I hate Werner Uehlinger

Rob C · April-21st-2004, 10:57 AM

Time for another rant about hatOLOGY's crappy packaging.

This is one of my favorite labels... music-wise. But I'm about ready to boycott them until they ditch the cardboard packaging. I've had it with buying a new disc, taking it out--ONCE, because I certainly won't put it back into this thing and let it do further damage--and finding scratches and marks on the disc.

USUALLY the discs play all right on my main player, but forget about playing them in the car and, often, forget about ripping them to MP3 so I can listen to them on my portable device, which is where I do much of my listening these days. If I can't successfully rip it to MP3 I've immediately lost 50% of the disc's usefulness to me.

I suspect it's actually a combination of poor manufacturing standards for the disc itself--it seems like these discs scratch if you look at them too hard--and the packaging, which might as well be made out of sandpaper as far as I'm concerned.

I never had any problems with the good old hat ART 6000 series, that came in jewel cases. But I've had problem after problem with the hatOLOGYs. Yes, the packaging is very striking and pretty and unique and innovative. However, it also sucks. All I want is something that protects the disc, which doesn't seem so much to ask.

Today I found the worst scratch yet. So (though the music itself may cause me to break down tomorrow) today I'm boycotting hatOLOGY.

Thank you for letting me rant.

Paul B · April-21st-2004, 11:22 AM

Agree (though I probably won't boycott the label). I simply put Hatologys in a jewelcase next to the paper sleeve. Even worse are Winter & Winter cases: no way to take the disc out without really scraping it. Both are examples of form having little to do with function.

I have the first What We Live disc on DIW, and it's the perfect solution: made of paper, but the disc comes in a nice cloth (or some synthetic product) sleeve that slides into the slot, so the CD itself never scrapes anything.

Bye-ya

Nate Dorward · April-21st-2004, 11:39 AM

Yeah, most of the Hatology discs I get have a line across the centre right where the slit is. So far I've only have one disc that skipped though, & eventually I got it to work. Still, it's silly packaging.

A lot of Japanese discs I get (e.g. a Japanese issue of a Helen Merrill disc & a disc from StudioWee) have that soft inner sleeve--it's nice, it makes it feel like an LP again.

gnhrtg · April-21st-2004, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate Dorward

A lot of Japanese discs I get (e.g. a Japanese issue of a Helen Merrill disc & a disc from StudioWee) have that soft inner sleeve--it's nice, it makes it feel like an LP again.

Mini LP style Okka's have a similar convenience as well (as in "Chicago Solo" or "A Meeting in Chicago"). Hat's don't. I've witnessed Hat's scratch even while I'm cycling to school from home on a slightly bumpy road. If nothing else, such scratches make it a pain, at least here in France, to trade them.

shrugs · April-21st-2004, 02:19 PM

I own or have traded off nearly all of them(except releases from the past year and a half) and have had zero problems when it comes to playback.

gnhrtg · April-21st-2004, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shrugs

I own or have traded off nearly all of them(except releases from the past year and a half) and have had zero problems when it comes to playback.

Neither have I. The guys at some of the second-hand stores make a fuss nevertheless.

sashabur · April-21st-2004, 04:13 PM

By the way, Leo had tried the same not-so-functional kind of packaging for his Golden Years series, but returned to jewel cases. Frankly, I'm glad he did.

crawjo · April-21st-2004, 04:20 PM

I actually like Hat's packaging. Saves shelf space. I haven't had any problems with scratched discs so far.

jazzfiend · April-21st-2004, 04:35 PM

Agree with crawjo, and I actually prefer them over jewel cases. I've got lots of 'em, and never a problem.

Rob C · April-21st-2004, 05:23 PM

I guess I'm unlucky. Or have bad playback equipment.

I know there are products out there to shave off scratches on CDs. Any recs? I'm a little scared of ruining even scratched discs....

rockefeller center · April-21st-2004, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob C

USUALLY the discs play all right on my main player, but forget about playing them in the car and, often, forget about ripping them to MP3 so I can listen to them on my portable device, which is where I do much of my listening these days. If I can't successfully rip it to MP3 I've immediately lost 50% of the disc's usefulness to me.

Assuming you have a Windows PC - have you already tried http://exactaudiocopy.de/ ? It's a very good program and it's free. You may have to try different extraction methods (menu: EAC/Drive Options/Extraction Method/). If you want to rip to MP3 instead of wav (menu: Action/Copy Selected Tracks/), go to menu: EAC/Compression Options/ and adjust settings.

Gary Sisco · April-22nd-2004, 08:29 AM

I have quite a few Hats with the cardboard packaging and have never had a problem either with scratching or playback. Jewel boxes have become a nightmare for me, storagewise. They take up a mad amount of room after a certain number, for such a small thing as a CD. And there's entirely too much plastic in the world, anyway, if you ask me. Which of course no one did...

The Japanese definitely have the best packaging, though, and often very nice to look at and feel as well.

Rob C · April-22nd-2004, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockefeller center

Assuming you have a Windows PC - have you already tried http://exactaudiocopy.de/ ? It's a very good program and it's free. You may have to try different extraction methods (menu: EAC/Drive Options/Extraction Method/). If you want to rip to MP3 instead of wav (menu: Action/Copy Selected Tracks/), go to menu: EAC/Compression Options/ and adjust settings.

That's the program I've been using. Actually, I played around with the drive settings and error correction and got a skippy hat track to copy correctly. Took 40 minutes to get through ONE bad minute of the track(!), but it worked. So, I am feeling better today.

I still never have such bad problems with anything else besides hat, including scratched up CDRs and so on. If a CDR is easier to copy than a hat, something's wrong. And I have these problems consistently with hat.

Well, what are you going to do? The music is too good to keep up a boycott. Still, I'd rather they went back to jewel cases.

Hackensack · April-22nd-2004, 07:08 PM

I use the polyethelyne CD Sleeve from Bags Unlimited. It slides in between the Hat folds, and doesn't add anything really to the nice, thin appearance of the Hat sleeves on the shelf. You have to be a bit careful to pick up both the cover and the sleeve, but otherwise I find this an elegant solution.