Difficult Bride + Discs Not Working

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Peter Rush

Noa you are lucky your player refused to play '2012' - it has taste lol!

I didn't buy that film, it came with a blu-ray burner that I bought for my pc, they obviously had lots of it left :D But it was a commercial blu-ray, just like you could buy separately in the store. Eventhough the film suxs I was looking forward to see how the imagequality looked like on a big screen but have not been able to see it completely...

[Roger Gunkel]

I also agree with the posts about not supplying on DL discs as the compatibility is reduced further. Recordable DVDs are always likely to give problems on a dubious player compared to glass mastered discs for reasons already explained, so the fact that they can play shop bought films is irrelevant.

Unfortunately to the client, a DVD is a DVD and if their player plays the latest blockbuster movie, 'it should also play yours'. In those circumstances, you need to give them a clearly worded written technical explanation of why this is and why some players irrespective of cost just do not like recordable DVDs. You could also suggest that in these days of downloadable movies, many players stand idle for days or weeks on end and start to accumulate fine particles of dust on the laser lens that may be improved with the use of a DVD lens cleaning disc.

Rogef

[Chris Harding]

Also something that has helped me so much!! Try to use disks made for your DVD writer/burner ..I have LG writers in all 3 computers and have always used LG disks (probably made by someone else but they have given me zero errors in 15 years!!) It is the most compatible way to go. I switched to another brand about a year back and spent an entire week rushing around replacing disks for brides and very quickly tossed them in the bin and went back to my LG disks!!

[Bob Drummond]

Find a $30 DVD player that you know will play your disc and send that to them too. It costs more to legally license music.

[David Barnett]

Originally Posted by Bob Drummond

Find a $30 DVD player that you know will play your disc and send that to them too. It costs more to legally license music.

Speak for yourself, I seek out the $29.99 songs on Songfreedom. j/k :)

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Bob Drummond

Find a $30 DVD player that you know will play your disc and send that to them too. It costs more to legally license music.

What if it concerns a blu-ray disc, buy them a blue-ray player? :) It's not our job to buy the necessary playback equipment for a client. If that player then would malfunction they will come to you to have it replaced. I also supply h264 mp4's on a usb stick and I have had clients telling me their tv doesn't display the video, you can't expect me to buy them a new tv as well that is compatible with my videos. In such a case I tell them they have to buy something like a WD TV from western digital or get a more up to date tv that will support mp4 playback.

[Bob Drummond]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

What if it concerns a blu-ray disc, buy them a blue-ray player? :)....

Yes. That would be about $15 more than a DVD player :)

Seriously. You can spend time educating your client about disc/player quirkiness, or you could make a great, memorable customer service experience.

[Chris Hurd]

I'm in full agreement with Bob. Present the bride with a brand new BD player that you have confirmed will work with your discs. It's a small amount to pay for such a big gesture of goodwill. I know that earlier in this forum we've discussed doing this as a regular practice back in the day when Blu-Ray was new... just bundle in the price of a nice new BD player as part of your total package price. Don't bother to itemize it. Just hand it over on delivery as an unexpected pleasant surprise. Better to score points this way than to go through the hassle of incompatible discs.

[Noa Put]

Ever heard of Pandora's box? :) So you give a new player to the bride and then she calls you because you gave more dvd's of which she gave a copy to her family and she says, "they don't play either on their players, can you pls send a dvd player to them as well? Here's the address"
Or the bride has other dvd's with cinema movies and one of them don't play in your new supplied dvd player or it malfunctions during the warranty period, guess who she is going to call?
Or the bride is so happy you gave her a new player she goes to a internet wedding forum saying how great service you provide because she got a new player, the next bride that reads it will book you and eventually ask, "I take it you include the players as well?"
Before you know it you have a separate room in your house filled with dvd and blu-ray players, new ones and ones that need to be replaced.

[Andrew Smith]

The cost of a new cheap DVD player ($40 I read earlier) is a more than reasonable overhead for getting the booking.

Andrew

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Ever heard of Pandora's box? :) So you give a new player to the bride and then she calls you because you gave more dvd's of which she gave a copy to her family and she says, "they don't play either on their players, can you pls send a dvd player to them as well? Here's the address"

That's so unlikely and unreasonable that I would put the probability at zero. But if that ever actually happened, I'd tell them the make & model of the player and where they can buy one of their own.

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Or the bride has other dvd's with cinema movies and one of them don't play in your new supplied dvd player or it malfunctions during the warranty period, guess who she is going to call?

She's going to call the customer service / warranty return number included with the player's paperwork. If she calls you, you'll apologize for the trouble and politely direct her to that information.

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Or the bride is so happy you gave her a new player she goes to a internet wedding forum saying how great service you provide because she got a new player, the next bride that reads it will book you and eventually ask, "I take it you include the players as well?"

If you read my post, you'd see that this is indeed the general idea, since your total package price has the BD player cost built right in.

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Before you know it you have a separate room in your house filled with dvd and blu-ray players, new ones and ones that need to be replaced.

If that happens, you're doing it wrong. Cheers,

[Nigel Barker]

It's because you are using DL. I am surprised you haven't had problems before. We only ever used single layer DVD as there are often comparability problems with DL. Early DVD players often baby or stutter at the Mayer change even with pressed commercial DVDs. The other reason to use single layer is that they are cheaper, burn at a faster speed so burns are quicker plus the client sees more value in two DVDs in a double case rather than a single DVD.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

since your total package price has the BD player cost built right in.

I just find the idea of including a player as standard silly, it's my opinion the playback hardware is not our responsibility, it's just too much of a hassle if they have problems with it afterwards because over here I take responsibility because I sold them the player and I have to take care of sending it back to the store where I got it from. I also expect clients calling because something is not right or working, eventhough nothing is wrong but because they are too stupid to RTFM, before you know it I loose a lot of time acting as helpdesk. Telling the bride to contact a store herself with her problems of the player I sold her is even worse and it won't make me popular, in such a case I rather just try to make a new dvd for that rare client that has playback problems.

Originally Posted by Andrew Smith

The cost of a new cheap DVD player ($40 I read earlier) is a more than reasonable overhead for getting the booking.

The cost is cheap but do you really need to include a player to get a booking?

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

That's so unlikely and unreasonable that I would put the probability at zero. But if that ever actually happened, I'd tell them the make & model of the player and where they can buy one of their own.

So you would give the bride a brandnew BR player for free to solve her playback problem but for the family you would say they would have to buy a new one for themselves? how do you think the bride would react on that comment? Then your "big gesture of goodwill" is suddenly turned into a 'it's not my problem anymore" :)

It's not unlikely nor unreasonable that this would happen, I have had a bad batch of dvd's in the past that did cause problems and on a very rare occasion 2 out of 3 dvd's might cause playback problems as well. You won't make the bride happy if you only help her out but not her mom if she has playback issues as well, the question is how far are you willing to go.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Op: I would split it into 2 single layer dvds: Ceremony on one and reception on the other. Pain but you know its guaranteed to work and make the client happy.