RING OF TERROR DVD ISSUES?

[cavedweller]

I bought Ring of Terror many years ago, but just now getting to it on DVD. I know it sounds crazy, but life goes by quick. I put in the DVD tonight and it cuts out right before Phantom Creeps episode three. I checked the DVD and the scenes are in the scene select menu, but the rest of the episode is not burned into the DVD to actually play the rest of the episode. I know I can't get my money back since the purchase was years ago, but has anyone else have this problem? Did they have a recall on this disc? I will have to find a new copy or buy it to stream.

[Torgo]

Is this the Shout disc or the Rhino disc?

I know the Rhino disc works fine for me. I haven't checked out the Shout one but this is the first issue I've heard about it.

[Afgncaap5]

I've never heard of this issue either. While you're right that you probably can't get a refund, though... it couldn't hurt to reach out to the company anyway? It's a longshot, but every once in a while you'll find a guy who says "Whoops! Don't know why that happened. I really shouldn't but, uh... hang on, we've technically still got some extras..."

I wouldn't count on it, but... shrug

[cavedweller]

Sept 6, 2020 10:38:18 GMT -5 Torgo said:

Is this the Shout disc or the Rhino disc?

I know the Rhino disc works fine for me. I haven't checked out the Shout one but this is the first issue I've heard about it.

It's the Rhino disc. I bought it again on Amazon as a stream. I figure eventually discs will be gone, so might as well get em on stream when discs denigrate. Nothing lasts forever. I don't know what I will do when my KTMA disc die off, or the episodes that are no longer available. I am a total completist lol. It's unfortunate for this DVD, but glad nobody else is having issues. I guess it was just my luck.

[Torgo]

Yeah, since Rhino lost the MST license over a decade ago, I think a replacement disc is out of the cards. Even if they could have offered one, their inventory for the series probably dried up years ago.

The only disc you could get is Shout's re-issue of the Volume 11 set.

[cavedweller]

Oct 5, 2020 22:13:42 GMT -5 Torgo said:

Yeah, since Rhino lost the MST license over a decade ago, I think a replacement disc is out of the cards. Even if they could have offered one, their inventory for the series probably dried up years ago.

The only disc you could get is Shout's re-issue of the Volume 11 set.

Yeah, I bought it for $6.99 through Amazon for my streaming collection.

[Deleted]

So I actually just bought a sealed copy of Rhino's Volume 11 on eBay myself. Peeled off the shrink wrap (which still had the original Rhino sticker on it, so definitely legit), put Ring of Terror in my PC, and there's a disc error. It looks like it affects the Video Jukebox bonus feature but definitely disappointing, especially since one of my two disc drives won't load the disc at all.

A little while later I popped in Tormented. This time, however, the disc error prevents me from watching anything after the first hour or so of the episode itself. I was able to determine the disc error on this disc with DVD Decrypter (and DVD Shrink won't even finish analyzing it).

Is this essentially the same problem you had, cavedweller? It might be something to do with how the discs were pressed (and the company that handled it).

[bevilacq12]

So Rhino Entertainment is linked with Warner Bros. (not sure if it's correct to say they're owned by WB or a full WB division, but they definitely have a strong relationship). And Warner Bros. DVDs were pressed at a particular manufacturing plant in the 2005-2009 timeframe that had severe quality problems - there are a number of ongoing threads at various home theater enthusiast forums going over all the dead Warner Bros. DVDs people are finding in their collections. They worked for a while, and then died at some unknown time in between purchase/first viewing and a later attempt to view them years later. These DVDs are identifiable by the "IFPI 2U**" (with any alphanumeric values standing in for those last two *s) in the clear plastic at the very center of the DVDs.

I don't have my Rhino MST3K DVDs in front of me to check, but a Google search for Rhino IFPI codes turns up some music releases from that timeframe, and all the Rhino CDs/DVDs I'm seeing were in fact pressed at that manufacturing plant, with IFPI 2U** codes. So it stands to reason that Rhino MST3K DVDs were also likely pressed at that plant, and thus are at least at risk of suffering from the quality problems people have encountered with Warner Bros. DVDs.

I knew about the Warner Bros. DVD issues and also had a vague recollection of Rhino and WB being tight, but I didn't put 2 and 2 together until reading this thread. Certainly makes me more appreciative that Shout has re-issued those first 12 volumes, though I also feel like the number of episodes on DVD has shrunk by 1 as I no longer feel as confident about the longevity of my Godzilla vs. Megalon disc...

edit: One additional wrinkle I just thought of - the Warner Bros. DVDs that were most problematic were the dual-layer ones. If Rhino used single-layer DVDs, they might be OK, with these couple reports of Volume 11 problems being just the small number of defects that likely exist for any product. If they're dual-layer DVDs, that seems likely (IMO) to be related to the excessive Warner Bros. dual-layer DVD failures.

[cavedweller]

Nov 30, 2020 21:23:05 GMT -5 @codyhimes said:

So I actually just bought a sealed copy of Rhino's Volume 11 on eBay myself. Peeled off the shrink wrap (which still had the original Rhino sticker on it, so definitely legit), put Ring of Terror in my PC, and there's a disc error. It looks like it affects the Video Jukebox bonus feature but definitely disappointing, especially since one of my two disc drives won't load the disc at all.

A little while later I popped in Tormented. This time, however, the disc error prevents me from watching anything after the first hour or so of the episode itself. I was able to determine the disc error on this disc with DVD Decrypter (and DVD Shrink won't even finish analyzing it).

Is this essentially the same problem you had, cavedweller? It might be something to do with how the discs were pressed (and the company that handled it).

Well, It played fine for the first hour and then just froze, and was not able to continue. I tried skipping the scene on the chapter list, but could not do so. Since the problem I bought it again as a digital on Amazon, and I will probably buy it again in the Gizmoplex when the time comes.

[cavedweller]

Mar 24, 2021 1:12:22 GMT -5 bevilacq12 said:

So Rhino Entertainment is linked with Warner Bros. (not sure if it's correct to say they're owned by WB or a full WB division, but they definitely have a strong relationship). And Warner Bros. DVDs were pressed at a particular manufacturing plant in the 2005-2009 timeframe that had severe quality problems - there are a number of ongoing threads at various home theater enthusiast forums going over all the dead Warner Bros. DVDs people are finding in their collections. They worked for a while, and then died at some unknown time in between purchase/first viewing and a later attempt to view them years later. These DVDs are identifiable by the "IFPI 2U**" (with any alphanumeric values standing in for those last two *s) in the clear plastic at the very center of the DVDs.

I don't have my Rhino MST3K DVDs in front of me to check, but a Google search for Rhino IFPI codes turns up some music releases from that timeframe, and all the Rhino CDs/DVDs I'm seeing were in fact pressed at that manufacturing plant, with IFPI 2U** codes. So it stands to reason that Rhino MST3K DVDs were also likely pressed at that plant, and thus are at least at risk of suffering from the quality problems people have encountered with Warner Bros. DVDs.

I knew about the Warner Bros. DVD issues and also had a vague recollection of Rhino and WB being tight, but I didn't put 2 and 2 together until reading this thread. Certainly makes me more appreciative that Shout has re-issued those first 12 volumes, though I also feel like the number of episodes on DVD has shrunk by 1 as I no longer feel as confident about the longevity of my Godzilla vs. Megalon disc...

edit: One additional wrinkle I just thought of - the Warner Bros. DVDs that were most problematic were the dual-layer ones. If Rhino used single-layer DVDs, they might be OK, with these couple reports of Volume 11 problems being just the small number of defects that likely exist for any product. If they're dual-layer DVDs, that seems likely (IMO) to be related to the excessive Warner Bros. dual-layer DVD failures.

This is not good news at all. If this is the case I do not have a problem buying these in the Gizmoplex since eventually we all have to go digital, but my discs with episodes that can never be released again is a problem. I don't want to have to go back searching the black market again.

[jocksinclair]

I understand if you don't want to go to the trouble of ripping every single episode so that you have a digital backup (although I think that's worth doing), but you can pretty easily rip the ones like "Godzilla".

[Deleted]

Yep, I've got digital backups of all the OOP DVDs and a few old discs that I think are worth archiving. Storage is the only impracticality, but IMO it's worth it. It's not a perfect forever solution, either, but I prefer having the extra control. Plus, with MST3K, the DVDs run through the right software output a better video presentation than any of the streaming options I've looked at.

[cavedweller]

May 8, 2021 13:06:55 GMT -5 jocksinclair said:

I understand if you don't want to go to the trouble of ripping every single episode so that you have a digital backup (although I think that's worth doing), but you can pretty easily rip the ones like "Godzilla".


I was looking at Winx DVD Ripper Platinum last night to rip my DVDs and store them. You recommend doing that I see. I do hate trolling the internet to find the black market stuff. I think ripping them is the answer.

[jocksinclair]

If you'd rather keep the disc intact, with menus and whatnot, I recommend DVD Decrypter.

But I prefer "remuxing" with makemkv, which takes the video track, audio track(s), subtitle(s), and chapter stops, and saves them all within a shell called mkv, with no additional compression.  This is easier for streaming via Plex or Kodi, and it's much easier to modify when needed than keeping the discs intact.  (For instance, there are fan-generated subtitles for episodes that you can "mux" in to the mkv using mkvtoolnix.)

I have no opinion one way or the other on Winx DVD Ripper Platinum, so I don't want you to think I am specifically criticizing it, but I can definitely vouch for Decrypter.

[cavedweller]

May 8, 2021 21:52:00 GMT -5 jocksinclair said:

If you'd rather keep the disc intact, with menus and whatnot, I recommend DVD Decrypter.

But I prefer "remuxing" with makemkv, which takes the video track, audio track(s), subtitle(s), and chapter stops, and saves them all within a shell called mkv, with no additional compression.  This is easier for streaming via Plex or Kodi, and it's much easier to modify when needed than keeping the discs intact.  (For instance, there are fan-generated subtitles for episodes that you can "mux" in to the mkv using mkvtoolnix.)

I have no opinion one way or the other on Winx DVD Ripper Platinum, so I don't want you to think I am specifically criticizing it, but I can definitely vouch for Decrypter.

I tried MKV, plex, and all that and I never got the hang of it, and never worked for me. I need something simplistic. I will take a look at Decrypter.