Problem with Thunderbean Popeye disc

[MarkTheShark]

I hit one of my usual haunts (the same store where I got the Huck & Yogi DVD sets a few days before their official release) and I was pleasantly surprised to see a couple of Thunderbean DVDs there. I already had "Attack Of The 30s Characters," but the Thunderbean "Popeye" DVD was there (for $7.99) so I grabbed it. This is the newer version distributed by Mackinac Media and is not a DVD-R.

However, when I got it home I loaded it into my Panasonic DMR-E30 and got the error message "U11" which usually comes on when I load a defective DVD-R, then the machine shut down. I got slightly better results with my old Toshiba: I could see the warnings and menu screens, and one time I actually was able to play the "Let's Sing With Popeye" short, but when I tried to play the main cartoons, my DVD player did nothing and stayed on the menu screen.

I took it back and exchanged it for another copy, took that home and got the same exact results.

Any suggestions?

By the way, the liner notes are excellent. Looks like a good show...hope to see it soon. I also note a lot of the other Thunderbean DVDs which have been discussed here are listed as also available. Looking forward to checking them out.

[Steve Stanch]

This is Steve from Thunderbean. I had soem concerns about that- the first master that Macinac had made didn't work on some players, so they were trashed and a new master made. Those played fine, but I still haven't gotton any finished copies of the disks myself! I know they're in stores and I've planned to pick up some for friends.. Hopefully they went fromt he right masters....

[FleischerFan]

Let me chime in here as the owner of several of Steve's excellent DVD's. These are the way all animation DVD's should be done!

I own "Attack of the 30's Characters," "Cubby Bear," and "Aesop's Fables." They have all played fine on my Sansui DVD and Compaq computer DVD.

Steve first hunted up the best prints he could find and then paid attention to the video transfer. If you have to start somewhere, I would recommend "Attack of the 30's Characters" as it is a tremendous overview of nearly every studio that was actively releasing cartoons during that decade.

[rex racer]

I can't speak for the new Mackinac "Popeye" re-release, but I've a copy of the new "Attack" disc. No playback problems at all......:)