I have a trusty old Panasonoc E80. Its a real workhorse, never had any problems, and never burned a coaster since the day I bought it.

Just recently though, I rented Ratatouille form Blockbuster. It played the title screen, but when I selected "play movie" it locked up, and the only way out was to eject the disk. I returned the movie and got another copy, but the same thing happened. On the second copy, I discovered I could make the movie play by selecting "chapters", select the second scene, then wind back to the start of the movie. Since then I have rented 4 more movies, and two of them had the same problem, lock up on "play movie" but will play by selecting chapters.

Anyone have any ides on what is going on? It's just these movies, I can record and play other DVDs just fine. I suspect its something to do with copy protection but i'm not sure. Anyone else have this problem?

Definitely sounds like copy protection to me... if it plays every other disc fine there's something with how it's authored the E80's choking on... maybe call Disney (or one of the other studios) and see if they've had any reports? Are they all new-ish movies?

I looked up "Ratatouille copy protection" on the web. Look like this movie, and the others that would not play ("3:10 to Yuma" and "No Country for Old Men") have ARccoS copy protection. There is an article that talks about some players locking up trying to play these disks. Looks like Sony is up to their old tricks, first rootkits, now this.

Anyone else with Panasonic Recorders have this problem? Is there a software upgrade that will fix this?

They just never learn. Sony and Disney are famous for putting extra layers of copy-protection on their DVD's which often cause grief with players -- even Sony players. The silly part is that the extra copy-protection is useless and is easily defeated. Anyone who knows their way around the available DVD backup tools is not bothered by ARccoS or whatever else they add.

"No country for old men" came out Tuesday. I bought it Wednesday from CC, got it home and immediately ripped a backup copy using DVD Fab Decrypter. So much for their latest copy protection.

Kelson is right. The best way around this problem would be to copy the DVD on your computer, and use the copy to view the movie. Of course the copy should be destroyed after viewing...

I prefer to copy all my DVD masters. I just don't like all the forced viewing warnings and sometimes previews in front of most DVD's.
On my copies I can play the movie right away.
Oh and I don't think the master needs to be destroyed(I'm sure you were kidding). I just put it away and only use the copy, unless the copy gets damaged, then I copy the master again. The way I look at it is if only one copy is played at a time I'm OK. At least that's the way I understand the "fair use" act.

I prefer to copy all my DVD masters. I just don't like all the forced viewing warnings and sometimes previews in front of most DVD's.
On my copies I can play the movie right away.That is exactly how I feel. I want to put a disk in the tray and have it play the movie as soon as the disk mounts. I don't even have tolerance for the studio logos and other "startup video". I cut it all away.

Oh and I don't think the master needs to be destroyed(I'm sure you were kidding). I just put it away and only use the copy, unless the copy gets damaged, then I copy the master again. The way I look at it is if only one copy is played at a time I'm OK. At least that's the way I understand the "fair use" act.

The OP was referring to viewing a rental DVD not a purchased DVD, and so "fair use" does not apply. The copied DVD should be destroyed after viewing...and I am NOT kidding...;)

Then of course you are correct. Didn't catch that part. I was referring to DVD's that were owned by the copier.

No problem, I thought as much.

I prefer to copy all my DVD masters. I just don't like all the forced viewing warnings and sometimes previews in front of most DVD's.
On my copies I can play the movie right away.
Oh and I don't think the master needs to be destroyed(I'm sure you were kidding). I just put it away and only use the copy, unless the copy gets damaged, then I copy the master again. The way I look at it is if only one copy is played at a time I'm OK. At least that's the way I understand the "fair use" act.
Info on "Fair Use" if interested. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Corp._of_America_v._Universal_City_Studios%2C_Inc.)