best dvd player that can override authoring restrictions? (1 Viewer)

[Eric_Connelly]

I had a Samsung HD931 before the Yamaha and thought its PQ was outstanding.

The Yamaha is even above it in quality by quite a bit. Its still a DCDI but there is alot more clarity and the remote isn't a nightmare to use like the Samsung.

 

[Ronn.W]

Meant to update this earlier. I didn't use a Paramount title, I didn't need to. I put in another flick I was going to review, and the preview was forced. No way around it. Arg.

 

[Reginald Trent]

I forgot to mention that I also have a Zenith DVB 318 DVD player that upconverts to 720p & 1080i thru both component and DVI outputs. It also skips adds and menus going straight to the beginning of movies.

 

[Allan Jayne]

1. No problems of this kind with my large laserdisk collection, fast forward always works.

2. Could Stacy Spears make notes in his shootout reviews of which players have better skipping around this problem?

3. A good incentive to, if possible, make a copy of each DVD you own, just the movie.

4. Perhaps this forum could support a data base where members report back on movie titles that have the problem to help others decide which to buy.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Reginald Trent]

Maybe the admins could make it a sticky. BTW has anybody bought or tried out the Zenith DVD player yet?

 

[george kaplan]

That would be the perfect solution, except for the fact that it would be too expensive and take too long to do that for all 1407 titles in my collection. :frowning:

I did buy a Zenith at CC (hell it was only $50), and it does auto play the difficult titles. On the other hand, it seems to be freezing up occasionally while playing dvds, the picture is off-center, and for tv shows, while it will go directly to the longest episode, it doesn't act favorably if you try to get to another episode. For example, on Star Trek:TNG, hit menu, and instead of going to the selection menu, it goes back to the stuff you skipped in the first place. :frowning: It's also, feature-wise and quality-wise, what you'd expect for a $50 player.

Ironically, my cp-72 (which was a 5 disc player) recently died, so now I'm scrambling more than ever to find a player I'm happy with.

Why the hell someone can't make a good ($200-$600+) dvd player that skips the crap, is beyond me.

 

[Reginald Trent]

George,

All you have to do once the DVD starts playing is hit title on your remote. The player should take you to the title screen so that you can choose episodes, set-up, chapters, etc and you're good to go. You may also have a bad unit if it's freezing unless your DVD have fingerprints on them.

 

[george kaplan]

Unfortunately, not true. If you have one of the Star Trek: TNG tv discs, and you try that, it does not take you back to the menu, but rather to an unskippable introduction of the various characters which you just have to wait out (the same intro that would hit a player without autoplay). Yes, this gets skipped by the player as it jumps to the longest episode, but not when you hit title or menu.

Now, there is a workaround, where you can jump to the last chapter, and then at that point fast-forward to the end, and at that point some flag is set, and you can then get to the proper menus. But that fast-forwarding still takes a while, and the whole workaround isn't any faster than waiting for the damned intro you're trying to skip in the first place. :frowning:

If you don't have any of those discs, go to a video store and rent one, and you'll see what I'm saying.

 

[Reginald Trent]

George,

Hit stop once the movie begins then hit menu or title. That should get you to the title, set up, screen.

 

[george kaplan]

Nope, doesn't work. Remember, we're talking about one of these obnoxious Paramount titles that got me so frustrated in the first place. If you stick in a TNG tv disc, it will start playing the longest episode. If you hit stop, then title/menu, it goes back to the damned unstoppable floating heads intro.

If you rent one of these discs, I'm willing to bet that you won't be able to find a simple and quick way to get from one episode to another without getting that stupid intro.

 

[Reginald Trent]

George,

I don't own any Star Trek, what is a TNG tv disc? Maybe I can rent one and test it on my player.

 

[george kaplan]

Star Trek: The Next Generation television show. There were seven seasons, each with multiple discs, but I'm sure you should be able to rent just a single disc (which contains 4 hour long shows). I'm 99.999999% certain this would happen on any of them, but the ones I was testing it on were from season 3.