Sony DvD Players are Slow to play dvds

Me ^ | 12/23/2005 | Me.

[1FASTGLOCK45]

Before i bought my Dvd player, I was pondering why everyone complains Sony Dvd players (i'm not sure how many models) take a while to load and start.

[1FASTGLOCK45]

Having read many news stories, and reading reviews IE: circuit city dot com I remember reading people say their only complaint of Sony Dvd players is that it takes a while to load and start playing--i presume is the cheap model-which I currently own *~80$ aprox.

This lead to my flashback: Most the population of Japan is elderly: Sony is a Japanese company: alot of influence must come from their "home base", which are the elderly folks. I could imagine it takes a while to move from the dvd player to the couch.

So my speculation may be wrong or right, what do you guys think? My Sony works well and runs all my dvds, quality is good, it loads up perfectly quick for me and i'm not an old man. What is your experience with Dvd players and what do you think of my theory?

** My theory is my own. If someone else has already posted/published this theory please feel free to share with us.

[mikegi]

I see a Nobel Prize in your future. Keep up the good work!

[dennisw]

Party on Garth!!!

[goldstategop]

LOL! When a player refuses to load a DVD, its kaput. Buying a new player will usually solve the issue. I replaced my last RCA DVD player with a new one and now I'm satisfied.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[ErnBatavia]

Along this line, I received a DVD from Australia...it played fine on the computer, but won't play on the television setup.

Anybody know if DVD's are like VHS tapes, where many countries use a PAL system that's not compatible?

[RebelBanker]

Mrs. Reb and I have several DVD players from different manufacturers and really do not see any significant difference between brands in terms of start-up speed. I suppose the cheaper models have less powerful motors and thus are slower at getting the discs up to speed, but I have not taken a stopwatch to them. Some videos are much slower to start than others, but that appears to be a function of how much has to be loaded up before it starts playing.

[peyton randolph]

In the 1990 movie "Crazy People," mentally unbalanced ad exec Dudley Moore runs a commercial attributing the high quality of asian electronics to the fact that asians are tiny and are thus closer to the goods that they assemble. I'd add this to your theory. Tiny asians = fewer defects.

[Kirkwood]

Japanese living rooms are like walk-in closets in the US.

I think the reason it takes a little longer is because there is built in scanning software that senses if the dvd is an illegal copy.

[Richard Kimball]

If it says Sony, I won't buy it. I don't trust Sony. The reason it's probably slow to play DVDs is because Sony has cooked up some kind of spyware, similar to what they put on their CDs. Also, Sony is known to make everything proprietary (memory sticks instead of compact flash cards or smart media, proprietary batteries, etc.)

BTW, picked up the new Fantastic Four DVD, and it will not let you fast forward through the previews, or go directly to the main menu. You HAVE to play the stupid trailers for two movies before you can get to the movie menu. This isn't a Sony DVD, but a 20th Century Fox. Media companies are doing everything they can to alienate their base. They also have a bill before congress to require THEIR copy protection software on all electronics sold in the US, including computers, CD players, DVD players, etc.

[wideawake]

Indeed. DVD has different zone formats to prevent films from the USA showing up on DVD in Australia before the movie has even premiered in the Australian theatres.

Of course, this system is so effin' stupid it hurts.

Besides the fact that everything is pirated anyway, it leads to situations where a movie buff like myself cannot get a German movie that was made 30 YEARS AGO on a US compatible DVD.

Why? Because that obscure movie might somehow make it to American theatres and become a runaway hit decades after its original release?

I refuse to order a DVD player from Europe.

[Kirkwood]

I recovered many DVDs from my home after the Katrina flood. 70% were outright unplayable. 10% could have been playable, but the security code was damaged and the player asked for the code to unlock the disc. You could see the files there, just not play the movie. The other 20% played just fine.

All the ones that played were from MGM studios. Others like Disney and WB studios DVDs were trashed. It all had to do with the quality of the DVD and I was surpised that the difference fell so sharply along production company lines.

On the other hand, 95% of my CDs played. The 5% I lost were from local studios that used cheap CDs.

All my personally burned DVDs and CDs were lost even though I always used high quality materials (or so I thought).

[HairOfTheDog]

Along this line, I received a DVD from Australia...it played fine on the computer, but won't play on the television setup.

Try it upside-down ;~D

Anybody know if DVD's are like VHS tapes, where many countries use a PAL system that's not compatible?

Yes they do... your DVD player may have settings that work.... if you no longer have the manual, browse through the menus.

[Kirkwood]

"You HAVE to play the stupid trailers for two movies before you can get to the movie menu. "

I've found some DVDs like this, but I also found that it depends on your player. I have a player that will let me FF through previews, while other players (especially the one built into the dvd) won't on the same disk.

[hattend]

DVDs are encoded for regions. America and Canada are Region 1.

Link

The geographical regions are as follows:

REGION 1 -- USA, Canada
REGION 2 -- Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East, Greenland
REGION 3 -- S.Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Parts of South East Asia
REGION 4 -- Australia, New Zealand, Latin America (including Mexico)
REGION 5 -- Eastern Europe, Russia, India, Africa
REGION 6 -- China
REGION 7 -- Reserved for Unspecified Special Use
REGION 8 -- Resevered for Cruise Ships, Airlines, etc...
REGION 0 or REGION ALL -- Discs are uncoded and can be played Worldwide, however, PAL discs must be played in a PAL-compatible unit and NTSC discs must be played in an NTSC-compatible unit.

The end result is that DVDs encoded for regions other than Region 1 cannot be played on a region 1 DVD player, also, players marketed for other regions cannot play region 1-stamped DVDs.

[ErnBatavia]

Thank you! An Aussie buddy had many DVD's produced 'professionally' down there to commemorate a very special occasion - and they cost him around $100 (AUD) apiece final cost.....turns out that the several he sent to his Americanese friends won't play!

I've cut and pasted your thoughtful reply, and sent it off to him to likely spoil his Christmas...

[marajade]

Yes. DVDs have region codes. USA is region 1 and I believe Australia is region 4. Unless you have a region free player.