Josh Z

If that were the case, the firmware number would change in the player's info menu.

Also, as slow as disc loading was, firmware updates were much slower, and required a power down afterwards. You'd know if something like that happened.

bruceames

Loading times are much faster than they were back in the early days, but thanks to Java and BD-live they are still much, much slower than DVD. That is a big strike against the format in this era of convenience.

zyzzle

Which is why making backup copies has its place. Strip the Java crap, BD-live crap, menus, and just have the damn movie start when I put it in the drive. Load times miraculously are then down to 5 seconds flat! Hooray!

MBoyd

Not sure if anyone has had issues with Sopranos Season 6 pt 1 and 2 yet, but I discovered the very first disc on episode 2 would not play today. Noticed only the first 2 discs of each set are cloudy. Didn't bother to go and try each one. Pretty sure I can guess the results.

JimRochester

Played a few recently; Notting Hill, Caddyshack, Smokey And The Bandit and Timecop. All played without a problem. The only problem disc I've had is Accepted, and that seemed to be bad when I got it.

Alan Smithee

The first of the two Sopranos sets was one of my many problem titles- the first one I got, the 4th disc froze up. Found a second copy and one of the earlier discs in that froze up but the 4th was good, so I just swapped the 4th disc out of that one. Sad to say but I really don't miss this format now!

dvd-4-life

In the past when I had trouble playing an HD-DVD,I would throw the thing in the garbage. Now I keep playing it till its completed even when it stops playing 3 or 4 times.

larrsz

I had the same issue with a bunch of HD DVDs, primarily Warner titles. Warner replaced a bunch of them a couple or three years ago but indicated they would not do them all (I think there were about 25 or so). I replaced almost all the rest during the Red2Blu program they had that allowed you to "upgrade" your Warner HDs to BD for $5.

Recently I also "replaced" several of my remaining HDs with BDs through their DVD2Blu program that is still going on. You send any commercial DVD in and get a BD to replace it for $5. And, they mean "any" DVD, it does not have to be the same title. I think I did about 25 of them and I used some old bargain bin stuff I had picked up in a yard sale; but if you really want to I think they would likely take your defective HDs instead, they basically just melt them down and recycle them.

davidh777

I was watching The Matrix last night on my 360 add-on, and it froze about 90 minutes in, and I think that happened when I watched it last year. I think I'll have to Netflix it, or stop dragging my feet and get a digital copy or a cheap BD version. The good news is that The Animatrix on the bonus disc of the three-movie set played flawlessly!

JimRochester

I'm in no rush but I am slowly replacing some of my HD DVD's as new ones come out. The big problem is that there are definitely some movies I don't mind owning but there is no way they are worth a double dip, even for cheap.

Alan Smithee

The Animatrix in that set was a regular DVD, so less likely to have problems with that. Just checked my Blade Runner set and BOTH the Final Cut and Theatrical Version discs now will not play at all!

davidh777

That's the thing. I'm not going to replace something like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Then again, I would replace The Getaway but it's not available.

Nuts.

geodi

For what's it worth, I took 28 HD-DVDs to Wal-Mart and I can now stream them in HD via VUDU.

orangerunner

I still have about 300 HD-DVDs and as far as I know only six Warner titles have failed on me. Two would not load and the other four stalled at the midway point.

I can watch the first 40 minutes and last 40 minutes, but nothing in between!

I always sense that my collection is on borrowed time. I'm not sure if more will fail over time or if titles that have lasted this long will continue to play without issues.

I repurchased some of the better titles in Blu-ray but if more fail, they fail, I'm not replacing them. Besides, I bought into HDDVD in 2010 and all of my titles averaged-out at $1.50 each so it's not huge loss.

PhantomStranger

The studios would have had a huge mess on their hands with HD-DVDs failing like this if it had won the format war.

Josh Z

Are we sure the problem is the discs failing, or could it be the Toshiba players, which were always flaky to begin with?

davidh777

In my case, it's the 360 add-on, and The Matrix is the only disc I've had problems with over the last year or so, in which time I've played, er, two other discs.

orangerunner

I have only noticed it on Warner HD-DVDs that were purchased in the US. The titles I bought In Canada seem to be fine so they may have been pressed in a different plant.

The first crop of Lion's Gate Blu-rays seemed to have a similar issue. My copies of Basic Instinct, Reservoir Dogs and Devil's Rejects all came to a point where they would no longer load.

orangerunner

I tested the discs in three different players with the same results. The good discs played fine and the bad discs played poorly.

Alan Smithee

That's probably why I see Toshiba HD-DVD players show up often in Goodwill stores- people probably thought they had stopped working when their discs would no longer play and thought the problem was with the player and not the discs.

slybone

Reading this thread makes me really glad that Blu-ray won the format war.

Dg86

I too have a Toshiba HD player and it's been giving me some problems lately. I tried to watch The Matrix and it would freeze periodically around 35ish minutes. Picture would freeze but the timer kept going. I could fast forward/rewind and then it'd play a bit but start "pixelating" and the sound would stutter. Bummer, I was really happy to have The Matrix box set on HD. Also, about 2 weeks prior I tried to watch a brand new copy of Return to House on Haunted Hill and the player would not recognize it.
These are both Warner titles, so maybe that's it? It's more of a let down than anything, the money isn't an issue...these HDs were cheap.

bruceames

The Warner discs tend to be more finicky, but at this point, you got to taken into account that the player's age will probably have a LOT to do with it. I was getting progressively more read errors on my XA2 but after swapping it with a new-in-box A3, I had no further problems. It played everything I threw at it, even those Warner discs that I had assumed to be defective due to rot.

kahuna

I posted on page 2 of this thread about having problems with the hd-dvds in the Matrix & Oceans Eleven Collection. Then it started to a bunch of Warner Brothers titles.

I sold of a bunch on CL, but still have over 225 in a box in my closet along with 4 Hd-dvd players. Not sure what to do with these hd-dvds & players., not even sure if the local library would want them.

davidlynchfan

They are still decent upconverting standard DVD players.