info on how to cancel. So by cancelling the orders streets break the Code of Practice that it signed up for.

RE: Terminator old stock?

Terminator is a MGM release not Warner release.

It`s not DVD Rot which is an internal fault of a disc.

It`s a external fault caused by a reaction of the ink used for the discs cover art with the discs surface.

MGM admitted that their was a fault and are offering replacements if you disc gets affected. (Silence of the Lambs is also affected)

MGM says that the problem was limited to early batches of the discs, so new stock should be clear of the problem. (if not you can get the replacement from MGM)

RE: Help Needed! Unable to play DVDs with Macrovision!

That problem tends to happen with the drivers that come with windows because they are cut down versions (designed to get windows up and running and so not very good performance)

Downloading the latest graphics card drivers should solve the problem.

RE: Spinal Tap gone same way as Terminator & SotL

My Spinal Tap discs are ok. one thing I noticed was that the spinal tap discs were relicated by technicolor (they also did SOL and Terminator)

My Rocky discs are starting to be affected by the condensation affect (rocky 4 total, rocky 5 starting) (these discs were also replicated by Technicolor)

RE: Pearl Harbor - Vista Series Question !

£16.99 at CD WOW if you use the discount link.

RE: Blade Runner - Documentary

It will be 3 discs, containing

original cut
director`s cut
final director`s cut (has some of the plot holes fixed)

+ extras

RE: DVD`s pictures with the highest bitrate...

True Lies Five Star is in the works, it was due out early this year but was posponed because of Sept 11th.

RE: DVD`s pictures with the highest bitrate...

The UK release of Austin Powers had a high bit rate (so high in fact that Pathe had to reissue the disc at a lower max bitrate of 9.8Mbps because many first generation players couldn`t cope with video bitrates over 9.9Mbps)

RE: Startrek Enterprise coming to Channel 4.

Wonder of they will show it in Widescreen on digital tv.

(they didn`t show stargate sg-1 or andromeda in widescreen because they couldn`t be bothered to pay for widescreen masters)

RE: problems with proline2000 player- please help!!

Get the latest firmware update cd for the proline 2000 as many of the Proline 2000 players are still on the old (very buggy) firmware.

RE: No Macrovision on Harry Potter !!!

Macrovision is pointless on dvd anyway as it can be bypassed easily (it`s enabled or disabled by a bit flag in the main .ifo file on a dvd) and Macrovision doesn`t stop a disc being copied or ripped and compressed to Divx format.

Also almost all multiregion mods disable macrovision (about 75% of european players are multiregion)

Most of the cheapo players have macrovision bypass options.

RE: Predator - Special Edition

looks uncut and appears to be from the same master that was used for the region 1 release (had a quick flick though them and can see very little difference in quality between the R2 SE and R1 releases, but differences may become more apparant on larger screens)

RE: Friends- Complete series 2 Release date??

3rd September for Season 2

RE: Friends DVD`s(any region)

R2 version is the same discs as R4

R4 tends to be cheapest

But R1 has better picture quality, DD5.1, and extras.

RE: BTTFT £I7.99

It`s £17.49 if you have the discount link

RE: Psion Wavefinder

Do you have a PCI WinModem, as they use loads of CPU power and this causes a problems with other CPU intensive processes (such as decoding of the multiplex stream from the WaveFinder)

This item was edited on Sunday, 19th May 2002, 01:03

RE: True romance - Uncut????

The R2 UK version is the full length uncut version.

It`s quite common for peoples minds to be tricked in to thinking that extra footage exists when it doesn`t (same thing happens in Reservior Dogs)

RE: going to fake it -no orgazmo for me

It`s not cancelled, it`s just been delayed to make more extras (commentary has already been recorded)

The rights have transferred to Universal and release is planned for the 4th qtr of this year.

RE: Region 1 vs Region 2

techincally PAL is the superior format, but in practice with dvd their is little difference between NTSC and PAL, it all depends on how well the disc was encoded etc (US studios tend to have more money and so can pay for better encodings)