DVD Playback Issues On Consoles Enumerated

Thanks to IGN.com for their updated list of DVDs that play back incorrectly on consoles, including the Xbox and, particularly, the PlayStation 2. It seems DVD layer changes are a particular problem, but the article points out that "...with at least three different sets of DVD drivers out for the [PS2] system, there are quite a few discs that have problems running", and also raises the little-known fact that the only way to upgrade your PS2 DVD drivers "..is to pick up the Sony PlayStation 2 DVD Remote. The $20 remote includes a disc that will copy the latest (2.10) drivers to a memory card."

Comments

Myself

[Scrameustache]

I only encountered 2 problems while reading DVDs on my PS2 (my main DVD player).

• My Terror of Tiny Town / Plan 9 from outer space double feature freezes near the end of Plan 9.
  
• My Evolution DVD used to play fine, but now gives DISC READ ERROR when I try to watch it.

There is a workaround the plan 9 issue, I can skip forward on the part where it freezes, but the Evolution issue baffles me.

Thankfully, my Buckaroo banzai DVD plays fine!

PS2 DVD software

[Anonymous Coward]

2.10 is the base DVD player software in the SCPH-30001R. The remote control is shipping with version 2.12 on CD (be prepared to allocate 2,051 KB of your PS2 memory card for the DVD Player app, and be sure to have it inserted when you decide to pop a DVD in.) You can hit Triangle at the Browser/Config screen to see what version it'll use.

Another way to update DVD driver?

[rritterson]

Hasn't anyone ripped the driver update to .ISO or .BIN so that it can be shared across the net? I'd be more than a little peeved if Sony cracks down on this (restricting access to a driver update? That's worse than Microsoft)

Or maybe Sony is cracking down, forcing you to spend your $20 to get the update?

Re:Another way to update DVD driver?

[jesse.k]

Except a ripped iso wouldn't have the necessary error bits on the burned copy that would allow it to boot because of Sony's copy protection scheme.

Re:Another way to update DVD driver?

[MBCook]

My understanding is that the only thing that is different about the update is that it has the code neccessary to deal with the DVD Remote. So basically, the update is useless unless you have the remote, and the remote is useless without the update, which is why they are shipped together.

Re:Another way to update DVD driver?

[Goldberg's Pants]

Unless it's modchipped, then you're solid.

Reading this, I'm REALLY glad I bought a seperate DVD player.

Re:Another way to update DVD driver?

[mabinogi]

That depends on when you bought your PS2.

We have a release PS2, and it had a tendancy to get the audio and video out of sync half way through a movie (pause would fix it), and special features that required pressing the >> button would not work with the controller.

After using the upgraded drivers from the DVD remote, both those issues are fixed, and we never use the remote, cause the controller is actually a much easier to use for basic functions (since you never lose it, and you don't have to hunt for the buttons in the dark).

More recent PS2 models ship with the upgraded drivers pre loaded.

BTW, we have an XBox too, and I'd rather buy a real DVD player than spend the Au$50 on the DVD remote, given that the PS2 works fine.

Watch out

[Anonymous Coward]

There are at least two official PS2 remote controls. I got the thin one that's pretty crappy, and it didn't come with any disc. Go for the wider version.

My experience on PS2

[jvmatthe]

I have the remote control (which I believe means I have driver 2.10) and I had no problems with The Ring or with Unbreakable. I wonder how much of this has to do with dirty or scratched rental discs...I've had a disc that skipped like mad and I just had to clean it off a bit and magically it worked.

Honestly, I haven't thought about DVD issues in ages, although I did have real problems with Jurassic Park III and The Mexican a while back. Nothing since then to interrupt viewing, except the half-second pause when the layer changes.

Seems like nintendo was on to something...

[techstar25]

DVD movies compatible with Gamecube: Zero
DVD movies compatible with my JVC DVD player: All of them
There you go. See how simple that was. Just think of how many Gamecubes Nintendo would have sold if they added a shitty DVD player that barely worked, needed a "sold separately" remote, and several driver updates to function reasonably well. I hope Sony and MS are proud of themselves.

Re:Seems like nintendo was on to something...

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod parent up!

You're an idiot if you don't just buy a real DVD player.

Re:Seems like nintendo was on to something...

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course a dedicated DVD drive is better than either the PS2(which has lots of incompatible disks, as well as an extremely loud fan) or Xbox (which is also fairly loud), but why not include a DVD player?

The PS2 works out of the box with DVDs, but that means that the user has to pay extra even if they don't use it, but the Xbox doesn't work without a remote. The licensing fee for the DVD video standard is included in the remote, so if you don't want to use it to watch DVDs you're not paying anything extra.

I'd just as soon have a choice.

Re:Seems like nintendo was on to something...

[Scrameustache]

Just think of how many Gamecubes Nintendo would have sold if they added a shitty DVD player that barely worked, needed a "sold separately" remote, and several driver updates to function reasonably well. I hope Sony and MS are proud of themselves.

First of all, only MS has the "needs a sold separatly remote" issue, the PS2 plays DVDs out of the box.

Second, as I stated above, I have not experienced any significant DVD issues, and I use my PS2 has my main DVD player.

Third, Nintendo has suspended production on the Gamecube, while Sony has sold 5 times more untis then either MS or Nintendo. So Sony was on to something, the other 2 obviously weren't.

How many more units could nintendo have sold? 40 million.

Re:Seems like nintendo was on to something...

[SuiteSisterMary]

Just to make things clear, the reason the Xbox doesn't include the DVD functionality out of the box is so that you're not paying the $30 US licensing fees required to have a functional DVD player unless you actually want to use it to play DVDs.

Re:Seems like nintendo was on to something...

[Anonymous Coward]

Your samles numbers are correct, but factor in the fact that a PS2 will stop reading any particular media at the drop of a hat (seen this more then once with other people machines) and was poorly designed to die quickly (pulls air/dust into laster assembly).
The lastest design supposedly fixes that bad design flaw, but it's no like there are 40 bajillion different ps2 owners, some people are on their sixth one.

And people mock the Q

[M3wThr33]

Nintendo foresaw this ahead of time. That's why they comissioned Panasonic to make the Q, instead of leaving NCL to develop it.

The Q plays GameCubes, has an actual GOOD remote control with EJECT and POWER buttons, plays region-free DVDs, MP3s and VCDs without mods. The only reason you would need to mod it is to play import games.

I don't have one, but I assume it works better than the XBox one, which I had trouble playing my collection with, especially since it alienates my whole VCD collection.

Re:And people mock the Q

[rhuntley12]

Along with a what, $450 US dollar price tag? Just to play regular size disks?

Xbox compatibility list.

[krin]

Is anyone really complaining that Jason X, or Cast Away doesn't play on their Xbox? I mean.. c'mon, those are hardly movies. They also fail to say which version of Evil Dead doesn't play, there are what.. four, five releases? Regardless of all that, I just don't ever play movies on my gaming consoles; I have a nice Sony component DVD player which is is made just for that. And when you can go buy a pretty decent DVD player for under a hundred (and sometimes fifty) bucks.. why put the wear and tear on your system?

Re:Xbox compatibility list.

[The Zody]

Now if only the Xbox could play its own games. Often times when inserting a game into the beast you get a disc read error message.

Area codes?

[Helmut Kool]

I have played two blacklisted movies (Blow, Planet of the Apes 2001) fine on PS2 with driver 2.10. But i live in Europe and the movies have area code 2. Maybe that makes a difference? BTW, new PS2's have new version of the driver out of the box. Mine was bought in October 2002.

hrmm

[chadamir]

Has anyone tried any of these movies with third party dvd players? Like one of the hacked ones that don't require a dongle on the xbox? It'd be interesting to see if they work then.

I also wonder if since layer breaks cause a problem for developers who wants to go over the standard 5.2

What the?

[Daetrin]

My PS2 used to lock up on the second half of the Escaflowne series, which seems to indicate that it had the 1.20 drivers, which is strange, because i got my PS2 on the first day. Was the first batch mixed 1.10 and 1.20?

I took the PS2 into the local EB, and they said the only way to fix it would be to trade it in for a new one. They decided to be nice and let me do so, even though i hadn't actually bought the unit there (but i do buy a lot of games there, which is presumably why they felt like being nice) and the new one worked with Escaflowne just fine.

However a year or two later i get the X-Men DVD, and that skips all over the place once it gets about halfway through, however that problem is only reported for the 1.10 drivers.

Either there are still some big holes in that report, or my PS2 got "upgraded" from version 1.20 to 1.10. I definitely need to go check out the driver version when i get home. Another DVD i've had problems with that i don't see on that list is Spiderman.

One question though, why can't Sony give copies of the driver disk to local stores? Forcing people to live with a crappy(er) DVD player or shell out $20 for the upgrade may net them a little more cash, but i can't imagine that it's very good PR.

All in all i can't complain too much. I knew the PS2 DVD player would likely be a piece of crap when it came out, and it's tided me over to the point where DVD players have gone from affordable to downright cheap. However the experience has reaffirmed my belief that getting a game console for any other reason than to play games on it is a waste of time and money.

Futurama works on Xbox

[Have Blue]

I have no problems playing the season 1 discs on my Xbox. Maybe the Xbox has different DVD driver revs too?

Re:Futurama works on Xbox

[Recoil_42]

nope, its wither due to dirty discs, or the fact that that person had a bad DVD drive -- Microsoft used to use 3 brands of DVD drives, tompson, phillips, and samsung. The tompson (RCA) drives were crap, so now they just use phillips and samsung drives, which are both much, much better at reaing discs

Hmm so that's why

[The Analog Kid]

in the Rush press release for Rush in Rio, it said it's PS2 Comapatible, which means they actually are doing to testing to make sure the DVD will work in a PS2.

Uh, Regions?

[Kris_J]

What region discs and what region PS2? I'm fairly sure my PAL PS2 played a Region 4 Final Fantasy from beginning to end no problems.

Don't forget.

[Inoshiro]

New PS2 models (SCPH-39001 and SCPH-39010/N in the network bundle) already ship with 2.12 firmware DVD drivers, and don't require the PS2 DVD remote upgrade disc. This saves you 1/4th of a memory card :)

If you bought your PS2 at a big, nasty store like Wal-mart or Future Shop, chances are you have one of the old SPCH-30001R or S (1st gen) machines which have the old 2.10 driver (and also many issues with lasers).

If you bought it at EB, GameStop, or some other store that focuses on games, chances are you have the newer 7th gen one. You can always check the version via triangle in the browser. If you did buy it at an EB or Gamestop and you have an old PS2, don't fret. If you bought one of their extended warrantees, you can just exchange it for a new one. Just take the base console in and ask for a newest model one.

lotr

[Anonymous Coward]

the lotr collectors box doesnt play in my xbox, REALLY pissed off about that.

WOW!

[ianjk]

People have PS2s that still play DVDs?

Mine cannot make it through any movie that I own. My roomie and I have had 3 diff. PS2s, not a single one can play a DVD. (1 was returned because it flaked out after a month of use.)

Games: A-
Console (gaming): A+
Console (dvd): F

They didn't list the Nuon

[Psykechan]

Actually I recently replaced my Xbox with a Samsung N501 Nuon player after my Xbox refused to play certain DVDs properly. What really ticked me off was that other Xboxen would play the discs fine, and Microsoft would return the system (still under warrenty, mind you) back to me saying it was fixed by them not doing anything. Naturally, it wasn't fixed.

The Nuon games are about as fun as Munch's Oddysee (read: not very) but at least it plays every movie in my collection.

Re:They didn't list the Nuon

[AusG4]

Umm, Munch rocked dude.
Sorry if it ain't some D&D variant. :P