hurricane
Deactivated User
103 Posts
4/02
|  Posted - Aug 11 2002 : 10:44PMI bought two DVD's this week and both of them completely failed to do anything in my PC-based DVD player. This really pisses me off, as I have to bring them back to the shop and buy some other title instead (no refund policy). My questions:
1. Do DVD's have to be playable at both stand-alone and PC-based DVD players?
2. If DVD's can not be played on stand-alone or PC-based DVD players, shouldn't there be a WARNING on the box cover?
3. Is there any quality controll by the DVD companies to check whether their products perform well on both stand-alone and PC-based DVD players?  [Link] |
rieekan333
Member
388 Posts
3/02
| Posted - Aug 11 2002 : 11:19PM
hurricane, I don't think there's any (substantial) fundamental difference between standalone DVD players and DVD-ROMs. Logically, the technology in them must be highly similar.That said, there's no guarantee that a DVD will necessarily work on players of both types. Some people have both types and have DVDs that only play correctly with one and not the other. I don't know why that is but it seems to be player-specific. It's therefore unrealistic to ask studios to check DVD playability on every type of DVD player in existence. I understand your frustration however. I bought a Samsung DVD-ROM and the POS could only play about 5% of the DVDs I tried. I have a standalone Pioneer DV-535, which has played everything without hassle, and I now have a fantastic Pioneer DVD-106S, which has also played all of my DVDs perfectly. So in my case the problem was entirely in the player and not the DVDs. Edited by - rieekan333 on Aug 12 2002  [Link] |
tricia_devereaux
Evil Angel DVD
Patience is a virtue, but who wants to be virtuous?
4283 Posts
4/00
| Posted - Aug 12 2002 : 12:27AM
PC DVD-Rom units are often much more sensitive. The specs on the players isn't the same.
Unfortunately, there is no central DVD manufacturing group that mandates certain specifications be met on players (or on discs). There are some general guidelines that most manufacturers of DVDs and players follow, but even these aren't perfect.
[Link] |
DenverDon
Benevolent
Firmly Embedded in Depravity
5914 Posts
7/02
| Posted - Aug 12 2002 : 7:47AM
Tricia,Thanks for the info. And guidelines are only guidelines, not standards. We've been living with that and peripheral equipment in the PC world for years. Hurricane, I have had exactly the opposite situation. I have two DVD that stutter and won't play properly on my stand-alone player (which is brand new), but play perfectly on my PC DVD player. Go figure! DenverDon [Link] |
Flash 
Golden Age Classic
11018 Posts
5/01
| Posted - Aug 12 2002 : 1:45PM
Most of the problems with discs not playing properly in DVD-ROM drives is due to the software running on the computer, not the drive itself. I just got a DVD-ROM drive last month and I am having good luck with InterActual player and not quite as good luck with InterVideo WinDVD, hope this helps.[Link] |
| |
|
gogo
Member
80 Posts
11/99
| Posted - Aug 12 2002 : 5:06PM
If these are your first adult DVDs that you've tried to play on your PC, perhaps your PC's DVD player software is only set to play region 1 and doesn't know how to handle "region 0" discs (which most adult DVDs are).Read up awhile in the help menus before you return to the store, there's a chance there is a simple setting you need to do in the PC's DVD player software. You could also download a different DVD player, if your player is entirely software based (some are, some aren't - mine is chip based). [Link] |
DenverDon
Benevolent
Firmly Embedded in Depravity
5914 Posts
7/02
| Posted - Aug 12 2002 : 5:29PM
Thanks gogo,Learn someting new every day. DenverDon [Link] |
charlie
Member
uk
450 Posts
4/00
| Posted - Aug 12 2002 : 8:43PM
Most dvd-roms (RPC-2 drives) are region locked i.e they will allow 5 region changes before they are locked permanently to the 5th change. For example if you insert a region 1 disc the drive knows this and you are allowed 4 more changes etc If your 5th disc is region 2 then it's fixed.
Older drives relied on software players such as PowerDVD to handle this and programs such as DVDGenie was used to get round this.Manufacturers fought back and made this a part of the hardware. You can try reflashing the drive but this is risky and could render it completely useless. Even on a region locked drive I expect you should still play region 0 dvds. [Link] |
Flash
Golden Age Classic
11018 Posts
5/01
| Posted - Aug 12 2002 : 10:23PM
I believe all players regardless of region are supposed to be able to play region 0 discs, hence the use by the adult industry.I would still recommend trying different software for playing the DVD with. [Link] |
hurricane
Deactivated User
103 Posts
4/02
| Posted - Aug 13 2002 : 12:33AM
My DVD software is InterVideo WinDVD, set at regioncode 2 (yes I am European). It handles both European (PAL) and American (NTSC) DVD's very well. I have a collection of about 60 DVD's. It seems to me that InterVideo WinDVD is a good, solid DVD player that is widely distributed and used. Therefore any new DVD should be playable at this system. And if not, there should be a clear warning on the box cover. Apparently some companies release DVD's without even checking the playability. I call that cheating of customers. [Link] |
rieekan333
Member
388 Posts
3/02
| Posted - Aug 13 2002 : 5:33AM
Locked drives can play unlocked (region 0) DVDs.While I don't think playability problems arise from software, my experience has been fairly limited and it probably can't hurt to try a different player program. I use WinDVD and haven't had any problems with any of my DVDs (including some of questionable quality). But you should probably check your hardware hurricane, find out what type of DVD-ROM you are using and check online if other people have had any problems with it. I doubt very much that your playability problems are software-related. As for checking playability, if the fault lies with your hardware or software, then shouldn't those companies be the ones denounced for cheating customers? [Link] |
