Rental DVD Discs (1 Viewer)

[Jay Foster]

Hi everyone,

I am considering upgrading my DVD Player. I have a couple of concerns:

1. Rental discs. Invariably, they are scratched or have been mishandled and I'd like a DVD Player that can handle these problems.

2. DVD Etc. reviewed a Phillips DVD Player with the Farjouda (spelling is probably wrong) chip that apparently helps picture quality. Has anyone used this DVD Player? And if Farojoda is the top chip, why don't I just buy this DVD Player (I've seen one for sale on the internet) instead of another type? Is this chip really going to make a differnce versus my current Pansonic RV42?

 

[Jay Foster]

Hey,

Can someone please reply to this?

 

[Jack Briggs]

Jay, the Faroudja chipset is an innovative, revolutionary product and the Philips player is fine. Various DVD players interact with scratched, mishandled DVDs differently. Some do it better than others. Avoid playing discs that appear to have been cracked, as they could cause physical harm to a player. As for scratched discs, if the player can read them in the first place the next conceivable issue would be: Does the extended employment of a machine's error-correction circuits shorten its useful lifespan? ("Gentlemen, get out your sliderules!")

 

[Jay Foster]

Hi,


Thanks for your reply. Any idea on how the Philips handles scratched discs from Blockbuster?

 

[Jack Briggs]

Sorry, but someone who owns that machine will have to chime in. I am sure it will handle such discs well; newer machines seem better able to read "problem discs" than earlier generations—again, some better than others. Try to clean the rental discs of any fingerprints or other smudges. If a certain disc looks as if it has been used as a coaster or a surrogate Frisbee, simply don't play it. (Inspect the discs while you're still in the video store.)