It could still be the disc, it might have encoding errors that cause problems on some players but not others. I have a couple of R2 discs with a slightly corrupted mpeg data stream that crash one of my Philips players*, but play fine on the PC.
*It seems to accumulate the errors up to the point where it freezes, incidentally about 20 mins too... Play the disc from 10 mins in, and it crashes at 30 mins...
It may be intended. I recall discussions on this 'technology' (sic) in the electronics trade press some time ago and I presume somebody may have decided to use it.
Wouldn't have thought they'd kybosh just one disc. Sounds like a genuine fault. Can you download the files onto your PC hard disc and see if they play from there or register as corrupt.
No reason why it should unless the disc is faulty or there is something wrong with the player.
Not sure I follow that logic. Surely they suggests it *is* likely to be the DVD?
The disc could be marginal - the scene in question having a higher error rate. Sometimes the players error correction manages to sort it out, sometimes it does not. You may also find some players are repeatably more reliable than others.
(remember that every time the laser reads the DVD data, there is no guarantee that it will read the same thing each time. It is down to the forward error correction information that is encoded along with the data, and post processing by the drives firmware, to sort out the mess and hopefully present a correct and consistent data stream. A manufacturing defect in the disc can result it the system being pushed right to the threshold, hence sometimes it works sometimes it don't!)
If you have a DVD writer or know someone that does, you could try the following:
Rip the DVD to your hard drive using DVD Decrypter
formatting link
the resulting files using DVD shrink
formatting link
they fit on a 4.7GB blank (most consumer DVD players won't play DVD+R9 blanks).
Write the image produced by DVD-Shrink to a blank DVD using either DVD Decrypter, Nero, or any other burning software. The resulting disk will be region free and should happily play in any player.
Guides for doing this kind of thing can be found at
I have to cut a 6" diameter hole through both sides of a cavity wall. to fit an extractor fan. Before I go and hire a core drill, what's the possibility of drilling a large number of closely-spaced small holes and then attacking the wall - first inside, then out - with a large hammer and a masonry chisel?
I'd be inclined to drill 1 hole dead in the centre of the circle, right through both leaves. Then you can measure off 3" right round the centre and drill the holes - alternatively, use a 6" cardboard circle, fixed at where the hole was drilled. That way you'll guarantee that both holes will meet in the same place. :) Hammer and masonary chisel too! I'd think that a 6" core drill is probably going to have a *LOT* of torque, and could be difficult to hold, especially if you're up a ladder...
It is possible, I have done it in a single-skin wall. The periphery of the hole is a little jagged because of all the drill holes, but this could be smoothed over with cement if necessary. The trick lies in drilling the holes aroud the periphery of the 6" circle so that they virtually meet up. Too close and they will break through to the adjacent already-drilled hole, too far apart and it's a bugger to knock the central 6" core out when you are done. I drilled a series of smaller pilot holes around the periphery of the circle, spaced so that when I used a bigger drill, the holes would just about overlap. If you are careful getting your drill exactly at right angles to the wall ( this is critical to success ) the drill holes will still be close together/overlap where they emerge from the other side of the brick.
A couple of weeks ago I hired a 6" diamond tipped core drill (bit & clutch drill) for =A318 for 4hrs. To say it was an absolute doddle is an understatement, and indeed the neatness of the hole was astounding - absolutely no breakout whatsoever.
I was fretting given the size of the beast, and indeed being at the top of a ladder. However, I soon realised it doesn't spin that fast and is actually quite graceful given the lack of hammer action so you just have to give it time and let it make its own way through. I was concerned about how high the clutch threshold might be however once it had slipped the first time I realised it was actually quite low hence very little chance of being thrown off the ladder if it snatches.
The joy and satisfaction of ending up with a single 6" plug in your hand, and an unbelievably neat hole left behind is comparably to that only experienced when re-filling/pressurising a sealed central heating system following some major plumbing work, to find not a single joint weeping... ;-)
For only =A318, a VERY neat hole, and minimal sweat/effort I would highly recommend it. My only regret was that I didn't have more holes to drill!
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