I just bought several Adam & Eve Premium Collection videos and have seen a disturbing pattern. On my RCA DVD player the dvd jumps to the next scene/chapter a few minutes before the current scene/chapter ends.
Specifically, I have noticed this with "A Witch's Tale", "A Midsummer Nights Cream", "Taboo of Tarot" (not a "Premium Collection title), and I suspect I'll see it with "Fire & Ice". I haven't watched that one yet. If I hit the previous chapter button on the remote it goes back to the place it skipped from and plays the rest of the chapter.
I haven't tried these on my Sony player yet -- I suspect that they will play fine, very few DVD problems on the Sony. Anyone else have any problems with this -- very frustrating spending that much money on DVD's and their not working correctly!
Doug
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sonic Deactivated User
1178 Posts 12/99
Posted - Feb 13 2001 : 11:22AM
I have a Witch's Tail and it plays flawless, layer change is also fast on my Sony 560D.RCA? Who is RCA? Blame RCA not the DVDs. LOL!
Seriously..RCA does not have the reputation of conquering the DVD spectrum like Sony, Toshiba and Pansonic, and so hence, you get a few problems, that is not to say that Toshiba, Sony and Panasonic you won't encounter problems, you will eventually because DVD is not standardized, but these companies are more focus, and were more focus since day one, and the introduction of DVD, and so your chances of performance are greater because of the more DVD expertise and knowledge that those behemoth DVD Player manufactuers posesses.
I have a Toshiba and if something works on a Toshiba (I'm told), it should work on almost anything. That said, I have noticed-and placed in my reviews-technical glitches such as those mentioned here. I didn't have any problems with the three mentioned here but I did with others.
I am told that they are working on minor issues-just like Evil Angel, Vivid and several other companies are doing. RCA players are not top of the line and it's a shame that they have so many problems with porn and mainstream dvd's. Maybe RCA will make better players in the future.
You can find Witch's Tail for about $11, and Midsummer for under $17 (Witch's Tail looked a lot better) so at least the price wasn't bad.
Thanks for all of the replies, and I am sure that you are correct -- that is, that it is probably the DVD player rather than the disk, but I thought I would ask anyway.
I use the RCA as a second player in the bedroom, the Sony in the Family Room. The RCA has played EVERY disk I have inserted, even one that the Sony wouldn't play. While RCA doesn't have Sony's reputation it has been an excellent player for the $$$. These are the first disk in two years that haven't played correctly -- that is why I wondered if it might be the disk rather than the player.
Hi Ddavis73, ImageWarrior does the multimedia for the Premium collection, in this case two of the titles Witch's Tail and Fire and Ice. You maybe experiencing a problem that is not really a problem. On all A&E premium titles, at least the ones we do, there is what we call a hot shot advance button. On each chapter and/or the movie, while you are viewing the chapter you can hit the chapter advance button and it will take you to what A&E calls the hot shot. This is for people who are viewing the movie that want to get right to the pop shot rather than fast forwarding or the like. If after you hit the chapter advance button and it takes you to the cum scene, if you click the chapter advance button again it will take you to the start of the next chapter.
There is also a page prior to the movie and the chapter selection menus that explain how this function works...
Also, on the other hand, set top players are pretty uniform, but certain glitches happen on different machines, One may play flawless, and others may sputter, of jump. It's the nature of the machinery.
Sorry one more thing to add, Sony s560D and above or equivalent is what the industry standards shoot for. As with all technology, the newer the models, odds are the technology has been significantly improved.
Thanks, Kat
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sonic Deactivated User
1178 Posts 12/99
Posted - Feb 14 2001 : 1:40PM
ImageKat Not in all cases. Remember..the Toshiba 2200 was the replacement of the 3109 and it went down a huge spill. The 3109 being the older player, and the one that was replaced by the 2200..blew out the 2200 in terms of layer changes and performance. The 2109 also was way better than the 2200. Toshiba went backwards. They don't admit it, but they would just tell you that the resolution is higher..like 540 lines which I felt for it, and it turned out to be a hoax..no such thing..dvd is only capable of 480 lines interlaced..not 540. All they used was a better video color chip inside the 2200.I'm sure even the dvd manufacturers would agree with you there too..as well as I. DVD is not standardized and is not perfected. Chances are it never will be either for a long time. That is because DVD is still very powerful..and there is so much to learn. Amazing too that this technology was created years ago.
Hi Sonic, I stand corrected, what I should have said is that although DVD set tops are more compatible, the standard is not 100%, but much better than desk top and it's just odds are technology improves the player on the newer models, but this is not always the case as noted with Toshiba. Thanks for clearing that up as well.
Thanks very much for the info, I find it very interesting. I do want ot clarify that the problem I am speaking of occures with no interaction, e.g., hands off the remote...the scene plays and looks good and then toward the end of the chapter/scene the DVD jumps to the start of the next scene/chapter. When I press the Chapter back botton on the remote the DVD goes to the spot it jumped from and finishes the chapter/scene as normal.
I will try cleaning the player even though I don't think that is the case as I try to keep it clean. Standby and I'll clean it now.......Ok., (10 minutes later) the DVD player has been cleaned and this still happens. I did noticed that with A Midsummers Night Cream it seems to be more of a scene jump rather than a chapter jump. Again, once you press "Chapter back" it plays fine until the next time a jump occures.
ddvais: Thanks for the further clarification. What it sounds like is definitely a player issue. This is not to say that it is a dirty head, but rather some lasers have tendency to pick up index points on the disc before they are supposed to and this can cause the skip ahead problem. Again, we go back to the player issue.
This is a problem I don't see disappearing 100% in the near future, but will become less and less an issue in time.
thanks for the info.
kat
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sonic Deactivated User
1178 Posts 12/99
Posted - Feb 15 2001 : 11:34AM
It's a player issue.
I used to clean my panasonic 300a (sold it for $100) all the time thinking it was dirty because many mainstream titles glitched. I thought they were the discs...WRONG. It was the damn player.
You have to be very careful what cleaning product you're using..if you clean your player too many times, you end up damaging the laser lens. The substance will wear it out. That is why it's only good to clean your player like every 6 months or a year. I hardly hear any owners out there saying their players are dirty..it's a minor issue for that.
Here's a tip:
It's good to use a cleaning disc without the substance..if you notice..if you have the substance one, spray the substance bottle on a glass, mirror, etc..and let it dry...notice the residue? That is why it's good to use the dry one once in a while, and the wet cleaning laser lens system once a year, etc.
Sonic, Good point, but also keep in mind that these lasers are sensitive to touch and movement. If your machinery has been moved around alot, set down harder than normal dropped or used for long periods of time over the years the lasers have tendency to dull and also be out of alignment, thus mistracking and the such. The same holds true for Rom and audio cd, so the best thing is keep your player in one location and try not to handle the machinery too much. Also with the lasers being within a self contained unit, they should not need to be cleaned as long as the discs themselves are free of foreign material prior to insertion into the machines.
Again thanks for the message and infomation, and again, I am relatively sure it is a player problem as well, but why or what has changed with the newer disk? I have played hundreds of disk on this player with little or no problem. I HAVE PLAYED Adam & Eve Premium disk before. Many titles -- I guess I could come up with a list if needed. So why the problems with ONLY these newer A&E disk?
I have just purchased "To Kill A Mockingbird" and "Space 1999" as well as "Dinosaur", Each play fine -- I guess what I am trying to say is that the played hasn't been dropped or overly cleaned (I am aware of the over cleaning problem). So again, I go back to something changing with these newer releases.
Thanks! Doug
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sonic Deactivated User
1178 Posts 12/99
Posted - Feb 16 2001 : 10:16AM
ddavis73
I don't know if you know this..but all dvds movies are not the same..meaning, are not created the same. For example..your newest disc..Dinosaur..is newer in terms of creation. I think they do this for better performance. Som DVDs load faster than others..some contain some very advance technical designed menus..some have "seamless branching"...DVD discs are always coming out more powerful than the next. And truth is, we don't know what to expect, we don't know if it's gonna work with out players..sometimes it's Russian Roulette.
Look at Ultimate T2..it came with a insert inside of the keepcase telling you, you might face some problems because the DVD is too advanced. You see ddavis73, I am not joking about this..literally, DVD is too powerful, that still to this day, they don't know the full potential. It is gonna be like that until..well, for a long time.
Hi ddavis73, Sonic is correct, it is not that the DVD's are manufacturered any different, rather the amount of technical information that you put on them. With the A&E Premium Collection we have tried to push the envelop with the techno gard, giving as much to the viewer as possible, with features and also very high bit rates so that the movie comes across as clear and as crisp as possible. What all this means to your DVD player is a lot of information to sort through and initiate and sometimes it will not do the proper function.
This is why again with the premium series, especially the titles we do you may experience this. We are trying to give A&E a cutting edge in this industry.
Again, it is evolving slowly and there is so much that can be done with the technology, they are just still trying to figure it out.
Just as a general note, I have an oritron player, bottom on the line cheapy, intentionally just to use to make sure the premiums will play on the lower models as well as my Sony....I have been lucky for the most part, but whatever the machine little glitches will continue.
You have hit the nail on the head and said what I have been thinking. What is frustrating is that we can go buy DVD players that seem perfectly fine (this one plays TE2 flawlessly by the way) and then a few months later because of software changes we have problems.
I understand the need to try to improve the product and I also understand that a DVD probably won't play on all machines, but it should.
I develop databases for a living and I can tell you that my cleints become cranky as hell when a product runs on one machine and not on another using the same operating system. I can certainly make MANY justifications as to why this would happen on PC's (not that it should) with all of the different programs interacting with each other. A DVD player has one function, maybe two -- they play movies or CD's. DVD's should simply play and do what they are supposed too -- remember we are not talking about a 10 year old piece of equipment here -- this player is less than 3 yrs, probably less than two.
If I have the one player that this occurs with then that is the way it goes -- it is still frustrating to spend the money that these things cost and not have them play properly.
We have spent too much time on this topic, Again, thanks for all the input! Doug
