There are a few topics which speak of problems but I think this deserves a new thread with a clear title.

The bad news: If you have a Warner HD DVD chances are "good" that the disc will soon be unplayable. It often starts with freezing frames and errors around the layer-break (middle of the movie) and gets worse over time.

These errors are not problems with the player! There are many people who have problems. All of them with different players. Sometimes one player can read a disc where another has problems but it's probably only a question of time until no player can play the disc anymore.

Warner UK and Warner US have sometimes exchanged the defective discs for Blu-rays while Warner Germany only says that they are sorry but can't do anything about it. PC drives sometimes can read defective discs (very slowly) so you can copy the movie to Blu-ray. This is possible without the need to reencode the video because HD DVD and Blu-ray a very similar.

The following is a list collected out of posts on a german forum (cinefacts) and the english/us AVS forum. If there is no US/GER/UK behind the title the original user didn't say where the disc was from. Also HD DVDs were almost always made for several countries at once. So if you have the US disc and the list shows only the german disc but your US disc has german audio it's probably the same disc! Or if you are for example in Italy and your disc has german audio. UK and US discs also were identical a lot of times...

So here is the (long) list:


2001 Space Odyssee GER
300 GER+US
A christmas story US
Alexander US
Batman begins US GER
Blade Runner US
Blood diamond UK+US+GER
Bullitt GER
Charlie and the chocolate factory US+GER
Clockwork Orange US
Constantine GER
Corpse Bride GER
Der (The) Polarexpress GER
Die Insel (The Island) GER
Firewall GER
Flags of Our Fathers UK
Forbidden Planet US
Getaway GER
Gods and generals US
Goodfellas US
Grand Prix US
Harry Potter 1 US GER
Harry Potter 2 US
Harry Potter 5 GER
Honoring James Taylor US
Last Samurai US+GER
Lethal Weapon 1 GER
Letters from Iwo Jima GER
Matrix 1 GER
Matrix 3 US
Music and lyrics US
Mutiny on the bounty US
Nip/Tuck S4 Disc 2 US
Ocean's 11 US+GER
Ocean's 12 US+GER
Ocean's 13 GER+US
Pan's Labyrinth
Password: Swordfish US+GER
Phantom of the opera US
Poseidon GER US
Prestige GER
Purple rain US
Road Warropr US
Robin Hood US+GER
Scooby Doo 1 GER
Shining US
Smallville S6
Space Cowboys US GER
Superman returns GER
Superman US
Syriana GER
The Assassination of Jesse James GER
The Cowboys US+GER
The Fugitive US
The Reaping GER
The wild bunch US
Training Day US
Troja (Troy) GER
Under siege US
Unvorgiven (Erbamungslos) US+GER
V wie (for) Vendetta GER
Viva las vegas US
We are Marshall US
Wild bunch US

I just bought Aviator on HD-DVD and it was unplayable. It played the Warners logo then died. The company I bought it from are sending a replacement but this title should probably go on your list.

Ron

I was always surprised when hd dvd users didn't have problems with their discs. Guess they got lucky. I got into this in another thread. Hd dvd nearly put Toshiba out of business entirely. They are still recovering in many ways. Glitchy machines, and "disc rot" was so frustrating that it was unbearable. Back in time, I went for the German discs hoping for better playback but experienced the same things. HD DVD looked great on discs that played right but the format war was aided in favor of blu ray due to Toshibas problems.

Before the Warner-Rot I never had problems with HD DVDs. I bought a Toshiba EP30 when they lost the format war and have about 60 HD DVDs now. They all played without problems when I got them. Now I have 7 Warner discs with errors. I wouldn't say that this is a problem of the format itself because Universal discs don't have this problem. Let's hope it stays this way. Like Sony DADC the broken HD DVDs were all manufactured in the same place.

I didn't realize the problem with Warner releases were rot related. I thought they were mastering related.

Well this is bad news if it is true. Is there a documented source someplace to review? I have many Warner discs and so far all but the Departed have played perfectly and I attributed that to it being a combo disc.

The only "source" are several other people with the same problem. For example: click here (AVS Forum)

When I first heard of the problem I checked all my Warner discs - luckily I have far more Universal discs. I have a Toshiba Player (EP30) and two HD DVD drives in my PC (Toshiba ROM and LG Blu-ray/HD DVD Combo). I checked the discs with Nero DiscSpeed and two of them had errors. Only three weeks later I checked two of them again because the titles were mentioned a lot in discussions about the "Warner-Rot". And one of them suddenly also had errors. Now four months later I checked the "good"-ones again and two of them had errors which were fine before.

This is definately not player related as many people have these problems. I also watched every HD DVD within a few weeks after I got them and they all played fine. There are differences which probably relate to the error-correction of the drives. My Toshiba ROM sometimes can read discs the LG can't read. But this is only a last chance to backup the discs because a few month later the Toshiba also can't read them anymore.

All Warner HD DVDs I got were manufactured at Cinram (WEA Manufacturing) Olyphant USA. Most of my Universal Discs were made at Technicolor USA and some in Mexico but I don't know the manufacturer. This gives at least hope that the Universal Discs won't go bad.

Id like to say that both willy wonka and charlie and the chocolate factory are having serious errors (at least my copies)
Also casablanca plays the warner logo etc but the movie never starts.so far i have checked this discs with my own eyes and goodfellas and 300 which played fine.i have about 140 hd-dvds and i can say that only warner has this type of problem.im planning to check more but i guess 8 out of 10 will be unplayable.who thought that after 15 years from the release of copycat,ace ventura when nature calls,batman returns etc on laserdiscs rotters that would come a day that warner would screw us once more.
I would like to say a big f**k off to this industry

My sentiment exactly. Don't they do bulletproofing testing in the lab to make sure these snags won't crop up?

Well I just got my first HD-DVD player yesterday and I have several Warner titles region 1-2 no issues as of yet, touch wood. In all 43 HD-DVD titles If I spot anything odd I’ll make a post.

Ocean's 11 region 1
Ocean's 12 region 1 (watched this last night no snags what so ever)
Ocean's 13 region 1
Batman begins region 1
Troy region 2
Superman returns region 2 (watched this last night no snags what so ever)
Corpse Bride region 2
Flags of Our Fathers region 2
Training Day region 1

Just got a copy of Fugitive. The player will not recognize it. May be another case of Warnerot.

Ron

That sounds pretty bad and is it the same on all HD-DVD players would they have the same snags in playing the title as The Fugitive rocks in DOLBY DIGITAL!

Maybe its conspiracy by Warner Bros or some industrial espionage to ruin the Warner format for its customers?

I have around 6 titles from warner brothers, and will give these a spin at some stage to see if they are ok.

Thank you for the warning guys. . . . . . .What a shame eh!

Quality control. . . . . Obviously some companies don't pay attention to the materials and conditions inside the factories. . . . Shame on them

Will they ever learn or truly appreciate the bigger picture I.E. customers confidence & trust?

If I find a rotted disc, then I shall go skimming mine on the nearest river or lake

Regards

also had the same issue with my hddvd of The Departed

Yeah might just as all well play Frisbee with them down at the beach.

I also have the Toshiba HD-EP30. I know they can crash at times even DVD crashes. Switch off and restart is what I do when it happens.

Don´t you all think it would be nice to have a "Rot Report" button (just like with the LDs) for the HD-DVDs? Just found out that "Letters from Iwo Jima" and "Wyatt Earp" are rotten to the core, non playable...

Got a copy of 300 in the post today. No good. Just get a message saying that it is unrecognisable.

I had a problem with a universal Dune disc, the last few mins of the feature wouldn't play, but it had a lot of scratches so it might not have been related to rot. I picked up a sealed Dune from eBay pretty quickly after.

I didn't realise disc manufacturing problems were still so rampant in the industry.
Very glad I didn't venture into the HD DVD market and only started buying Blu-Ray's in 2011.
To be told what you bought is not only obsolete technology but also worthless because it doesn't play is about as big a kick in the teeth as you can get.
Rather than chuck your discs out, I'd recommend contacting the disc manufacturer. You will obviously not get replacments for a dead format but you stand a good chance of getting your money back as there is no way the discs are fit for purpose if they rotted this soon.

I am always vary of adopting new technology until it has bedded down.
I remember all the fanfare and hype around DVD when it was launched.
I didn't start buying the discs for a few years after they were launched yet even that was too soon.
Within 6 months I had at least a dozen or more discs manufactured by Technicolor in Wales that had developed a frosted white layer on their play surface.
I put it down to not enough time under the ultra violet light thast dries the lacquer coating. They were probably churned out too fast.
After a series of emails back and forth to Technicolor including a few phone calls they eventually agreed to replace all the defective discs. Really I gave them no other option!
I've had no problems with the replacements which are now around 12-13 years old now.

update #1

Just found the following thread about HD DVD rot along with contact details for replacements.
http://www.avforums.com/forums/hd-dvd-p ... c-rot.html

Why am I not shocked to read the Warner discs that rotted were manufactured by Technicolor - the same company to produce the defective DVDs I bought!
The good news is they appear to be replacing them with Blu-ray versions. I would get contacting them ASAP before they discontinue this offer and ditch HD-DVD which is dead in water anyway.

Warner (Germany) is not responding to any mails. Some people asked for a trade (defective HD-DVD for their counterpart in BD), all they got was the Millenium Trilogy, as sort of sorry, mates...
No one at Warner ever was able to talk about this subject as far as I´m informed. You could be glad to have them changed in the UK..