This is the replacement for the defective Blu-ray set I returned to amazon.com. That set had defects on some of the discs causing playback freeze on at least one of them.

This new DVD set had some visual sloppiness when inspected fresh out of the sealed box as well. Smudges on the playback surfaces of some of the discs just as the BD version had before. Disc Number 1 also had some minor scratches on the surface even.

I did wet-clean this disc with a Phillips disc cleaning kit and it did play back without any hiccups, however. The DVD media format is in fact more forgiving of playing surfaces that are less than spotless unlike Blu-ray. I was gun shy about trying another Blu-ray set as a replacement. I figured I would have better luck with the DVD set knowing that the DVD format is not as fussy about disc surface conditions and figuring that the same manufacturer of both these sets was not so fussy about product quality control at the factory. The price of the DVD set was much more appealing to boot. I have not seen any other brand-new DVD or BD movies from a sealed package with any disc imperfections whatsoever. It's just this particular Planet of the Apes edition from the same studio over multiple disc formats. The original Planet of the Apes movie franchise by 20th Century Fox and APJAC Productions is not so revered by videophiles and classic movie buffs that it really deserves Blu-ray playback quality. New commerically-produced DVD quality will suffice for 50+ year-old feature films with John Chambers' ape masks as the main attraction to viewers. The classic Apes films had minimal fast action scenes and minimal state-of-the-art special visual effects. Some considered both James Franciscus and Charlton Heston as hot blond Hollywood hunks back in their younger heyday, but are these two actors in on-screen character photogenic enough to deserve the much more expensive Blue-ray quality?

I still have to test play the remaining 4 DVD's for any signs of playback malfunction.

Playback of the first disc was about as good as one can expect from any new commerically-sold DVD movie (with or without any surface imperfections) on a Samsung Smart TV with 1080p resolution. The picture quality, for the most part of the movie content, did seem remarkably better than many other DVD movies I had viewed in the past. There seemed to be slight frame shudder during the opening desert scene and some slight background color hue flickering in this same desert scene. Some commerical VHS tapes of old used to have similar color instabilty issues. No freezing, audio cut-out or skips, gladly. It still seems like an OK deal for about $25 vs $99 for the returned BD version which had disc defects to boot.

This DVD replacement is by the same company as the BD version I returned. It is by FOX and the copyright date is 2014. Apparently, the same factory that boxed the BD versions also boxed the DVD versions and quality control for both formats was less than stellar, it seems.

Both the DVD and BD sets have the same cover art as follows:

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