Can DVD's go bad...update

RBreak

Hi again, earlier I wrote about renting the DVD "Harts War" from blockbuster, and not being able to get 5.1 DD audio, just PLII. Since all of my other DVD's (around 20) are working fine, I figured it had to be the DVD. So, last night I went out and bought a brand new copy of Harts War from Circuit City, popped it in, and again (!) no DD, just PLII. WTF?? It's brand new. Now I'm lost, it clearly says on the back cover that the audio is DD 5.1. It's really strange, when I first put the DVD in, it immediately switches to DD (when the lion growls and it says MGM studios DVD production, or something like that), then the screen for the selections comes up (play movie, subtitles, scene selection--there is no audio selection that I can find) and it switches back to PLII. When I play the movie, it never switches back to DD, it just stays in PLII. I tried everything to try to get it to play in DD, it ignores me and stays in PLII. Does anyone else have the Harts War DVD, and if so do you have any problems like this? I have had no problems with any other DVD's until now, and I have watched many. Makes me wonder if it is a glitch in the Harts War DVD, but I would have thought I would have heard something from someone by now, it's been out for a while. Anyway, I ended up watching the damn movie in PLII, a big disappointment audio-wise after watching Black Hawk Down and Windtalkers in DD 5.1. If anyone has any info, or maybe I'm missing something obvious, let me know. Thanks for any responses, I don't know what to make of this one.

scottvamp

Oooohhh man RBreak, let me help you out. First of all DVD's don't GO BAD. Ya, they (DVD rentals) get scrached up and very dirty. This will effect the sound and picture quality. The simplest way I can explain your problem is for some reason your dvd player is not cueing up the DD 5.1 sound track. MANY dvd players have problems with reading the software of many dvd's. When a dvd is made it is put through a test on 100's of players to see if the "software" (dvd) is compatiable. Some players will have trouble. It is OK. Because all your other dvd's work fine. It happens.

MxStYlEpOlKmAn

i dont no but they look cool melting in a microwave...

RBreak

Thanks for the info Scottvamp, I guess I just have to write that particular DVD off as an audio loss. After DD and DTS, PLII is not very impressive, and I buy most of my DVD's just as much for the audio track as for the story these days. If it starts becoming more of a regular problem, I'll have to start looking for a new DVD player. Mine is a Toshiba 2800 that was only $150 at Best Buy, certainly not top of the line but this is the first time I have had any problems with it. I got it because my folks have a Toshiba player (1700) thats even cheaper than mine and they have never had any problems with thiers, so I figured it was good enough. Anyway, thanks again for the response.

Micah Cohen

Wait a minute. I have HART'S WAR right here. It plays fine.

Put the disc in. Go to the main menu. Choose Audio Set Up and make it Dolby Digital 5.1, and then PLAY the movie. Better yet, use your remote to skip into the movie a few chapters and then TOGGLE using your "audio" remote button to 5.1 sound.

It may just be that the disc doesn't DEFAULT to 5.1, and you have to choose it.

Any luck with this?

MC

shack

I agree with Micah - Just last night my daughter was watching a movie and I noticed that it was on PLII. I knew it was a DD 5.1. It did not default to 5.1. Just had to do a simple adjustment in the menu.

RBreak

I will check that out tonight and see if I can come up with anything. I thought I had tried everything I knew to try, but I'll look at it again. I remember switching the DVD player from bitstream to PCM and back again, with no change. And I was trying the DD/DTS surround button on the remote with no luck, and about a dozen other things, but I will mess with it some more tonight. It seems odd after all the DVD's I have watched with no trouble, this one is being so difficult, but maybe it's just something I have been lucky in not encountering yet, and I just need to figure it out. I dont remember there being an audio set-up option other than language (I figured it would default to DD like all the others have), but I might have missed it. Anyway, thanks again for the responses, I'll try again and see if I can figure it out.

RBreak

Hello again, I finally figured out what the deal with this damn Harts War DVD is. After reading the entire manual for both the receiver and dvd player, I was convinced I had everything set up right. DD still would not play, only PLII. It turns out that the DVD has two sides to it, the "standard" side and the "widescreen" side (this obviously is not unusual, I have several dvd's like this). For some reason on this disk, you can only access the audio options on the "widescreen" side, and the standard side defaults to PLII and there is nothing else you can do. Since I have a standard 4:3 aspect TV, I was using the "standard" side of the dvd and the only setup options on that side are play movie, scene selections, and subtitles. There is no audio selection option until you turn the dvd over to the widescreen side, and then you get a "language" option that allows you to choose "english 5.1". I guess the dvd makers decided that unless you used the widescreen side you wouldn't need surround sound! The ****!! As I said earlier, I have several dvd's with a standard side and a widescreen side, and this is the first one I have come across that only allows DD on the widescreen side, all the others have DD on both sides. Anyway, at least I figured this mystery out and I'm glad that there was nothing wrong with my dvd player or even worse my receiver. It would have been nice if there was something on the dvd package to at least say that 5.1 audio was only available on the widescreen side, it would have saved me alot of time. Thanks again for all the responses, it kept me motivated enough to keep after it until I figured something out. Otherwise I probably would have said to hell with it and never watched the movie again.