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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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- 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
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
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.
Im a big fan of DVD, i have a PC DVD ROM drive (the only 2 things win98 is good for is games and DVDs) and a Sony DVD player for my TV.
Ive never used LD, but I have to say that LDs often have commentry tracks and other special features found on DVD. In fact alot of DVDs are just copies of the LDs. On several of my DVDs (for instance on Phantasm and on Criterion's Brazil commentary tracks the director mentions doing the commentary "for this laser disc")
LDs have an analogue sound track which, depending on your A/D hardware and the type of encoding on the DVD may or may not sound better than the DVD. I have a friend hwo has both DVD & LD who swears that his LDs sound alot better than DVD.
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.
on video november 21st
Check out The Digital Bits. They covered this a few days ago, and they're an excellent source for DVD information.
I wish other movies did this.
Some do.
Blade and Pleasantville come to mind.
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
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.
Like I said I was just repeating what my friend said. My only point was YMMV.
Personaly I take the digital out form my DVD player and pipe it through my Theta Colbalt D/A box and from there to my Linn amp. I don't even have a "receiver". It sounds pretty good to me.
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.
go to Mac Fixit.
There's been a lot of coverage on the Mac sites because apparently, the company making this formatted it as an ISO disk instead of UDF.
There's a way around the problems if you go to their site and look it up.
PPoE
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.