Galacticon DVD sound compatability problem

[Micheleh]

Hi, everyone!

I've had a few reports (4 so far) of people whose Galacticon DVD's aren't getting sound in the panels, just the menu. I asked Jerry, our producer, and he says it is a compatability issue with certain types of DVD players. (I've asked him to post the technical explanation here. I can't even set the clock on mine.)

If you are having this problem you have three alternatives.

1. We can send a replacement DVD to be sure it isn't one of those cases where the post office irradiated it en route,
2. we will refund your money,
or
3. we will refund the equivalent in Galacticon goodies.

If you are experiencing this, just send me an e-mail at micheleh@gci-net.com with your name, address, and preferred solution, and I will take care of it. I apologise for any dissapointment this might have caused, and am eager to do my best to make things right.

Michelle
Galacticon Inc.

[Gemini1999]

Originally Posted by Micheleh

Hi, everyone!

I've had a few reports (4 so far) of people whose Galacticon DVD's aren't getting sound in the panels, just the menu. I asked Jerry, our producer, and he says it is a compatability issue with certain types of DVD players. (I've asked him to post the technical explanation here. I can't even set the clock on mine.)

If you are having this problem you have three alternatives.

1. We can send a replacement DVD to be sure it isn't one of those cases where the post office irradiated it en route,
2. we will refund your money,
or
3. we will refund the equivalent in Galacticon goodies.

If you are experiencing this, just send me an e-mail at micheleh@gci-net.com with your name, address, and preferred solution, and I will take care of it. I apologise for any dissapointment this might have caused, and am eager to do my best to make things right.

Michelle
Galacticon Inc.

Michelle -

I haven't had too bad of a problem with mine for the most part - the menus are kind of slow and whenever I finish one of the panels, it doesn't go back to the main menu without me doing it manually.

There wasn't a noticeable sound problem with mine when I first started watching it. I got through the first 3 panels and had to stop in the middle of Dirk's. When I re-started the DVD later in the day, the sound was gone. I re-inserted the disk and went back to Dirk's panel and was able to get back to the spot where I left off by remembering the time index. I took the DVD upstairs with me to finish it, but there was no sound at all - both players are the same make and model. When I took it back downstairs, everything was fine and I got to see the rest of the panels except for the last two.

I don't think that a replacement, refund or merchandise will be necessary in my case - it is kind of wonky, but as long as I get through it all one time, I will be happy.

Best to you,
Bryan
________
Ipad Accessories

[Micheleh]

I just got this in the mail:

"Check in to this. There are two types of audio, PCM and Digital Dolby.
Some dvd players have a setting for PCM or Bit stream setting. Just
tell them to go to audio settings in the dvd players menu and select the
opposite.

I bet that works,
Jim"

[Jerry Vasilatos]

Dear Fans-

I've been notified that a few of you are having a problem with your Galacticon DVD audio. Unfortunately, the fact is that not all DVDs are compatible with every system, there is a small ratio of incompatability depending on the brand, and I don't know why this is, but it's happened to me on one or two occasions with discs I have purchased, something playing fine on my regular DVD player but not on my DVD/Laserdisc player. I would recommend playing your DVD on someone else's player to test if it is defective or there is a compatabiltiy issue. If it works on another player then it is not the disc and it is an incompatability issue. The audio was encoded in AC3 format, not PCM using DVD Studio Pro (which I authored the project on.) I think Michelle has shipped around 150 and has been contacted by 4 people who have had problems with their discs.

My only suggestions are:

1. If it is incompatible with your player and you do not have another DVD player, return it for a refund.

2. If it does not work on other players you test it on, then the DVD is defective and we can replace it and it should work fine.

Tests have shown that the inability to play a DVD-R on all DVD players is related to format issues, the brand of the recordable media, and the make and model of the DVD player.

There is an excellent article entitled "DVD Compatibility Test" by Ralph LaBarge in the July 2002 issue of DV Magazine. (http://www.dv.com ). The author has done extensive testing to compare compatibility issues for DVD recordable media and their formats (DVD-R Authoring, DVD-R General, DVD-RW, DVD+RW). DVD-Video players were also tested.

Name-brand recordable media were more compatible than off-brand.

About 90 percent of all DVD players tested showed some form of incompatibility.

DVD players manufactured since 2001 exhibited the fewest compatibility issues.

Hope this helps.

JV