Very weird glitch

[Ovation]

I picked up the Tim Burton Planet of the Apes in the cheap DVD bin a few weeks ago and watched it last night. Had the strangest thing happen. It has an "enhanced viewing mode" that flashes a symbol on the screen where you can break from the film to watch a short clip explaining an effects shot or something like that. The film started out with that option as "on" (without my selecting it) and no matter how often I tried to turn it "off", it refused to do so. The disc was new out of the case and had no obvious scratches or smudges (and I'm careful with my discs, in any event).

Anyone ever have something strange like this happen with a DVD?

[Hdale85]

Had it happen with an HD-DVD but I ejected it put it back in and it worked fine.

[Ovation]

Hmm. I tried shutting the player off and restarting it but that did not do the trick. I did not eject it though. I'll try it again (it's no longer in the player, I watched something else last night) but it is still weird.

[John Holmes]

Ovation,

I've had that movie since it was first released to DVD. So it's probably a different pressing (but maybe the same too). Mine plays as it should.

Awhile back, I had a DVD player that would make certain disc do strange things. It was a progressive scan SD-DVD Toshiba player. It would do things like, turn subtitles on it's own. Of course, it wouldn't let me turn them off. Sometimes, it would start skipping through a disc, it had been playing fine for most of the film. And some movies it just didn't like at all so, it would not recognize them. And it didn't matter if the disc were new or not. The degrading of this unit was a slow process. Several yrs. And only happen to about 1 out of 50 movies.

With the exception of my rental movies, I keep my DVD, CD, Laserdisc and records in pristine conditon. So my point after all this, it could be the disc or it maybe the start of something else. I would lean towards the disc though if it's a rare incident. If you can exchange it, give that a shot. That version of "Planet of the Apes" is beautiful to watch. Excellent PQ and SQ.

[Ovation]

Was there not a 2 disc release? (Mine is not, BTW) My player sometimes puts up subtitles in French without my selecting for it, but in Quebec, there are some discs that are authored that way. I've always been able to turn them off. But in this case, there was no way to turn it off and it was annoying because when it happened, it took me out of the film. I'll try it on a few other players in the house. As for exchanging it, it was was actually so cheap it would cost me more in fuel to go to the store and back than to simply pick up another copy (and, if I do so, I'll wait for the hi-def version).

In any event, I hope it is not my player since I will still need it for all my R2 PAL DVDs even when I get to "officially" install my A2 at Christmas.

[John Holmes]

Yes sir, the two disc is what I have. So it may actually be the disc.

I also agree, it was very annoying when it happened to me.

You know, it may play fine in the A2.

[Ovation]

Yes sir, the two disc is what I have. So it may actually be the disc.

I also agree, it was very annoying when it happened to me.

You know, it may play fine in the A2.

Only 19 more days until I find out. :T

[Ovation]

Tried it on another player (Marantz DV6400--my hi-res audio player; I don't usually watch movies with it) and the "glitch" did not occur. So it's an issue with my Cambridge Audio 540D. I hope it is not a sign of bad things to come.

[John Holmes]

Glad you were able to isolate it. I don't know if it will be true with your Cambridge, but it just progressed with time with my Toshiba. I was still able to use it with most disc, however, you would just never know when it would show up.

I gave the player to a neighbor that's been on hard times. Their family has been pretty happy with it. But, they are not like us!

[Ovation]

I originally bought it to be my primary CD player (long story--think it's archived somewhere in here) and was intent on using my DV6400 as my movie player to go with hi-res audio duties. However, I found the PQ slightly better with the Cambridge, faster layer changes and discovered it was region-free with a great PAL to NTSC conversion. So it became my primary movie player. When the A2 gets officially installed, I presume it will become my main movie player (both SD and HD DVD) as I plan to connect it to my pj with HDMI and let the pj do all the work (the A2 can send 480i via HDMI, which was basically what tipped me in its direction over the A3 that was available at the same price), so the Cambridge will finally become the CD player it was supposed to be in my system and be called upon for occasional movie duties when I watch my R2 PAL discs. Besides, I think one glitch in 42 months of relatively heavy use is hardly catastrophic.

[John Holmes]

Besides, I think one glitch in 42 months of relatively heavy use is hardly catastrophic.

This is something I've always wondered about. How much more do we in the hobby, use our equipment vs the common person? And how does this effect the "normal life" of said product?

Back on topic, "Planet of the Apes" (as I stated above) has a darn good picture to begin with. I'm not sure how much better it will be upscaled. But I'm almost sure it will be on some level. I say this because, just about everything I've thrown at my XA1, looks better upscaled via HDMI.

[Ovation]

Well, the upscaling has been done by my pj (I send it 480i via component at the moment) and its video processing has been very well reviewed so I don't expect much more than an incremental improvement via HDMI (I will compare the A2's upscaling to my pj, of course). I suspect your 2 disc edition has a better transfer than the single disc I have as it appeared washed out in some spots. Is the 2 disc release a later or earlier one than the one disc? (just curious about that)

[John Holmes]

I bought mine when it first came out. I don't recall if there was a single disc at the time. I try (in most cases) to get the two disc versions when available.

I did find a review on the technical aspects of the two disc though: http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/sho...w.php3?ID=3049