Dvds That Won't Play In My Player

[ErikW]

I hate DVD discs that won't play in my DVD player. I had a hand-me-down player that gave me so much trouble with so many discs I bought a new player. Now there's still the rare problem, like with Sin City. I just bought the Time to Ride off-road motorcycle DVDs and the first one was fine but the sequel wasn't even recognized by my player. I put it in my computer and it was fine. The publisher said he had a run of about 1,000 discs that wouldn't work on some players, including his own.

It's not just me and my junk players. My nephews were watching Ghostbusters on grandma's player and it choked when Bill Murray got slimed. Oh wait, I bought that player for them. Maybe it is me.

What's so freakin' hard about sticking to the published specs and burning 0s and 1s on the discs!?

[raz-0]

I hate DVD discs that won't play in my DVD player. I had a hand-me-down player that gave me so much trouble with so many discs I bought a new player. Now there's still the rare problem, like with Sin City. I just bought the Time to Ride off-road motorcycle DVDs and the first one was fine but the sequel wasn't even recognized by my player. I put it in my computer and it was fine. The publisher said he had a run of about 1,000 discs that wouldn't work on some players, including his own.

It's not just me and my junk players. My nephews were watching Ghostbusters on grandma's player and it choked when Bill Murray got slimed. Oh wait, I bought that player for them. Maybe it is me.

What's so freakin' hard about sticking to the published specs and burning 0s and 1s on the discs!?

What's so hard? Well, it's not just zeros and ones. It's software. And not all the hardware is the same. Think along the lines of JAVA on the web before microsoft stopped rolling their own virtual machine, and much like javascript still is. All the browsers get told to do the same thing, but they don't in reality. Sometimes the result is livable, sometimes not.

It's not a simple as redbook standards for CDs, but it still shouldn't be as much of a crapshoot as it still is with the cheapie software players (most of the cheapie units are just an ARM processor and the cheapie manufacturers DVD playing software). The hardware based ones (dedicated purpose built chips) are usually better, but ven they aren't 100%. But they usually at least get you thrugh the movie portion without issues.

Then there's things like disk delamination, disk rot, thigns being burned incorrectly, etc.

Of course if you do the netflix or equivalent thing, apprantly a lot of people try to play DVDs on their old record player or eat dinner off them or something. Use them as frisbees, etc.

All I know is I have been averaging 1 in 3 showing up scratched to hell, cracked, or otherwise rendered so as to be unplayable all the way through. As for crashes, way too many programmers are trying clever tricks in the extras without actually being clever apparantly.

[GTOSHootr]

I hate the whole DVD regional code thing. I understand the principle behind it now, it is just that I wasn't aware of it. My wife and I just went to Paris over the week of Thanksgiving. My wife is a high school French teacher so when we were there she thought she'd buy some fun DVDs to show the kids on special days as a treat that was still educational. Anyways, they don't work in our DVD player and I guess I have to order a "regional code free" DVD player if she wants to use them.

[mpolans]

FYI, here's a DVD player that will play any region code. It's dirt cheap, too...$19.99 after rebate.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000A0AJ...glance&n=172282

It's played all of my Asia region DVDs without fail, as well as my North American region ones.

[GTOSHootr]

FYI, here's a DVD player that will play any region code. It's dirt cheap, too...$19.99 after rebate.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000A0AJ...glance&n=172282

It's played all of my Asia region DVDs without fail, as well as my North American region ones.

Thanks! I ordered one of those.

Edited November 30, 2005 by GTOSHootr

[George]

For testing DVD's I burn I keep a couple junk players around that I bought at Costco for like $40. For watching DVD's myself, nothing less than a decent Sony player for me. The Sony DVP series machines seem to be the best choice out there for playing most anything. Their chipset isn't so strict that it chokes with the extensive error correction that happens on badly scratched commercial and funky home burned discs, yet it is strict enough to play replicated commercial discs without glitching.

The Panasonic players also seem to handle poor discs better than the rest do.

My advice is to stay away from the el cheapo players unless you are using them as a test bed for burned discs like I do. Spring for the $90-100 bucks a decent Sony brand player costs and you won't be sorry.

--

Regards

[raz-0]

I hate the whole DVD regional code thing. I understand the principle behind it now, it is just that I wasn't aware of it.

heck, even the principle behind it is broken, so go ahead and be mad. Seriously, I have a region 1 movie released in region 1 after the theatrical release. The market ouside region 1 with the highest ticket prices is region 2. SO by preventing the region 1 DVD from being played in region 2, I preserve the UK theater box office. That's the theory anyway. however, The dvd shipped is about the same or more than the theater ticket price. It's not like the viewer saves money. The answer is to not do heavily staggered releases in europe and australia, possibly japan. All the rest of the markets make significantly less on movie tickets, and buying a region 1 dvd would probably put more money in the studio's pocket.

The PAL/NTSC/SECAM argument is moot as DVD players have to do screen stretching and squashing anyway, as well as progressive to interlaced conversions, and could (and do) handle the differences in output specs for regional hardware.

Even the studios are starting to relize this as there are discussions about making high-def disks region free as HDTV is a worldwide hardware standard.

[Carlos]

I bought a DVD player specifically because I knew I could de-activate the Zone Control. I have since LOST the website to the Forum that had instructions on how to do this but I entered the fix and have yet to test it out.

Anyone know the web address of that Forum?

THe idea was that most DVD players are actually based on disc drives for home PCs. The programming usually involves getting into the DVD player's "settings" mode and entering the codes to dis-able Zone control - only you must KNOW the code ahead of time to make it work.

Interesting stuff.

I hate Zone Controls on DVDs, SPL/SPC locks on cell phones, and all sorts of other technology that treats the consumer like an ignorant child.

[GTOSHootr]

My advice is to stay away from the el cheapo players unless you are using them as a test bed for burned discs like I do. Spring for the $90-100 bucks a decent Sony brand player costs and you won't be sorry.

I hear you. However, this deal happens to work out twofold for us because it will play the French DVDs and it is cheap enough for her to bring it to school when she wants. Unfortunately, pretty much anything she brings to school will eventually get stolen. She has enough good kids that want to learn that it is still worth it though. Thanks.

Edited November 30, 2005 by GTOSHootr