Analysis on HD DVD Combo discs - Page 3

Originally Posted by Paul.S

Kevin et al.:

FWIW I'd like to post word of a Combo anecdote involving Eastern Promises.

A "Black Friday" circular coupon (valid through 1/20/08) for a free high def rental took me into my local Hollywood Video recently. They just started renting HD DVD and BD; the copy of Promises I rented was near-pristine.

Upon inserting into my HD-XA2 (updated to f/w 2.5 which I understand is not the latest; 2.7 is) the display flashed "LOADING" (and "1080i," the max rez of my display) for the better part of 5 minutes. No responsiveness to button presses on the remote or player. Lots of drive movement sounds indicating the player was attempting to read the disc. Powered down by holding down the On/Off button; disconnected power cord until red light around On/Off button went off.

Powered up; display started flashing "LOADING" again; pressed "Open/Close" shortly after blue light at bottom of front of player illuminated, which I presume means power up cycle is complete. Several beats before disc eject, with error message on screen stating (paraphrased) 'Disc Error - This Disc Is Not DVD Format.'

Removed the disc; ran it under warm water and wiped gently with soft cotton bath towel in radial line from center to edge. Reinserted; same flashing (only now "HDMI" flashed as well, indicating that perhaps I did not have handshake on first attempt) but for shorter period of time. Display finally read "HDDVD," but playback would not commence after pressing "Play" on remote or player.

Ejected. Standard def side plays fine on both the XA2 and a Pio 563A SD DVD player.

I had an HD-D1 from August 2006 to August 2007. Got the XA2 in September 2007. Have been purchasing and renting HD DVDs for that entire period. I have heretofore avoided Combos due to the 'bad press' online. This is my first Combo experience. I have never experienced this kind of player behavior before with either of my HD DVD players, even with more visibly scratched Netflix HD DVD rentals.

I'd send you the disc but, again, it was a (very clean, new) rental.

I'm sure I'm not the only one here who appreciates the attention this matter is receiving, but who also would be interested in--and respectfully requests-- some kind of summary of your findings being posted here a few weeks after the imminent close of this HTF-involved part of your Combo testing.

Originally Posted by Paul.S

I was pushed for time late on the night of attempted viewing, trying to get the movie started early enough to return the disc before a midnight return deadline. That's the only reason I bent one of my own standing 'rules' to update f/w before spinning newer titles. Having said that, there's no advanced content (U-Control) on Promises. Or does Web-enablement require the loading of content that a non-Web-enabled disc wouldn't involve, even if you're not accessing the Web-enabled features?

Again, it was a Hollywood Video rental so I won't be able to send in the disc. However, when the title bubbles up to the top of my Netflix Queue, I will certainly by then have upgraded to 2.7. Should this thread still remain open (and I would recommend that that be the case, such that people can continue to post their experiences with Combo titles even if the exchange program is over), I will post word of how the disc behaves.

Paul

Originally Posted by Mr.T

Hello Kevin, I'm holding a bad copy of "The Getaway" in my hands. It has a circular scratch on the data side. When I opened the cover the disc was correctly sitting on the spine, no sign of a transport damage. My theory is that it's a case of a manufacturing problem, something on the line seems to scratch the disc. I'd like to send you the package to take a look and hopefully you can track back on which line/machine it was processed, and the cause eliminated.

Here I have 2 photos of the disc (sorry the forum software won't let me posting correct links):

http :// misc.h-plus-t.com/getaway.jpg
http :// misc.h-plus-t.com/getaway_dataside.jpg (scratched side)

Originally Posted by Tina_H_V

And, like Lonny, I am curious as well in learning of any findings from those discs which were submitted.