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A few days ago I purchased a Sony DVP-S360 dvd player (their cheapest model). This was to replace the Apex dvd player that I returned (that one played when it wanted to). The Sony has been great so far, good audio, great video (especially compared to the Apex player). Now that I have a "good" player, I go to Hollywood video and I rent the movie X-Men. This movie is supposed to be good for special effects, but also it has a function that is called extended branching where it will almost "seamlessly" incorporate edited out scenes into the movie. It flashes a little "X-Men" icon on the bottom of the screen then it searches for the appropriate edited scene...well I never get that far. The player makes a loud searching noise, then locks up and flashes "C:13" on the screen which means dirty disc. Although it is a rental, it has no scratches on it to worry about (one or two really light scratches) and it was cleaned prior to being placed in the machine. Well I'm off to Tweeter to show them the problem and to probably take a new 360 home (I will not accept them telling me it is the disc, a player should be able to handle light scratches...the disc looks basically brand new). Anyone else have problems with this function on the X-Men disc? If you haven't, tell me which player you are using, maybe I'll switch. Thanks.
-Steve
Follow Ups:
I also purchased an Apex, returned it for the same reason, purchased the Sony 360, returned it, finally purchasing a Pioneer Dv-333 which is MUCH better than both of the other two players combined. The construction whoops the Sony or Apex, and the sound is better. The strange thing is that the Apex actually had a really good picture (component out), but since it didn't play all DVDs, I had to take it back.
Definitely get the Pioneer 333 unless you can afford/find better.
I've used my dad's Pioneer 434 which is the same as the 333 but with progressive scan (useless in his situation because his TV is not compatible eventhough it is a digital television). Anyway, I liked the picture and sound of the 434, but I didn't like its build quality and I did not like the remote. The scan features are lacking in my opinion, and no zoom. I bought a Toshiba 1600 which is playing excellent so far (but might return it because it's 2001 replacement, the 2700, will be coming out soon). So I'm happy with the Toshiba for now, and my dad who just sits down and watches his movies without playing with anything is happy with his Pioneer. Enjoy.
-Steve
What may appear to be insignificant scratches to YOU are VERy significant scratches to a DVD player. People think that DVD movies will play fine with scratches the same size that don't bother audio CDs. This is WAY WRONG thinking. One DVD data surface holds about 6 times more data than an audio CD. This means the pits and lands on the DVD are FAR smaller than the pits and lands on an audio CD. A tiny scratch on a DVD is quite large in relationship to the size of the pits and lands on the disc. It is quite possible/likely that your Sony DVD player is operating as well as ANY DVD player that is fed that disc. Tiny scratches on DVDs are NOT the same thing as tiny scratches on audio CDs... tiny scratches on a DVD is all it takes to ruin the DVD - most typical people renting DVDs will think they can handle DVDs just as poorly as they have handled their CDs over the years and nothing will happen... that is far from the truth. DVDs are considerably more sensitive to tiny scratches than CDs. And DVDs are REALLY sensitive to "radial" scratches... the kind that follow an arc because these wipe out large areas of data from being read. DVDs are also more fingerprint sensitive than audio CDs.Handle your DVDs with lots of care to keep them working for decades.
Doug,
Thanks for the post. I have to admit I thought small scratches should not be a problem, but now I understand. This makes renting DVD's a little more interesting, because every rental I have seen has a few scratches. I still think some players may be more sensitive to scratches than others, but in my case with the Sony player, none of the Sony 360 players could play the extended branching option on the X-Men disc, so this was a hardware problem. I think I'll stick with Toshiba for now. Thanks again.
-Steve
I had several Sony LD players way back when, traded 'em for fresh ones as they broke down, (each in a few weeks... Finally I sold the last one as soon as I got it... Bought a demo Pioneer 3070 (list $1,200) from Sears for $500 and 9 years later the Pioneer still does it all. The moral here is if it doesn't work, AND you can take it back for an upgrade, get a different brand.
Also just an idea about the special effects on that particular disc: It may be that the special effects are in a 'layer' the bottom of the line machine doesn't play? (forgive my ignorance here) but I understand that up to 4 layers can be on one DVD disc... MY hot guess is that the Sony you have can't read one of the layers... the one with the special parts.
Another possible issue that comes up more often with software players on computers, but also affects set top players, is in compatibility with some software authoring tricks- particularly multiple branching techniques. Unfortunately, it's a lot harder to update the ROM in a DVD set top player, than to update the software in a computer player- which, among many other reasons (progressive scan, scaling to custom resolutions, etc) is why I now use two computer players, in living room and bedroom.If a second Sony doesn't play that disk, and a second disk (new) also fails at the same place, its the firmware in the player. Then Elizabeth's advice to get a different player is probably the way to go.
-Jon
Elizabeth,
Well I brought the Sony back to Tweeter last night and I wanted to know if the problem was the disc or the player. I put the disc in their Sony 360 player and it had problems (actually worse than the one I bought) with the extended branching. We still didn't know if it was the disc, so then we tried it in a Tosbhiba changer...no problems at all. I then tried it in the Toshiba 1600 model which is comparable to my Sony in price (Sony 360 $250, Toshiba 1600 $200) and it played it really well (it was quite fast finding the scene). So now I'm on my third dvd player in three weeks, but the Toshiba looks good so far. So the manager and I came to the conclusion that at least the Sony 360 model will not play that special feature (possibly even higher end Sony models, but we didn't test). So you were right, there is definitely a compatibility issue with the Sony player. Thanks for the help.
-Steve
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