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While it's good that they are doing a replacement program, the fact that it took them well over two months to even acknowledge the problem just goes to further show how absolutely incompetent PonyCan really is.

At this point, I really don't understand why anyone would want to give them their cash. They alienate not only the casual audience with their ridiculous pricing and lack of dubs, but also the hardcore collectors with their terrible packaging and general lack of quality control. The sooner this company pulls out of the market, the better. Confused

shawnek wrote:

bleachigo66 wrote:

I'm also trying to figure out what "automatically" means. The Facebook post says follow steps on rightstuf if you didn't purchase from rightstuf, to take part in the replacement program. I can't find anything on rightstuf, but I could just be missing it or it's not up yet?

I purchased all three sets from rightstuf and was pretty disappointed by this issue considering how much those of us who purchased the set laid down for them. Hopefully they will just send the discs /actually/automatically, but I have a real hard time being optimistic with ponycan at this point.

I didn't realize this would be posted today as I was finalizing things on this, but here goes:

If you purchased the item FROM US, then you will automatically receive the replacement discs in the mail. We do not yet have the replacement discs, but once we do I'll be creating orders, since I know who you are. If your address on file is not updated, you need to do that...

Thank you so much! Both for your response and for however much of a hand you had in this process coming to be!

Given the prices involved, this seems comparable to purchasing a Ferrari and receiving a call from the dealer a few months later saying, "Oh, sorry, we forgot to put a few pistons in, so you've really been driving a V6! Our bad!"

Sakura Shinguji wrote:

You're welcome, folks. As much as anything else, I'm still put out by the fact that nobody else besides me noticed, not the company nor any of the other fans who bought the release. (Insert questionable and inaccurate jab about how nobody did buy it because something something Ponycan evil something.) Anyway, glad it's being addressed, and sooner than I expected too.

Thanks for noticing. My friend literally made the same discovery yesterday when he played his right after getting it. I opened mine day one, but never played the discs, so I had no idea. I guess I'll keep that in mind for the future.

SpacemanHardy wrote:

While it's good that they are doing a replacement program, the fact that it took them well over two months to even acknowledge the problem just goes to further show how absolutely incompetent PonyCan really is.

At this point, I really don't understand why anyone would want to give them their cash. They alienate not only the casual audience with their ridiculous pricing and lack of dubs, but also the hardcore collectors with their terrible packaging and general lack of quality control. The sooner this company pulls out of the market, the better. Confused

To be fair, they may just be really busy and didn't have time to do anything about it until now, or the problem got passed around different departments and took that long to actually reach someone who could do something about it or someone who could make an announcement to the public.

This will definitely hurt Pony Canyon USA's reputation among those willing to put up with their prices though. If they're paying that much, the product had better be what they expect it to be.

Considering that Sound Euphonium is a premium release this really shouldn't be happening, especially with the arrogance some companies have about the supposed quality of their releases. However, to be a tiny bit fair to PonyCan (and I really don't want to) they are not the only company that has put out products with audio issues. To name a few:
Sentai's Kids on the Slope, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 and Funimation's Aquarion Evol also had mono audio problems. What is it with mono audio? Are they all using the same guy for the audio? Doesn't anybody have QC anymore? Maybe not.

The most important thing now is that replacement discs should be made and the process be as smooth and painless as possible for the consumer. Think about it this way, Anchor Bay/Manga released Ghost in the Shell 25th Anniversary with audio issues and changed the subs to...something less than it was yet they have refused to even acknowledge any issues. We could be getting that attitude.

So tl;dr: This is not good and we should rarely see things like this period, but it could be worse.

leafy sea dragon wrote:

To be fair, they may just be really busy and didn't have time to do anything about it until now

How busy can they be? I count only six different titles in the product list on the Pony Canyon USA website.

yuna49 wrote:

leafy sea dragon wrote:

To be fair, they may just be really busy and didn't have time to do anything about it until now

How busy can they be? I count only six different titles in the product list on the Pony Canyon USA website.

Well, they probably only have like 4 or 5 full time employees.

One-Eye wrote:

However, to be a tiny bit fair to PonyCan (and I really don't want to) they are not the only company that has put out products with audio issues. To name a few:
Sentai's Kids on the Slope, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 and Funimation's Aquarion Evol also had mono audio problems. What is it with mono audio? Are they all using the same guy for the audio? Doesn't anybody have QC anymore? Maybe not.

I would count the Eva 3.33 release as well. I am surprised at how little outcry I've heard about that, to be honest. I have to max out my 5.1 speakers in the living room to get a decent level of audio. Can't even watch it in my room because of that. Really frustrating. Talked to a number of other people who have the same issue, but nothing seems to be happening with that.

relyat08 wrote:

One-Eye wrote:

However, to be a tiny bit fair to PonyCan (and I really don't want to) they are not the only company that has put out products with audio issues. To name a few:
Sentai's Kids on the Slope, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 and Funimation's Aquarion Evol also had mono audio problems. What is it with mono audio? Are they all using the same guy for the audio? Doesn't anybody have QC anymore? Maybe not.

I would count the Eva 3.33 release as well. I am surprised at how little outcry I've heard about that, to be honest. I have to max out my 5.1 speakers in the living room to get a decent level of audio. Can't even watch it in my room because of that. Really frustrating. Talked to a number of other people who have the same issue, but nothing seems to be happening with that.

I think the low audio is an issue with several Funi releases and it kind of drives me nuts. On some releases its slightly noticeable, but there's been a few where I have to crank the audio all the way up. It also seems to be worse on the dubs. IIRC, the Princess Jellyfish dub was pretty bad with the low audio. I did notice Eva 3.33 was lower, but I can't recall how significant it was to my ears. Funi usually seems to do a better job on video and audio quality with their movie releases, but hey they are known for their inconsistencies too.

yuna49 wrote:

How busy can they be? I count only six different titles in the product list on the Pony Canyon USA website.

It's not a matter of how much or how little stuff they release, but the speed at which information travels within the company. If the news has to go through specific people in a particular order, then one person who's slow to act or doesn't see it as a big deal will hold up the line. If there are only a few people at the company, even that output can occupy all of their time. And since this is an overseas subsidiary of a Japanese company, I am certain decisions like creating replacement copies have to get Japanese approval before moving forward. It may even be a combination of all of these plus some other ones I haven't thought of.

And screwing up like this can make the American branch look bad, or even anger their Japanese superiors enough to fire them, so I can understand if someone at Pony Canyon USA wanted to hold it off for as long as they can. It'd be irresponsible, but an understandable thing to do.

Well, my default shipping address on TRSI is my current address. Is that all I needed to make sure of?

One-Eye wrote:

relyat08 wrote:

One-Eye wrote:

However, to be a tiny bit fair to PonyCan (and I really don't want to) they are not the only company that has put out products with audio issues. To name a few:
Sentai's Kids on the Slope, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 and Funimation's Aquarion Evol also had mono audio problems. What is it with mono audio? Are they all using the same guy for the audio? Doesn't anybody have QC anymore? Maybe not.

I would count the Eva 3.33 release as well. I am surprised at how little outcry I've heard about that, to be honest. I have to max out my 5.1 speakers in the living room to get a decent level of audio. Can't even watch it in my room because of that. Really frustrating. Talked to a number of other people who have the same issue, but nothing seems to be happening with that.

I think the low audio is an issue with several Funi releases and it kind of drives me nuts. On some releases its slightly noticeable, but there's been a few where I have to crank the audio all the way up. It also seems to be worse on the dubs. IIRC, the Princess Jellyfish dub was pretty bad with the low audio. I did notice Eva 3.33 was lower, but I can't recall how significant it was to my ears. Funi usually seems to do a better job on video and audio quality with their movie releases, but hey they are known for their inconsistencies too.

I've noticed this issue with several of their releases. They also have quite a few where the audio doesn't seem to be mixed properly. The dialogue is often set too low, while background music is set too high. I have a few releases where I have to constantly adjust the audio to be able to hear the dialogue, but then immediately turn it back down due to blasting background music.

Though to be fair, I haven't bought any Funi releases in quite a while. So it's possible this has improved since then.

^The Eva 3.33 BD which I also have was released not that long ago so no, nothing has changed.

dragonrider_cody wrote:

I've noticed this issue with several of their releases. They also have quite a few where the audio doesn't seem to be mixed properly. The dialogue is often set too low, while background music is set too high. I have a few releases where I have to constantly adjust the audio to be able to hear the dialogue, but then immediately turn it back down due to blasting background music.

Though to be fair, I haven't bought any Funi releases in quite a while. So it's possible this has improved since then.

I seem to recall face palming because my Cowboy Bebop amazon LE BDs also had slightly lower audio. CB was released about a a year and a half ago and Eva 3.33 came out just a few months ago. So no, the issue still crops up. Other people have posted about this and I've seen some reviews in the past mention the low audio issue, so I don't see how Funi is not aware of it.

leafy sea dragon wrote:

yuna49 wrote:

How busy can they be? I count only six different titles in the product list on the Pony Canyon USA website.

It's not a matter of how much or how little stuff they release, but the speed at which information travels within the company.

You appear to be talking about the replacement policy. I'm talking about the original quality-control failure in the first place. If PonyCanUSA were churning out thousands of discs across hundreds of products, then the occasional QC failure would be more understandable. With such a small stable of releases to manage, it becomes less acceptable.

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