I've been out of town on business for a few weeks. While I've been gone, my wife complained that our DVD player did not seem to be working with the movie she had rented. She's not/nor is she interested in becoming technically savy, but I gave her a few thinks to check with no luck. When I got back to town I looked into what was going on and sure enough, several discs would not play.

I run an older model Toshiba SD 3800 player and have had no issues in the past. I can play any of the older discs in my collection, and have played a number of new releases without problem. The discs I had trouble with were Casino Royale, The Holiday and The Pursuit of Happiness. When I took a closer look they are all Sony releases. When I looked at who produced the newer movies I had no problems with they are all non-Sony releases.

The discs all appear to be in good shape (no scratches, smudges etc). Is there something to this? I'm sure I was here just recently with Sony CDs and DRM. Is Sony employing a new copy protection that is causing me trouble? Can you think of something else for me to try?

Thanks

That's exactly what it is. I think Sony may be doing a recall on them.

From Sony press release:
"Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has discovered the source of a problem in their recent DVD releases that prevented them from being played on some players, including some manufactured by the consumer electronics division of Sony itself. The company said the problem was caused by an update of its copy-protection system, which it continually updates in order to derail potential hackers. Among the DVD movies affected were the new James Bond film Casino Royale, The Pursuit of Happyness and Stranger Than Fiction. Sony said that anyone who had purchased one of the discs and has experienced problems playing it may receive a replacement disk free of charge by phoning 800-860-2878.

I had this problem before, And believe me. I was pretty pissed. What good is a disc that you rent or buy that you cant even play because of some stupid copyright protection. I dont care if it was a screw up, They shouldnt bother with it in the first place IMO.

Its like when we rented some movies from blockbuster and the dude didnt take out their little security device from the case. I just cut the thing open. If i really wanted to steal the disc I would just bring some magnets and take it off in the store myself

Quote:

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Among the DVD movies affected were the new James Bond film Casino Royale, The Pursuit of Happyness and Stranger Than Fiction.

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Funny i had just rented Stranger Than Fiction on the weekend and i had trouble getting it to play in my DVD player (Toshiba) and couldn't figure out why. I mashed the menu, skip, fast forward buttons enough it did finally work.