Why are many of my DVD movies no longer watchable?

Answer 1

In the past 4 years there has been a huge change in the way DVD films/TV series and Software carriers are created. These changes include and are not restricted to:

World zone identification - used to establish they type of viewing screen technology used

Examples of this are PAL (Phase Alternating Line) is a colour encoding system for analogue television used in broadcast television systems in most countries broadcasting at 625-line / 50 field (25 frame) per second (576i). Other common colour encoding systems are NTSC and SECAM.

Anti piracy contingency programming - Used to prevent copying and distribution of purchased DVDs . These have a code installed which can recognize if there is an internet access available and send a "Phone home" message to establish if its used elsewhere as well. Microsoft and Adobe are using the protocol now to great effect and are closing down software and DVDs where there are attempts for multiple use outside license agreements.

Display connectivity and compliance. This is used now in more updated players/viewers and computer systems as the type of display has been changed vastly from the old world film transfer to DVD - used for the very old productions i.e. The Glen Miller Story - Filmed in black and white and recently digitally remastered for color. These will have shown as quite blurry on a 4K Ultra High HD screen. Productions from the early 2000 are already suffering compatibility with viewing systems and with some countries moving quickly to the 4K Ultra HD with embedded surround cinematic sound the older machines are unable to provide connectivity.

If you are using Microsoft (latest platforms) you will not that the old style media player is disappearing. Many have voiced concerns and MS have made it available for download off their site.

In your original post you stated that the player and viewer are compatible. That's a good start on fault finding. If the issue is occurring on only certain DVDs and we have to say that those DVDs are genuine. We are not saying that they are not. However, this is a massive issue currently across the globe of sales of products classed as original which are in fact fake. Try checking the website of your player manufacturer, look for the model and the serial of your machine and check in case there are updates. Companies such as Sony, Panasonic etc encourage customers to monitor their sites for platform updates. These will frequently have to be downloaded or on older machines requested as a disk that is then run into the machine in question which brings the software version up to date.

Remember also that many DVDs carried/carry anti-copy protection. This is coded in. If the software is old on the machine your using this might be conflicted as well - another reason to check your machines version.

Finally - Damage. remember that the player head "floats" about microns above the disks surface. Id that head is bumped or has accumulated dirt (deposits of swat from hand, food waste on fingers, dead skin cells, nicotine from smokers grease from cooking etc etc) then older disks can fail to appear to play.

Disk damage - check surfaces and you will see that there are considerable numbers of scratches on disks - this occurs naturally and can distort lasers reading. It doesn't need a huge scratch to cause issue numerous small makes will do it

There is currently no information available on time related or use related stop points being inserted on DVDs that we can definitively say here.

Answer 2

If you are trying to play them on the computer, try Windows Media Player. There are directions on line.