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Can DVDs Kill DVD Players?

Posted by Cliff on from the death-by-disc dept.

aidanpryde asks: "In the weirdest situation I've ever seen. My DVD player died on Saturday while watching the episodes of a favorite sci-fi series. I was watching disk 5 with my wife and noticed that it was getting jumpy. I took the disk out to see if it was dirty or scratched, but seeing nothing, we put the disk back in. Now the DVD player won't read anything, not the Season 5 disk, none of our other disks...nothing! So, we take the DVD player as a loss. Hardware failure happen all of the time, right? So I go downstairs with my wife on another day and try it on her DVD player in her computer. We get through one episode of the disk and it starts to jump again. We take it out, try another disk and sure enough -- nothing works. Has anyone ever run into DVD's that kill DVD players? Is there any way that I can get compensation for my dead DVD players? Is there any ideas as to why this has happened. Can I download firmware updates for the computer drive that may fix the problem?"

6 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Please place this disc for sale on ebay by Xaviar21 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Heh.. You probably could actually get some money for a magic DVD that kills DVD players... There are a lot of malicious people out there...

  2. Re:Two possibilities... by autarkeia · · Score: 4, Insightful
    While number one sounds like it might be feasible, number two sounds like a load of bull. While it's theoretically possible (like it's theoretically possible that you could be hit by a falling airplane wing at any moment), in practice it's rather like saying that you need to be careful about doing kernel compiles or playing Doom 3 lest your GPU or CPU overheat.

    DVD players are meant to play DVD's and have specialized DSP's that don't run ridiculously hot like a Prescott. The idea that some DVD's are "just too much for your DVD player to handle" is slightly ridiculous.

  3. Re:I SECOND THAT! MOD UP! by Halfbaked+Plan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Moderation is to make the discussions more interesting. It's not a meritocracy. You're not a 'cooler' person because you have +1. Nobody cares what your real name is. etc. etc.

    --
    resigned
  4. My car stopped working! by CMiYC · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The other day I was driving around in my car and it stopped running. While it was being repaired I was driving another car that stopped running too! I'm pretty sure that I'm the cause of it.

    See where I'm going with this?

    Nobody has suggested the extremely obvious possibility: both DVD drives failed. Perhaps they were going to fail for some time but they didn't start showing problems until you played a dual-layer DVD.

    Its highly unlikely anything about that disc could "damage" your DVD drives. Its far more likely that both drives were near their failure point and failed by coincidence.

  5. Mod parent "insightful", not "funny" by hopethishelps · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Might be worth "test playing" it on all the DVD players in your local Circuit City and Best Buy. That should get their attention.

    That is a damn good idea! - the best and most useful comment on this topic. Try it, and tell us what happens.

  6. Re:Let me guess. by Grishnakh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You have an apex dvd player or similar cheap comsumer electronic junk. All I can say is what did you expect?

    Last time I checked, ALL DVD players are cheap consumer-grade junk these days. Even the "name-brand" players are made in the same Chinese factories that the cheap "no-name" players are.

    Therefore, I see this as a pretty useless comment. It's not like someone buying a Yugo, instead of a Honda or Toyota, and then complaining it breaks down too much. There isn't much choice with consumer electronics.