First off, if this has been discussed in another thread, I apologize. I looked through several pages in this forum and didn't see any subject lines that referred to this issue.
In my bedroom I have a GE DVD player that I bought from a Wal-Mart in 2002. Every so often I would buy a mainstream DVD that just wouldn't play in my player, but would in others. This is a lot more common with porn DVDs I buy, for some reason. It's not a big problem since we have another player in the living room that plays everything, but it can be inconvenient.
What happens is after you load the disc, the player spins it for a few seconds and then starts giving off this humming or whirring noise which stops and starts. All the while the player says it's loading; sometimes it just gives up after a while and says "no disc" and other times it just keeps humming until you hit the "open" button, and then sometimes it takes a few seconds for the tray to open.
I have heard that electronics sold at Wal-Mart aren't as reliable as those at other stores because they're made as cheaply as possible by the manufacturer (since they make less profits per unit). I'm not saying that's true, I'm saying that's what I've heard, and it could explain the problem. I've also heard it's because DVD technology is always evolving and older players can't always read the authoring code on newer discs.
Any thoughts?