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The Matrix DVD Troubles 221

Posted by CmdrTaco from the aint-that-annoying dept.
kubrickian writes "Apparently many people have been experiencing trouble with their new DVDs of The Matrix. " My player worked fine, but then again without DVD support under Linux, I haven't tested the PC stuff. But I still don't know ju-jitsu.
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The Matrix DVD Troubles More

The Matrix DVD Troubles

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  • I own an overworked Pioneer 505 series DVD player, and have had absolutely zero problems. In the week or so I've had The Matrix, I have had three complete showings and have seen all the "special" hidden stuff at least twice. Zero problems.

    AFIAK, there's not a better demo disc on the planet. Full-motion video on the scene selection, tons of extra goodies, and crystal-clear sound and video.

    Personally, I would have been extremely disapointed had The Matrix not included all these kick-ass features. Early adaptors (those on the cutting edge of technology, who generally buy before the rest of the masses and are willing to put up with flakey tech - I am definately one) always get burned on these kind of new features down the line. I'm on my second DVD player for just that reason. Don't like the fact that your "old" player can't handle the badass new stuff? Get a new player which can handle it (~$300 at Best Buy). Don't try to stop technology from advancing. Adapt, or quit complaining ;)

    ---------
    Question: How do I leverage the power of the internet?
  • The evils of the US? Invading our hallowed shores? Never! We will never be overcome! We shall fight them on the beaches! We shall fight them on the...

    Oops, sorry :)

    Seriously, I don't think DVD (as it stands) is good enough for it to be mainstream here. No offense, but just because lots of people have it there, doesn't mean it's a Good Thing(tm). I mean, lots of people use Windows (including me), but this is certainly not a Good Thing(tm). We all use VHS, but Beta was by *far* a better format.

    I'm not sold on DVD (yet), but I look forward to the time when my PC can be just as good as my TV/Video setup.

    Mong.

    * Paul Madley ...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
  • Invited a pile of pals over for a Matrix viewing and now I'm not sure if my Panasonic A120U will handle the disc. I checked out the start of the commentary option (which seems like the whole movie with running commentary from the stars and producers, etc.) and it worked okay. I might have to watch it ahead of time just to make sure it works.
  • ..."kung fu" is not a style, but a category of geographical orgin. Specifically, it refers to the thousands of different Chinese martial art styles, many of which are completely at odds in terms of what techniques and strategies are taught and emphasized. For example, Wing Chun style (very grounded and punch oriented) is completely different from Wu Shu style (highly acrobatic with lots of kicks), but both are Chinese martial arts, and thus fall under the category "kung fu". Escrima, Savate, and Jujutsu aren't Chinese styles (they're Filipino, French, and Japanese, respectively), so they aren't "kung fu". Besides, it's not the style that matters, but how it's used. Different styles exist because different things work for different physiques and body types.
  • And boy what a DVD it is too! I hope this encourages other companies to produce such feature packed DVD's in future - I mean.. three soundtracks, a 30 minute making of video, special 'follow the white rabbit' scenes (whoever thought of that is a genius) where you can jump from the movie into a special bit about how they made that section of the movie, and then once it's finished then jump back to the movie where you left off. Plus you've got heaps of multimedia extras - web links, interactive games, and heaps of stuff. I definitely consider it the best DVD I've ever seen - and Warner should be proud of it. From what I've heard it's already outsold Titanic and every other DVD out there and it's only been out for just over a week!
  • I had a similiar expierence myself. Other than the nasty PC Friendly stuff I had no problems on my NT boxen with my second generation Toshiba DVD drive and my Hollywood 98 decoder card. On my G3, nothing at all. Luckly some other kind patron has all ready posted the fix for that.
  • I just checked on my player ... there is an option in "other settings" that can be set to "Pan & Scan" -- however it doesn't just chop the sides off of the picture as I assumed it did.

    I guess it's a preference to decide which "movie" to play on a disc with both movies.

    That is somewhat frustrating...

    Not that I care myself (letterbox is the only way to go... Just need to get one of those 50" lcd screen thingies to go with it ;).
  • I have a Panasonic A110. At one or two points in the movie, it skips ahead a bit. For example, at the point where Neo, Morpheus, and the gang are leaving the building where they were inserted into the Matrix so that Neo and Morpheus can go see the Oracle, it skips ahead to the point where Neo is reaching for the doorknob to the Oracle's apartment. If I reverse it from there to just after the point it skipped from, it plays fine. Haven't had any problems with the menus or special features so far.
  • The only problem on my copy of The Matrix is while watching the scene where Fishburne and co leave the old abandoned building to go see the oracle it skips to the very next scene of the door to the Oracle's apartment opening...in order to see the scene as they go from the building to the Oracle I've got to 'rewind' back...Not a big problem, but it is annoying.
  • Just because your DVD player is 2 months old doesn't mean that it 100% complient with spec. You think IE 5 is totally complient with all of the standards it claims to support?

    You ended up buying a player that was rushed out the door with the though "ah, nobody 'll ever use that feature in a DVD". Guess what, you found one that did.

    The fact that the disc works great in some players, and other players have the exact same problem (reported over and over again) only confirms that it is a hardware/player specific problem and not a "screwup" on the disc.

    And where are you getting this "grainy" crap from? The special features showed some artificating, as did the menu, but the movie itself was GREAT!!! (the intro is also one of the coolest I've seen on a DVD).

    I had 13 people crammed in my tiny dorm room watching this movie at volumes that could be heard at least 4 floors away if you want any testimonials to the quality of the DVD on a good player.
  • DONT GET A SIGMA HOLLYWOOD PLUS!!

    that's what I have and it's not werkin. My DVD is Toshiba M1212, the player works fine... it's just the decoder, chokes on the disc for some reason. e-mailed Sigma, no response yet.

    ARRG.

    I didn't spend $$ on it to be stuck using the software decoder that came with my video card...

  • How many problems with "software problems" have you experienced with a DVD player personally?

    How many times have you bought a DVD disc and had to return it because it didn't work correctly? How many DVD discs have you ever bought?

    Me? Zero. None. Nada. Zip. Every disc I have ever bought works perfectly. All 40 of them. Double layer, double sided, extra audio tracks, special videos, menu transitions, scene selections, the works. Not a glitch.
  • Let's see you get 6 distinct, independant audio channels out of VHS.

    And the picture quality of VHS sucks in comparison, no matter how good your tape, nor your player.

    Everytime the tape passes the heads, you damage it.
  • most browsers do this, but not all. i worked for an e-commerce company where we had to disable some of our tracking stuff that was based on http-referer because a few widespread browsers don't implement it. MSIE for the mac was the most notable one, but i believe there were one or two other (reasonably) popular browsers that do the same thing.
  • of course, you seem to forget that many new movies are dropping 35mm film and going all digital. digital can achieve much higher frame rates. it will make a difference. muahahahaha!
  • Same here, I have the SD-3109 and it plays flawlessly. I haven't noticed a sluggish response.
  • I have a Toshiba 1202, PIII450, and STB Velocity 4400. I got it installed, and it freezes in the cocoon scene, the kung-fu scene and when Neo is first dodging bullets. I took mine back (Best Buy) and exchanged for another. Same probs. I tried a different video card (V550) no luck. I had been using Xing and PcFriendly (my ASS!) and still freezing. I downloaded PowerDVD and it plays the scenes, but plays them twice (3 second rewind) . Besides, I don't want to have to pay 50 bucks to get my DVD to play, and still not play right! Of course, my home DVD player has no problems. I guess I have to buy a new DVD ROM?

    Geccoman
  • Except that The Matrix LD is at least twice the size or maybe even 3x the size and probably has to be flipped to get the extra features.

    I *like* the fact that the disk is bigger, you get a nice large jacket to go with it. My player plays both sides automatically.

    It probably doesn't have the PC extras either, like the entire website on the disc. While I wouldn't replace (right away anyway) an entire collection of LDs with DVDs, I think the DVD format is far superior to LD.

    I wouldn't say far superior, but DVD video does have a few more lines of resolution. The (digital) audio is identical, however. Some DVD's have exhibited compression artifacts during heavy action sequences, LD's don't have this problem because they don't use compression. Of course, the video on LD's is analog, and low end players can show some "chroma noise" occasionally. As far as extras, The Matrix LD has a running audio commentary, and "Behind-the-scenes documentaries".

    My LD collection is small (about fourty titles), but approximately twenty of them are unavailable on DVD (mostly Star Wars and Robotech, which are unlikely to be on DVD for a few years anyway, I think Lucas said that the Star Wars DVD's wouldn't be coming out until after Episode III is done showing in theatres)
  • No, the future certianly isn't ADC. It's more like video-on-demand and stuff like that. DVD won't be able to compete, in under 10 years time, when we all have the ability to just stream a full movie into our house. It's already happening in the UK now, with the latest DigitalTV advance.

    I certainly wouldn't invest in ADC. That'd be silly.

    Anyway, we've got completley off topic here!

    Mong.

    * Paul Madley ...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
  • None of the Samsung DVD Players will play the Matrix. Guess what brand I have? It's all because of the Dual Layer Technology Warner Brothers used. I bought it on a Saturday, took it back Sunday, and exchanged it for a good, quality DVD... Monty Python and the Holy Grail. If anyone finds anything out about possible work arounds that WB might be developing (Besides VHS) then let me know!

  • Wired section for Slashdot? (Score:3)

    by shr ( 13954 ) on Friday October 01, 1999 @04:36AM (#1646021)
    I noticed that the URL for this story is: Why is "slashdot" in the link? The same story also appears at This doesn't appear to be to avoid load, so is this just a way to count where people are coming from? If so, do you think there is any way we can find out what portion of their hits come from slashdot?

    Of course if enough people follow the stripped link I give, we will end up slashdotting their data to hell; lol

  • Is this a hardware problem or is it the DVD itself?? You'd think they would know that they would be selling TONS of copies of this great movie, so they should have tested the damn thing in all environments. This shows a complete lack of thoughtfulness for the wide spectrum of people who would be buying this movie. And there is no spoon.

    ---------------------------
    "I'm not gonna say anything inspirational, I'm just gonna fucking swear a lot"
  • I had problems with this on one of the first gen RCA players. I don't remember the model number of my player, but the player completely locked up. I reset the player and it played the scene fine. I've had the player for about a year now and figure I'll probably replace it in another year. These sorts of things happen early in the technology curve.

    Greg Weeks

  • ding (Score:1)

    by drwiii ( 434 )
    My RCA DVD player has no problems with it.. Watched it 5 times last weekend just for "quality control". Yeah, that's the ticket.

    (:

    --

  • The white rabbit stuff is wonderful, commentary and audio-only tracks are great, and the movie plays and searches nice and fast. For me, this is one of the best DVD's as far as features goes that I own! Haven't tested it in the PC DVD player yet, but the pioneer works great!

  • I own about 10 Criterion titles (about 1/3 of my DVD collection right now) and I must say, they produce some DAMN FINE discs.

    Their release of "Armageddon" can't be beat, plus they do extra-cool stuff like director's cut editions of "Brazil" and "Robocop".

    ----

  • Well, just got done watching The Matrix. Either I don't remember as much of the movie as I thought, or there weren't any playback problems. Hell, I couldn't even tell where the layer switch took place. The *only* complaint I have is that the closing credits were noticably distorted, and I think that's mostly due to the crappy, cheap-ass, coax-only TV I have (so the Panny A120 is coming in through the VCR). I suspect that if I got something decent, it'd display w/o many problems.

    Hopefully others with the A120 have been having similar experiences despite the reports to the contrary.
  • I'm using Pioneer 6X SCSI DVD-rom, Hollywood + decoder (Win98 blech.....) Overall, it works flawlessly for me, both on-screen and out to the TV, but I noticed that when I have the main menu playing full-screen (SVGA @ 1024x768) I get these funky green noise/bars about 1" up the bottom of the screen... doesn't do it for TV-out, I suspect its a problem with the hardware, not the disc. Such is life in Windoze... I can't wait for Sigma to get off their asses and produce a linux-friendly card... The only reason I have windows is play games and watch DVDs... grumble grumble...
  • THe only troubles that I have had on the Matrix DVD is when you are looking at the special features menu. If you choose the Cast & Crew option then the movie ends and you have to start over. Other than that everyting else works fine. I am using a Pioneer DVD-303S.
  • I have a JVC XV-511BK, and the only problem the Matrix DVD gives it is about a 10 second lag time on the top level menu. Playback was flawless.
  • I haven't tried the Matrix on my PC, but I also bought a Pioneer DV-414 player to hook into my very generous entertainment center and there noticed it to fuzz-out several times toward the beginning of the movie. Funny, though-- if I skipped back a little bit and played through that part again, it worked fine.

  • UK TV is a better resolution than US, of course, and so are UK (Region 2 DVD)'s.

    when idiots start telling that american TV has a much higher framerate (29.97 versus 25), think about this: What good will it do when all the movies are made in 35mm, 24 frames per second format anyway?
  • Does anyone know if anyone offers the service of selling me a legal copy of this on DVD and making me a copy to VHS so I can watch it already. I'm putting off buying a DVD player until the prices plunge a lil more but I don't want to wait until December to buy a VHS copy of the Matrix. Doesn't 'fair use' make it legal for me to buy a copy of my own DVD onto a VHS tape by someone who owns both and can do the copy for me?
  • I have a Creative 5x DVD drive with the dxr2 decoder card. When I play the
    matrix DVD everything seems to work fine except for two things. While I am able
    to start the movie by clicking on the "Follow the white rabbit" feature a white rabbit
    never shows up. This happens in both the PCFriendly DVD player and the Creative
    DVD player softwares. Also when playing the audio commentary track one of the
    male voices is ridiculously soft. I played the DVD on my parents DVD player and
    the voices were all fine. This problem was also in both DVD software players I
    own. Can either of these problems be fixed?
  • Not quite ON topic I guess, but; Will The Matrix eventually be released on video? I get conflicting stories you see. One says "No", one says "it already is in the States", and the other says "It will, but not until the DVD has stopped selling real well".

    I'd imagine the last one to be true myself.

    And I,(this may be Flame Bait) don't want to get a DVD because I don't think theres's much of a future for it. Sorry!

    Mong.

    * Paul Madley ...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
  • You are the average idiot the industry is seeking for. Which normal person can be happy to pay more for a laserdisc which has poorer sound and none special features at all.

    Excuse me? I am the one here who is not willing to purchase a new player every eighteen months. For your information, the digital audio encoding on the LD is *identical* to the encoding on the DVD. See below about the special features.

    Do you have DD 5.1?

    My LD player supports that and has the digital outputs for when I decide to get a receiver that supports DD 5.1, and most of my discs have audio encoded in that format.

    Do you have Special Commentary Track?
    Do you have all the other Features?

    Yes, The Matrix LD does have the commentary track as well as the behind the scenes documentary. It does not have the whole web site on it, but who cares about that?

    No? Ok, then be happy with your overpriced LD and shut up.

    The LD has superior packaging and *actually works* on every laserdisc player ever made, including the ones from the nineteen-seventies.
  • I am still slightly wary of DVD for it's single downfall: It's inability to record data (without paying close to $500 for a DVDROM and $5000 for a DVD Burner)Once those fall to an acceptable price, I will be all up for it. (I currently DO own a DVD drive I got for the acceptable price of $150)

    I'm just waiting for the day when CDs are phased out and there are DVD players in cars... basically, just plays the audio track and if you take the disc home, you can pop it in your DVD player and watch video too... and for the niffy expensive cars, you have a TV in there too to decode to video. Anyhow... $0.02 placed.
  • I own over 1000 laserdiscs and have purchased around 40 DVD's. Of the laserdiscs, I've had to replace 4 (one was actually broken in shipping).

    Of the DVD's, I've had to have seven replaced for various and sundry problems (can anyone say "The Black Hole"?) and three were never acceptable from an artifacting standpoint (take a look at "The Best Years of Our Lives".) Don't try to say that I don't know what I'm talking about. I managed a movie theatre for many years and have projected many of the movies I own and have attempted to buy on DVD. I know what they look like. In several cases, I also own the LD version of the titles for which I could not get an acceptable version on DVD.

    I'll say again, the potential for problems in DVD is significantly higher than LD.

    I will also admit that I'm very picky. Things that drive me to distraction (artifacting and edge enhancement) don't bother many of my friends. But, they are coming from VHS and DVD is obviously better in that scenario.

  • I have a Sony DVP7000 and have had 0 problems.

  • Re:G3 350 w DVD (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Hey, just so you know. I have the same computer, 350 w/DVD, and I've been running OS 9, and the Matrix works just fine. Maybe they've fixed it a bit?
  • If you let the (rather cool) title page play all the way thru to the end, it loops to the middle of the title (skipping the opening title.) Problem is that when it loops for the second time, my Creative 6x/dxr3 card gets stuck at the end, (probably because of a strange looping / timing command.) The only way to fix it then is to totally reboot the computer.

    Does this happen with other players/cards or is this a Creative only problem? (I'm on the latest revs.)

    Also, the embeded DVD player gets messed up too easily. If you use it, don't touch the controls or it will seize up.
  • I tried it out on my machine which has a Hi-Val (Pioneer) DVD drive. The pc friendly thingy attempts to do a soft-DVD playback on the movie which causes the playback to be jittery and basically intolerable.

    When I played it with the DVD player software from the ATI card, it worked fine, except that the 'special features' menu item did not work.
  • Valid point. UK T.V is much better resoloution than US T.V. And now with Digital, we're miles ahead. When I watch something on video (brand new Mitsubishi video player), the difference between a video and a T.V broadcast is massive.

    I got told that DVD is similar in quality to S-VHS. Anyone know if this is true?

    We're RIGHT off topic now.

    Mong.

    * Paul Madley ...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
  • I have an older Creative Labs Encore DXR2 DVD 2x.
    It's up to Encore DXR3 with 6x DVD now, but the latest player and firmware for the 2x drive works FINE. I experienced no problems or choppiness while watching The Matrix on my CLabs DVD drive, and have had very few/no problems with it since their 3.0 player came out.
    All the hidden features work, and are much easier to access with a mouse. I also have and recommend the Cambridge Soundworks 5:1 Digital Speakers, as they REALLY strut their stuff on the Matrix's AC-3 encoded sound.
  • Samsung supposedly already has a fix tested for their players. No idea what it will take to get the upgrade.

    (This isn't WB's fault, the disc is conformant by all accounts, it just pushes the limits of the spec)
  • Yeah Yeah, now would any of yo BJJ people like to go up against a top class Muay Thai fighter? Ha!

    In a recent(ish) publicity event, ten of the worlds best Kung Fu Masters, met ten of the best Muay Thai Fighters. The results?

    Nine of the Kung Fu people got knocked out in the opening round. The 10th Kung Fu guy submitted in the 2nd.

    I'm not being all "My form is better than yours", but when you have to mess somebody up, Muay Thai is the weapon of choice :)

    Now, if this isn't offtopic, I don't know what is!

    Mong.

    * Paul Madley ...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
  • I have a 6x 3rd generation DVD player..
    It jumped a few times in the movie and then the audio was off track a few times.. It really sucks..... but O well.. I really like the movie.

    Chief Archer
  • Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to actually watch The Matrix yet. Luckily it's within the 30 days (been a week today since I got the DVD, a week tomorrow for the player), so I might have to take it back. I'll be watching this weekend to verify the (hopefully nonexistent) problems with my copy.

    I'm really disappointed that there have been reported problems with this player, since it seems like it only came out a short time ago, and the reviews I read made it sound like it compared very favorably against higher-end DVD players.

    It's even more distressing to hear that Enemy of the State is showing problems to. Is every DVD I want to get going to do this?
  • I also live in the UK .

    >Video stores will not stock much in the way of DVD here

    My local Video Library stocks DVD for rent.
    Almost all the stores that sell VHS also sell DVD.

    >I mean, only about 3.5 houses in 20 has a PC of any kind (I read that someplace). Only the very expensive machines come with DVD, also we all tend to use 14/15 monitors, which aren't too nice for video.

    You seem to think DVD is only used on PCs, You can buy stand alone players that plug into your TV.
  • It's a series of hardware problems. The disc is apparently completely conformant but really pushing the envelope on the spec - less well tested players have problems with it.

    Even some players that work with it have some problems - my Toshiba 2109 is very sluggish at responding to keypresses at the (fully animated) root menu.

    Something like this is probably a good thing in the long term - having a title like The Matrix which is extremely popular show these problems *forces* the manufacturers to fix it. You can bet if the DVD that exposed this was "Universal Soldier XII: The Return (Again)" that it wouldn't be getting the attention it is.
  • I watched it on my RCA DVD player (RC5220P), and it worked perfectly...with one exception. During the layer switch (When they're going to see the oracle, right after they step out of the building), there was a slight pause. Otherwise, it was perfect.
  • I own a Panasonic A-110 DVD player and had zero problems watching the movie (I think I've played it through at least 2 dozen times -- I might be a bit obcessed ;).

    The video quality was always superb. The extra features/intro menu shows some mpeg artifacts, but to be quite honest there is SO MUCH STUFF crammed on this disc it was probably done so they could fit it.

    The layer change appears to occure right after Morpheus and company begin their journey to see the oracle (the scene change between circling around the phone and leaving the building). It has to be one of the faster layer changes I've ever seen (which means they planned the layout of data rather well). The layer change took less than a second, where it normally takes between 2 to 5 seconds.

    Not once in my viewing did I see a glitch. The audio never popped. The extra features all worked wonderfully (the follow the white rabbit feature is an interesting idea ...).

    The only problem I had was stuff in my room was rattling a bit too much during some scenes (I had the volume turned up to such a level that it could be heard 5 floors down, so that's to be expected -- one of these days I'll get the guts to turn my amp up past the 4th notch ;).

    The problem isn't with the DVD. The problem is with the players that won't play it. Alot of the "this is why DVD's will never catch on" and the "shoulda gotten a laserdisc" talk is like saying "windoze crashes too much, shouldn't have bought an AMD chip" and "damn, shoulda gotten a mac instead".

    It's silly. DVD's are the best thing to happen to "home theatre" since VHS.
  • If the "black bars" really bother you that much, many DVD players have an option you can change which will force the movie to be full screen. It's the same thing you'd get from most VHS movies. (The panasonic A110 does anyway)

    That'll work for you until you are able to afford a tv that looks like a mini-movie screen :).
  • My mom has a Dell Inspiron 7000 laptop with DVD and Lexonar HW decoder. when she tried to watch the disk, it wanted her to install PCFriendly, which she did. then, the DVD program that came with the laptop ceased working. put in any DVD, and the Dell player starts up but won't play the disk. even after "uninstalling" PCFriendly and re-installing the dell program, it still won't run properly. now she's got to use the PCFriendly player to watch any disk.

    what a pain. Probably the only way to get it to work right again is to wipe the machine clean and use the rescue disk.

    (btw, yes it runs Win98.)
  • Yea, there's that audio track... but there's also a third audio track (marked as English in the language selection menu) that is a music-only soundtrack. I haven't yet listened to it, tho. Anyone else listened to it? How is it?

    Hmm. Music-only soundtrack with subtitles... could be interesting.

    BTW, has anyone else had a problem with the Matrix DVD where the "White Rabbit" overlay for certain scenes where you're supposed to be able to jump to alternate views only shows up the second time it's been played while your player (or machine, in my case - I bought a Creative Dxr3 kit) is on? I don't think it's _supposed_ to be that way.
  • I've found one problem, might just be my lack of attention span, but I just can't see the white rabbit during that special feature. I'm running a one year old Creative PC-DVD x5 as I recall.

    Felix
  • I bought a RCA 5220 DVD player back in May or June or so, for about $280, and while it's not a high-end DVD player, it has played every DVD I've put in it without problem, including The Matrix. The only downside to this player is the same as any low-end player - it only has one laser, and may erase recordable CD's, but for the price, I've been very happy with it.
  • Don't know of a fix, I'm just happy to know I'm not the only person with this problem.

    Felix.
  • Yes, is true. I month ago I bought the Yamaha C900 (DVD-Changer) and it won't play the Matrix and some chapters of the Record of Lodoss War (anime). I'm really pissed.
  • Considering what happened to DIVX, I wouldn't count on widespread consumer acceptance of Video-On-Demand as a substitute for retail purchases.

  • My wife and I just watched The Matrix and loved it. No problems on our player which is the only piece of AV equipment I own that will actually lock up and require me to unplug it to reset it.

  • Hints for computer DVD players (Score:4)

    by logicTrAp ( 2864 ) on Friday October 01, 1999 @04:56AM (#1646077) Homepage
    This page has some hints for people with computer DVD players who are having problems: http://www.pcfriendly.co m/support/title/matrix/default.htm [pcfriendly.com] The PC Friendly people have been collecting information on problems in set-top players as well and say they'll keep people posted.
  • The "Dual Layer technology" that WB used has nothing to do with why The Matrix won't play in your Samsung. Dual layer discs have been around forever and they are a standard. Without going dual layer only 2 hours of content can be put on one side of a disc. Dual layer allows 4 hours of video. Check http://www.dvdtalk.com/ and http://www.dvdresource.com/ for info about the problems. Good call grabbing Monty Python & The Holy Grail, though... I just bought it along with Meaning of Life and Life of Brian...
  • I've had just a couple minor oddities with my Dxr3 kit (one of which seems specific to "The Matrix")...

    First of all, when I unpause while connected to a TV, the image tends to do one of 2 things: go black-and-white or get jittery. I can make the weirdness go away by flipping the video back to the PC display, then back to TV output. (Seems to happen when watching widescreen format movies only.)

    Also, (more minor) when using the menus, the selection pointer will sometimes start out on something other than the first menu item, but if I press "Enter", it'll perform the action of the first menu item anyway.

    The other one is specific to "The Matrix": The "White Rabbit" overlay that is supposed to show up in some scenes doesn't show up until I play the movie a second time. Is this intended, or is this really a bug?

    Has anyone else experienced this? I'd just like to know if I'm mental, or what. (I did update the player software to the latest version from Creative's site.)
  • I don't really want DVD either. for several reasons.

    You still can't record simply on DVD and DVD can't play or record full HDTV. DVD can only hold about 18gigs of data max and you need more like 40+gigs for HDTV quality. Digital VHS can already record and play back all 18 ATSC digital formats, including all variations of HDTV and SDTV with 1080 active lines of resolution. And of course it is backward compatible to normal VHS. It will be several years until they create a new version of DVD that can hold that much let alone allow you to record too.

    if you want to see one - panasonic makes a digital VHS player http://www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/vide o/pv_hd1000.htm

    p.s. there is also the fact that the only non-hollywood movies that ever come out on dvd are porn (hummm? faux grunting and moaning in Dolby digital surround sound)
  • I have this running fine under WINDOWS NT. It also seemed to work under win9x.

    Creative Encore 5x with Dxr3 and the latest drivers downloaded from Creative's web-site.

    Somebody earlier on complained about not being able to avoid the installation of the PcFriendly software... perhaps that person was new to computers? I have been able to install, unintstall it, avoid the installation, and even play the disk with Creative's player instead.

    If there are problems with the software DVD player, try with the DVD player that came with your hardware. Of course, you'll miss all of the cool features. Next, check your hardware manufacturer for updated firmware and software drivers. Also, have a look at the PC Friendly Matrix Help [pcfriendly.com]

    Gateway owners, your drives might be Matsushita, so check out Panasonic.

    BTW, if you want a good drive at a good price, and one that will work with NT, may I recommend Creative's PC-DVD Encore 5X DXR3 5Xdvd-ROM Drive DXR3 Decoder Board OEM [shopper.com] starting at $128? The the slightly older drive is a faster CD-ROM than the newer model, but more importantly this comes with the newer decoder card. The NT drivers must be downloaded though.
  • The corp. behind slashdot probably gets a few cents for the traffice hi sends to Wired. An
    associate program of sorts. It is only a matter
    of time before GoTo.com is the preffered search
    engine on slashdot.org :-(


  • I have had no problems on my JVC unit, but I can't seem to play Pulp Fiction or StarShip Troopers! Anyone else has a falty disk of either of those two? Mail me at bmccullo@gprep.org
  • A few notes:

    Many Laserdisc players have digital audio out these days. Laserdisc is returning to high-end models only, many of which play DVDs as well (without regions in some models! I'm assuming that this is because they are "Professional" models intended for reviewers and checking masters).

    From my experience, most LDs are mastered *much* nicer than DVDs. Yes, the DVD format can support a technically superior image. But the studios are putting out DVDs that are inferior to the LaserDisc versions, in my consumer experience.

    A big caveat here is that I am big into Science Fiction and Anime Fandom, so much of my knowledge of this is related to doing screen captures off of an RCA signal from six different DVD and Laserdisc players, and intensive examination of paused images. By and large, the Laserdisc media seems to be much better at answering "How many buttons does that character have on her shirt cuff" and other really anal questions. As an actual viewing experience (audio aside), I have no preference. And I use a big screen Sony monitor for a TV, so my output device is capable of demonstrating a difference.

    --
    Evan

  • BJJ does kick butt.
  • That's odd. I have a 414 too, and it's worked flawlessly every time. I got mine this summer though - maybe it has newer firmware or something?
  • Same here. It works on my 7000.
    --
  • If anyone finds anything out about possible work arounds that WB might be developing (Besides VHS) then let me know!

    The Matrix is available on Laserdisc.
  • But that still doesn't mean that there's "No Future" in VHS.

    I mean, if you had bought Beta, you'd regret it now, right?
  • Laserdisc has had Dolby-Digital capability for several years. My Hybrid DVD/LD player has support for it. Agreed that you don't get the special features and commentary, but I've also NEVER seen a picture encoding breakdown while watching a laserdisc.

    Also, for the record, my DVD player (Pioneer DVL-700) was one of the very early DVD players, and has had no problems with either Lost in Space, or The Matrix.
  • If you have a Samsung DVD Player they are working on making a special upgrade chip that they say will fix the problem and that they will upgrade their dvd players for free! I do have a Samsung ;-(....and needless to say...after returning the DVD twice...i called samsung. I was the first person at Best Buy that day to get it...when i went back...they had sold all 120 copies (in about 4 hours). I had to go to another store...on to find out that DVD didnt work either...bummer...o well..guess ill have to wait for the chip to come out.
  • Kick Ass! I got a similar setup...
    'cept Sony 5x DVD.
    only problem i had was Win98 crashed on me cuz i started an Unreal(tm) window at the same time. (it was an accident, i was trying to open something else)
  • I believe that they use that field as a marker for where the people coming in come from. Perhaps they have some add agreement for so many click-thru's from stories, they get banner add space?
  • And I,(this may be Flame Bait) don't want to get a DVD because I don't think theres's much of a future for it. Sorry!

    I'd have a hard time believing that there's no future in DVD at this point in time.

    Look how the CD became such a staple - and DVD players and discs have sold better than CDs did after the same amount of time on the market. In other words, it's getting higher acceptance than CDs did.

    Look at your local electronics store. Best Buy and Circuit City, for example, have been constantly expanding their DVD shelf space and selection. Some dept. store chains like Target now have them right by the videos, with plenty of shelf space. They're part of every movie ad now - "Now Available on VHS and DVD". There's a constant re-release of older movies on the format.

    With Disney releasing their cartoons on DVD, I think that every major studio is now releasing movies on the format, and many minor ones. I don't think that there is ANY doubt left that DVD is going to be the CD of video - the next standard. I wouldn't be suprised if, in the next year, Blockbuster starts stocking DVDs along with VHS in most/all their stores, right with the VHS, instead of in a special section like the ones that have it now. I also won't be suprised to see it start taking up equal shelf space with VHS in most electronics stores.
    ---
  • I bought a Sony DVP-S330 for $288 including shipping from a company I found on Pricewatch. Circuit City had some Divx-disabled players for under $200, but I wouldn't touch one of them.

    One thing to watch out for with DVD players is that many (including my Sony) won't play CD-R media, so custom audio and video CDs are out. You'll need to be very careful in buying a DVD player if that matters to you.
  • Tracking where hits are coming from is usually the job of a Referer header, so this is probably a way to get dough out of ads or something. I just hope this doesn't mean Slashdot/Andover will "prefer" to use Wired story links over any other site's story links.

    Of course, that's all just a guess on my part..

    --

  • Even if you follow the stripped link, they will still know you come from slashdot, since browsers normally include the Referrer-URL in der HTTP-Request. Of course, some proxies (like junkbuster) remove these referrers.
    Since the amount of junkbuster users (you normally recognise them because junkbusters default browser id is Netscape 3.01Gold on 68k Macs) is almost null on my site (and I target mainly linux users), this url-modifying stuff is quite unnecessary.

    - Andreas
    --
    Probably the smallest 3D-Game (25kbyte) in the world
    http://www.ards.net/Andreas/gltron.html

  • All DVD players are the same. They can all read all of the DVD data the same.

    Not true. Not at all. Saying DVD is a standard is like saying HTML is a standard.

    I'm blessed with a first-generation player, and it chokes on the Matrix. Bad. If I have the "White Rabbit" feature turned off, it sputters and chokes over the "hidden" material, then the sound is out of sync with the video. Very annoying. (BTW, to correct this, after the stuttering, pause, then continue seems to get audio and video back in sync)

    Meanwhile, a friend of mine has a cheap (new) DVD player, and it works fine.

    It looks (to me) like the head is not tracking quickly enough and it mucks up the mpeg stream. Or, the read-ahead buffer is too small. Or... it's a first-gen player. I had to expect it.

  • duh .. people spout this crap but the truth is that a grappler is in a better position over a striker to eye gouge and ear bite or whatever the fuck pussy move you can name.

    No one practices that shit because, well, you don't need to. It's not technique.

  • While some people wait for the digital television revolution in the next 2-3 years, I'll enjoy my DVD/Dolby Digital 5.1 home theater system now! Not to mention the copyright battles that will take place for the HDTV DVD of the future. In about 2-3 years I'll have a nice, large, permanent video library that I don't have to stand on end to keep from going bad. -- "I think we got the best one" H.I. McDonnough
  • Well, Kung Fu isn't very good at all.

    From what I gather, Muay Thai seems to be the best striking.

    However, any striker who doesn't have any grappling abilities will simply get his ass kicked by almost any grappler; wrestling, BJJ, whatever.

    Other thing no one mentions: striking arts are much harder on your body. Most strikers burn out or get injured long before grapplers do. Some of the shit muay thai guys do is basically self mutilating machismo (kicking tree trunks with your shins, etc.).

  • WHERE??? e-mail me karnal@excite.com.....
  • I have a Hitachi GD2000 and have no problems...just make sure your decoder is up to spec, I know there have been reported problems with ATI's Software player as well as XingDVD...

    Cliff Palmer, Jr.
  • I would have to say that the vast majority of people that watch dvd movies, use a dvd player hooked into their home theatre systems, not sitting at their desk watching them on their computers. Everybody I know, that has a home theater setup (just about everybody I know) has at LEAST 1 dvd player, NOT counting the one that may be in their computer. Sorry, wait as long as you like, DVD is here to stay for a while. It has ALREADY become the standard. There is no downside. You pay $150 more or less, then movies cost pretty much the same amount (just a little more, but well worth it) as VHS, they don't degrade, the sound is worlds apart, as is the picture... so you can't record wrestling on monday night on it, or whatever.. just dust off the old vcr and fire it up if that's something you just gotta do. I really VERY RARELY record on my vcr, I use it to watch my video collection, (which is fast becoming a DVD collection) and that's about it. If you want to sound like a video elitest, go right ahead, but that elite hardware is for SURE not going to become a standard anytime soon. And just for curiosities sake, how many studio's are releasing movies on a better format? I thought so. Have fun.
    Sounds like a bitter DIVX fan to me.
  • I was definately pumped about watching the Matrix on September 18(note that it was supposed to be out on the Sept 21 :-) ) but was somewhat shocked by all of the skipping. Of course, me and my roomate studied the problem because this was the first time my Pioneer DVL 700(or is DLV?) did anything like this.

    After somewhat extensive tweaking and studying, we basically boiled the problem down to one feature on the DVD: "Follow The White Rabbit". Everytime FtWR feature would kick in(even though you didn't play that program) the DVD would skip causing a lag in the audio. It doesn't matter which audio/video track you are listening/watching....it always happens in the same FtWR spots.

    Since I could get the player to do anything about this, I had to come up with a work around. The best thing I could come up with is just after the skipping, just backup the video a little bit. By seeking like this, it resyncs the audio and video. Not perfect, but unless I get a new player this is what has to be done to watch it. *sigh*

    Makes me wish I bought the LD instead. :-(
  • You have to hold down CTRL-Apple-I

    but I had already returned it at that stage :(

    I tried it on three different DVD players and it ranged from not working at all to freezing at certain points in the movie to crashing if I access the PC options.

    And why the heck would someone put windows options on it only? >:(

    What's really annoying if you check some of the boards WB are keeping quiet about it, and other people have claimed it's peoples DVD players are not up to date (but mine is only 2 months old!!).

    Other things I didn't like was the quality of the movie was grainy and Ms Moss freaked my head out in the commentary I got the impression she was speaking from across the room in a whisper. :)

    For an excellent movie they really messed it up.
  • Im a big fan of DVD, i have a PC DVD ROM drive (the only 2 things win98 is good for is games and DVDs) and a Sony DVD player for my TV.

    Ive never used LD, but I have to say that LDs often have commentry tracks and other special features found on DVD. In fact alot of DVDs are just copies of the LDs. On several of my DVDs (for instance on Phantasm and on Criterion's Brazil commentary tracks the director mentions doing the commentary "for this laser disc")

    LDs have an analogue sound track which, depending on your A/D hardware and the type of encoding on the DVD may or may not sound better than the DVD. I have a friend hwo has both DVD & LD who swears that his LDs sound alot better than DVD.
  • The Criterion Collection is released by a company (Criterion) that specializes on high quality transfers of films to DVD often with alot of extras. they started doing tis for Laser Disc and are now doing it for DVD. They are not doing anymore LDs and IIRC are stopping production of their LD becuase they feel that LD has been supersceded by DVD.

    There web site is here [criterionco.com].
  • on video november 21st

  • another useful dvd info site (Score:3)

    by Lurking Grue ( 3963 ) on Friday October 01, 1999 @04:16AM (#1646151)
    Check out The Digital Bits [thedigitalbits.com]. They covered this a few days ago, and they're an excellent source for DVD information.
  • I wish other movies did this.

    Some do.

    Blade and Pleasantville come to mind.
  • Some Blockbusters already rent DVDs and will have DVDs available in most/all of its US stores by the end of this year. Click here [dvdreview.com] for more info.
  • Like I said I was just repeating what my friend said. My only point was YMMV.

    Personaly I take the digital out form my DVD player and pipe it through my Theta Colbalt D/A box and from there to my Linn amp. I don't even have a "receiver". It sounds pretty good to me.
  • I was calling a best buy last week and instead of putting me on hold, a clerk just put the handest on the counter. I heard someone (maybe a manager) tell him about the matrix problem, and from what I could tell, they would offer to exchange the affected dvd players for newer models that don't have that problem. Of course, don't quote me on this, because while I was trying to listen someone kept making announcements over their paging system. But if you bought your dvd player from best buy and you can't play the matrix, it might at least be worth a call.

  • Re:G3 350 w DVD (Score:3)

    by Pope ( 17780 ) on Friday October 01, 1999 @04:24AM (#1646210)
    go to Mac Fixit [macfixit.com].
    There's been a lot of coverage on the Mac sites because apparently, the company making this formatted it as an ISO disk instead of UDF.

    There's a way around the problems if you go to their site and look it up.

    PPoE

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