Some of the newer stuff just skips errors on disks other just will not play it.
Also some of the older stuff plays things that the newer will not because they have not got copy protection build in because what it is playing did not exist when manufactured. For example my friend's DVD player will not play CDRs but it will play DVD-Rs. I suspect they built in copy protection for CDs but not DVDs because at the time hardly anyone had a DVD recorder.
Also some of the older stuff plays things that the newer will not because they have not got copy protection build in because what it is playing did not exist when manufactured.That's true. The first generation DVD players, like the DVD player from Apex, didn't have alot of the newer technologies like copy protection mechanisms built in. In fact, it would even play DVD's regardless of what region it was encoded for, so if one was a fan of Japanese anime, they could play a DVD bought and encoded in Japan, which is in Region 4 I believe, here in the States (which is Region 1). The newer DVD players allow the user to change the DVD regions in the on screen menu up to five times before you're not allowed to again.