DVD player

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

I have a DVD player that recently started to behave erratic - stops, pauses, skipping scenes, etc.

No idea if there is anything dirty inside, if there is a way to clean it, or any other way to diagnose the problem.

The thing is a few years old, so I may just need a new one?

[-pops-]

In this throw-away society, the easiest and cheapest thing to do is buy a new one rather than spend time, effort and money on a, most likely, fruitless exercise trying to repair it.

As even good quality machines are now so cheap, buy a new one with probably much better performance than your old one ever had for much less cost.

I recently replaced a DVD player with one of far better all round at one tenth the cost of the six year old original.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Thanks for the advice; if the problem doesn't stop, I will. However, I need a multi-system (NTSC & PAL) and region-free player, and these are not so easy to find. The last one I found at Costco - I'll have to check what they offer. But yes, they are cheap; the old one - some 3 years ago - already cost me less than ¥10,000 (< £50).

[-pops-]

? Do you mean a multisystem output?

Reason I ask is because DVDs have their own format independent of the TV system they are being used on. It is the player that converts to the local television method. Or have I misunderstood you?

Regarding region free, many DVD players are intrinsically have a hack available to enable region free operation. These are available from the makers website or from one of the many DVD forums/information sites. My old player was made region free by going to setup, region and inputting 2242 from the remote handset. (Don't know why I remember that :) )

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

¿ Not sure if I understand you ?

I do not know much about DVDs, and how they differ from the old video tape formats. At that time when I got a video from the UK, I needed a PAL capable video player and TV. When I got a video from the US, then I needed an NTSC capable player and TV. When both player and TV were multi-system, then I could play tapes from all over the world, including France (SECAM).

Now as far as I know, DVDs are also encoded as PAL or NTSC (just verified it by comparing http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/6305154880/qid=1143599028/ with http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/6...qid=1143599706/). My current old DVD player has Multisystem printed on it; means it can play PAL and NTSC DVDs.

So what you are saying, does it mean my TV does no longer have to be multisystem to play PAL and NTSC DVDs?

P.S. I know that most DVD players can be hacked into region-free. But a friend of mine recently bought a new DVD player (a Panasonic), and when he came back from Thailand earlier this year, realized that his new player couldn't handle the pirated DVDs he bought in Thailand (PAL format). I tried to find that hack for him, but even Google couldn't help me.

[-pops-]

Don't try and compare video tape with DVD. Normal video tape is analogue and contains all information relevant to the TV system it is to be played on. DVDs are in digital DVD format which is based on MPEG2 with additions to enable all the fancy bits that DVDs carry out. The output format to TV is immaterial to the disk - the analogue output system of the player is entirely determined by the player itself which decodes the digital data from the disk and converts to analogue of whatever TV format the player is capable of decoding to.

I regularly get DVDs from the USA and, living very close to France and visiting regularly via the tunnel, get them from France - much cheaper than the UK. All of the disks are in DVD format and play perfectly well on my players even though, as you know, the UK is PAL, USA is NTSC and France uses SECAM.

I don't know why there is the Amazon description of one of their DVDs as being Pal format, I can only suggest it is a lack of knowledge on the part of the person who is selling this secondhand item. Certainly the USA new version makes no reference to format other than it being DVD.

As to why your friend couldn't play his pirated DVDs, perhaps the answer lies in the word "pirated" rather than any to do with electronic systems.

Regarding region-free, it is in the manufacturers interest to make their players region free so, what they often do is to sell the original article as region restricted to satisfy the USA film mafia then quietly offer a method of overcoming the restriction. The answer is to check if a hack is available before you buy (or buy a machine that is region free). I understand that dealers (in the UK anyway) will sometimes do the hack for you.I would suggest that makers who don't offer this facility don't have their customers best interests at heart so I would shop for another brand.

Edit:

I have just checked my DVD players and recorder. Each will output to PAL or NTSC depending on the selection made in the system setup. This doesn't change what I wrote above, though. The TV system is a function of the output device, not the disk.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Thanks for the additional details. I have also found this article, which gives quite good information on what PAL and NTSC means related to DVDs. Things are a bit clearer now, but I still do not 100% understand (now) why some DVD players are labelled multisystem if a standard player can also play all formats?

[-pops-]

The "format" of a DVD is not the television format but the format of the digital coding on the DVD e.g MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV (several more) etc. The multisystem labelling is for the output to TV - as I mentioned above, my machines will output PAL and NTSC depending on the way they are set up. The format of the DVD being played is immaterial.

My son makes DVDs on a commercial basis for industrial advertising. These get sent all over the world so they must get played on every TV format in existence. There are no special concessions made in making the disks - they are all the same digital format.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

All clear now - thanks :flowers:

That means I no longer have to look for multisystem DVD players, and I can get practically anything as long as it is - or can be set to - region-free.

[-pops-]

I think that's about right! :)

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Player works fine again. My Japanese friend (100% non-tech) unplugged it (tray open), turned it upside-down, shook it violently, blew half a can of air-spray into it, then banged it a few times on the floor.

Reconnected, inserted DVD, and I was finally able to watch Turandot that I got from Amazon earlier this week :D

[doug]

Well there you go. The technical skill lies in knowing where to kick it!

[babysun]

LOL, well said, doug.

IMO you should use a DVD cleaner disc to clean the lense of your DVD, which will give a bit longer life to your DVD player. :)