I would appreciate help from anyone on this issue. I have received a new DVD recorded by a professional for a very important event. I played the DVD on three DVD players. 1) DVD Player 1 (my DVD player) can play most of the DVD, except one part - the picture just stands still - after I forwarded passing that scene, the picture stands still again. 2) DVD Player 2 can play the whole DVD without any problem. 3) DVD Player 3 cannot not even play any part of the DVD -pictures does not appear. One would think this may be due to the format problems (+-incompatibilty), but for DVD Player 1, it works most of the DVD except one small part, so the format seems not be a problem for DVD Player 1 (I am not sure). Please give me your advices. Thanks.

Brand names of players?

Brand name of blank disc?
Software or brand of recorder used to burn the disc?

Do you have older model dvd players? We record some tv programs on on dvd-r recorder and we sometimes can't play they on another player and sometimes our laptop won't play them...

You might try ripping the DVD onto your computer and reburning it onto trustworthy media.

And what format is the DVD? DVD+R, DVD-R or something else? Single or dual layer?

My old Pioneer DVL-909 has problems with discs burned at fast speeds, but is OK with them burned at 4x or slower, so I just burn everything at 4x to make sure it'll be compatible with as many players as possible. At first I thought the older player just couldn't read certain kinds of blank discs, but slowing down the burn speed solved it.

my old rca dvd player had problems playing dvd-r & rw recorded discs.
the older dvd players and some of the bigger brand name ones don't play all types of dvd for stupid legal reasons.
the cheap $30 dvd players play most cause they don't have restrictions.

my old rca dvd player had problems playing dvd-r & rw recorded discs.
the older dvd players and some of the bigger brand name ones don't play all types of dvd for stupid legal reasons.
the cheap $30 dvd players play most cause they don't have restrictions.
check you dvd instruction booklet for dvd compadability.

Thanks for all the advices. For replies asking questions: My DVD player is a 3-mo old Phillips and I have no information about the recorder, software, type of DVD used, etc. as these were made by a professional and he printed label onto the DVD covering everything.

Stick on paper labels can cause problems too. They're thicker than the label on printable discs.
My advice try and make a copy of it on a computer. If that fails find someone with a dvd recorder and plug the player that plays it fine into the recorder and make another copy. Or take it to someone to have another copy made. Put the copy on a high quality brand disc like Verbatim and don't put any label on it so you have a master you know works in all the players. If it's a really, really impoprtant event you may consider having a pressed dvd made like the commercial ones.

Tahnks a lot rw2516.