Posted on 08/30/2020 9:01:54 PM PDT by BradyLS
Looking for advice from FReeper A/V gueus on how to approach a player problem.
I bought new a Live Good (LG) Blue-Ray/DVD player, model BP350, from Best Buy. It was fairly inexpensive ($79). Really, my first purchase of this sort of device. I'm a newb that way. My collection of video consists solely of DVDs (nearly all bought used) for now.
I've been testing it all afternoon on perhaps five movies/shows and noticed something rather aggravating: one DVD (300) freezes midway through and won't play the last half of the movie. Another (A Bridge Too Far) plays most of the movie but will freeze and move forward in the scenes periodically. These two DVDs are scratch/fingerprint free, by all appearances. I've never had problems when I played them on my computer (and I'd still watch 'em that way but my computer gave out. I've taken a cloth to the balky DVDs with no change in performance.
On the other hand, a visibly (but lightly) sratched copy of Team America and an unquestionably scratched copy of Apollo 13 play and navigate flawlessly with no interruption. A DVD of old episides of the old TV The Avengers (no blemishes) also performed equally well. I'll note these last experiences took place after the first.
If all my media behaved badly, I'd fault the player. But because it skips and freezes on a couple of reasinably pristine DVDs but will sail through a couple visibly scratched ones baffle me.
Searching online, a couple of recommendations appear: clean the lens and update the firnware. Is there anything else that might be the problem? Do DVDs just inexeplicably go bad?
Thanks, DesertRhino. I also look at resetting the factory settings.
I’d go to the BB if it is local to you, with the “bad” (visually good) discs”, explain the problem, and try the “bad” discs in a few players, not necessarily higher price. Include a BP350. Different player models will handle errors differently. The BB Geek Squad (not necessarily floor salesmen, though!) should be able to help with any firmware issues.
If all players “mess up” on the discs giving you problems, the discs have a problem.
That said, I’ve never had a commercial CD or DVD “go bad” just sitting in storage. Home burned discs are supposedly more vulnerable (tho’ I can’t prove that, either.)
BTW, does “300” freeze at the same spot (scene) if you play it through freshly (say, after a DVD that works fine) vs. playing it fresh but skipping immediately to just before the “freeze” scene? Some players seem to “accumulate” errors on a disc until the player hangs, while others apparently resolve them, then dump or ignore past errors. (I may not be wording that very well!)
Let me guess: “You bought this at Fry’s Electronics”?
No, As I wrote: Best Buy. Not sure if that’s better, worse, or same-diff. But in that big-box ball-park.
Did a firmware update on a Riva 128 video card back in the Windows 95 days.
It was “flying by the seat of your pants” as if the wrong thing happened it would try to flash the system bios instead.
Fun times.
Sorry.
watching “protest” porn.
Just take it back Best Buy and try another one.
At 79 bucks they are toasters and this one just be toast...
Guess, but if it makes it to around half-way, it’s having trouble with the layer-switch. 8+GB discs are dual-layer, 4+GB are single. I’d replace it at BB.
I first noticed the problem playing 300 straight through. Then selecting the scene itself (wouldn’t play). Then the scene before (played that but froze going into the next. I could select later scenes but they wouldn’t play, either.
Gave up on that and moved on to A Bridge Too Far. Good for most of the movie, but would skip forward in places. The daylight riverine assault was skipped completely. (One of the bigger moments in the movie.)
After that, it behaved itself with what I sure would hang it up, as my copy of Apollo 13 is pretty rough-looking.
Thanks, Vendome. Definitely an option.
I wasn’t even aware of that as thing about DVDs! Thanks for heads-up!
I haven’t used a Blu-Ray, yet. But some of the cheap DVD players were off-track when they were new and wouldn’t play many of the DVDs. Could that be a problem with some Blu-Ray players, too? Do they use read heads with lasers?
As I understand, a Blu-ray player that also plays DVDs uses a different head for each format.
Perhaps they are not blue ray compatible
Probably need to clean the DVD’s with water and paper towel. Make sure there are no smears.. Also make sure the labels aren’t damaged.. If they are they will not play..
No help sorry but LG stands for Lucky Goldstar. Live Good is just a slogan they’ve used over the years.
Right, but did you try 300 again, later, after playing Apollo 13, and skipping to the beginning of the 1st bad scene in 300?
I’d try 300 again anyway, B4 heading back to BB.
Note that I’ve had dust (I think?) on a CD’s laser lens cause accumulating errors on some CD’s - no apparent rhyme or reason which - such that they’d hang up part way through, yet play fine on another player. A new DVD player should not have dust inside, but I suppose some tiny piece of debris left over from manufacturing can’t be absolutely ruled out. Ditto for a laser misalignment.
This weekend is the 2500th anniversary of the 330 Spartans. The battle took place in late August of 480BC, that's 2500 years back from today.
bkmk
OTOH,bluray discs are far superior,picture quality wise,to DVD and bluray is even cheaper than 4K.
Thanks, everyone, for your advice! I’ll look into your suggestions and give an update in the next few days.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.