Rental DVD freezes, but not in DVD drive (1 Viewer)

[Tim_Stonesifer]

I recently rented Shrek and it froze up many times and pixelized a lot. Earlier posts suggest that this is caused by smudging on the disc itself. When I asked a friend about this, he said that there was dust or contamination in the player. Could this be the cause, and if so how would I clean the dvd player? Also, I played the disc in my DVD drive on my computer and it played fine. Is there something different about a drive that allows it to read better? Thanks.

 

[Selden Ball]

Tim,

Different players by different manufacturers do handle discs differently. Some are much better at recovering from errors than others. Also, did you try the disc back in your standalone player after playing it in your computer drive? There might have been dust on the disc that came off while going from one location to the other.

However, the symptoms do suggest that your main player needs cleaning. There are some "CD Cleaning" discs which might do the job. It shouldn't hurt your player to try one of them. Otherwise, I'd suggest taking it to a repair shop.

 

[Dave Nibeck]

Rental dvd's almost always need cleaning. I simply run them under some water and wipe dry with a t-shirt.