talkmagic.co.uk

Just wondering if any of you have experienced the same as I have?

I've recently been collecting magic DVD's and now have around a dozen titles. These all play without any problem whatsoever on my PC's DVD drive but when I put them into my Sony DVD player to play on the TV, I get all sorts of interference on the TV over the picture whilst it plays. It looks like the picture jumps and this happens every few seconds.

Both of the DVD players are set to Region 2 and the DVD's themselves are either multi-region or also Region 2 discs.

Any suggestions?

My only suggestions could be:

1 How old is the dvd player? Older players sometimes have trouble with newer discs.

2 More likely, is that you need to clean the lense on the dvd player. The interference and jitters could be from a dirty of smudged lense. I'd look into a cleaner for it, and see if that works.

Thanks and I'll give it a try.

The player is two years old and a home theatre set up so it wasn't at the cheaper end of the market.

I would have thought that if it had been the lens that needed cleaning then it would happen on all discs played on the DVD. It doesn't - only the magic ones! I can play the latest feature films without any problem.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Play the DVD on your PC......... I'm a bright spark.

Thanks Hawk for that intelectual solution

But why should I restrict my viewing options having paid good money?

your dvd play wont be unlocked to play dvds from all countrys.

maybe the ones you have are for american dvd players even if you bought them from a UK shop, alot of magic is produced in america.

search google see what you can find out about unlocking dvd players.


Ben

If it's a regional coding issues, does the player just fail to recognise the disk if it's programmed for a different region and not play at all?

I'm personally not sure and may have the wrong interpretation on what regional coding does and doesn's do.

Two of the DVD's are British produced and the packaging has no information whatsoever about regional coding printed on it. I know that my computer DVD is set to region 2 (Europe) only.

Strange.

check out the manual about re-coding the player...might be a slight NTSC or PAL secam issue but shouldnt be...check into your manual

Have done - unfortunately it was no help

Seems by the replies that no-one else has noticed this so it would appear that it's a problem with my DVD player in some way. I think that I'll go into a Sony dealer in the week.

Thanks anyway

only other solutions is ty it on another DVD player if fails then its CD if not then its your DVD player.

Thanks but if you read the original post then you will have noted that it plays perfectly on my PC and incidentally, on my laptop DVD player. It's just won't play on the one sitting in the living room which is far more comfortable to sit and watch.

It would be strange if it is a regional code problem, because most of the dvds out there are multi-regional. Most likely, this is not a dvd problem, but a dvd player problem. Bring the dvd to the company that sold you that c*** (not the best) of a player, and let them explain it for you

Hi Dat,

Did you know that you can change the region coding of most players with the handset ?
I know a few sites which give the names of players and Handset Hacks for them.

You said your player is a Sony.
Try here
http://www.dvd365.net/?hacks/hacklist.htm

Let me know how you get on

It's not a region issue. The player would simply state "Wrong Region"... as would the DVD drive in the PC/laptop.

It's not a NTSC/PAL issue, either. Well, unless you have an NTSC player (doubt it, you living in EU and all). PAL players can convert/play NTSC, but NTSC cannot convert/play PAL. It's due to the resolutions/frame-rate.

NTSC is 525 Scanlines @ 29.97 fps
PAL is 625 Scanlines @ 25 fps

Have you made backups of the disks and tried them?
It could be just the type of disks used for the magic ones. Try making copies, and see if it works. Or rip them to SVCD/VCD for use on your player.

Hodgkinson wrote:Hi Dat,

Did you know that you can change the region coding of most players with the handset ?
I know a few sites which give the names of players and Handset Hacks for them.

You said your player is a Sony.
Try here
http://www.dvd365.net/?hacks/hacklist.htm

Let me know how you get on

This is NOT a region issue. Magic DVDs are generally region 0 (region free).

The DVD player wouldn't even attempt to play the disc.

And your PC DVD player, unless you've 'hacked' it, will only allow you to change region 5 times (or somesuch number), so it's unlikely.

More likely a cause is the media itself. Check the discs... if they are any colour but a nice silver on the 'playback' side, they may be DVD-R's as opposed to 'pressed' DVDs.

DVD-R will play OK in your PC/Laptop drive, because the data drive in your PC is far more error tolerant. Home DVD players, especially older and oddly the more expensive ones can be intolerant to DVD-R.

I have 3 magic DVDs in my collection which are DVD-R as opposed to mass produced 'pressed' DVDs. This simply means that the DVD was burned on a data recorder rather than being mastered from an original.

It's cheaper, means that smaller runs are possible, and allows smaller less mainstream titles to reach the public domain.

However, there are hundreds of issues relating to DVD media quality...

One suggestion, which may seem illegal but is actually your right, is to make a copy of the DVD onto better quality media. This, for me, has solved the problems.

I'd be happy to explain this in greater depth with you via email if you wish.