dvd-4-life

Recently purchased Candyman(1990s) 4k and it wouldn't play on two different players(one Panasonic and one Sony). It's too late to get a refund.

I have had trouble with Indiana Jones 4k movie or two with the Panasonic player when it played perfectly on the Sony player. I also have had problems with a few others but only with playback on the Panasonic player.

lwhy?

It never hurts to contact the studio and ask for a refund or replacement. They might help you out.

Josh Z

Defective discs are distressingly common these days. Issues with the manufacturing plants. My first copy of Reservoir Dogs froze at the layer change halfway through the movie and wouldn't move past it. I exchanged with Amazon and the replacement plays fine.

Toddarino

I have occasional problems with my Sony freezing in on some discs. It’s made me consider upgrading.

ViewAskewbian

In another thread, we discussed the issues when it comes to certain players and 4k discs. On Reddit, you can find posts about discs that don`t play at all like the problem you are stating but more common it is freezes at certain points, especially on longer films.

clckworang

I've noticed a very large percentage of new UHDs also need to be cleaned. I've likewise experienced some freezes, but those are usually gone after stopping and restarting.

TomOpus

Never had a problem with any of my 144 UHDs that wasn't fixed by wiping off an occasional fingerprint.

Josh Z

FWIW, the problem I had with Reservoir Dogs could not be fixed by cleaning the disc. That was the first thing I tried, but it continued to freeze at the same spot. It was definitely a defective copy. As I said, the replacement plays fine.

morriscroy

(Going back further in time).

Back in the day when I first read about dvd, I was very skeptical about the single-side disc with two-layers design (DVD9). It seems like discs I have encountered which went bad, were almost always at the spot when the dvd/bluray player laser changes between the two layers on a single-sided disc.

With the 4Kbluray spec allowing three-layer discs, it compounded my skepticism about its longevity.

dvd-4-life

I'm surprised that there aren't more problems and complaints about the sliding disc cases that lame brain manufacturers thought that it was a good idea(wasn't a good idea 25 years ago either).

stvn1974

Off the top of my head
Back To The Future Trilogy (all three films)
LOTR Extenede Trilogy (all six discs)
Jaws
Citizen Kane

TheBang

I've had pretty good luck with getting the big studios to replace discs that are defective or have gone defective over the years. In particular, I've gotten replacements for defects (that weren't part of a recall) from Paramount, Warner, Lionsgate, and Universal.

Candyman's from Shout though. I don't know if they're responsive to post-sales defective disc issues.

asianxcore

I haven't had any problems with any of my discs (yet).

Willh51

I ended up selling my Xbox for this reason, but I had several discs that would not load or play. Jurassic World: Dominion and Halloween Kills would not play (both Universal) and several Shout! titles would not load the menu options. For example, the Evil Dead 4K would load the background image but not the text to select play, scenes, bonus, etc.

ViewAskewbian

It's amazing we're this long into the 4k format and players haven't been updated to, you know, play the discs. It really seems like one Pioneer player out there is the one that most say has zero issues ever.

I mean, Halloween Kills and JW: Dominion are recent releases. They shouldn't have issues.

I never had a problem with a single DVD or Bluray in my collection. Wait, now that I think about it, once. Shouts Return of the Living Dead wouldn't play in an older player. I purchased a cheap newer one and it was fine. Still have that player.

But 4k players by LG, Sony etc. still seem to have issues with 4k discs.

This has kept me from upgrading my system as I've just been hoping for updated players that don't have freezing issues.

stvn1974

I have a Sony UHD player and at this point if it is a Universal release or a BD100 I will skip it on UHD unless it also comes with a remastered BD to play in case the UHD doesn't work.

rocket1312

I have a Panasonic and an Oppo. I've never had a problem with either.

PhantomStranger

Most seem to recommend the Panasonic UHD player. My Oppo UHD players have always played everything, though a couple of niche labels have authored their menus in such a way that playing the movie is a pain on the Oppo.

dvd-4-life

My Panasonic player seems to give me more problems than the Sony player.

What's the most reliable:
UHD player
region-free blu-ray/dvd player
HD-DVD player

DJariya

The only time I had a problem with a 4K disc, but it was quickly fixed was when I played the new Star Trek VI 4K disc. I played it and the colors were all green. All I did was pop the disc, pull out the power plug and then re-started and it was just fine playing back.

But, I've never had an outright defective disc that wouldn't play. Sorry to you guys who weren't so fortunate.

TomOpus

I have the dreaded Sony x700 that others complain about. I guess I got lucky and don't have all the issues everyone talks about. (knocks on wood).

Josh Z

I added a region mod kit to my OPPO 203 and have rarely had any issues with it.

With HD DVD, options are pretty limited. The Toshiba HD-XA2 was probably the best player for that format, though I can't say it played 100% of discs thrown at it. Combo discs and Warner Bros. releases were frequently problematic for any player.