I've had this player for about 6 months, used it somewhat but not greatly. I notice watching JOE DIRT it seemed to be skipping or dropping frames consistently in the same scenes, etc if I replayed. Did not notice this before on other DVDs and assumed it was a bad disc. Noticed the same issue on another new disc and became curious. Tried this second disc on my computer and NO dropped frames. Tried JOE DIRT and NO dropped frames. I've since replaced my player with a slightly higher end model and these discs play fine.

But its not region free or PAL converting player like the Phillips.

Anyone shed any light here? Is this a firmware problem or just a crappy player?

I know this will sound too simple:

Did you wash the disc?

probably not firmware, I've got two of those I've had for 2 years and never had issues like that, and I've watched Joe Dirt on them successfully.