Page 1 of Do I have a case against Amazon?

I recently purchased Buffy Season Two from amazon. The picture quality on Disc 1 is close to appauling. It`s smudgy, murkey and just completely unclear. This slightly improves by Disc 2, and by Disc 6 it is completely cured. Has anyone else noticed this or have Amazon sent me a dodgy copy?

That seems like a very strange problem, have you been able to try the discs on anyone elses DVD player? But generally, if a disc players, then its perfectly fine so the discs won`t be dodgy.

Amazon have a 30 days return policy, call them up and explain to them what the problem is.... other than that, I`m out of ideas, unless someone else has the boxset too and can verify that the quality of the picture is bad on disc 1.

There`s a similar thread running on the R2 Project message board on http://www2.r2-dvd.org/MessageBoard.jsp - my copy suffers from similar problems, although I got it from Tesco. Allegedly the problems are due to the type of film they used when they originally filmed the series, although that doesn`t explain why it should improve throughout (although I`ve only got as far as disk 2...)

I`ve tried the DVD on a Scan SC2000 and a Creative Labs 12x Encore DVD ROM. Same problem, different DVD`s.

Thanks, for the thread by the way. The problem really does stick out like a sore thumb at the very start of episode one. Here`s the weird thing. My friend has tried it on his DVD player and can see no quality difference between the discs and he also states that the quality is fairly good.

I think I try it on my friends DVD player, see the quality for myself and then make a decision. Perhaps a bad batch was sent out? Or it`s only got problems with certain DVD manufacturers?

If I remember correctly the picture quality on Buffy is pretty poor in general. My girlfriend has them recorded off TV (pretty much every episode) and even on VHS there is a marked difference in quality as the series progress. I don`t think it`s a fault with the disk or the player. What your friend says about not being able to tell the quality difference must be wrong, and you`re simply more observant than him. The problem is with the way it was filmed originally and unless they actually remaster the prints or do whatever jiggery pokery they do to old films to get them looking spanking gorgeous, then you`re out of luck. Even if they did do that, it would a be a re-release and an additional cost to you.

VFM - let us know what happens. The worst instance I can find is in episode 2 when they are looking for body parts in the lockers - there are a couple of shots of Giles & Willow in the dark that are really bad quality - I`d be interested to know if it`s the same for your copy...

OK - I`ve been struggling through some of the postings on http://www.thedvdforums.com, and I`ve come to the following conclusions:-

1) It`s a problem for a lot of people (someone even quoted the exact scene I just mentioned) but it remains to be seen if it`s also player-related - mine`s a Pioneer DV 535 by the way.

2) Other symptoms include screen judder when you pause on the earlier episodes (I get this).

3) Another posting said the quality was just as bad on the Season 2 episodes they`d taped off the TV.

4) Most people seem to be more concerned about the packaging ;¬)

I`ve got a Wharfedale 750 and have the same as the above post (quality and judder). Used to have the video box-sets and the quality on series 2 was pretty low, with the locker scene standing out every time. The DVD quality is higher than the videos though and the quality of the videos improved throughout the series (probably due to the success of the series and an increase in budget)

It is to do with the quality of film they originally recorded on, early series were poor quality 16mm. All copies DVD, VHS and tv all suffer same prob.

Its a case of putting up with it really

I think I gonna do what the last guy said and simply put up with this. I`m just surprised that some of the reviews actually said the picture quality was excellant?!