DVD Player Freeze on Rented Discs
 

I have a Toshiba SD-2800 DVD player that is several years old. This player has always been absolutely terrible at handling scratches--even light scratches--commonly found on rental movies. Yes, I've tried cleaning the unit and the discs. Every time I have severe freezing problems, like I did recently while trying to play "The World's Fastest Indian", I pop the bad disc into my HP laptop, which is around the same age, and the movie plays perfectly without so much as a pixel defect. The DVD player in the laptop is a QSI brand--I wish they made stand-alone DVD players. Reading complaints on the intraweb indicates this is a common experience. Can anyone suggest a DVD player that does not have this problem? It's so irritating that I was considering picking up a $40 discount brand and trying it out the next time I have a movie lock up. Why can't TV DVD's work as good as their computer counterparts??? Sometimes I miss VHS.

I think it's because the standalone DVD players are made from inferior mechanical/optical components, as compared to the computer DVD drives. But I have nothing to base that on; it's mostly a hunch on my part.

I fixed your post.

I do not have any of these problems on either my Denon 2900 or my Oppo 971

Thanks. That explains everything.

That Toshiba player is notoriously a bad quality player. Do a google search. Check out the reviews on Amazon. Search over at AVS. It's garbage.

Buy a new player. Almost any new player, no matter what the brand, will be better than that player.

the fact that you got as long as you have out of it is a blessing. Most people didn't make it to a year.

And if it didn't for some, maybe Brian's next sentence could help. Did you read that far? -ohbfrank-