Page 1 of Will Di$ney face up to responsibilities

I`m disheartened by news reports (.tv) that Buena Vista (Di$ney`s distribution arm) are steadfast in their belief that the Toy Story Disk 3 debacle is a player problem and nothing to do with their disk which is of the highest DVD standard.

Columbia Tristar bit the bullet over the Gladiator 2 disk. I suppose it`s all a question of profit margins, (small) numbers of dissatisfied customers and the fact that the head of Di$ney UK is terrified Michael Eisner will gut him like a fish if he admits anything to do with The Mouse is less than perfect.

It`s bloody shocking isn`t it?
I got my R2 boxset for £30 because I get a 25% discount for working in V.Shop, so it is cheaper than me getting TS1 + TS2 seperately. Even so, I`m taking it back and ordering the R1 version which ironically has no problems on R2 players.

If I have picked up correctly, the same is true of Gladiator - R1 has no problems but R2 does? And the studios are trying to discourage UK buyers from purchasing R1 discs? They`re certainly not doing a very good job of it...

Dan.

It isn`t just Toy Story either. The region 2 Fantasia set appears to have the same problem. I`ve tried it on three different machines, including a bog standard unmodified R2, and it just doesn`t want to know. The films are fine, though the menus are so slooow its unbelievable. All credit to Play 247 who are taking it back for testing, but I`m going to try the R1 version, which I should have known was the better bet.

Disney will do what they`ve done before. Nothing. Until the clamour grows loud enough. They are solely interested in money now. Their pricing policy makes that clear enough. Perhaps there needs to be a boycot like the one against Fox to force their prices down. Personally, this is the last Disney product I shall buy.

I seem to remember there was a big problem with one of their earlier R1 releases and they did nothing until a very vociferous internet campaign and the threat of a boycot on buying Disney anything forced them admit their was a problem.

So how do we go about starting some pretty heavy action on them?
Somebody has got the number for Beuna Vista on thedvdforums.com - we could get people to phone up and pester them...

I`ve e-mailed Watchdog about it in the hope that although they screwed up the Gladiator feature, they might be able to put the same pressure on Disney.

Dan.