DVDs: Anyone had this happen?

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

I just picked up Fahrenheit 9/11 on DVD. I put it in the player (a Sony DVD/VCR combo unit) and got all settled in to watch it. The blue Sony screen for the player came up, and said the disc was loading. The "loading" title disappeared ... and no main menu. Just the Sony screen.

I thought maybe my DVD player had given out, so I tried another disc (Firefly disc one, to be precise) and that loaded up just fine. So at that point I figured on a bad disc. For giggles, I put it in my computer's DVD-ROM drive ... and it worked fine. The hell...?

So now I'm stumped. I don't want to watch it on my PC. I could exchange it, but it's kind of a schlep to the store and I only want to do it if I know a new copy is gonna work.

Has anyone else bought this DVD (or any others) and had a similar problem? I was thinking it might have something to do with how quickly they rushed it to DVD; maybe quality control was a casualty.

 

[GlassJaw]

Did you try it in your DVD player again? Sometimes the disc doesn't get seated properly. Are there any noticeable scratches on the disc?

I just picked up Fahrenheit 9/11 on DVD

This thread might get shut down because it's getting too politcal.

 

[Turanil]

I just picked up Fahrenheit 9/11 on DVD.

I remember having seen (long ago) a film called "Fahrenheit 421", is there something else called "Fahrenheit 9/11"?

This thread might get shut down because it's getting too political.

Lately, I was considering buying a Porsche 911, and wanted to take advice here on Enworld. But maybe it's too political?

 

[jamieraleigh]

Some DVDs just don't work on some players. For some reason, certain Disney DVDs won't work on ours.

Of course, considering the title, your DVD player may simply have had more taste than your computer.

Jeff Davis
www.jeffreyadavis.tk

 

[Arnwyn]

Welcome to the "non-standardization" of DVDs.

Good technology, poor implementation.

 

[Xath]

I remember having seen (long ago) a film called "Fahrenheit 421", is there something else called "Fahrenheit 9/11"?

I believe that would be Fahrenheit 451.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

You may need to upgrade your DVD's programming. I'm no expert in this, but it is my understanding that sometimes certain features or copy protections added to a DVD may not be recognized by an older DVD player. I ran into this once. I bought a DVD for the kids that had some kind of copy protection scheme encoded that was produced by Macrovision. My DVD player could not recognize the disc. At first, like you I thought it was a defective disc. I exchanged it and had the same thing happen. I tried it in my computer, which was newer than my DVD player, and was able to view the DVD. I called an authorized service dealer for the DVD player and I was told that I needed to bring it in to upgrade the software running the DVD. Still haven't had the upgrade done, so I cannot say for sure that this would fix the problem.

 

[Krieg]

I just picked up Fahrenheit 9/11 on DVD. I put it in the player (a Sony DVD/VCR combo unit) and got all settled in to watch it. The blue Sony screen for the player came up, and said the disc was loading. The "loading" title disappeared ... and no main menu. Just the Sony screen.

G.I.G.O.

I remember having seen (long ago) a film called "Fahrenheit 421", is there something else called "Fahrenheit 9/11"?

Fahrenheit 9/11 is an anti-Bush propoganda piece by Micheal Moore. The relative merits (or lack thereof) of the film are far beyond what would be acceptable on this forum.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

This has happened to me a few times. What you want to do is put the disc in the player and make sure the dvd is 'stopped' (blank screen). Press the 'Menu" button on the remote. Now it should work, if it doesn't then you either need to take in the unit to get a proper cleaning orupgrade the units software.

 

[Torm]

It may be a matter of the production run, too. A friend of mine bought Hellboy on DVD at Wal-Mart, and it wouldn't play on his player at all. He took it back and exchanged it, same result. He borrowed a friend's copy purchased at a Best Buy, that one worked fine. They were from different production runs. It may not have been completely ethical, but they put the Wal-Mart discs in the Best Buy case and exchanged it at Best Buy, and now both of them have copies that work.