I suspect it has a higher quality drive. My 80 gig non backwards compatible console can play through those problematic Universal double sided disc with virtually no issues, where as every dedicated DVD player I've ever played them on struggled with them.
It's an expensive system and disc...
That's nonsense, most companies don't sell directly to their customers and it's hardly an excuse. Would be like calling up Nintendo for warranty support on a game console bought from a Wal-Mart and being refused since Nintendo doesn't have a chain of stores nationwide selling their products or a...