DVD question

B

Bob W

Joined
Dec 31, 2000
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A couple of years ago we bought an RCA home theatre system. It seemed like a really nice system at the time (600 watts, 5.1 digital surround sound, 3 disc changer, AM/FM radio tuner), but now it won't play any new DVD movies. Our old movies still work fine and it plays music CDs with no problems at all.

At first I thought the problems could be blamed on scratched and dirty rental discs. But we also have problems with borrowed DVDs that are in like-new condition. Most often the problems start about halfway through a movie, and sometimes the opening screen won't load. Makes me think it's a change in the DVD format or disc technology.

Assuming that I need a new DVD player, can someone recommend a unit? I'd like to replace just the DVD player and continue using the speakers I already have. Needs to be a DVD player with 5.1 surroung output, and prefereably with an FM radio tuner.

-Bob
 
I'd see if I could find a competent repair tech. I am still using my Phillips-Magnavox DVD player that I bought way back in the 90's. I've only had two discs in all those years that wouldn't play on it, aside from some I burned on my computer. I haven't had any problems at all in at least 4 years, so I don't think it would be a format change.
 
I dont think many DVD players have an FM tuner - I would get a Pioneer it seems to play almost anythign thrown into it.
 
yablanowitz said:
I'd see if I could find a competent repair tech. I am still using my Phillips-Magnavox DVD player that I bought way back in the 90's. I've only had two discs in all those years that wouldn't play on it, aside from some I burned on my computer. I haven't had any problems at all in at least 4 years, so I don't think it would be a format change.
Click to expand...

There are a lot of changes since then. One is the dual layer DVDs that most of the movies are now. They hold twice as much data as the original single layer DVDs. The player reads the dvd from the outer edge in, and then reads the second layer from the inside out. A lot of older DVD players have trouble with the transition from the first layer to the second layer, called the "layer break". That's probably why in the original post it's mentioned that there are problems starting about halfway through.
The copy protection schemes that Sony uses are also becoming extremely problematic. Some of the new movies out now have trouble playing on even a lot of the new DVD players. I've heard of several people that were unable to play "See No Evil" on fairly new DVD players.
Right now I'm using a new panasonic player. I have a couple of older ones that started becoming problematic ... a philips recorder that is starting to suffer from audio dropouts on some dvds and a magnavox that wouldn't properly find all the mp3 files on a dvd+r disc. So far the panasonic is handling everything with aplomb.
 
Well, my old player does pause for a second when switching layers, but so does my girlfriend's year old player and my three year old back up unit. Not a big enough problem for me to condsider replacing it, but I can see where some people would be bothered by it. Heck, the movie theater usually has more problems than that when I go :D
 
I suspect it's a copy protection issue.

Some months ago, I saw The Aviator on DVD at a good price and decided to buy it. It would not play on my Pioneer player. I returned it and they exchanged it for the same title. That one would not play either. I exchanged it too. The third did the same, so I asked for a refund. The clerk explained that they don't give refunds on open DVDs, just exchange for the exact same title. I asked to speak to the manager. The manager's response was, "Oh... The Aviator. Just give him his money. There's something wrong with those disks. A lot of 'em are coming back."

At one point, I noticed a new little icon on the disk jacket. It indicates a new copy protection scheme.
 
I think I've tracked the problem to dual-layer DVDs. It's easy to distinguish dual-layer discs because they have two seriel numbers.

The home theatre system is long out of warranty, and probably cheaper to buy a new one than to repair. And it still sounds great (on CDs and working DVDs). So today I ordered a new inexpensive DVD player with an optical digital Out, so I can connect to the home theatre and have full sound.

I don't want to buy an entire new system until the Blue Ray or whatever next-step technology becomes more available.

Best Wishes,
-Bob
 
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