This is a staggeringly lame question, and I’m gonna come across as an utter Luddite ignoramus, but what the heck.
Background: I have an old DVD player (Hitachi 2x with CineMaster II software) that was installed with my Dell Dimension 400Mhz back in 1998, when I spent $3,000 for the privilege of owning a computer that’d be obsolete within a month. And now I’m too poor to replace it.
Anyway, here’s the issue. I recently purchased five DVDs thanks to the wonders of the Columbia DVD club. I own only one other DVD movie, which works well. Three of the new DVDs auto-play when I put them in the tray. Two don’t, and they also keep freezing up on me during play.
The interesting thing is that both non-working disks share a similar quality – they’re completely covered by artwork, from edge to central hole. Meanwhile, the disks that do work all have artwork that covers only about 90% of the disk, with 10% of “blank space” surrounding the central hole. My question is – is it possible that early DVD players had issues with disks with “too much artwork” or something? I suppose I could just have two bad disks, but before I returned them I just wanted to see if this was a common problem in ancient DVD players such as mine.
:rolleyes: Edited on preview: okaaaaay, after re-reading that description even I can’t picture what I’m talking about. Here’s a really bad artist’s rendering of what I’m trying to describe. (Feel free to laugh at my graphics!) In my DVD player, DVDs that look like sample A aren’t working, but those that look like sample B do.
Yeesh. If anyone can make heads or tails out of what I’m asking, more power to ya! Oh, and seek help immediately.
BTW, for the record, the disks that are working are Fargo, To Kill a Mockingbird, When Harry Met Sally, and Shawshank Redemption. The duds (technically speaking) are All About Eve and Contact.
