rondea02

I've bought some old TV shows on DVD from the internet. They play fine on my stand alone DVD player for about 40 to 50 minutes, then they start freezing. Even if I take the DVD out and put it into another stand alone DVD player, it keeps freezing.

The strange thing is, if I leave the DVD overnight and then try to play the DVD from the point it froze, it will play find for another 40 to 50 minutes, and then start freezing again.

I've tried 5 different stand alone DVD players and they all do the same thing. I was wondering if anyone knows of a stand alone DVD player that will not freeze.

Thanks
Rondea02

Mr. Salty

I'm going to come to a wildly different conclusion than you: The problem is obviously with the discs and not the DVD players.

Where did you buy these TV shows from? What format were they in and how did you burn them to disc?

Snowmaker

Sounds like a bad layer change on bootleg dual-layer DVDs.

The Cow

That was my first thought.

rondea02

I bought DVDs from tvdvdstore (net, not com) which sells old TV shows on DVD.

I did not burn the DVDs myself so I don't know what program or brand of DVDs was used.

If it was a problem switching from the second-layer why does it work find the next day from the same point on the DVD?

I think the problem is a combination of both the DVDs and the player. Here are two senerios that cause freezing.

1) If the player has been running other DVDs for a while and then I put one of these TV show DVDs in, it starts freezing right away.
2) If I play the TV show DVDs when I first turn on the player (which has not been running since last night), it plays for 40 to 50 minutes then starts freezing. It continues to freeze, even if I put it into another player that has not been used that day.

To me it almost seems like the DVDs and the machine warm-up then get the laser out of alignment.

The big question is how do I fix this. I can't fix the DVDs, so is there a stand alone DVD player that will read these DVDs without freezing.

Evad

According to that website


Bootleg all the way

Mr. Salty

Yep, and a typical gross misreading of the Berne Act.

cultshock

Yeah, it's funny how places like this always hide behind the Berne Act, when it doesn't defend their actions at all. And add me to the list of those who think that a bad layer change is the culprit. Dual layer DVDRs (which I'm guessing is what these are) are notoriously fickle.

rondea02

If it is a dual-layer problem on the dvdr, is there any players that can compensate for this?

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

If it wasn't the discs, it wouldn't happen on 5 different players. There's no players that are going to work with incorrectly made discs.

The only thing that might work would be to make a copy on your computer. As long as it doesn't get hung up there, you should be fine.

rondea02

What I don't understand, is why do they play fine the next day from the point where they froze.

Some of the DVDs have up to 6 hours of TV shows, why does it freeze on the first hour, second hour, and so on after 40 to 50 minutes of play. Wouldn't a dual layer problem only happen in the middle of the DVD, such as after the first hour in a 2 hour movie, or in my case after 3 hours on a 6 hour DVD.

Mr. Salty

Whether it's a layer issue or something else, the problem is still with the discs, not the players. You bought inferior bootlegs from a disreputable Web site. It should come as no surprise that the discs have problems.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Nobody can tell you why the discs that were burned incorrectly don't work correct. No player can fix the disc.

The problem, like everyone keeps saying, is the disc.