Latest ‘DualDisc’ Title Recalled for Flaw in Final Track
Just a day after launch, one of 2 DualDisc titles was being yanked from store shelves by the Warner Music Group (WMG), according to an Oct. 27 WMG recall notification obtained by Consumer Electronics Daily. The DualDisc in question, Gold Medal by The Donnas released on Oct. 26, suffered a premature cut-off of its final track owing to what the label called “a bug in the CD audio software” used for mastering the hybrid. At our deadline, a WMG spokeswoman confirmed the recall, said its speed would likely result in few complaints or returns and told us the label was preparing options to satisfy any affected customers -- including free online downloads of the truncated track.
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WMG’s recall notification said the software bug “affected the master after it passed QC” and the “bug has nothing to do with the content being on a DualDisc. We are working to prevent such occurrences in the future.” WMG’s spokeswoman affirmed that the problem had nothing to do with the DualDisc media but was a problem with the mastering. For those customers who wish to keep the limited-edition flipper -- it has a unique black-velveteen slipcase -- WMG is offering to download the affected track to users’ PCs, where it can be stored on the hard-drive (and possibly burned to CDs or transferred to portable digital playback devices.
The recall notice went out Oct. 26 -- the very day DualDisc proponents, including Warner, were telling a DVD Forum Conference session in Santa Monica that problems with the hybrids were unlikely (CED Oct 28 p1). John Trickett, CEO of independent label 5.1 Entertainment, told attendees that DualDiscs have and will continue to undergo “rigorous” quality-control testing at the individual labels to assure playability in “virtually all legacy players… We don’t want product returns; we want just the opposite… We think we have it right.” The DVD Forum, which granted use of its logo to the DVD side of DualDiscs but has disclaimed any liability for the CD side, also called for stringent monitoring of DualDisc performance at least in the initial launches.
WMG’s recall notice said the problem with final Track 11 of The Donnas’ Gold Medal “affects the DualDisc version of the release only. The CD version is unaffected.” Unlike WMG’s other new DualDisc title, Still Not Getting Any… by Simple Plan, which was released only in DualDisc version, the label issued a conventional CD of Gold Medal as well as the DualDisc.
“All copies of this DualDisc, opened and unopened, should be returned,” WMG’s recall notice said. “Returns handling fees do not apply to DualDisc titles. We will accept charge-backs for your costs of shipping these units back,” the notice told retailers. It instructed WMG agents to yank the affected DualDisc from store shelves “immediately” and to replace it with the conventional CD version “as it is likely we will not remanufacture” what it called a “limited edition” The Donnas’ DualDisc.
The so-called premature cut-off of the last track on Gold Medal wasn’t evident in evaluations for our report published Thurs., although its listed 53-sec. playtime caught our attention -- and we routinely check the “outro” tracks of DualDiscs owing to their apparent time- limitation (about 60 min.) compared with Red Book standard CDs (74-78 min.). The abrupt end to that track was taken to be an artistic device, until compared with regular CD version. Meanwhile, other differences -- pro and con -- emerged in that report.
Compared with Feb.’s test market DualDiscs and an evaluation of this week’s releases, differences in WMG’s new hybrids included packaging and online connectivity, we found. Playback compatibility with legacy hardware also was improved, although flops and quirks still exist.
The packaging change might disappoint some customers for WMG’s latest dual-sided flipper discs. For these first nationally-released DualDiscs, WMG abandoned the acclaimed snap-open disc case with the curved right side and instead used conventional CD jewelboxes. All that remained of the earlier packaging was a stenciled replica of the curved box, printed on a clear slipcase for the Simple Plan flipper and applied as a sticker on the disposable cellophane wrapper for Gold Medal.
In the pro column, the new DualDiscs were less intrusive than the trial ones when used in a PC. The DVD side of the Feb. trial discs we evaluated (Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly from WMG and AC/DC’s Back in Black from Sony Music) immediately hijacked the PC, directing the user to access an artist’s website without ever displaying the DVD side content. In our hands-on of the latest DualDiscs, no such highjacking occurred. Instead, the “Extras” section on Simple Plan’s DVD side offered a web link that could be accessed directly from a PC’s ROM drive only if the user so wished. No web link was offered on The Donnas’ DualDisc.
Although compatibility seemed improved from the test- market releases, the DVD side of the new WMG DualDiscs wouldn’t play in 2 of 8 hardware devices used for our evaluation. One was a Compaq PC running Windows XP, fitted with an OEM DVD-ROM drive and an aftermarket TDK DVD+RW burner. Neither drive would play the DVD side of the 2 DualDiscs, using either Windows Media Player or WinDVD. The same drives play conventional DVDs without problems, and although the OEM drive wouldn’t play a recent DVD Plus hybrid (French rapper Kool Shen’s Dernier Round), the TDK drive did.
As for the CD sides of the DualDiscs, there were mixed results in the Compaq PC’s drives. The Simple Plan disc wasn’t recognized by the OEM drive but played in the TDK burner on the 2nd try. The Donnas’ disc played on a 2nd try in the OEM drive, but skipped badly on all 11 tracks. It played immediately without problems in the TDK burner.
We found similar anomalies in how the CD sides performed in another device with play-only and play/record drives -- a Philips CDR765 home audio CD recorder. The play-only drive wouldn’t recognize the CD side of either hybrid, yielding a “No Disc” readout, but the discs played immediately in the Philips’ play/record drive. Overall, the CD side of the DualDiscs played without problem in 10 of 13 devices we tried, including 2 slot-load models. CD- side playtime is limited to about 60 min. in DualDiscs, compared with 74-78 min. for standard Red Book CDs. Playtime was 38 min. on Simple Plan’s hybrid, 32 min. for The Donnas’.
DualDisc performance was less successful in another set-top DVD/CD player, the Apex Digital AD-7701 with DVD- Video, DVD-Audio, CD and Super Audio CD playback. Neither side of the 2 DualDiscs would play in the Apex machine. The CD sides elicited a “No Disc” readout upon multiple tries. Ditto for the DVD side of Simple Plan’s DualDisc.
DVD-side performance of The Donnas’ flipper was more bizarre. It was recognized instantly, and the menu offered the choice of DVD-Audio multichannel or stereo sound. But when multichannel was selected the “Play” command entered, a “Disc Error” message came up and the DualDisc stopped. The same sequence occurred on 2nd and 3rd attempts at playback. On 4th and 5th attempts, the Apex player signaled “No Disc.” After turning off the player and disconnecting the power in an attempt to reset the circuits, the “No Disc” message occurred on a 6th and final try.
Performance in the AD-7701 shouldn’t result in much disappointment among prospective DualDisc customers, as Apex sold very few of that model. It’s another story with the original Apex AD-600A, of which it’s estimated at least a million were sold when customers learned its Macrovision copy protection could be defeated. That model played the CD and DVD sides of each WMG DualDisc without problem.