General DVD movie problems...
 

My DVD collection like many of you is kind of large. Near 700.
I've experienced a problem from time to time and would like to get your views and opinions...

Example: Tonight I decided to watch Terminator 3 on DVD, I bought it when it was first released on Tuesday way back when ever...

Its messed up, frezzes here and there, pixalates, you guys know what I'm talking about right?

WTF?

Is this just a problem I have? I swear this is like the 10th time I had this problem... The only way I can think to solve this problem is to go to WalMart and exchange it, but thats not being very truthful because most likely I bought this DVD at Best Buy...

I don't save recipts... Maybe this is my problem?
But I still have DVDs I havent seen yet that may be in my collection for over 3 months...???

Do you experience problems like these? How do you rectify them? What do you suggest?

I won't ebay them, thats just not right, I feel at least Walmart has means of getting credit or rebate from there supplier...

Thanks DVD Talkers.

Well it is recommended you at least make sure the discs works right away or keep receipts or whatever, but I dont follow that. I have DVDs I bought over a year ago that are still sealed.

Just a few weeks ago I opened a copy of Jason GOes to Hell that I had had for months and the disc cracked in half when I removed it from the hub. I just had to toss it...

99.99% of the time I'll try out my discs within a hour after getting to the house.

But if you're experiencing problems, maybe your player might be having troubles. Do the probs tend to happen around the layer change? While I don't have as many discs as you (I have 430), the only time I've had playback problems have been with discs that have been recalled.

I've noticed this a few times on my Toshiba player. Apparently Toshiba aren't good players and I'll never buy one of these again.
Best thing to do is try the disks out on another player, if you get the same result, then its the player.

the only problem I have is when a week goes buy without any good releases...

I have to agree on that Toshiba bit... I have owned 5 DVD players now and the two toshiba's that I did have were crap. They would pixelate, lockup for a second or two, get read errors etc. I had one Toshiba, had these problems, took it back for another model and still had the same problems with different discs. Finally just gave it away to a family member and got a panasonic which I love. But in my Sony they worked fine. Go figure!

I always watch a DVD within two weeks of purchase. Ihave only had a few bad DVD's in two years.

The first thing to do if you haven't already is make sure the disc is clean. Even a small bit of fuzz/dirt can cause problems. Trying it in another player is the next thing. If it still doesn't work I guess you can try contacting the studio but that rarely seems to work IMHO. This is why I usually atleast open all my DVDs ASAP and check out the discs themselves, if not actually give it a spin.

It's the player if this happens to you a lot... I can't say that I have EVER had a DVD that I needed to return for play problems... and look at my collection to see if you think I have a general idea what I'm talking about.

(now cracked or obviously broken discs... well that is a whole other story...)

Thanks for the varied input and suggestions!
I'm kind of wondering if its my player now?? I did try the some of these problems on my other DVD player, like Tomb Raider 2... Totaly messed up... But fortunatley I did have the receit and the store manager said just about every copy was bad? Bad press I guess...

Well maybe I should clean the player more often? Anyone have any links on the BEST DVD cleaner solution?

Thanks everyone.
Take care, and happy holidays...

I always keep my original reciept inside the case. I've had my multi-region Toshiba for a while now without any problems...I love it!

I had the SD-1600 by Toshiba, and at the end of its run, it kept saying "please check disc" over and over again...that dumb thing went right to the trash. And it pixelated a lot on much-used DVDs. For example, I couldn't watch my rental copy of The Road Warrior to to pixelation every 4 seconds!

Now, I have a 5-disc changer, DVD-F85 by Panasonic and love it.

My player os a 3 door JVC player.
Its always been good to me. But after 3+ years maybe its time she steps aside???

Get the new model after christmas i will...hmmmm

I did that in my Yoda voice ;)

I have a Toshiba SD3750 and the only problem I've had (besides the first run Spellbound that didn't work on Toshibas and evidently no PAL/NTSC conversion) is that I get a scrambled screen for a split second whenever there's an explosion or high intensity part on screen. It does it during The Matrix menu sequence a few times, in the same spots every time. I rented the new Batman animated movie a week or two ago and it did it dozens of times as there's a whole bunch of explosions in that movie. I'm not a big action movie fan so it isn't a problem most of the time. I posted this awhile back and never got a response as to why it does this. Here's the original thread I started:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=294349

I'll try to hold off getting a new DVD player until the end of next year and get a HD-DVD model that's backwards compatible - hopefully it doesn't get any worse from now to then.

I have a few dvds that dont work either. Anyone got suggestions on an effective way try and get them to play properly. Ie: cleaning, what works best?

I've had a Toshiba player for a few years... haven't had a single problem, the only disk that didn't work was a blockbuster disk that wouldnt play in my pc or laptop either.

I've also never recieved a defective disk (even badly scratched disks that came off the hub mostly play) so if u find a lot wont work, might be the player.

I found it important to have more than 1 player in yer home. I dont count dvdrom...it plays just about anything. now I own 4 players....and tomorrow I'm buying a second Malata deck for back up...thanks to the special dvdtalk offer. if a disc has problems...I try it on all players. some models/brands have "issues" with certian discs. if it wont play on anything and is in mint "surface" condition...at least I know where I stand.

I'll keep my mouth shut on further comments.

What further comments? I always enjoy hearing from Mr. Gutwrencher.