Help - brand new TV show DVDs run, then fail :(

[stargazer777]

Hi, all -

I waited forever for a favorite TV show to get burned onto DVDs, and CBS finally came through. I just bought a first-season set and brought it home. However, excitement quickly turned to disappointment.

In the DVD player connected with the TV, the first episode played fine; then near the end of the second episode, there was some image tiling (checkering?), and then it finally stopped playing, well short of the end.

Tonight, I tried the same DVD in my computer. The DVD fired up fine, and I was able to enjoy the end of the episode that fell apart on the TV's DVD player. Then the third episode started .... not even five minutes into it, it pretty much froze. I waited several minutes, and then there were a few moments where it unfroze, but quickly froze again, with a few choppy "burps" of audio. I left it on, frozen, while I had dinner .... when I got back, it had shut itself down, and I just had a blank screen on Windows Media Player. I downloaded and installed WMP 11, but that didn't help.

When things are screwed up on both the TV and the PC DVD units, I'm tempted to think I have a bad set of DVDs, but I'm at least smart enough not to "assume." With the freezing of the video on the PC's DVD, I was wondering if maybe my system RAM (1GB) wasn't sufficient for buffering or something. But with things falling apart on the TV's DVD player too, I'm more inclined to think it's a bad DVD disc(s).

Whatever the case, it's interesting that the episode that failed on the TV's DVD player finished just fine on the PC's DVD unit, but that player turned right around and the disc failed on a different episode. Sure puts some confusion into the mix, at least for me.

Is there a foolproof way to troubleshoot this kind of problem, to determine if it's the discs, or the player(s)? (In such a case of the latter, both players would have to be whacked, and they seem to play other stuff just fine.

All constructive comments and advice welcomed with thanks ... I'm including my PC config in my signature, since my PC's DVD player is involved.

- Dave G.
VA, USA

[stargazer777]

Oh wait .... DUH!! I'll bet my video card's v-RAM isn't enough, right ?? I just thought of that. However -- that still doesn't explain the entire story . . .

- Dave

[Train]

Check teh faces of the DVDs real closely.
A finger print can blow things out.

What i have done.
Washed cds with soap and water.
Washed them with 90% alcohol.
Actually bought a cleaning machine for cd.


Had one or the other work on all but one dvd which was no good and was replaced by the company with another no good one and then i got my money back.

DO NOT FORGET to clean your lasers using a cleaner cd, believe me, that can make a world of difference!

[Train]

I play dvds on a a old celeron 500 MHz cpu with a 64 MB pci card at times.
No fuss either.

[JPnyc]

They could be defective discs. It does happen. However certain players are more susceptible to defects in a disk than others. Discs that wouldn't play at all on my old player, play fine on my new one.

[Train]

JP's post reminds me, the firmware for the player could be part of the problem too.

My fix, bought a cheap $20 stand alone as a just incase backup.

[JPnyc]

But first eliminate the dirt possibility, both on the disc and the laser. Because it's quite possible that's all that's required.