I just started watching the 1997 PAL release of A New Hope, and as I progressed through the first side a video glitch became apparent, getting worse the further I got into the film. It was almost as if I could see a ghost of the previous/next frame shifted upwards slightly. There was a point where there was a sort of ticking/rattling sound coming from the player. There was no issue when the film started, but I began to notice it maybe 30 minutes in. I've just started the second side and it seems perfectly fine at the moment. Perhaps my disc is warped?

Short looping gif of problem here.

EDIT: Problem started at roughly the same time on the second side. You can see the ghosts of the x-wings pretty well in this photo.

The player itself cannot overheat or is somehow not working correctly?

No, everything else I have plays fine. I believe the disc is warped, I think I can see it if I hold it up to my eye.

If you put the disc on your finger and give it a spin, you'll see the warp. That is what you're experiencing here.

Id say Blam is more than likely right,
I had this same issue with a disc and a steel ruler showed it was warped, not much but enough to do it

Why did you get the 1997 release? That would have the cgi in it that most Star Wars fans don't care for. I am a little confused or are you a big Star Wars fan and have both releases?

It's the only release that will work on my LD player. PAL and digital audio. Also it's the one I grew up watching, I never even knew that the original release was different until I was in my 20s.

FWIW there is a French trilogy box set that's subtitled. It's actually the only way to get the original versions in widescreen and in English in the PAL regions.

Is it the "Black Pyramid" version?

Star Wars: Coffret Trilogie: Edition Collector [856235]

I bought the VHS letterboxed boxset when I was a student, to study English at home.
I'd put a black piece of paper at the bottom of the screen to hide the French subtitles!

I didn't have a LD Player at that time (and no budget for it either ) so... VHS it was.



Today I can hide subtitles as well in the back bars of 2.35:1 movies, but I used the Radiance 2144 framing for that, it's more elegant.

Julien

That's some neat packaging, and now I know the etymology of "guerrilla." You learn something new every day!

The linked LD set says French audio without subtitles in the database. I believe takeshi is referring to this one: Star Wars: Coffret Trilogie [168035], says PAL, digital English audio, French subtitles out of picture, CAV. Pretty odd though, as the one you linked has similar packaging to your tapes, so you'd think they'd have the same language. (Shrug)

No, I was referring to the box set rcarlson linked. Obviously I was only speaking in terms of Laserdisc, I have no idea about all the various international VHS releases, but that pyramid box set looks pretty cool.

The VHS must have sold by trucks and could justify a release of both dubbed and subtitled versions.
LD would probably not sell enough in both variants?

Julien

I find it pretty baffling that you could only get the widescreen LDs in English in France. Was there no demand for such a release in the UK?

France has a niche cinephile community that prefers watching films in their original languages, with French subtitles. France also got bilingual releases of North by Northwest, The Shining, Barry Lyndon and some other films unreleased in UK PAL Laserdisc.

The disc has both warp and drop-outs. It has no rot in the image and the GIF you made. Rot usually manifests itself as multicolored speckles on the screen.