Mr. Athena and I pulled out our Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition DVDs the other day, and settled in for a long night of LoTR watching the other night. Alas, 'twas not to be; the first DVD will not play in our DVD player.
It plays just fine in our computer, though, which leads me to believe that it can’t be too screwed up. I’d rather not have to go buy another copy of the DVD set just to get the one disk, so I decided to bring it to work and make a copy of the misbehaving DVD on our DVD burner here. That was a no-go, as the DVD is copy protected (grrrr…)
So what can I do? I’ve seen those DVD repairers at Target and such - do they work? Or am I out of luck?
I have rented DVDs that wouldn’t play and taken them back to the rental place where someone just chucks it in a machine that cuts off a layer of stuff on the surface and bingo it works like a charm. I would drop in to my local rental spot and act dumb, ask them to check it for me and let them clean it and fix it. Then i would be very grateful.
If the computer can read it, and if you were happy to watch a backup of the disc, then I’d recommend doing that - it’s possible to do this without spending any money at all on software and I’m led to believe that it is perfectly legitimate in this particular context. I don’t think I can give more details though, as the same programs can be used to make illegal copies.
If it were me though, I’d be wanting to restore the original media; there are reasonably priced disc resurfacing services such as http://www.skippydisc.com/ in the USA and http://www.fucd.co.uk in the UK.
Is your DVD player very old? It’s possible it doesn’t support some technology used to author your DVD. DVD players are so cheap nowadays that it would be worth your money to get a new one that would be more compatible.
First though, check the condition of the disc. If it is cosmetically perfect and fingerprint-free, any cleaning process will be a waste of money and harmful to the disc.
I tried that - it’s copy protected, so no, I can’t make a backup copy. I would have been happy with that solution, though.
awldune, the player is about 18 months old, and it’s played this DVD plenty of times. I don’t think it’s a compatibility problem.
The DVD in question has some scratches on the back, but it’s not damaged bad enough that the computer won’t play it. And the DVD player plays all my other DVDs (and used to play this DVD). Why it won’t play this one is a mystery.
It isn’t as common as it used to be, but some DVDs are incompatible with some DVD players, due to bugs in the DVD player’s software. This tends to happen on DVDs that use all of the bells and whistles that are provided for by the DVD standard.
I know when I play ROTK:EE in my Media Center, it pops up a bunch of InterActual player crap before actually going to the main movie menu. I’m not sure if this is due to my DVD player actually being a computer or not. I was thinking perhaps if this was required for playback, it might not be supported in older standalone DVD players.
And BTW, just because a DVD is copy protected does not mean it can’t be copied. But like a previous poster here, I will not post the method to do so, for fear of incurring the wrath of the mods. = )
I was under the impression that it was a brand new DVD, sorry. What I would do personally is make a copy using the quasi-legal methods we can’t mention here.
You might also try washing the disc with a little dish soap; that often helps.
Any chance you might be able to contact the “publisher” of the DVD to see about obtaining a replacement? i.e. you send in the old one, they send you a replacement? I’ve heard of this with software, back in the old “floppy disk” days - you know, the pet dinosaur steps on it, so you have to send in for a replacement.
No clue if that’d work, but it couldn’t hurt to go to the movie studio’s webpage and try to find a “contact us” link and ask.
It’s possible that the DVD player is malfunctioning. I had a problem with mine a few years ago, and it only manifested when playing Fight Club or The Abyss (and only on a few scenes). At first, I thought the discs were bad (becaue the player was fine on any other disk). But then I got another copy of the same disk, and the player failed on that one, too, in exactly the same way.
Luckily, it was under warranty. I took it in to the shop, and they said the laser was slightly misaligned. Got it back a few weeks later, and it has worked fine for several years.
See if you can borrow another copy of the DVD and test it out.
However, it’s illegal to do so. The DMCA, which is what makes it illegal to circumvent copy protection (actually, “access controls”, which includes DVD encryption but not, say, the Macrovision protection for VHS tapes), doesn’t make exceptions for fair use.
Of course, it’s also illegal to drive 63 MPH in a 60 MPH zone.