First 4 episodes of Mr. Robot Season 3 are bad quality.

[Tom Erik Smith]

The first 4 episodes of Mr. Robot season 3 are bad quality. In Episode 1 the video is very glitchy*, especially in the first half of the episode

*Example points - watch 18min to 19min. Another good example is 48min to 48:20min. These are the types of glitches that occur in the first 4 episodes...

Episode 2 - only has 2 or so very minor glitches but the main issue is the brightness** is turned way up.

**For the brightness issue in Ep2 just look at the opening USA logo animation or even the end credits, these are meant to be pure black...

Episode 3 and 4 also have minor glitches, episode 4's volume is difference between HDX and lower qualities so it goes up and down with adaptive streaming.

The rest of the season so far seems fine.

Please ask for new encodes of the first 4 episodes.

[Tom Erik Smith]

Is anyone going to have a look at this at some point or not?

Support # 171204-000548

[Tom Erik Smith]

Now that the full season has aired can the first 4 episodes get fixed?

[FelipeF]

I'm having someone take a look.

[Tom Erik Smith]

I'm having someone take a look.

Thank you so much FelipeF

[Tom Erik Smith]

Have they had a look yet?

[Tom Erik Smith]

I'm having someone take a look.

Thanks FelipeF for asking someone to take a look at this. Can you confirm whether they have taken a look yet or not?...and if they have, then an eta on when it will be fixed. Thank you.

[Tom Erik Smith]

These are never going to get fixed are they... These episodes came out over three months ago. Why has this become the norm for Vudu?... that we cross our fingers that the movie/tv transfers we get are good quality (which surly is just the absolute basic requirement when you sell people things), and if they are not then well tough luck, we already got your money. Then we have to spend months trying to convince someone at vudu to just take a look or believe that there is an issue in the first place. Just looking at the audio/video section of the forums and there are at least 10 threads with no responses at all going back almost two months. I used to love Vudu, now I'm counting the days till MA start including tv shows so I can watch my purchases on other services with better quality control and/or communication with studios and networks, because the excuse of "it's not us it's the studios" starts to get old, especially when other services solve these type of issues much quicker. If this was any other type of service we would get a timely replacement or a refund, or sometimes even both... because selling people broken things is just bad business.

AH! Sorry about the rant... Just needing to vent my frustration. I'm sure i'm not the only one with these concerns.

[Jake]

These are never going to get fixed are they... These episodes came out over three months ago. Why has this become the norm for Vudu?... that we cross our fingers that the movie/tv transfers we get are good quality (which surly is just the absolute basic requirement when you sell people things), and if they are not then well tough luck, we already got your money. Then we have to spend months trying to convince someone at vudu to just take a look or believe that there is an issue in the first place. Just looking at the audio/video section of the forums and there are at least 10 threads with no responses at all going back almost two months. I used to love Vudu, now I'm counting the days till MA start including tv shows so I can watch my purchases on other services with better quality control and/or communication with studios and networks, because the excuse of "it's not us it's the studios" starts to get old, especially when other services solve these type of issues much quicker. If this was any other type of service we would get a timely replacement or a refund, or sometimes even both... because selling people broken things is just bad business.

AH! Sorry about the rant... Just needing to vent my frustration. I'm sure i'm not the only one with these concerns.

The issue has been under investigation for a while now. It turned out to be a really obscure bug in the video encoder software used, so it took a while to find and understand. We believe we have a workaround but making a significant change requires significant testing. Once it's ready, these titles will be the first ones replaced.

As far as responses on this forum - we try when it makes sense, but it's not productive to reply to every repeat question when there is no new information. And really, how many other similar companies routinely have the engineers (voluntarily) interacting with customers to explain and resolve issues? (in fact they may have policies against it). You are free to rant, but if anything it will make future interaction less likely.

As far as refund - have you tried to get a refund for this show and were refused? I would be very surprised to hear that.

[Tom Erik Smith]

The issue has been under investigation for a while now. It turned out to be a really obscure bug in the video encoder software used, so it took a while to find and understand. We believe we have a workaround but making a significant change requires significant testing. Once it's ready, these titles will be the first ones replaced.

Thank you so much for this information Jake . This is all I needed to know. Now I know what's going on instead of the weeks and months piling up with me thinking that nothing is happening, and my past experiences have not helped, they add up and I end up posting what looks like an over reaction. I apologise for this. I have not asked for a refund, I don't want one, I just want to know that something is happening. For me "no news is good news" doesn't apply to customer service, it just makes me think no one cares and nothings happening.

I was unaware that the forum moderators were doing this in their spare time for free with no involvement from vudu...Thank you for this, it makes sense to me now why there are so many unanswered questions, although just a few words response would go a long way just to say "something is happening". I quite often go to the forums because my support tickets don't get answered or I'm dismissed and told that there is no issue with them clearly having not even checked, and I have to go back and forth before I'm even believed. In the past I've had better luck with the forums.

I hope the "future interaction less likely" isn't true because the whole reason for the this post in the first place was because of the lack of interaction (again, I didn't know it was a voluntary/spare time deal). It would end up being a bit of a one step backward, two steps backward type situation.

Thanks again for this response, it clears everything up.

[FelipeF]

Episodes 3 and 4 were replaced earlier this month. Episodes 1 and 2 not too sure about them. I'll ask again.

[Jake]

I was unaware that the forum moderators were doing this in their spare time for free with no involvement from vudu...Thank you for this, it makes sense to me now why there are so many unanswered questions, although just a few words response would go a long way just to say "something is happening".

Note I'm not a forum moderator, I'm an engineering director - I just like to keep up on customer questions and issues (and respond when I feel I can provide technical details or other information that can be shared publicly) when I have time. I try to report any problems I see reported to our QA or developers, but can't respond here to most (and I rarely respond to angry posts, but I understand your frustration and hope we can resolve this one soon

There are a few moderators in customer care who are very helpful on the forums and can resolve many account issues, but for bugs/content problems/etc all they can really do is report them as well, of course.

[Tom Erik Smith]

Episodes 3 and 4 were replaced earlier this month. Episodes 1 and 2 not too sure about them. I'll ask again.

Thanks! FelipeF I've quickly checked ep 1 and 2 and can confirm they have not been replaced yet. Hopefully soon

Note I'm not a forum moderator, I'm an engineering director - I just like to keep up on customer questions and issues (and respond when I feel I can provide technical details or other information that can be shared publicly) when I have time. I try to report any problems I see reported to our QA or developers, but can't respond here to most (and I rarely respond to angry posts, but I understand your frustration and hope we can resolve this one soon

There are a few moderators in customer care who are very helpful on the forums and can resolve many account issues, but for bugs/content problems/etc all they can really do is report them as well, of course.

Thanks Jake . I have always got very friendly and helpful support in the forums so I'm sorry for misplacing my anger here. It's usually my efforts to get it solved through customer service first that frustrates me, case in point - I literally just got an email saying "I'm sorry to hear that you had issues watching one of our titles. After testing the first four episodes of Mr. Robot Season 3, I was unable to replicate the issue you described." followed by a list of have you tried turning it off and on again type solutions. This is the same answer I always get from customer service, but luckly in the forums I can find someone who actually looks into the issue, so I am very grateful for this. Thanks again

[Tom Erik Smith]

Is there an update on these episodes yet? I'm trying to be very patient.

[FelipeF]

I've been told that episodes 1 and 2 have been fixed.