Difficult Bride + Discs Not Working
 

Hi Guys,

I'm wondering if you can help me with a problem I'm having. Particularly difficult bride has been complaining that her wedding DVDs aren't playing correctly. These are the same discs I use for every wedding, Verbatim Dual-Layer. She says they skip and freeze in one spot on her player, and her parent's player - BUT they play perfectly in her sister's. I shipped out some new discs to her when hearing of this problem and the same thing happened. Obviously, she is becoming more and more irate, and it's only been a few days.

I'm thinking this is some kind of compatibility issue with the players and my dual-layer discs, but I'm not sure what the solution is. I've told her it's probably her player, but the fact they are also not playing on her parent's is very strange. I'm shipping out 30 of these discs a year without problems.

I burned one of the discs last night and it played perfectly on my own player.

What is the best course of action here? Buy her a new DVD player? Tell her to buy a new DVD player? Burn an inferior single-layer disc? Give her the wedding on a USB?

Thanks

Re: Difficult Bride + Discs Not Working
 

I have had a similar problem with a regular verbatim dvd+r not playing in a clients older Medion dvd speler, the film would lock up at the same place each time and they needed to restart the dvd player just to get the dvd out again, Medion is a cheaper German brand, They played fine on their parents player and on 3 other where I tested it on. I tried switching from +r to -r, changed brands, nothing helped and this couple was also particularly demanding that the dvd should work on their player. As last resort I made the dvd again at a lower bitrate and then it worked, it appeared that their player could not handle too high bitrates.

I would burn the dvd on a single layer dvd, even if that means a little loss in quality, the lower bitrate probably might solve the playback problem. If that doesn't work you cold try burning it onto a + or -r depending on what type doesn't work for them.

Re: Difficult Bride + Discs Not Working
 

I have suspected that they are using some crappy brand of DVD player. But isn't this their problem? They should invest in another player! If I burn on a single-layer I won't be happy with the quality.

Thanks for your help!

Re: Difficult Bride + Discs Not Working
 

Unfortunately, when it comes to skipping DVDs, it is always blamed on you. People will never believe their own players are at fault. There are a number of reasons why a DVD may skip even if there is nothing wrong with it. The most common reason is that the DVD player is dusty which is picked up on the DVD and stops it being read properly. The next common problem is that people don't appreciate that recordable DVD is much softer and more susceptible to damage than commercial film DVDs. People get fingerprints on them, or sometimes scratch them putting them into their player.

I film school productions and typically supply about 5-800 DVDs per year. Each year at least one parent will bypass the school and contact me directly to tell me that their DVD is faulty and demand that I do something about it as it has ruined their kid's Christmas etc. I have a simple policy that any DVD that is believed to be faulty will be replaced free of charge, but the original must be returned to me for examination first. If it is found to be damaged or faulty through incorrect use, then postage and replacement cost is charged. After several thousand DVDs supplied and perhaps 10 or so returned, I have only ever found one that was our fault as it had inadvertently been sent out blank!

Last year I wrote 80 DVDs of a nativity that we filmed for one school and just after delivering them, one parent sent me an email accusing me of using really poor quality DVDs. Furthermore,the family were devastated as their daughter had played a 'Major Role' in the school production and couldn't stop crying as the DVD skipped and jumped continuously. They had bought 3 copies and none of them played properly even on other players. She also said that she would send me some proper DVDs that her husband used so that I wouldn't redo them on my cheap low quality ones. Also she said that a number of other parents had the same problem and were very unhappy.

I replied politely suggesting that she returned the DVDs to the school that she had bought them from and I would test them for faults, and that I would like to know where her husband bought the high quality DVDs from as mine were the best commercially available. She responded with the comment that her husband had bought the most expensive Asda. (Walmart) ones for his own photos. I never received the DVDs from the school or any other complaints. A few weeks later I visited the school with some extra copies for someone else, and was told that the complaining parent had never brought them back. They had also heard from another parent that the woman had brought the skipping DVDs round to her house to try on their player and they worked fine, she was then told that the woman's young daughter had tried to play a slice of toast in the player and they had needed to replace it, but not to tell the school. She failed to respond to any more of my emails. Her daughter incidentally who was 5 years old, was one of 10 angels on stage for about 30 seconds!

Hope some of that helps to reassure you :-)

Roger

Re: Difficult Bride + Discs Not Working
 

Roger, that sounds like a total nightmare. I think when you are appealing to people's vanity (like weddings and children's plays) it really brings out the worst in people.

This particular bride has tried the discs on three players. They all played fine on one of those player. I then explained to her that this proves there is nothing actually wrong with the discs themselves. She was actually aghast that I had the audacity to question the quality of her DVD player.

Not sure what to do.

Re: Difficult Bride + Discs Not Working
 

Christopher, I would try a single layer -r Taiyo Yuden disc. See how that goes.

Re: Difficult Bride + Discs Not Working
 

I certainly would not give her more, like a usb stick with the film on, just do the single layer dvd, you might not like the quality but it's dvd so it always be a lower quality, if that one plays on her dvd she has no more reason to complain and if she does complain about the quality, then upsell her a blu-ray disc or the digital files on a usb.

Re: Difficult Bride + Discs Not Working
 

I've always been pretty direct with people. I'd go ahead and let her know (kindly) that its not the DVDs, but the player. Which, amusingly, is already something she's worked out, but is still blaming you. If it was the cord that was bad, would she insist you give her new DVDs, too?

When I was being trained to answer phones for Amazon, the trainer had some silly acronym for when a customer tells you their problem. Step #1 was 'apologize.' I immediately asked, 'What if its not our fault?'

Never accept responsibility for a mistake when you didn't make it.
You can still offer help. Here, just informing her of her mistake.


/A reminder that buying the cheapest of something, frequently causes problems later.

Re: Difficult Bride + Discs Not Working
 

Two or three years ago I subbed for some friends of mine who had booked in a wedding job but didn't have a camera man to allocate to it. Great event, got everything, everything was fantastic. Edited it up and everything ... all done.

And we hear nothing from the bride + groom after the event. Nothing at all, and no returning of calls. Even contacting via other family members didn't elicit a response.

A year later they called and came in to pay for and collect the DVD of their wedding and reception.

We can only guess they might have been a bit tight for cash after their event and decided to lay low for a while. A phone call would have been good, though. It was so out of the ordinary when compared to everyone else.

Andrew

Re: Difficult Bride + Discs Not Working
 

Just burn a DVD-R. Who cares if it's "inferior". That's what she wants. It's you that wants a highest quality version, whereas she just wants one which plays.

Re: Difficult Bride + Discs Not Working
 

You tell customer the issue is here player, end of story. Because it is.

I've had this issue a few times, and I tell them it's their player. If it plays properly in another player, customers are smart enough to know the discs are fine and they buy a new player.

Re: Difficult Bride + Discs Not Working
 

If you want to make the customer happy, why not try a few different brands of disc? Surely that would take less time and have more chance of a happy outcome than endless rounds of back and forth blaming her player? It might be truth, but would you rather make the customer happy or be right?

Re: Difficult Bride + Discs Not Working
 

Its very possible to be both right and make the customer happy.

Most people are perfectly reasonable when a truthful explanation (NOT an excuse) is offered. This situation is a perfect example.

Re: Difficult Bride + Discs Not Working
 

I get that there are often quirky player and disc incompatibilities. But if I had paid several hundred or several thousand dollars on a wedding video, I wouldn't want someone explaining to me why my DVD player is at fault. Especially when it is almost a certainty that by just burning a different brand or two it would solve the problem.

Re: Difficult Bride + Discs Not Working
 

I bought a bmpc and my old and cheap pc is not fast enough to handle the raw files, I also wouldn't want BMD telling me my pc is at fault when I would complain about that, especially not when I paid thousands for the camera. :D

I recently had a client where I supplied 3 dvd's and one of them skipped at a certain point, I made them a new one from the same spindle and that one worked. But if I supply 3 dvd's and all 3 skip but work fine on my dvdplayers I would burn 2 new dvd's, one +r (I supply -r now) and one other brand, if those 2 also skip I would try a lower bitrate, if that also skips I"d suggest them to get a new dvdplayer...