Sony up to no good? DVD problem.

[Lockridge]

I'm wondering if anyone else out there has had this experience.

Over the last month I've noticed that when I rent some movies they simply will not play in my DVD player. Now I've cleaned the player and the disks with no effect. And other DVDs play just fine. (I have a Toshiba SD3800 made in July 2002 by the way ).
So I spent some time tryting to figure out why Rocky Balboa, Casino Royale and Stranger than Fiction just won't play.
I've even tried returning them to the store for a copy of the same movie. Of course the other copies would not work either.

Then it dawned on me that all of these movies have the Sony logo on the disk. I went to Sony's web site and although I immediately saw ads for these very movies on the site there was no mention of any problems with them.

I then went back to Blockbuster and FutureShop (Canada's version of Best Buy) and asked the staff if they've had problems with these movies.

The staff all gave me the standard responses of "clean the DVD player" or "maybe your DVD player is worn out". I was then told that people return movies all the time but its usually for one of these two reasons.
I found this response interesting because it suggested that I should buy a new DVD player even though mine works perfectly on any but Sony movies released in the last month.

I then went back online and found numerous articles about Sony's draconian copy protection methods including methods that hurt ordinary consumers.

Here's my theory:
- Sony has just started using a new copy protection feature that won't play on all older machines even though they are legitimate.
- Since there is no news of this anywhere, people who return movies are told that their DVD players are old and need to be replaced. Would anyone else have even noticed that the problem is just with Sony?
- A lot of people are going out and buying new players because they think their machine is getting old.
- Would Sony care about this extra expense that legitimate customers are going through?

Another kick in the pants for me is that my receiver is a few years old too and has limited inputs for surround signals - I won't go into detail but since not many DVD players are sold with optical audio outputs, I might have to buy a new receiver with my new DVD player.

So, any comments? Am I just paranoid or have others noticed that they can't rent a Sony movie lately if they have an older machine?

Thanks for letting me rant.

 

[Arnwyn]

Interesting.

Not that your experience is new or anything, though. The history of the DVD format is spotty, with people having problems with certain DVDs on certain players for years. Sony is hardly the first transgressor on this - both the DVD-player manufacturers and DVD software writers have screwed up so often that nothing surprises me anymore.

I don't want to go so far and say "DVD blows" (it doesn't - the benefits outweight the drawbacks)... but there are drawbacks to the DVD format.

 

[xmanii]

Why does this not surprise me, coming from Sony.

Yet another reason why I won't do business with Sony.

 

[IcyCool]

I have both an older DVD player and my PS2. I noticed that some of my DVD rentals didn't work in my older DVD player, but worked fine in my PS2. I checked the discs and they were in good condition, my older player just wouldn't recognize them. This problem was not restricted to just sony discs though. It seemed pretty random, and some new sony discs would still work while others wouldn't. My confusion was compounded by the fact that I returned a copy of Casino Royale to my local video store and asked for another copy (the first one had a small scratch that I though might be causing the problem), and the second copy worked just fine in my DVD player.

I eventually just chalked it up to an aging DVD player (it wouldn't recognize some newer CDs either) and switched to using my PS2 full time for DVDs. I haven't had any problems since.

My guess is that there isn't some hidden conspiracy here, because if there was, you'd have heard about it by now.

 

[Lockridge]

Thanks for the answers. I have no hard proof that there is a Sony conspiracy but I have a lot of circumstantial evidence.

Interesting point to note:
While online looking for the source of the problem I also found many links showing exactly how to illegally copy commercial movies. The jury is still out on whether or not the problem is copy protection or a worn out DVD player. If copy protection is what is making me go out to buy a new DVD player then I am now far more likely to engage in illegal copying since I feel ripped off.

Truth to tell I just don't have time to figure out the whole illegal copying thing but I think that the fact that this feeling exists makes an interesting point.

 

[frankthedm]

Age can be a factor. My Ancient PS2, bought right before the $300 price dropped down :/, can no longer read the same PS1 games it used to play no problem.

There are "standards" optical disc systems have to fall within. Within those there can be 'wiggle' room for various manufacturing style and material. An aging or dirty lens/reader might not be able to read a disc 'wiggled' too far one way or another.

Example: My car stereo can no longer read burned CDs without major skipping. Though it used to without any problem.And notably, these even were the same burned CDs. Normal CDs work fine still.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

It is probably a Toshiba thing. There was a class action lawsuit about two years back about Toshiba DVD players made before October 14, 2004 having certain playback incompatabilities. You need a firmware upgrade. Locate a Toshiba service shop nearby and bring it in. I think it costs about $25 to get fixed. You are too late to submit a claim for the class action lawsuit. I forgot to submit my claim, and have been too lazy to get it fixed - only have run into the problem once so far.

Edit: I was going to try and pick up Casino Royale soon. If I have a problem playing it, it will lend more to the idea that it is these older Toshiba players. I'll let you know (of course it will probably be a couple of months before I actually find the time to watch it...)

 

[Lockridge]

Thanks Thornir,
You may be right. I wrote to Toshiba customer support and they replied on the same day.
They said that I needed a firmware upgrade but that they would be able to mail it to me on a disk. All for free. They mentioned nothing about a lawsuit of course.
So I would expect to be able to watch my movies in a couple of weeks.
Perhaps Sony is innocent (in this case).
Thanks all.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

There is a new copy protection scheme being used by Sony on newer DVDs. I've encountered it on Rocky Balboa and Casino Royal. As expected the hackers had a workaround within a day, so the only people getting screwed are the average consumer.

I wish I could retroactively return everything I've ever bought from Sony.

 

[Ranger REG]

Yet another reason why I won't do business with Sony.

Except for their televisions.