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The Matrix DVD Troubles
kubrickian writes "Apparently many people have been experiencing trouble with their new DVDs of The Matrix. " My player worked fine, but then again without DVD support under Linux, I haven't tested the PC stuff. But I still don't know ju-jitsu.
I own an overworked Pioneer 505 series DVD player, and have had absolutely zero problems. In the week or so I've had The Matrix, I have had three complete showings and have seen all the "special" hidden stuff at least twice. Zero problems.
;)
AFIAK, there's not a better demo disc on the planet. Full-motion video on the scene selection, tons of extra goodies, and crystal-clear sound and video.
Personally, I would have been extremely disapointed had The Matrix not included all these kick-ass features. Early adaptors (those on the cutting edge of technology, who generally buy before the rest of the masses and are willing to put up with flakey tech - I am definately one) always get burned on these kind of new features down the line. I'm on my second DVD player for just that reason. Don't like the fact that your "old" player can't handle the badass new stuff? Get a new player which can handle it (~$300 at Best Buy). Don't try to stop technology from advancing. Adapt, or quit complaining
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Question: How do I leverage the power of the internet?
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There is no try at jedinite.com
The evils of the US? Invading our hallowed shores? Never! We will never be overcome! We shall fight them on the beaches! We shall fight them on the...
:)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Oops, sorry
Seriously, I don't think DVD (as it stands) is good enough for it to be mainstream here. No offense, but just because lots of people have it there, doesn't mean it's a Good Thing(tm). I mean, lots of people use Windows (including me), but this is certainly not a Good Thing(tm). We all use VHS, but Beta was by *far* a better format.
I'm not sold on DVD (yet), but I look forward to the time when my PC can be just as good as my TV/Video setup.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
*...Slacker, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Remember: Nothing is Cool.
Invited a pile of pals over for a Matrix viewing and now I'm not sure if my Panasonic A120U will handle the disc. I checked out the start of the commentary option (which seems like the whole movie with running commentary from the stars and producers, etc.) and it worked okay. I might have to watch it ahead of time just to make sure it works.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
if only DVD's can be played on linux
Oooooooooooooooooookay. Sure. That's the same argument as: My file sucks when it is transferred over a modem (analog). But it is much better when transferred over a serial cable (digital). In the end you get the same stuff. So who the hell cares how it gets there? This is about as good as the "burned audio CDs don't sound as good as the originals" argument.
..."kung fu" is not a style, but a category of geographical orgin. Specifically, it refers to the thousands of different Chinese martial art styles, many of which are completely at odds in terms of what techniques and strategies are taught and emphasized. For example, Wing Chun style (very grounded and punch oriented) is completely different from Wu Shu style (highly acrobatic with lots of kicks), but both are Chinese martial arts, and thus fall under the category "kung fu". Escrima, Savate, and Jujutsu aren't Chinese styles (they're Filipino, French, and Japanese, respectively), so they aren't "kung fu". Besides, it's not the style that matters, but how it's used. Different styles exist because different things work for different physiques and body types.
And boy what a DVD it is too! I hope this encourages other companies to produce such feature packed DVD's in future - I mean.. three soundtracks, a 30 minute making of video, special 'follow the white rabbit' scenes (whoever thought of that is a genius) where you can jump from the movie into a special bit about how they made that section of the movie, and then once it's finished then jump back to the movie where you left off. Plus you've got heaps of multimedia extras - web links, interactive games, and heaps of stuff. I definitely consider it the best DVD I've ever seen - and Warner should be proud of it. From what I've heard it's already outsold Titanic and every other DVD out there and it's only been out for just over a week!
-- Wireless WaFreenet user since March 2002
I had a similiar expierence myself. Other than the nasty PC Friendly stuff I had no problems on my NT boxen with my second generation Toshiba DVD drive and my Hollywood 98 decoder card. On my G3, nothing at all. Luckly some other kind patron has all ready posted the fix for that.
The Truth, it won't set you free, but it will give you someone to blame
I just checked on my player ... there is an option in "other settings" that can be set to "Pan & Scan" -- however it doesn't just chop the sides off of the picture as I assumed it did.
;).
I guess it's a preference to decide which "movie" to play on a disc with both movies.
That is somewhat frustrating...
Not that I care myself (letterbox is the only way to go... Just need to get one of those 50" lcd screen thingies to go with it
I have a Panasonic A110. At one or two points in the movie, it skips ahead a bit. For example, at the point where Neo, Morpheus, and the gang are leaving the building where they were inserted into the Matrix so that Neo and Morpheus can go see the Oracle, it skips ahead to the point where Neo is reaching for the doorknob to the Oracle's apartment. If I reverse it from there to just after the point it skipped from, it plays fine. Haven't had any problems with the menus or special features so far.
The matrix is available on DVD, eXistinZ is not (currently.. October 19th I think.. i've pre-ordered a copy, and i hope to get it sometime...)
/.ers would buy this film?
Why do you say that few
Jacob
The only problem on my copy of The Matrix is while watching the scene where Fishburne and co leave the old abandoned building to go see the oracle it skips to the very next scene of the door to the Oracle's apartment opening...in order to see the scene as they go from the building to the Oracle I've got to 'rewind' back...Not a big problem, but it is annoying.
"Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons...for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Just because your DVD player is 2 months old doesn't mean that it 100% complient with spec. You think IE 5 is totally complient with all of the standards it claims to support?
You ended up buying a player that was rushed out the door with the though "ah, nobody 'll ever use that feature in a DVD". Guess what, you found one that did.
The fact that the disc works great in some players, and other players have the exact same problem (reported over and over again) only confirms that it is a hardware/player specific problem and not a "screwup" on the disc.
And where are you getting this "grainy" crap from? The special features showed some artificating, as did the menu, but the movie itself was GREAT!!! (the intro is also one of the coolest I've seen on a DVD).
I had 13 people crammed in my tiny dorm room watching this movie at volumes that could be heard at least 4 floors away if you want any testimonials to the quality of the DVD on a good player.
that's what I have and it's not werkin. My DVD is Toshiba M1212, the player works fine... it's just the decoder, chokes on the disc for some reason. e-mailed Sigma, no response yet.
ARRG.
I didn't spend $$ on it to be stuck using the software decoder that came with my video card...
From a motherboard manual, error beep codes: S-L-L-L-SS: Speaker Error
How many problems with "software problems" have you experienced with a DVD player personally?
How many times have you bought a DVD disc and had to return it because it didn't work correctly? How many DVD discs have you ever bought?
Me? Zero. None. Nada. Zip. Every disc I have ever bought works perfectly. All 40 of them. Double layer, double sided, extra audio tracks, special videos, menu transitions, scene selections, the works. Not a glitch.
Why does this exist ? :) http://www.wired.com/news/news/slashdot/
Let's see you get 6 distinct, independant audio channels out of VHS.
And the picture quality of VHS sucks in comparison, no matter how good your tape, nor your player.
Everytime the tape passes the heads, you damage it.
It's cheaper at Reel.com, that's where I got mine. UPS Ground was pretty quick too. 12.49
most browsers do this, but not all. i worked for an e-commerce company where we had to disable some of our tracking stuff that was based on http-referer because a few widespread browsers don't implement it. MSIE for the mac was the most notable one, but i believe there were one or two other (reasonably) popular browsers that do the same thing.
If I don't put anything here, will anyone recognize me anymore?
of course, you seem to forget that many new movies are dropping 35mm film and going all digital. digital can achieve much higher frame rates. it will make a difference. muahahahaha!
Same here, I have the SD-3109 and it plays flawlessly. I haven't noticed a sluggish response.
-Praxxis
I have a Toshiba 1202, PIII450, and STB Velocity 4400. I got it installed, and it freezes in the cocoon scene, the kung-fu scene and when Neo is first dodging bullets. I took mine back (Best Buy) and exchanged for another. Same probs. I tried a different video card (V550) no luck. I had been using Xing and PcFriendly (my ASS!) and still freezing. I downloaded PowerDVD and it plays the scenes, but plays them twice (3 second rewind) . Besides, I don't want to have to pay 50 bucks to get my DVD to play, and still not play right! Of course, my home DVD player has no problems. I guess I have to buy a new DVD ROM?
Geccoman
I'm on a chair.
Except that The Matrix LD is at least twice the size or maybe even 3x the size and probably has to be flipped to get the extra features.
I *like* the fact that the disk is bigger, you get a nice large jacket to go with it. My player plays both sides automatically.
It probably doesn't have the PC extras either, like the entire website on the disc. While I wouldn't replace (right away anyway) an entire collection of LDs with DVDs, I think the DVD format is far superior to LD.
I wouldn't say far superior, but DVD video does have a few more lines of resolution. The (digital) audio is identical, however. Some DVD's have exhibited compression artifacts during heavy action sequences, LD's don't have this problem because they don't use compression. Of course, the video on LD's is analog, and low end players can show some "chroma noise" occasionally. As far as extras, The Matrix LD has a running audio commentary, and "Behind-the-scenes documentaries".
My LD collection is small (about fourty titles), but approximately twenty of them are unavailable on DVD (mostly Star Wars and Robotech, which are unlikely to be on DVD for a few years anyway, I think Lucas said that the Star Wars DVD's wouldn't be coming out until after Episode III is done showing in theatres)
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
Have you ever seen & heard DVD? Not only is it great, but there aren't any viable alternatives. Besides, ALL of the studios now support it, so it's the next format, whether you like it or not.
No, the future certianly isn't ADC. It's more like video-on-demand and stuff like that. DVD won't be able to compete, in under 10 years time, when we all have the ability to just stream a full movie into our house. It's already happening in the UK now, with the latest DigitalTV advance.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
I certainly wouldn't invest in ADC. That'd be silly.
Anyway, we've got completley off topic here!
Mong.
* Paul Madley
*...Slacker, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Remember: Nothing is Cool.
None of the Samsung DVD Players will play the Matrix. Guess what brand I have? It's all because of the Dual Layer Technology Warner Brothers used. I bought it on a Saturday, took it back Sunday, and exchanged it for a good, quality DVD... Monty Python and the Holy Grail. If anyone finds anything out about possible work arounds that WB might be developing (Besides VHS) then let me know!
DVD has twice the resolution of VHS, which is mainstream there, but it's not "good enough" to be mainstream there. Get you head out of your koodo, man. You're not making any sense.
Not sure if this is the same issue - when I first got my Panasonic A110, I piped the video through the VCR and from there into my TV. Worked fine for about a week - then suddenly the video would start darkening dramatically, then returning to normal, every few seconds. Didn't realize at the time they've got the copy-protection stuff built in, to prevent you from daisy-chaining devices and making tapes of your DVDs. Rehooking the video-out to one of the other video-ins on the TV did the trick. Just a thought.
- http://www.wired.com/news/news/slashdot/technolog
y /story/22015.html
Why is "slashdot" in the link? The same story also appears at- http://www.wired.com/news/technology/story/22015.
h tml
This doesn't appear to be to avoid load, so is this just a way to count where people are coming from? If so, do you think there is any way we can find out what portion of their hits come from slashdot?Of course if enough people follow the stripped link I give, we will end up slashdotting their data to hell; lol
[Nelson]: Ha, ha!
Is this a hardware problem or is it the DVD itself?? You'd think they would know that they would be selling TONS of copies of this great movie, so they should have tested the damn thing in all environments. This shows a complete lack of thoughtfulness for the wide spectrum of people who would be buying this movie. And there is no spoon.
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"I'm not gonna say anything inspirational, I'm just gonna fucking swear a lot"
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I had problems with this on one of the first gen RCA players. I don't remember the model number of my player, but the player completely locked up. I reset the player and it played the scene fine. I've had the player for about a year now and figure I'll probably replace it in another year. These sorts of things happen early in the technology curve.
Greg Weeks
(:
--
The white rabbit stuff is wonderful, commentary and audio-only tracks are great, and the movie plays and searches nice and fast. For me, this is one of the best DVD's as far as features goes that I own! Haven't tested it in the PC DVD player yet, but the pioneer works great!
I own about 10 Criterion titles (about 1/3 of my DVD collection right now) and I must say, they produce some DAMN FINE discs.
Their release of "Armageddon" can't be beat, plus they do extra-cool stuff like director's cut editions of "Brazil" and "Robocop".
----
Life if possible, art at any cost.
I had the skipping problem with a DVD I rented once. I popped the sucker out and looked at it, and found it to be covered with fingerprints and scratches and stuff. I cleaned it up and tried
again and it worked fine. This is with my Sony DVP-S330 (I have a DTS/DD amp so I didn't buy a player with a decoder). I have played the normal and "White Rabitt" tracks on my Matrix disc so far, and had no problems. Maybe the disc was dirty or something? Or maybe that's where the
2nd layer kicks in and your player software can't
handle it...
Well, just got done watching The Matrix. Either I don't remember as much of the movie as I thought, or there weren't any playback problems. Hell, I couldn't even tell where the layer switch took place. The *only* complaint I have is that the closing credits were noticably distorted, and I think that's mostly due to the crappy, cheap-ass, coax-only TV I have (so the Panny A120 is coming in through the VCR). I suspect that if I got something decent, it'd display w/o many problems.
Hopefully others with the A120 have been having similar experiences despite the reports to the contrary.
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H.L. Mencken
I'm using Pioneer 6X SCSI DVD-rom, Hollywood + decoder (Win98 blech.....) Overall, it works flawlessly for me, both on-screen and out to the TV, but I noticed that when I have the main menu playing full-screen (SVGA @ 1024x768) I get these funky green noise/bars about 1" up the bottom of the screen... doesn't do it for TV-out, I suspect its a problem with the hardware, not the disc. Such is life in Windoze... I can't wait for Sigma to get off their asses and produce a linux-friendly card... The only reason I have windows is play games and watch DVDs... grumble grumble...
i don't get the white rabbit stuff at all.. ALL of the other features play fine on my creative dxr2 2x player.. the movie plays fine in this mode but no "white rabbit" ever shows up... is there any trick.. play it twice, you say?
Verunca from willy wonka: But daddy, I wanna follow the white rabbit NOW... verunca damnit this is the only problem i have and i have an OLD creative dxr2 and 2x player system..
THe only troubles that I have had on the Matrix DVD is when you are looking at the special features menu. If you choose the Cast & Crew option then the movie ends and you have to start over. Other than that everyting else works fine. I am using a Pioneer DVD-303S.
I have a JVC XV-511BK, and the only problem the Matrix DVD gives it is about a 10 second lag time on the top level menu. Playback was flawless.
Actually, the laserdisc is superior to the DVD video-wise. It is regularly mentioned in A/V magazines that the DVD compression loses a SMALL amount of quality. However, I don't think the laserdisc allows as many options, and I don't know about the audio side of things... Hence the DVD's greater success.
"Man has always been his own most vexing problem." --Reinhold Niebuhr, "The Nature and Destiny of Man"
UK TV is a better resolution than US, of course, and so are UK (Region 2 DVD)'s.
when idiots start telling that american TV has a much higher framerate (29.97 versus 25), think about this: What good will it do when all the movies are made in 35mm, 24 frames per second format anyway?
Does anyone know if anyone offers the service of selling me a legal copy of this on DVD and making me a copy to VHS so I can watch it already. I'm putting off buying a DVD player until the prices plunge a lil more but I don't want to wait until December to buy a VHS copy of the Matrix. Doesn't 'fair use' make it legal for me to buy a copy of my own DVD onto a VHS tape by someone who owns both and can do the copy for me?
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
I have a Creative 5x DVD drive with the dxr2 decoder card. When I play the
matrix DVD everything seems to work fine except for two things. While I am able
to start the movie by clicking on the "Follow the white rabbit" feature a white rabbit
never shows up. This happens in both the PCFriendly DVD player and the Creative
DVD player softwares. Also when playing the audio commentary track one of the
male voices is ridiculously soft. I played the DVD on my parents DVD player and
the voices were all fine. This problem was also in both DVD software players I
own. Can either of these problems be fixed?
Not quite ON topic I guess, but; Will The Matrix eventually be released on video? I get conflicting stories you see. One says "No", one says "it already is in the States", and the other says "It will, but not until the DVD has stopped selling real well".
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
I'd imagine the last one to be true myself.
And I,(this may be Flame Bait) don't want to get a DVD because I don't think theres's much of a future for it. Sorry!
Mong.
* Paul Madley
*...Slacker, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Remember: Nothing is Cool.
You are the average idiot the industry is seeking for. Which normal person can be happy to pay more for a laserdisc which has poorer sound and none special features at all.
Excuse me? I am the one here who is not willing to purchase a new player every eighteen months. For your information, the digital audio encoding on the LD is *identical* to the encoding on the DVD. See below about the special features.
Do you have DD 5.1?
My LD player supports that and has the digital outputs for when I decide to get a receiver that supports DD 5.1, and most of my discs have audio encoded in that format.
Do you have Special Commentary Track?
Do you have all the other Features?
Yes, The Matrix LD does have the commentary track as well as the behind the scenes documentary. It does not have the whole web site on it, but who cares about that?
No? Ok, then be happy with your overpriced LD and shut up.
The LD has superior packaging and *actually works* on every laserdisc player ever made, including the ones from the nineteen-seventies.
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
It is all because The Matrix requires a 10-bit dac instead of a 8-bit dac. I returned my DVD player b/c of it. No-one said that they are going to 10 bit.
Of the DVD's, I've had to have seven replaced for various and sundry problems (can anyone say "The Black Hole"?) and three were never acceptable from an artifacting standpoint (take a look at "The Best Years of Our Lives".) Don't try to say that I don't know what I'm talking about. I managed a movie theatre for many years and have projected many of the movies I own and have attempted to buy on DVD. I know what they look like. In several cases, I also own the LD version of the titles for which I could not get an acceptable version on DVD.
I'll say again, the potential for problems in DVD is significantly higher than LD.
I will also admit that I'm very picky. Things that drive me to distraction (artifacting and edge enhancement) don't bother many of my friends. But, they are coming from VHS and DVD is obviously better in that scenario.
* As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
I have a Sony DVP7000 and have had 0 problems.
Hey, just so you know. I have the same computer, 350 w/DVD, and I've been running OS 9, and the Matrix works just fine. Maybe they've fixed it a bit?
If you let the (rather cool) title page play all the way thru to the end, it loops to the middle of the title (skipping the opening title.) Problem is that when it loops for the second time, my Creative 6x/dxr3 card gets stuck at the end, (probably because of a strange looping / timing command.) The only way to fix it then is to totally reboot the computer.
Does this happen with other players/cards or is this a Creative only problem? (I'm on the latest revs.)
Also, the embeded DVD player gets messed up too easily. If you use it, don't touch the controls or it will seize up.
This feature is worth the price of the DVD alone. I wish other movies did this.
I tried it out on my machine which has a Hi-Val (Pioneer) DVD drive. The pc friendly thingy attempts to do a soft-DVD playback on the movie which causes the playback to be jittery and basically intolerable.
When I played it with the DVD player software from the ATI card, it worked fine, except that the 'special features' menu item did not work.
My copy's on its way from reel.com. It better work. I've seen some discs that wouldn't play properly (or had errors) when played on my old Magnavox, but they played just fine on my Sony.
I have an older Creative Labs Encore DXR2 DVD 2x.
It's up to Encore DXR3 with 6x DVD now, but the latest player and firmware for the 2x drive works FINE. I experienced no problems or choppiness while watching The Matrix on my CLabs DVD drive, and have had very few/no problems with it since their 3.0 player came out.
All the hidden features work, and are much easier to access with a mouse. I also have and recommend the Cambridge Soundworks 5:1 Digital Speakers, as they REALLY strut their stuff on the Matrix's AC-3 encoded sound.
Yeah Yeah, now would any of yo BJJ people like to go up against a top class Muay Thai fighter? Ha!
:)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
In a recent(ish) publicity event, ten of the worlds best Kung Fu Masters, met ten of the best Muay Thai Fighters. The results?
Nine of the Kung Fu people got knocked out in the opening round. The 10th Kung Fu guy submitted in the 2nd.
I'm not being all "My form is better than yours", but when you have to mess somebody up, Muay Thai is the weapon of choice
Now, if this isn't offtopic, I don't know what is!
Mong.
* Paul Madley
*...Slacker, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Remember: Nothing is Cool.
I have a 6x 3rd generation DVD player..
It jumped a few times in the movie and then the audio was off track a few times.. It really sucks..... but O well.. I really like the movie.
Chief Archer
Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to actually watch The Matrix yet. Luckily it's within the 30 days (been a week today since I got the DVD, a week tomorrow for the player), so I might have to take it back. I'll be watching this weekend to verify the (hopefully nonexistent) problems with my copy.
I'm really disappointed that there have been reported problems with this player, since it seems like it only came out a short time ago, and the reviews I read made it sound like it compared very favorably against higher-end DVD players.
It's even more distressing to hear that Enemy of the State is showing problems to. Is every DVD I want to get going to do this?
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H.L. Mencken
I own a Panasonic A-110 DVD player and had zero problems watching the movie (I think I've played it through at least 2 dozen times -- I might be a bit obcessed ;).
...).
;).
The video quality was always superb. The extra features/intro menu shows some mpeg artifacts, but to be quite honest there is SO MUCH STUFF crammed on this disc it was probably done so they could fit it.
The layer change appears to occure right after Morpheus and company begin their journey to see the oracle (the scene change between circling around the phone and leaving the building). It has to be one of the faster layer changes I've ever seen (which means they planned the layout of data rather well). The layer change took less than a second, where it normally takes between 2 to 5 seconds.
Not once in my viewing did I see a glitch. The audio never popped. The extra features all worked wonderfully (the follow the white rabbit feature is an interesting idea
The only problem I had was stuff in my room was rattling a bit too much during some scenes (I had the volume turned up to such a level that it could be heard 5 floors down, so that's to be expected -- one of these days I'll get the guts to turn my amp up past the 4th notch
The problem isn't with the DVD. The problem is with the players that won't play it. Alot of the "this is why DVD's will never catch on" and the "shoulda gotten a laserdisc" talk is like saying "windoze crashes too much, shouldn't have bought an AMD chip" and "damn, shoulda gotten a mac instead".
It's silly. DVD's are the best thing to happen to "home theatre" since VHS.
music in analog format sounds much better than the cold mechanical digital. Records (vinyl) has a much more warm natural tone.
If the "black bars" really bother you that much, many DVD players have an option you can change which will force the movie to be full screen. It's the same thing you'd get from most VHS movies. (The panasonic A110 does anyway)
:).
That'll work for you until you are able to afford a tv that looks like a mini-movie screen
My mom has a Dell Inspiron 7000 laptop with DVD and Lexonar HW decoder. when she tried to watch the disk, it wanted her to install PCFriendly, which she did. then, the DVD program that came with the laptop ceased working. put in any DVD, and the Dell player starts up but won't play the disk. even after "uninstalling" PCFriendly and re-installing the dell program, it still won't run properly. now she's got to use the PCFriendly player to watch any disk.
what a pain. Probably the only way to get it to work right again is to wipe the machine clean and use the rescue disk.
(btw, yes it runs Win98.)
Yea, there's that audio track... but there's also a third audio track (marked as English in the language selection menu) that is a music-only soundtrack. I haven't yet listened to it, tho. Anyone else listened to it? How is it?
Hmm. Music-only soundtrack with subtitles... could be interesting.
BTW, has anyone else had a problem with the Matrix DVD where the "White Rabbit" overlay for certain scenes where you're supposed to be able to jump to alternate views only shows up the second time it's been played while your player (or machine, in my case - I bought a Creative Dxr3 kit) is on? I don't think it's _supposed_ to be that way.
Sam: "That was needlessly cryptic."
Max: "I'd be peeing my pants if I wore any!"
I've found one problem, might just be my lack of attention span, but I just can't see the white rabbit during that special feature. I'm running a one year old Creative PC-DVD x5 as I recall.
Felix
I bought a RCA 5220 DVD player back in May or June or so, for about $280, and while it's not a high-end DVD player, it has played every DVD I've put in it without problem, including The Matrix. The only downside to this player is the same as any low-end player - it only has one laser, and may erase recordable CD's, but for the price, I've been very happy with it.
Here are the problems I've had with 'The Matrix' DVD:
/.ers really are...
1. People are buying it in droves even though it is a dreary martial arts film married to a bunch of warmed-over Gibson-esque ideas with a stylistic look that places it squarely in late 1987.
2. Cronenberg's 'eXisitenZ' was about a thousand times more intelligent, but practically no one who reads Slashdot will buy that DVD when it comes out - making one wonder just how smart
Iago
Are you on crack? Thats perhaps the best soundtrack for a movie I've ever heard. It may not be your cup of tea, but if you happen to like that style of music...it rocks.
Yes, is true. I month ago I bought the Yamaha C900 (DVD-Changer) and it won't play the Matrix and some chapters of the Record of Lodoss War (anime). I'm really pissed.
Considering what happened to DIVX, I wouldn't count on widespread consumer acceptance of Video-On-Demand as a substitute for retail purchases.
My wife and I just watched The Matrix and loved it. No problems on our player which is the only piece of AV equipment I own that will actually lock up and require me to unplug it to reset it.
This page has some hints for people with computer DVD players who are having problems: http://www.pcfriendly.co m/support/title/matrix/default.htm The PC Friendly people have been collecting information on problems in set-top players as well and say they'll keep people posted.
I'm still waiting for Linux to really support DVD Maybe this movie will get some momentum going in that direction?
Pardon me while I laugh at all of the folks who are dumping their entire Laserdisc collections on eBay to replace them with DVD's. I just got my LD copy of The Matrix which I expect to function flawlessly, just like my Star Wars LD's.
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
Unless you weigh your opinion 10x more than everyone else's!
that's my
y
+ cos y
for x = 7.5 and y = 2()
I've had just a couple minor oddities with my Dxr3 kit (one of which seems specific to "The Matrix")...
First of all, when I unpause while connected to a TV, the image tends to do one of 2 things: go black-and-white or get jittery. I can make the weirdness go away by flipping the video back to the PC display, then back to TV output. (Seems to happen when watching widescreen format movies only.)
Also, (more minor) when using the menus, the selection pointer will sometimes start out on something other than the first menu item, but if I press "Enter", it'll perform the action of the first menu item anyway.
The other one is specific to "The Matrix": The "White Rabbit" overlay that is supposed to show up in some scenes doesn't show up until I play the movie a second time. Is this intended, or is this really a bug?
Has anyone else experienced this? I'd just like to know if I'm mental, or what. (I did update the player software to the latest version from Creative's site.)
Sam: "That was needlessly cryptic."
Max: "I'd be peeing my pants if I wore any!"
I don't really want DVD either. for several reasons.
e o/pv_hd1000.htm
You still can't record simply on DVD and DVD can't play or record full HDTV. DVD can only hold about 18gigs of data max and you need more like 40+gigs for HDTV quality. Digital VHS can already record and play back all 18 ATSC digital formats, including all variations of HDTV and SDTV with 1080 active lines of resolution. And of course it is backward compatible to normal VHS. It will be several years until they create a new version of DVD that can hold that much let alone allow you to record too.
if you want to see one - panasonic makes a digital VHS player http://www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/vid
p.s. there is also the fact that the only non-hollywood movies that ever come out on dvd are porn (hummm? faux grunting and moaning in Dolby digital surround sound)
I think that ability has to be encoded into the data. And anamorphic
is one of those things that result in complaints.
I think.
Try Silat. It's brutal, effective, and efficient. Eye gouging is legal and encouraged. The Silat fighter will destruct any limb you are dumb enough to offer him. Arm bars are breaks, leg locks are breaks, and takedowns are breaks. It incorporates hard direct lines that are superior to the easy, flowing sport takedowns of BJJ, and destructions to disable the muay thai attack.
I have this running fine under WINDOWS NT. It also seemed to work under win9x.
Creative Encore 5x with Dxr3 and the latest drivers downloaded from Creative's web-site.
Somebody earlier on complained about not being able to avoid the installation of the PcFriendly software... perhaps that person was new to computers? I have been able to install, unintstall it, avoid the installation, and even play the disk with Creative's player instead.
If there are problems with the software DVD player, try with the DVD player that came with your hardware. Of course, you'll miss all of the cool features. Next, check your hardware manufacturer for updated firmware and software drivers. Also, have a look at the PC Friendly Matrix Help
Gateway owners, your drives might be Matsushita, so check out Panasonic.
BTW, if you want a good drive at a good price, and one that will work with NT, may I recommend Creative's PC-DVD Encore 5X DXR3 5Xdvd-ROM Drive DXR3 Decoder Board OEM starting at $128? The the slightly older drive is a faster CD-ROM than the newer model, but more importantly this comes with the newer decoder card. The NT drivers must be downloaded though.
I have had no problems on my JVC unit, but I can't seem to play Pulp Fiction or StarShip Troopers! Anyone else has a falty disk of either of those two? Mail me at bmccullo@gprep.org
-- From my Best Friend (Written to me over ICQ): "i was gonna go to a party...but i had to reinstall windows"
Many Laserdisc players have digital audio out these days. Laserdisc is returning to high-end models only, many of which play DVDs as well (without regions in some models! I'm assuming that this is because they are "Professional" models intended for reviewers and checking masters).
From my experience, most LDs are mastered *much* nicer than DVDs. Yes, the DVD format can support a technically superior image. But the studios are putting out DVDs that are inferior to the LaserDisc versions, in my consumer experience.
A big caveat here is that I am big into Science Fiction and Anime Fandom, so much of my knowledge of this is related to doing screen captures off of an RCA signal from six different DVD and Laserdisc players, and intensive examination of paused images. By and large, the Laserdisc media seems to be much better at answering "How many buttons does that character have on her shirt cuff" and other really anal questions. As an actual viewing experience (audio aside), I have no preference. And I use a big screen Sony monitor for a TV, so my output device is capable of demonstrating a difference.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
BJJ does kick butt.
support gun control: take guns from cops
works flawlessly on the dxr6.
oops. Proof that we all make mistakes, eh?
ln x
---- + cos y
y
for x=7.5 and y = 2() ; result in cents.
Same here. It works on my 7000.
--
I swear by MacOS X. Although I use to swear *at* MacOS 9...
If you have a Samsung DVD Player they are working on making a special upgrade chip that they say will fix the problem and that they will upgrade their dvd players for free! I do have a Samsung ;-(....and needless to say...after returning the DVD twice...i called samsung. I was the first person at Best Buy that day to get it...when i went back...they had sold all 120 copies (in about 4 hours). I had to go to another store...on to find out that DVD didnt work either...bummer...o well..guess ill have to wait for the chip to come out.
Kick Ass! I got a similar setup...
'cept Sony 5x DVD.
only problem i had was Win98 crashed on me cuz i started an Unreal(tm) window at the same time. (it was an accident, i was trying to open something else)
"Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair... Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy was he?"
and the only thing I noticed is that menu response is sluggish... but I can navigate it all... just sometimes it does not respond on the first try. still the movie is such fun to watch... Chris
I bought a Sony DVP-S330 for $288 including shipping from a company I found on Pricewatch. Circuit City had some Divx-disabled players for under $200, but I wouldn't touch one of them.
One thing to watch out for with DVD players is that many (including my Sony) won't play CD-R media, so custom audio and video CDs are out. You'll need to be very careful in buying a DVD player if that matters to you.
No one practices that shit because, well, you don't need to. It's not technique.
support gun control: take guns from cops
From what I gather, Muay Thai seems to be the best striking.
However, any striker who doesn't have any grappling abilities will simply get his ass kicked by almost any grappler; wrestling, BJJ, whatever.
Other thing no one mentions: striking arts are much harder on your body. Most strikers burn out or get injured long before grapplers do. Some of the shit muay thai guys do is basically self mutilating machismo (kicking tree trunks with your shins, etc.).
support gun control: take guns from cops
I have a Hitachi GD2000 and have no problems...just make sure your decoder is up to spec, I know there have been reported problems with ATI's Software player as well as XingDVD...
Cliff Palmer, Jr.
-Julius X
remove "-whatkindofspamdoyoutakemefor-" from email to send
I was definately pumped about watching the Matrix on September 18(note that it was supposed to be out on the Sept 21 :-) ) but was somewhat shocked by all of the skipping. Of course, me and my roomate studied the problem because this was the first time my Pioneer DVL 700(or is DLV?) did anything like this.
:-(
After somewhat extensive tweaking and studying, we basically boiled the problem down to one feature on the DVD: "Follow The White Rabbit". Everytime FtWR feature would kick in(even though you didn't play that program) the DVD would skip causing a lag in the audio. It doesn't matter which audio/video track you are listening/watching....it always happens in the same FtWR spots.
Since I could get the player to do anything about this, I had to come up with a work around. The best thing I could come up with is just after the skipping, just backup the video a little bit. By seeking like this, it resyncs the audio and video. Not perfect, but unless I get a new player this is what has to be done to watch it. *sigh*
Makes me wish I bought the LD instead.
You have to hold down CTRL-Apple-I
:(
:)
but I had already returned it at that stage
I tried it on three different DVD players and it ranged from not working at all to freezing at certain points in the movie to crashing if I access the PC options.
And why the heck would someone put windows options on it only? >:(
What's really annoying if you check some of the boards WB are keeping quiet about it, and other people have claimed it's peoples DVD players are not up to date (but mine is only 2 months old!!).
Other things I didn't like was the quality of the movie was grainy and Ms Moss freaked my head out in the commentary I got the impression she was speaking from across the room in a whisper.
For an excellent movie they really messed it up.
I seem to see parallels with this and MP3 and SDMI. Basically they want you to upgrade your machine so you can watch thier movie.
This sort of Stunt M$ have been pulling for years.
ARGH....
my Apple G3 350 with DVD can't play it at all...
evil plot of the evil empire?
Yes it will, you have to hold control during the DVD startup, it just won't have any of the special features available. I think there are more details at some of the Mac sites... But it IS possible to play it.
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
I have watched all of the features, including a second audio track that plays along with most of the movie. Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity) and the editor and someone else comment scene-by-scene about making the movie. It's OK.
There is a much cooler "Making of the Matrix" feature that shows their martial arts training and all kinds of interviews.
I think the worst thing was that shitty DVD-player software they try to install on your machine. The interface sucks, and it locked up on me twice, I promptly uninstalled it and used the standard Compaq DVD software to play it with very little problems. I did notice a few 'flashframes' and times when the framerate seemed to slow.
Don't be silly, Run Lola Run had the best soundtrack ever, unless you count rock concert movies, and then it would be Stop Making Sence.
I have a Hitachi GD-2500 DVD-ROM and a Diamond Viper 550 AGP. The DVD software (Zoran SoftDVD) won't play all the movie. Cycles back the beginning after the "There is no spoon" chapter, and even if you select the next chapter from the menu, it still sends you right back to the beginning.
Using the PCFriendly software that comes on the DVD will let me see the entire movie, but the aspect ratio is scrogged. The letterbox border is still there, but the people are still tall & thin, like they'd been "formatted for your TV".
Last gripe, sometimes the movie "skips". Don't know what else to call it, but it seems like the video analogy to when I hit a bump in the road and my CD player jumps. (yeah, it's a cheap system. I'm a student...)
Still a great movie, despite the bugs.
I am a man of const int sorrows
In the 'real world', survival depends more on the figher than the art. Ever hear the saying "It's not the man in the fight, but the fight in the man? It's true.There is no such thing as an 'ulimate' martial art - it's a myth. Different arts have different uses.BTW - anyone can beat a grappler (even BJJ) with two simple (messy) techniques:1. Get close (the grappler's strategy) then either a. stick your finger into his eye socket. Stop when you reach the second knuckle b. put your face next to his head. Bite ear. Push away.Why do you think eye gouges and biting are outlawed in the UFC?
Had a couple of friends over to watch the movie last weekend. No problem on my inexpensive RCA player (one of the newer models though)
I do have occasional problems with Apollo 13 - in that occasionally the Player can not decode the disk, but I just keep pressing play until the "magic" works.
In illa quae ultra sunt
seems it's hardly possible to get a DVD player for less than US$500
that hasn't had problems reported. (I'm considering the approx.
US$500 Denon unit.) Plus I have a "plain ol' TV" (not widescreen), and
many of the releases don't include 4:3 format. (Call me an idiot if
you will, but I strongly dislike the "black bars" at the top & bottom
of the screen.)
So while I have a pretty good 5.1 HT setup from an audio standpoint,
the video part may have to wait a while. And I guess I'll be stuck
with DPL audio, as well.
At least until the whole DVD picture improves. (Pun intended.)
>with two simple (messy) techniques:
How about one.
1. Shoot opponet with 9mm gun.
2. (Optional) Run away before opponet's friends come.
I always do 2. but thats why I'm an Anonymoous Coward.
The Criterion Collection is released by a company (Criterion) that specializes on high quality transfers of films to DVD often with alot of extras. they started doing tis for Laser Disc and are now doing it for DVD. They are not doing anymore LDs and IIRC are stopping production of their LD becuase they feel that LD has been supersceded by DVD.
There web site is here.
IIRC, I've seen Sony DVD players mentioned more often than any other
in conjunction with lip-sync problems.
ARGH....
my Apple G3 350 with DVD can't play it at all...
evil plot of the evil empire?
--- GnorpH
I have a Panasonic DVD A112 and The Matrix (which has taken almost permanent residence) works flawlessly.
I tried playing it on a Toshiba player at my College and it refused to load at all. Nothing. I read the manual and it includes double sided DVDs in what you can play, but does not refer to dual layer at all, for better or for worse. (The DVD states that it is dual layer and that it may pause for a second when switching between layers, something it has never done.Well, lemme put it this way, I have no clue where the switch occurs...). It also states that DVD ROMs are not compatable. The Matrix does include a DVD ROM portion, so maybe that has something to do with it?
Or maybey this the counter attack of the Machines, tring to blunder the plight of the resistance...
;-P
I have a Panasonic DVD-A300 and it works flawlessly on it.
I have a 5.1 output sony on my surround sound system in the living room...no fuzz, no skip perfect execution...in fact the processor load readout shows that its only using about 50% of the capability...hell "replacement killers" tended to hit 60-70% at times. I did take it over for kicks and try it on a divx a friend has...it was bad skippy and smeared and was aweful...so thats probably where the problems are. Took it to town and played it on a DVD pc demo unit to see if I wanted the DVD yet...worked good there too...it was a noname dvd drive hooked to a manchine with a tnt 2 in it.
PC Friendly, http://www.pcfriendly.com offers support for any problems related to playing The Matrix. Their support number is 408-436-6709 is open from 8:00AM to 7:30PM PST. They will provide support for both PC and Apple and are also as an added service are keeping those with home systems up to date on fixes to the players. On the home players: Currently Zenith is the only one with a fix. Samsung was also quick to respond and is working on a fix. Sony and Pioneer have requested customers contact them directly. Many of the PC Decoders are also working on fixes some of which are in testing now. Apple is also updating the Apple DVD player (version 1.3) and the update should be available soon. Hope this helps. FuzzyArt fuzzyart@hotmail.com
Thats it! The pc did not have video out of course cause it went direct to pc screen, and my entertainment system with sony player has 5.1 out...therefore removing the need to use a switchbox or macro-remover...the divx I used of course was not 5.1 :).
Check out The Digital Bits. They covered this a few days ago, and they're an excellent source for DVD information.
or get a DVD player with a zoom feature - do it yourself "formatted to fit your screen". My Toshiba has zoom and you can move it around with the d-pad, great for checking out the details in some movies ;-)
(and the fact that they don't degrade with every playback is a nice bonus)
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
I have a Panasonic 120. I was surprised to see it in the list of players that were having trouble.
release date is October 19th... must you be a stupid 'intellectual'? Why raise this point?
Then, what was with the bizarre "christian" imagery: "trinity", the messaianic nature of Neo. None of that makes any sense. What a muddled movie.
support gun control: take guns from cops
It works.
:) DVD player instead. The VGA loopback cable / Dxr3 card causes a slight blurriness of the picture (on the monitor). Also I had a problem with interference when viewing on the TV. Personally I think PC-DVD players are great if you want to watch DVDs on your PC monitor but not worth it if you want to watch on a TV (there's just too much RF inside the PC case). (Plus it doesn't come with a remote! - I prefer to watch movies sitting on a couch.)
I decided to take the plunge and get a DVD player when The Matrix came out on DVD. I got the CL PC-DVD 6x dxr3 and tried it out.
I noticed that the menu buttons didn't line up properly with the mouse pointer, so that clicking on a button would actually select the previous button.
I also occasionally had the the CL player software freeze up just before entering 'menu mode', this happened a few times.
My $0.02 follows:
Anyway, I returned the PC-DVD player because I've decided to get a (real
$: shield --enable
Yeah Yeah, now would any of yo BJJ people like to go up against a top class Muay Thai fighter? Ha!
:)
In a recent(ish) publicity event, ten of the worlds best Kung Fu Masters, met ten of the best Muay Thai Fighters. The results?
Nine of the Kung Fu people got knocked out in the opening round. The 10th Kung Fu guy submitted in the 2nd.
I'm not being all "My form is better than yours", but when you have to mess somebody up, Muay Thai is the weapon of choice
Now, if this isn't offtopic, I don't know what is!
Mong.
I've seen people watch Muay Thai Kickboxers and turn to me and say 'Why is he standing so funny? I'd just punch him in the stomach... he has no guard base' And after I stop laughing I inform them that punching a Muay Thai fighter in the stomach is just a really fast way of commiting suicide... I whole heartedly agree that Muay Thai is the meanest and quite likely most effective fighting style if you want to break someone in half... Capoeira on the other hand is a FAR prettier style, and I've seen a couple of Capoeiristas that could dismantle a Thai Kickboxer in seconds... Those guys are pretty damn brutal too.
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
You've forgotten one important human factor in your analysis. While having the ability to see on-demand any movie ever made is "better" from the strictly utilitarian point of view, DVDs allow one to amass a collection that can then be used to impress other people. It's the urge to collect and accumulate that on-demand can never satisfy. Lots of people like to invite people into their viewing area, and watch the look on their face when they see their "wall of videos" that stretch from ceiling to floor.
That difference between "being able to watch it anytime I want" and "OWNING it" is what will keep DVD and successor technologies quite profitable.
Entshuldigung Sie, bitte...
sorry about that. I was trying to put forth an effort, and worked it out in my head. Be sure I won't try _that_ again...
Insert mind here.
Your movies are going to take up a LOT of space. Your kids are going to laugh at your collection. Come on and join DVD. Your LD tech is dead. How do you watch an LD on your computer? How can you transfer your digital movies to the NEXT standard??
I have an older Encore Kit that I bought last summer.. it works great! no problems.
I have an IBM Thinkpad 570 with the ultrabase/dock
and the DVD player for that has no problems at all... now the movie Sneakers, thats another
story...
I returned my matrix DVD about 1 hour after I put it in my PC.
(toshiba 6X, p2/500, xentor32, xing).
I put the new one in and the same thing happens.
I'm going to pick up a sigma hollywood card in a few hours,
but...
This is something else.
there are TOO many people having problems with this disk.
What do we do?
Do we return it for good, and wait a few months for them to get it right?
Do we bug them until we get them replaced with disks that work?
Lets face it, they know how to make DVD's,
what happened here?
Don't try to innovate, just give us a disk that works for everyone!
Wrong.
In reality, copy-protection often screws over the legitimate customer. Macrovision makes my TV roll, making certain movies unwatchable on my bedrrom TV. I can't route my DVD through my VCR (I only have 1 set of A/V inputs on my TV) without the VCR judging me to be a pirate and washing out my signal even when I'm not recording. So I have to buy a switchbox even though I really don't need one. Also, I am for some reason, FORCED to have my DVD player hacked to watch Japanese movies that I LEGITIMATELY PAID FOR.I just wanna watch movies. Why is the technology being deliberately used to screw over the honest consumer? Maybe it doesn't happen often, but if it happens even once to the honest guy, that's once too much. From the look of things, though, it happens a lot more often than that.
Hey hollywood! Where's your solution?
Hope it works flawlessly on this Hitchachi GD2500 -adnans
"In short: just say NO TO DRUGS, and maybe you won't end up like the Hurd people." --Linus Torvalds
Toshiba 6x w/ 32Meg G400, Hollywood+ decoder, SB Live and Cambrdige Soundworks Desktop Theatre 5.1... Not a single problem...
I have no problems in my CL Drx3. However, the PC freindly stuff realy sux.
this may be off-topic, but my thoughts are, if DVD _is_ going to progress and be a technology that stays with us [permanently], I'm just going to wait, myself, until they improve the DVD players and push the technology to its farther limits so that I won't have to upgrade my equipment all the time, and I'll suffer less problems this way with DVDs. The other thing is, this plan works based on the theory of backwards compatibility (which I felt like mentioning, even though it wouldn't be an issue here), and on the idea that the technology will improve, become more wide-spread, and become less expensive which all adds up to equal more incentive to buy DVD. I know that a lot of computers now come with standard DVD drives, but, alas, I missed out on that one. Even so, that's just my $f(x)=1/x, where x=5.
Insert mind here.
One word:
Snowcrash
Actually, I don't really think this is a big deal at all. It certainly won't affect the future of DVD. From reading the article, it seems this is much like older CD players not being able to read CD-RW discs, and I'm pretty sure that CD is still a viable media.
Umm, you want to invest in AVC(Analog Video Cassettes) because it has a future.
DVD is really booming.
It's not the last format ever, but it is the replacement for AVC's(for playback).
The NEXT format/media will most likely still be digital. It's going to be fairly easy to transfer my DVD movies to that format(unlike your AVC's)
I have a Memorex 6x DVD drive and am using WinDVD v1.2 software decoder and i think it skipped for a second once during the movie which is very good for using software and I cant even enable DMA access on the DVD-ROM.
Actually you can get a remote for the PC based DVD kits. Go to the Remote Selector site. Works great, not only does it allow you to use a remote, but it also removes macrovision, lets you change regions an infinite number of times and switch between PAL and NTSC.
Q.
The only prob I've had with my copy of the matrix is that it has a skip during the menu. The original problems I've encountered is between 3com's diagnostic protocol on my 3c905BTX net card and my dxr3/encore 6x. Trying to play with the diagnostic prot enable locked up my machine *Ever* time. Disabling it has made the movie play w/o a hitch ever time.
Nick Lange nick.lange@SPAMTASTIC.hushmail.com
Some Blockbusters already rent DVDs and will have DVDs available in most/all of its US stores by the end of this year. Click here for more info.
My VHS player I bought a few years ago still plays the tapes I recorded back in the mid-80's just fine. I can put it in the oldest or the newest VHS VCR and it works flawlessly. Picture varies of course but all the "features" work. I definitely am not touching a DVD player until they have a $300 version that does realtime encoding and burning of a DVD and sticks to the standards. If I can't tape off my DSS to it then it is not worth the money. I'll stick with a high end VCR.
With LD, I never had to watch the disc as soon as I got it. With DVD, I have to watch the whole damn thing immediately to see if it has to be returned.
I've had to return a much larger percentage of DVD's than I ever had to with LD.
Oh well, maybe they'll get it right (and stop remixing old soundtracks and stop digitally enhancing black and white movies) sometime in the next 5-10 years.
* As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
Just note, most movies in 4:3 format on VHS have been mutilated. ie. You are not getting the whole movie. Think of it as the left and right sides of the picture being "censored". I like my widescreen... I want to see everything! If you want to rid yourself of those lines, get a 16:9 TV.
I have a Creative DVD on my win98 box. I popped Matrix in as soon as I picked it up. Then spent an hour of anger and frustration getting it to run.
First, instead of playing the movie, the 'autoplay' "feature" launched a setup program. The program insisted installing PC Friendly(!) software I neither needed or wanted on my machine. I looked in vain for any way to bypass this step and just watch the ^%&*( movie, but every road lead me back to the install program.
Fine, so I finally gave up and let it start installing what it wanted to. THEN it notified me that I did not have a new enough version of IE, (I didn't have ANY version, I had spent a lot of time and effort getting rid of it). Before I went any further it offered/insisted/threatened to install it for me. Again, there was no way to avoid this if I wanted to see the movie.
NEXT, the setup complained about my Creative DVD drivers, and told me I would have to uninstall the old drivers and player, and install the new version they had so thoughtfully included on the DVD.
FINALLY I was ready to watch the movie (was it worth it?), but I still have problems with their poorly designed interface, and a mouse that registers clicks about 150 pixels below the menu button I clicked on, whick ended up being the next menu item down. This lead to a lot of confused and angry clicking through the damn buttons that were not taking me where they said they were, before I figured out the problem.
So now the movie runs, but I am no longer in any mood to watch it (on the other hand, seeing things blown up and shot may be just what I need).
Since when did watching a DVD turn into an IQ test? What does this say about life when every appliance in your house will be TCP/IP enabled?
"Honey, I finally got the new toaster installed, I had to download new drivers from toast.com and then flash the firmware. Just don't try to adjust the darkness, or it will crash."
I have a Philips DVX 8000 which is a hybrid computer/DVD ROM player and line doubler AV controller. This box is notorious for not liking certain DVDs.
The Matrix DVD was almost flawless. There are a few places on the disk where the MPEG video screws up and it backs up a couple of seconds, but no hangs.
The software on the DVD cannot play the DVD, but that's not surprising given that the player has some rather special hardware (a very custom graphics adapter, for example).
I have a problem where it jumps out of the audio commentary track after each chapter, but I have this problem with other DVDs as well (i.e. Godzilla).
I love the fact that they include a separate audio-only track. I wish more DVDs would do this. Also, the white rabbit sequences are quite cool.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
I was calling a best buy last week and instead of putting me on hold, a clerk just put the handest on the counter. I heard someone (maybe a manager) tell him about the matrix problem, and from what I could tell, they would offer to exchange the affected dvd players for newer models that don't have that problem. Of course, don't quote me on this, because while I was trying to listen someone kept making announcements over their paging system. But if you bought your dvd player from best buy and you can't play the matrix, it might at least be worth a call.
I only had one problem with my DVD. During the scene where they're going to see the oracle in the "Follow the White Rabbit" mode. The video started getting digital "noise" and the sound started flaking out, to the point that I had to stop the movie. However, I'm not so sure it's the player's fault, and I watched over the scene again (not in that mode) with no problems. Other than that, the movie is flawless. The special effects extras are worth the price of the movie alone.
Anybody have any problems using The Matrix DVD in their computer? My friend has an Encore DXR 6x, I think, and I was thinking about getting this as a present for him. Will it work?
Anyone notice most of those players with the problems were NOT first generation but actually a _LOT_ of 3rd and 4th generation players? A lot of those players JUST CAME OUT.
Or most of my other DVD's. One or two don't have CSS, and I can play them (SLOWLY) with NIST.