XMS888 jerking with DVD play back

[bwg]

Hi all
I was just watching a rented DVD with the kids and noticed that periodically it was jerking / pausing, like when you try to play back an avi on a pc with a cpu that can't quite handle the decoding 100%. I must admit that I haven't watched too many DVD's on this player (I mainly got it for avi play-back ), and I have never noticed it before, on any of the formats I've tried. I will be trying a few more DVD's to see if it happens again.
Has anyone else noted this on their player??

[jokiin]

What was the general condition of the disc? I've heard a lot of complaints about rental discs in all players doing exactly what you describe. I've heard of people washing their rental DVD's to get all the greasy fingerprints off before playing also.

[andw]

The only DVD discs I've had problems with were,
1) a couple of rentals, that didn't work in any of the DVD players / computers
2) some very smudgy rentals that worked fine after Spray & Wipe and a tissue
3) home owned discs that the youngest ones have got their mitts all over
I can't see that the player would have any trouble with decoding DVD's (MPEG-2), as the compression is nowhere near as complex as avi/divx/etc (MPEG-4).
Try some more discs, I had a rental disc just recently that looked absolutely perfect, but wouldn't play in any player.

[bwg]

Originally Posted by jok11n

What was the general condition of the disc? I've heard a lot of complaints about rental discs in all players doing exactly what you describe. I've heard of people washing their rental DVD's to get all the greasy fingerprints off before playing also.

uh huh. Disc looked like a plate that someone had used to eat greasy chips off. I had cleaned it well before use, but maybe it's just that disc.
I have tried a couple of other dvd's in the player since (incl. another rented one) and have seen no problems. Looks like it's just that particular disc

[jokiin]

Disc errors are fairly common as this list helps to point out http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Glitches/Glitches.asp

[davidf]

Two problems I have noticed with rentals
1. the labels they place in the centre of the disc, I have had one occurence where the clue from the label extruded beyond the label and the disc glued itself to the top clamp in the loader. A few other disks where actually slipping in the player so I can only assume the label was causeing this. BTW this was not in the XMS but in 2 other players I have. The XMS is being kept away from rentals.

2. Grubby surfaces and surface 'erosion'. If dirt/grease is left on the surface for to long it will actually penetrate below the surface of the polymer so guess what clean all you like the disc is still dirty. I have one of those nifty CD/DVD surface cutting devices ($80 JBHI) it has fixed so many rentals in the past I was considering buying one for the local black buster store and telling them to do the f***ing job themselves.

You could also speculate about the actual production quality of rentals as well, there is definitely some titles that have a specific rental production run, whats to bet these limited runs are of lesser quality than the full commercial production.

[andw]

Our local Video Ezy has one of those surface cutting devices, it does a good job.
They will also do your discs for you for about $2 / disc.

[jokiin]

Originally Posted by davidf

Two problems I have noticed with rentals
1. the labels they place in the centre of the disc, I have had one occurence where the clue from the label extruded beyond the label and the disc glued itself to the top clamp in the loader. A few other disks where actually slipping in the player so I can only assume the label was causeing this. BTW this was not in the XMS but in 2 other players I have. The XMS is being kept away from rentals.

2. Grubby surfaces and surface 'erosion'. If dirt/grease is left on the surface for to long it will actually penetrate below the surface of the polymer so guess what clean all you like the disc is still dirty. I have one of those nifty CD/DVD surface cutting devices ($80 JBHI) it has fixed so many rentals in the past I was considering buying one for the local black buster store and telling them to do the f***ing job themselves.

You could also speculate about the actual production quality of rentals as well, there is definitely some titles that have a specific rental production run, whats to bet these limited runs are of lesser quality than the full commercial production.

Problem no 1 is consistant with most brands and is not related to price. No 2, plenty of the rental places charge customers when they damage discs for replacements and they resurface them with the same type of machine that you are referring to, quite common. No 3, it's not that there is a quality difference as such but the recommended rental period (how many times the disc should be rented out before it is taken off the shelf) as recommened by the disc manufacturers is not adhered to at all. If every customer looked after the disc like it was there own perhaps they could last longer but the fact is they get knocked around and they stay in service longer than they probably should. The reality is that if I owned the video store I would probably not want to take it off the shelf after 15 rentals when I could maybe get 20 or 30, maybe even 40 with a resurface, they are in business to make money after all.

[davidf]

Originally Posted by jok11n

Problem no 1 is consistant with most brands and is not related to price.

THis has confused me, I was talking about the label rental companies put in the centre of DVD's, where does a price component come in

[jokiin]

Originally Posted by davidf

THis has confused me, I was talking about the label rental companies put in the centre of DVD's, where does a price component come in

Sorry if this wasn't clear, I meant that most players will have a problem when they have discs with those stupid stickers on the disc, it's not something that only affects cheap players. Personally I have never rented a DVD I don't want anything like that ending up in the player.