Anyone had problems with dvds from Play?

[mwude]

Finally got a decent dvd player delivered (after two shite christmas present efforts that broke) and sat down to watch a fillum.  Thought I'd start with Life is Beautiful cos it's funny & sad & generally an enjoyable watch.  But the brightness kept going up & down all the time.  Couple of seconds of brightness, then darkens, then bright, then dark, etc.  Bugger, that dvd's a bit fucked.

City of God, I think.  Violence aplenty.  Kids with drugs & guns.  Cracking.  But it's the same story with the brightness.

Dug out the receipts now because I'm going to send them back & find out that the only other one I got from Play was The Warriors.  Checked it & once again the brightness is shit.  Just as bad as my shoddily recorded off an old video shop onto a crap vhs tape version of Withnail.

DVDs from Play are shit.  Don't buy em kids.  Or is it just me?

[El Unicornio, mang]

I've never had a problem with play.com, and I've bought shitloads off them.
Are you sure it's not your dvd player?

[Frinky]

DVDs from Play are shit.  Don't buy em kids.  Or is it just me?

Surely it's you? Unless Play make thier own DVDs...?

[mwude]

Of course it's me, I know it's me.  

Just seems odd that that three dvds I got from Play all have this identical problem & any bought from any other places are perfectly fine.

[shipman's rope fantasy]

nothing to do with play.com its more like you have your DVD player setup wrong

[Ambient Sheep]

Are you watching the output of your DVD player through your VCR; or on a projection TV?

It sounds a bit like the effects of Macrovision playback on those aforementioned items, you see.

[Doctor Stamen]

I've probably bought 90% of mine through Play and never had a problem apart from when some cuntbreath at the sorting office nicked a couple.

[mwude]

I just got the dvd player out of the fucking box.  Stop playing the blame game.  It's not my fault.  I'm going to sit in the corner & cry.  Hope you're all very happy.  Ungrateful bastards.

*slams virtual door*

*then realises has left virtual coat inside & sheepishly has to go back in and fetch it whilst trying to maintain an air of annoyance*

*slams virtual door again, but without the ferocity of the first slam as now aware just looks like a twat*

edit & will stop being a stroppy cunt now,

Are you watching the output of your DVD player through your VCR; or on a projection TV?

It sounds a bit like the effects of Macrovision playback on those aforementioned items, you see

Watching it through a normal, bog-standard tv.  What is Macrovision playback & how do I make my dvds work proper?

[Timmay]

I've bought millions through play.com. Not had a problem with a single one.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

I've bought dozens of Region 2 DVDs from play.com too with no problems.  However, I know they source their CDs from outside the UK (because they tend to have copy protection on them), but I thought the DVDs must be sourced in the UK, because they're the only Region 2 DVDs that would be in English.

[Munday's Chylde]

I {heart} Play - you got a problem with them then you've got a problem with me.

It's amazon.co.uk who get on my tits. If I order from amazon (uk) and amazon (us) on the same day then the fucking american ones get here first, now that's not right is it?

But yes if you are having problems with brightness and its occuring on different discs then i reckon its the tv.

[blue jammer]

It's the player.

As Ambient Sheep said, it'll be the macrovision, although it usually only comes into effect when you are trying to either record off it, or watch it connected via a video.

Have a look in the manual (yeah that thing most people shove in the drawer) and see about menus, and preferences, might be in there. If not, you'll need to do a search for a hack for it, try here: http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdhacks.php

Enter the make/model number and you should fine out:

macrovision free
region free
region selectable
and possibly some other hidden gems too

Here's mine:
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdhacks.php?dvdplayer=solutions+651

open the tray press setup
press next key
press previous key
press next key
press previous key ,then press down key twice
ver 4001-macrovision disable
ver 4000-macrovision enable

press the left or right keys to toggle between the two

for region code do same as above but after you press previous key last
region code will appear use left and right arrow keys to alter region version 255 is region free.

Very handy!

[DuncanC]

Macrovision is a nasty little copy-protection trick. Exactly the same thing went on in commercial VHS tapes, but with DVD it can often be turned off without much pissing about (depending on player).

[Ambient Sheep]

Are you watching the output of your DVD player through your VCR; or on a projection TV?

Watching it through a normal, bog-standard tv.

How is the DVD player connected to the TV?  By a SCART connector or through an aerial lead?  If the latter, is it looped through your VCR?

What is Macrovision playback...

Macrovision is a copyright protection scheme.  Simply put, it works by injecting massively over-bright signals into the bits of black around the main picture that you can't normally see.  Virtually all TVs just ignore these rogue signals and display the picture anyway, but when VCRs try to record them they go "Whoa!!  Too bright!!" and turn the recording level waaaay down so that they can fit the extra-bright signals onto the tape.  Result: one fucked picture when you try to play it back.  Projection TVs also have problems with Macrovision for reasons I'm unclear about.

Thus if you have the output from your DVD player looped through your VCR, *and* you're watching the output channel of the VCR (rather than just the signal looped through), you might well get the effect you describe.

Disclaimer: I believe Macrovision may have been revised recently so it now works in a different way, but the above is my understanding.

Of course it may not be Macrovision at all, it may be that your TV just doesn't like the signals coming out of your DVD player, or that you need to adjust some setting in the DVD player.  My recommendation is that if you can't fix it by reading the manual, trying different cable arrangements etc., then you take the player round a mate's and try it there, see what a different TV makes of it.

Best of luck.

[mwude]

Cheers for the help.  I think I've got an evening of pissing about with cables ahead of me.  Fortunately that link of bj's led to another link which means I now have the customer service number (unfindable in the manual).  I know many people don't, but I still have faith in customer service help lines.  I realise they don't know much, but it's still more than me.

[smoker]

only problem i've ever had with play was they sent me the wrong version of a film i'd ordered, the donat version of 39 steps, when the box and the disc artwork clearly showed it was the powell version. problem with the batch i guess

[jimbobsyouruncle]

Generally no problems with Play,

A few DVD's never arrived but they sent replacements straight away, no questions asked.

and I did have a moan a while back when I ordered City of The Lost Children (a french movie), only for the DVD to arrive in a non-subtitled, dubbed only format. I complained but was told that all the DVD features were on the site so I couldnt get a refund... Gits...  

Otherwise all the DVD's worked ok...

[axel]

Play's always been excellent for me. What's there delivery of Region 1 DVDs like? Recently chipped my PS2 so it's multi-region now, so thinking of getting some.

BTW, any R1 recommendations?

[steevbishop]

What's there delivery of Region 1 DVDs like?

I've only ordered one DVD from PlayUSA so far (UHF), and it arrived in a matter of days. Very prompt delivery, and great prices.

Also, the PlayUSA newsletter has an email address in it where you can request they add a R1 DVD to their inventory. Because I couldn't track it down anywhere, I requested American Movie and it was on the site within two days! Pity it's RCE, otherwise I would own it already. Not knowing for sure whether my player can beat RCE discs means I haven't risked the expenditure yet.

I don't have the address to hand but I think it's addmymovie@playusa.com

[axel]

Cheers, thanks for the information. I'm eyeing up the R1 Monty Python TV DVD collection, £100 for 14 DVD's.

BTW, how do you get the PlayUSA newsletter? At the moment i just seem to get the UK one.

[steevbishop]

Cheers, thanks for the information. I'm eyeing up the R1 Monty Python TV DVD collection, £100 for 14 DVD's.

*mops drool from chin, beard, keyboard and underwear*

BTW, how do you get the PlayUSA newsletter? At the moment i just seem to get the UK one.

Good question, I joined the Play(UK) newsletter first, and when PlayUSA was announced there was an opportunity to join then. Check with Play(UK) newsletter options, or chuck PlayUSA an email.

[MonkeyDrummer]

NO!

YA CUNT!!!!!!


sorry, i've just had an email from play.com to tell me that John's not mad has been despatched..

FUCKING brightness

[blue jammer]

Cheers, thanks for the information. I'm eyeing up the R1 Monty Python TV DVD collection, £100 for 14 DVD's.

:eek: be prepared to pay a hefty slice of wonga on customs fees then, as anything over £18 I think is subject to customs fees for importing it.

Might be an idea to check ebay, and see if someone has already imported it, and bit for it that way?!

[hencole]

Are you sure you plugged the SCARt lead in properly, 9/10 anything thats wrong in life is because of a loose SCART, even sex.

[axel]

Thanks blue jammer, the e-bay option looks a good one. Will let you know in about a week if i'm successful. Although i noticed the Monty Python DVD is listed as Region 0!

Any other R1 comedy discs worth shelling out for?

My own fault but i recently bought one of those multi-region discs for my PS2, and i now realise there's a hack i could have used. Just noticed it on the DVD hack site mentioned earlier. Damn!