Does PC Friendly Software Prevent DVD Playback on Some Players (1 Viewer)

[Collin_C]

Hi,

I'm new here. I tried searching for information on this issue but was unable to find anything pertinent to my situation. Forgive me if I've erred in that judgment.

I have a Mitsubishi DD-3000 (model number XR-W90A) DVD player which has had increasing trouble playing new titles we purchase or which we rent from Blockbuster Video. At first I thought this was a matter of faulty or damaged / dirty media, but I have now confirmed that these DVDs play on my PCs' DVD players. All of the titles which will not play on the DVD player try to install PC Friendly InterActual software on the PCs.

The DVD player responds to the insertion of one of these discs by starting, but not completing, the loading process. The player simply halts part of the way through the loading process and locks up. It will not respond to ANY control on the remote control or on the front panel of the player. The only way to remove the DVD disc from the player at this point is to interrupt power to the player by unplugging it, reinserting the plug, and immediately hitting the open/close button.

Would anyone here happen to know if my surmise is correct? Any suggestions you can send my way will be appreciated. I have tried contacting Mitsubishi, but the people I have talked with so far have not provided any useful information whatsoever -- not even a simple confirmation that the player is obsolete. No information whatsoever. They even gave me the phone numbers for three local service centers that are supposed to service their DVD players. When I contacted them, all three of these service centers informed me that they don't service DVD players!!! Is Mitsubishi really this badly organized, or is mine simply a non-representative experience?

- Collin

 

[Phu Vo]

First off, Welcome to the forum!
PC Friendly does not stop standalone DVD players from playing DVD content. But most likely, these DVDs that you are trying to play, will never play in your player. The reason for this is that early players, like yours, were pushed out to the market while most DVD disc standards hadn't yet materialized in consumer form. Compatibility testing was never done with DVD-9, DVD-18 formats because they were simply not available at the time. This is a common problem with older players. You are most likely going to have to upgrade. Thankfully, DVD player prices have dropped considerably in the last year and a half.

 

[Collin_C]

Thank you for that information and for your response! I'm glad to have found this place. It appears to be a quite remarkable resource. I have little knowledge of home theater, having just wandered into a store one day about three years ago and purchased a Toshiba Cinema Series large screen TV, the Mitsubishi DVD player, a Yamaha receiver and a set of 5 Paradigm speakers with a Definitive subwoofer to add to the Toshiba LD player that we already had. Since we're not very sophisticated about this stuff we've been quite happy with it!

I'm afraid I've been guilty of a little misdirection, due to looking at the back of the wrong component! Doh! Old eyes and cramped spaces behind the system rack made for a case of mistaken identity. I should have wondered why the DVD player would have two different model numbers! As you have rightly determined, the XR-W90A model number is for our Toshiba Laser Disc player. The Mitsubishi DVD player (purchased in 1998) is indeed a DD-3000.

Since posting my previous message I have been able to finally get through to Mitsubishi Consumer Relations who were a bit more helpful than my original contacts in the support department. I am now armed with a list of possible service centers that may be able to provide a firmware upgrade -- or so this most recent contact suggested.

This contact also confirmed what you have said about the PC Friendly software probably not being responsible for the issues I'm experiencing. He said that the player's inability to read these DVDs is because of changes in encoding and compression used in creating the DVDs.

So, maybe a firmware upgrade will do it, or maybe I'll just have to get another player. Funny that it has done so well on so many recent DVD titles...

Thank you very much for your help.

- Collin