A few weeks ago I bought from CostCo a couple Disney short collections, the one featuring Wind in the Willows as the main attractant, and the other The Reluctant Dragon. I’ve got a lot of Disney feature animation disks (and all of Pixar/Disney) and never had a problem, but both of these disks acted all wonky. The previews were okay and the menu, but on the feature itself, the image was not stable at all. It would tear, roll, and black out entirely for seconds at a time – the monitor would flash No Signal. Now, these weren’t your typical blocky freeze frames like you get from a disk with a bad scratch or big ol’ thumbprint on it. They both looked for all the world like a copied VHS tape from an original with Macrovision, or something.
I took them back to CostCo, saying there’s probably nothing wrong with the disks, probably it’s my cheap-ass player but still, I can’t play 'em. CostCo took them back and I forgot about it, figuring I’ll try again after I’ve upgraded to Blu-ray. Until last night when I tried to play a disk from Netflix, the Disney import of My Neighbor Totoro. Same thing but different. This time, the previews were also bad and the picture didn’t tear, but was showing alternate scanlines pulled apart, top and bottom. ?Still get the few-second blackout with loss of signal. When I would pause, reverse, or fast forward, even the status overlay from the recorder was ‘stretched.’
So, what’s up? anybody else having issues playing Disney disks, or is my c-a player dyiing
How is your television hooked up to the DVD player? Coax, single RCA (yellow connector), s-video, component, HDMI or other? Is the DVD player a dual DVD/VHS unit? Does the DVD player’s signal go through a VHS player before getting to your television; If so, what cabling is used?
I don’t think HDCP comes into play for non-HD material, or at least not for classic, non-Blu-ray DVD players using analog connectors. My suspicion is the signal from the DVD is being routed through a Macrovision-aware device (e.g. through a VHS deck via coax cabling).
Sorry for the delayed reply. Nope. It is component video from the DVD player to the monitor. No VHS is involved, nor is the DVD player a DVD/VHS combine.
Wow that is freakin’ weird. All I’ve got is that the component cable is bad, but that would affect every movie, so that’s not it. Or your TV thinks it sees a Macrovision signal with these movies, which seems only slightly more likely. I don’t suppose you can hook the player up to a different TV and see if the problem changes or goes away? That would at least tell us which component is being stupid, the player or the television.
I own the disk My Neighbor Totoro and have seen no issues with it. I’ve also owned it something like five years, so perhaps newer pressings have newer quirks.
Hmmm, this sounds like what’s happening to you. Also this:
Ok, so we’ve established that DVDs can generate Macrovision via the player, and also that some televisions get very confused by this. Which doesn’t narrow the culprit down, it could still be either the player or TV (or both!).
Unfortunately, I can’t experiment. I turned them back in to CostCo and at the moment have no other DVD player here with which to try them. If they’re bootleg, they were cunningly disguised. The had the secret number to plug in at the Disney site to collect cool stuff, and a small “commemorative poster” inside the case.