Perhaps asked before (sorry if it has) but.....

DADC US Terre Haute plant.

A known laser-rot factory but why for so long?

Looking back it appears to have had a pretty poor reputation (for a number of issues but referring here to LD production only) that were ongoing for quite some time but why did LD buyers back in the day accept the situation for so long? The problem was an ongoing one with virtually whole runs of quite a number of titles (Eraser etcetera) being problematic - as an example only I must have had at least 6 copies of their pressing of No Quarter Unledded pass through my hands in the search for a rot free copy without success, perhaps I have been unlucky but don't think so. Every one had rot on side one of all copies ranging from medium to pretty severe with side two playing with no issues on all the copies I have had. Other DADC US titles I have had though, if rot was present & it was on most, the playback problem was on both sides of the disc.

It also appears that initially if a faulty disc was returned to a retailer it would be swapped for another but as it went on for so long that latterly most customers wanted another title as the DADC plant was gaining a reputation for pressing "bad" discs.

So basically is there anyone here who bought discs back in the formats commercially active life & experienced problems with the DADC US discs - did you have to return discs for a swap or did you give up with DADC pressings.

Looking back it actually appeared like they (Sony) did not really care as long as the plant equipment was running & the discs were pressed then out they went - looks like the customer was the quality control monitor & that is rather shoddy to put it as politely as possible.

Given that the problems started well before 1996 how did it get THX certification in that year, was it just because they had the required equipment? I can only assume that to be the case but surely the quality of the final product would have mattered or was it as long as the licencing fees were paid who really cared or am I being a bit cynical perhaps?

The DADC Austria & DADC Japan plants pressed laserdiscs with no apparent issues, most pressings I have seen from the aforementioned manufacturing plants were very good so the company could press good reliable product but the DADC US Terre Haute plant was a bit of a mess that seriously affected the final product. Was it only the LD production at that plant so seriously affected or was the other product produced poor also.

Rather sad as quite a number of titles are pretty well lost now that came from the Sony US factory.

THX certification in regards to LDs usually went to the video and audio transfer in regards to performance, not the state of the physical media.

As far as how it went on for so long, well, if Sony is one thing, it's stubborn and hard-headed. As in they don't really think they can do much wrong (see how long they carried on with Betamax thinking that they could make the thing work themselves.) I would imagine they didn't think much was wrong with the pressing plant since they print CDs from that plant as well. They probably thought "the CDs are fine. The LDs should be too. Must be problems with their players."

THX certification did cover every aspect of the process. Audio/video signals as well as glass mastering and disc replication. There is a THX test signal buried in the RF carrier which had to meet specific standards on spot-checked discs. This is why "Star Trek: First Contact" was farmed off to Japan because Pioneer USA was having a replication issue (of what type I do not know). Only later on when Pioneer had their issue resolved, did the title move back to the US for continued production.

How DADC Terre Haute and Technidisc got THX certified, I'll never know.

That would be "initially".

When my Lost Highway (1997) [ID3946PG] and Game, The (1997) [ID4260PG] started dying less after only 1~2 years after initial purchase, I contacted SONY for replacement and/or refund around mid-1999.

The answer was "Sorry, we're out of the LD business. All inventory has been scrapped. We do not cover defects on terminated businesses. Sorry about that."

Each imported title cost me around 350 FRF at that time.
That's around US$60 or $74 after correcting for inflation/forex in today's dollar.

I was really happy.

Julien

Great customer service from Sony then, that really is pretty shoddy.

So it looks like LD production stopped in August/September (or perhaps October?) '98 at Sony DADC US & their attitude, less than a year or so after they quit the format was basically tough luck?!? Did they not even offer you vouchers against future purchases or perhaps an offer of another item or items to the purchase price? That would have been at least a gesture to some sort of customer support or service, again pretty shoddy all round & that was from the mighty Sony Corporation of America.

That sort of sums up the info I got back regarding Sony at Terre Haute. It appears that as long as the production lines were running & the goods (whatever they may be) went out the door then that was it, they apparently felt that their job was done with very little regard given to the quality of the final product.

There were various issues at the plant including what appears to be quite a high turnover of staff & many managers having little or only the most basic technical knowledge regarding the LD production process (or more to the point little knowledge of the problems inherent in the LD production process) which did not help. It also looks like the US plants LD manufacturing process at Terre Haute was different from that used at Sony Austria & Japan (both the aforementioned plants did consistently produce good LDs) so little advice could be offered from them apparently. It was an ongoing problem for years, not months, so surely a solution could have been found or did they really not care that much - being a major corporation one would think the standards would have been higher though.

Thanks for the very helpful input & also blam1 for the THX certification info as I was pretty sure there were final product requirements involved & I did not know anything about the THX test signal, interesting stuff .

You find that type of attitude everywhere, I'm not surprised. In fact, that type of customer service is what I'm used to from personal experiences with various services. Very rare you find companies that try to help you the best they can. I've even had my car destroyed at a pain shop and given the "tough luck" attitude in return. Companies don't care as long as they make money.

If the production plant had high turnover with workers, then I'm sure that is the main problem. Most likely they were not given proper training either and were left to figure out everything themselves. As a result, the workers probably did a lot of things they didn't realize caused serious quality issues.

I've worked for an oil service company for many years, and this is at least the observations I've seen over the years. They hire people and don't give them training. We also had high turnover with workers and our fair share of quality issues because of that.

Even with the plant consistently producing defective discs, I would bet the ratio of quality complaints to shipped discs was pretty low. Your typical consumer doesn't want to go through the hassle of trying to return a disc to the store, who will then either give them another possibly defective disc, or tell them to contact Sony directly.

Also, if you weren't talking to other LD users or active on newsgroups, you might not even know what you were seeing when you played a rotted disc.

When "Men in Black" and "The Fifth Element" were released, they were pressed by both DADC and Pioneer. News on the various forums at the time spread very quickly about which edition to purchase as they had different styles of THX and/or DD stickers.