Skips and errors

[Doc Daneeka]

I am ticked. I just received Alone in the Dark on DVD and right along the part I was most engrossed, (No, I was well past that part, I'm talking about the climax... preverts) the damn disk skipped, and showed no sign of stopping. I thouroughly liked what I saw of this film (By now you all probably know this is the 1982 version) and to have to send it back on the day it arrived is unnerving. To make matters worse this is not the first time this has happened. hell, it happens a ton with me.

-The complete Kolchak collection has major errors in 6 or more episodes
-Virus will actually play maybe once in a blue moon
-Waxwork and Waxwork II make very unsettling sounds when they run
-And now, this. Does this happen a lot to any of you guys? Is it such a common occurence within the B-Buyer's universe that I haven't heard anyone complain before?

[Derf]

It has happened to me on occasion, but not often.

My Manos: Hands of Fate disk wouldn't play at all in my portable player. It just made really loud clicking sounds and wouldn't load. I took that as a sign that God was watching over me and put it back on the shelf.

On several other disks, my player will pause for a second or two and then continue on. It's annoying, but I just figured it was mainly because I have a cheap player. And usually cheap movies to put in it.

[dean]

Just last night, last twenty minutes of Buckaroo Banzai= one very sad, frustrated Dean... 

[Poogie]

Yes! We have the same problem with the Kolchak collection also. 

[Andrew]

The make and model of your DVD player can also be a factor.  My recently purchased Pioneer 393 with the all region chip and PAL to NTSC conversion has played every disc I have fed to it (so long as the DVD was not damaged or defective).  My older DVL-700 has problems with some DVDs.  Most mainstream releases are fine.

[raj]

A couple of mine have.  Head of the Family won't play at all.  Of course my DVD player needs to have the open button hit several times -- hit it once and it opensandcloses that fast, hard to get just a dvd out, much less than taking one out & putting another one in.  It's about six years old, probably time for a new one.

Andrew, where did you get your all region player?  Stores around here only carry region 1 players (boo).

[Mr_Vindictive]

Raj,

I recommend the Phillips Divx/DVD player thats out there.  I have one, but the model number escapes me at the moment.  It's a region 1 player but only takes about 20 seconds to turn it into an All Region player.  I've had mine for a while and it hasn't let me down.

[Andrew]

Andrew, where did you get your all region player?  Stores around here only carry region 1 players (boo).

From an Amazon.com merchant.  I had posted about it here:
http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,112448.msg126066.html#msg126066

I had also looked at the Phillips player that Skaboi mentions, but have always had good luck with Pioneer electronics, so I stuck to that.  The Phillips is less expensive if I remember correctly.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Andrew, where did you get your all region player?  Stores around here only carry region 1 players (boo).

From an Amazon.com merchant.  I had posted about it here:
http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,112448.msg126066.html#msg126066

I had also looked at the Phillips player that Skaboi mentions, but have always had good luck with Pioneer electronics, so I stuck to that.  The Phillips is less expensive if I remember correctly.

If I'm not mistaken, I picked up the Phillips for somewhere around 45 or 50 bucks.  Not bad for an all region player, although I mainly use it for Divx at this point.

[T-Rex Television]

My Manos: Hands of Fate disk wouldn't play at all in my portable player. It just made really loud clicking sounds and wouldn't load. I took that as a sign that God was watching over me and put it back on the shelf.

Woah, my friend said that the same thing happened to him! The player killed his Manos disc. (thank goodness)




But that is just another good reason to watch VHS. which i am in love with, i down down upon dvds *hiss*

[Raffine]

Many of the Universal/MCA collections with the double-sided discs are notorious for their lousy playback. That includes the Nightstalker collection, their Alfred Hitchcock Presents collections, and their Universal Monsters Legacy collections. I've not had any problems with them, but then again I don't think I've ever played any of them completely. I'll be right put out if my new W.C. Fields Collection Vol. II (including The Man on the Flying Trapeze!) has any problems.

I've had problems with a few of the Kino releases (the restored Metropolis, The Blue Angel, Dementia) freezing and skipping. I was able to get working replacement discs from them.

All my Alpha Video, Madacy, and Mills Creek discs play like a charm.

[Andrew]

Woah, my friend said that the same thing happened to him! The player killed his Manos disc. (thank goodness)

I think that the "No Manos" chip was part of the DVD format ever since the design phase.

[Poogie]

It looks like we got a bad deal with the Night Stalker DVD's....so far there's 3 of us. At least I know my DVD player is okay. You had me scared for a minute with this talk of trying a different DVD player. 

[raj]

Thanks.  Mine's a Pioneer DV-434.  Apparently there are no codes to, ah, "adjust" its region settings.

[JaseSF]

Some of the newer discs that are being released are designed for newer DVD players that can handle the upgraded discs (yes there is a difference between the disc format they used a few years ago and now for some discs - cannot recall the names offhand but it's sometimes described and explained on some of those Brentwood releases in their DVD Dictionary sections). In some cases, an older player will have troubles playing said discs. As I understand it, this is the case with the Universal releases which may very well play fine on another DVD Player.