The kid’s wanted to see The Legend of Zorro so I rented it. We put it in the DVD player and it will not load. I try cleaning it and still nothing. I return it to the video store and have it replaced. The second DVD sort of loads. The menu is there but there is nothing to tell what is selected. Also, the movie starts but after a few seconds goes back to the menu. I return it and get another DVD. This one acts like the first one. I return it and get a fourth one. It acts like the second one.
By this time I have decided it is something about this particular movie and not the actual disc. We keep the progressive scan on our DVD player turned on and never have any problem from it. I turn off the progressive scan and try the movie again. It plays fine.
Why is this? We have a bunch of DVDs and have rented a bunch more and have never had this problem.
I know bugger and all about DVD technology, so I googled “Progressive scan” DVD. I found this site, which contains an essay on progressive scan and TV technology in general. It’s quite long (I didn’t read the whole thing, just the PS section), but it seems to be thorough without being overly technical.
If I’m reading it correctly, the people who encoded your DVD managed to fuck up so badly that your DVD player’s progressive scanner couldn’t figure out how to unify the interlaced halves. Probably they never bothered to test it.
What is the specific model of the DVD player? Unless we know this answering your question about anomalous behavior (vs other DVD players) in playback will be difficult.
Take Zorro to a friend’s house that also has a DVD player with progressive hookup. If it plays OK there, then there’s something off with your DVD player.
If it still misbehaves on a different player, then it’s a bad disc. As you’ve already tried several discs, either the store has a bad run of them, or the entire run is bad. Try contacting Sony Pictures - it’s possible that this is a known problem and they’re busily pressing new discs.