Just picked up HF, March of the Penguins & Children of Men. MotP had very bad PQ, just awful. I bet the DVD version looks exactly alike. Ugh. But that's another story.

After watching that I stuck HF in. Awesome PQ, but beginning at chapter 19 the thing basically starts stuttering. Then a freeze, then a complete freeze, followed by the dreaded error code. Then my A2 froze and I had to reboot it. Tried going back to that part of the film, another freeze. Then tried skipping to chapter 20 instead. You guessed it. It wouldn't even play at all.

So I then tried flipping the disc over and trying the DVD side, but after showing the WB logo the screen stayed black. So then I finally tried playing the DVD side on my 360, but the Xbox kept making a strange noise, probably because it was trying to read the disc but couldn't. Failed again.

I'm just tired of this crap. It's lame. I pay $35 for a movie, and for what? Just to sit there and hope for 90 minutes that it plays all the way through? Utter nonsense.

Last week Rocky Balboa stuttered on my Samsung Blu-ray, got another copy today(don't wanna test it out because I'm already angry enough). Before that Superman Returns froze. Before that The Departed didn't want to load. Now Happy Feet. Heck I don't even wanna try and watch Children of Men at this point.

I know, the first thing youll ask me is if I've updated the firmware. it shouldn't even be about that. This technology is already over a year old. Yeah there's quirks but enough already. I could've just purchased the DVD copy(yeah with inferior picture) for less than half the price. And you know what? It would've worked perfectly. That's the saddest part.

Now I'm hesistant to purchase any HD content. Spent all this money, went format neutral, the whole thing. And what do I get? I pay 30-40 dollars on discs that have about a 50/50 chance of actually working. It's just beyond silly.

...Last week Rocky Balboa stuttered on my Samsung Blu-ray, got another copy today(don't wanna test it out because I'm already angry enough)

But everyone knows BD doesn't have studdering problems, just HD DVD! :eek:


:rolleyes:

Rockford, sorry for your frustration. I think everyone's felt some sort of growing pain with the new formats, but they will mature.

Just picked up HF, March of the Penguins & Children of Men. MotP had very bad PQ, just awful. I bet the DVD version looks exactly alike. Ugh. But that's another story.

That's funny I picked up HF and MOTP this morning. HF looks awesome and I think MOTP looks pretty darn good. Awful? I would respectfully disagree.

Sounds like you have some really bad luck with media discs. I haven't had a single bad HD DVD or Blu Ray disc, rented or bought.......call me lucky I guess.

Original poster, I can appreciate your frustrations and do not wish to dimmish the problems that you have experienced.

I myself, so far, have not had these issues with my HD-DVD and the 20 titles that I presently own.

However, give probability and mass production there is a good chance that anyone of us could end up with a bad disc , fingerprinted disc or defective or flaky player at some point.

Unfortunately some time the stars align in is a certain was and a bunch of bad things happen all at the same time.

I had a problem 28 minutes in. The picture just stopped, stuck on the screen, but the timer on the HD-A1 continued to count like it was playing. I seem to always have an issue with my HD-A1. Though, I'm not a heavy movie watcher, been a couple months. I mean when I put this movie in I thought to myself there better not be another freeze. Since I was alone I didn't care when it happened, I threw some popcorn in the microwave. But if I had guests, the time it takes to stop the player, read the disc, and finally get back to the movie point in time ruins the experience.

Not to say this never happened with my PS3. I've watched 4-5 Blu-rays and 2-3 have froze in a simular manner.

I have a original launch HD-A1. This is begining to bug me. This freeze, or the other stuttering problems, loss of audio, that don't happen in the same spot in movies. I got an extended warranty from Best Buy. I wonder what would happen if I used it.

Rockford sorry about the bad luck, but I have a HD-A1 and have had little problems. Most of my problems were from badly scratched discs from Netflix. Just got Happy Feet today and it is the best looking animation movie I have ever seen. The whales, seals, and penguins look incredible. It did freeze for just a second around the 28 minute mark, but it kept going and no problems after that. MOTP got four stars on highdefdigest.com and they do a great job reviewing the HD discs so I have to agree with scoob on that one. Also, if you are paying $35 for your discs then you are going to the wrong place. Amazon and several other sites have HD movies ranging from $15 to $28.

I'm glad a lot of you guys don't have the same luck as me. Did March of the Penguins get rated that highly? I'm not exaggerating when I tell you how bad it looks on my setup. LOTS and lots of noise and what seems to be filtering or what have you. I was supremely disappointed with the PQ. I'm using a Samsung 720p 61" DLP currently. I wonder why this film looks the way it does on my TV....

I know I could be using Amazon instead for the cheaper prices, but with the luck I'm having lately with bad discs(and hopefully not players), it's a lot easier to just go back to the store and exchange them instead of having to ship them back.

I'm going to give Children of Men a shot later tonight, and if that doesn't work, I can go take that and HF back to Best Buy for new copies. IF they have any in stock....

I just want stuff that works. Stuff I can count on to run consistently. That's not too much to freakin' ask for. It can be so frustrating at times, like I just wanna throw my hands up.

Just watched Happy Feet on my add-on and......that movie looked unbelievable.

Well I trudged back over to Best Buy again this morning and got another copy of Happy Feet. And wouldn't you know, this one is WORSE than the one I just returned. It took nearly 5 minutes to get the thing to even load on the A2, what with all the "error code", "Not a DVD", and other crap the unit kept displaying. Stupid.

In fact it won't even play at all. Not even the DVD side. And again, I tried playing the DVD side of the combo on two different players besides the A2, and they couldn't get it to go either. This is just beyond shameful. This has to be a disc problem.

It's funny because I ended up borrowing the regular SD-DVD copy from a friend....and that played fine in the A2. But with downgraded PQ, something I didn't like looking at after seeing a bit of it in HD.

Something is up with some of these HD-DVD HF discs. All I know is, when I go back to BB to return this latest crap copy, I'm going to try and exchange it for the Blu-ray version instead.

Bad luck I guess. I own maybe 15 HD-DVD's and rented 3/4 of the HD-DVD's at Netflix and Blockbuster that are available. I've never had any problems except 1 James Taylor HD-DVD that got stuck after the menu.

WOW....

I own over 100 HD-DVD's and have yet to have a major problem like this...

Both HF and COM player flawlessly on my A1 with firmware 2.0

Outside of a very brief stutter on THE MUMMY, I have had excellent luck....

Now, because my player is hooked up differently than I am sure allot of others are, I think I have had better results.

As my player is wired into a portable rack for large backyard events, it is unplugged when not in use..... No Power.... So, I get a fresh hard boot everytime I use it...

Dugger

I had a problem 28 minutes in. The picture just stopped, stuck on the screen, but the timer on the HD-A1 continued to count like it was playing. I seem to always have an issue with my HD-A1. Though, I'm not a heavy movie watcher, been a couple months. I mean when I put this movie in I thought to myself there better not be another freeze. Since I was alone I didn't care when it happened, I threw some popcorn in the microwave. But if I had guests, the time it takes to stop the player, read the disc, and finally get back to the movie point in time ruins the experience.

Not to say this never happened with my PS3. I've watched 4-5 Blu-rays and 2-3 have froze in a simular manner.

I have a original launch HD-A1. This is begining to bug me. This freeze, or the other stuttering problems, loss of audio, that don't happen in the same spot in movies. I got an extended warranty from Best Buy. I wonder what would happen if I used it.


I had the same issue. Thought it was a HDMI issue being the timer wes still going. I ended up hitting next and it played flawless from then on.

Prehapps a bad batch of discs..

I'm glad some of you don't have the sort of "luck" I do when it comes to electronics and such. It's enough to make you wanna scream....

I know, the first thing youll ask me is if I've updated the firmware. it shouldn't even be about that.

But did you update the firmware? The first update supposedly fixed some of these "playability" issues. I don't want to jinx myself, but I haven't had a problem yet with my A2 (loaded with 1st updated firware but not the latest one yet).

I had a problem 28 minutes in. The picture just stopped, stuck on the screen, but the timer on the HD-A1 continued to count like it was playing.

I had this same problem on my HD-A1. I don't know if it was at the exact same time, but it was the scene where Mumbles is chasing the birds that had snatched Gloria's fish. The picture froze, but the counter continued. I advanced to the next chapter, where it continued playing. I then scanned backwards to just before the point where it froze, and hit play. When it reached the trouble spot it "gliched" for one frame (digital breakup, with a small "pop" in the speakers") then the movie continued perfectly. I checked the disc, and found some speckles of dust on it, so these might have contributed to the problem. I also noticed that it took longer than usual to read the disc, and it seemed to struggle when it went from the ratings screen at the start of the movie to the opening logos. I'll have to try it on my 360 add-on to see if it's a disc or player problem.

I also experienced a freeze when the penguin is in the water on chapter 9, and I needed to unplug the A1 in order to reboot. It froze again on the exact same scene the 2nd time, so I needed to advance beyond the scene. I NEVER had an issue with freezing on any disc before, and I have over 100 movies (not that I've watched them all, but I've watched plenty). It sounds like a bad batch of discs to me.

Rockford,

That's why I haven't bitten the HD DVD bullet yet. I would really be ticked off to have a disc freeze on me.

are ypu playing HF with dolby truehd? i know that almost always messes my movies up. and the high def digest review says MotP looks great. it was shot on film and the graininess shows, but it's still a really good picture.

I saw MOTP on standard DVD and it definitely didn't look "great". Plenty of noise, not super sharp, and in some scenes I actually saw orange halos around the penguins. So I can't imagine the HD-DVD version could be that much better, the source just isn't good to start with.

I had a problem 28 minutes in. The picture just stopped, stuck on the screen, but the timer on the HD-A1 continued to count like it was playing.
Same thing happened to me on my A1. Right when Mumble is with Gloria underwater and that bird steals the fish (about 28-29 minutes in, like you), the player then did the exact same thing.

I played the scene again and it paused at the same frame and then continued normally.

It really seems disc-centric (maybe a speck of dust or hair), how could the problem happen at that exact moment twice if the actual player is to blame?

Other shutters I've had in the past are like this too.

To be honest, I'm not that worried if it's disc centric, that's vastly better than my player having a problem.

make that three... chapter 8 with play time at 28:49 to be exact. I've try dusting and wiping with baby wipe and soft dry towel with no luck. A good thing is that it is reproducible and it's not just my disc having the same issue. I'm going to have it exchanged with a new copy as soon as amazon replay back with return label.

Make that 4...my disc also froze at 28:49 and refused to advance. Dammit Warner where's the QC on these discs (particularly given their combo pricing)??? :mad:

I've got a HD-A1 with FW 2.0 that has been behaving perfectly until this crapola!

Lets recap this. For those that have the freeze issue at 28 or so minutes, repost saying yes and the player and firmware. And to those that didn't, say no and your player and firmware. This way maybe we'll know if it's an issue mainly with HD-A1 or happens on all players. It can't be dust or speckles if it has happened to more than one of us at the exact moment.

So for me:

Yes, player HD-A1. (not at home to check firmware, been 6+ months)

damn it damn it damn it... I actually got used to reasonably perfect playback on my A1, with Friday Night Lights, Jarhead, and Departed playing back flawlessly.... As I've stopped using the A1 quite as much with the new Panny BD, I thought the rest might have been good for it.

Bought the (more expensive) HD-DVD version of HF because of the TrueHD soundtrack, of course. The sound -was- fabulous, but I found it to be a little quieter than other TrueHD soundtracks (my AVR was up higher than it normally needs to be).

Still, that was hardly the deal breaker...

I had FOUR skips/stutters through the film... the usual thing - listening through analogue connection, the pic freezes for a very brief moment, then continues without audio... the audio then kicks in some moments later and keeps playing (FAR better than a HEX total barf, but still bloody annoying).

Again, FWIW, I've never even had a bloody hiccup with my Panny (also 1st Gen, of course)

As above, I just went and tested at 28:49... played fine. I realized that I had ejected the disc which clears settings, so I re-watched with TrueHD enabled... also played fine.

I can't be 100% positive, but I'm pretty sure that indeed that scene (with all the spray, the birds, etc) was where one of my barfs took place. Again, I was trying to -not- let the barfs take me out of the film, so I wasn't exactly watching with pen in hand.

It's a very fun film, and it looks damn good, but I continue to be so annoyed by these twiddly problems with discs on this player. Again, was looking forward to G2, only to find in some ways it's worse (see a Vice thread I wrote months ago).

Here's hoping FW2.1 actually does -something-, and one of those things is to help with these stability issues.

This is -not- an isolated case, alas.

Me too. 28 minutes in. It must be a bad pressing. I thought I saw something like a smudge on the HD DVD side. After a few fruitless attempts at cleaning it, I came to the conclusion that the smudge was under the surface. Luckily it was a Netflix disc. But this is the first time I've ever had such a problem with any HD DVD. And I've bought and rented plenty.

I am having a semi-issue with Happy Feet also in that I get the "not a DVD format" message also on my A2X, but it always goes away after I open the tray and close it again. No issues with actual playback though after I do that.

Chalk up another one with the freeze at the exact same spot as you guys. HD-A1 also.

Take it back, I FF to the 28.43 scene and yes my copy freezes and I get an error message also, I have a A2X with the latest FW.

This is very interesting. On mine, once passed the to 30th minutes, everything plays flawless. Even the beginning up until the 28:49 plays flawless.

I'm on XA1 with 2.0 firmware. My new XA2 from amazon is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. I hope my wife stays put at home to sign it off. I'll try it on XA2 after updating to the latest firmware v1.3.

BTW, this was my first time using SD-DVD side of the combo disc after HD-DVD side had froze for good 20 sec. I was watching it with my daughter and show must go on.... I was kinda glad it was a combo...... and the SD side also looked great.

Add me to the list for the same damn spot freeze up! A1 with 2.0 firmware. The counter kept going while the picture stayed froze. Had to restart the movie and just skipped over that spot.

Sorry to hear about the disc or player problems some of you guys are having. I went through chap 8 and 9 where the mentioned problems appear. No glitches on my Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on drive. Audio was 2-channel. Will report back if the problem appears using the Cyberlink player, my HD-A1 and HD-A2. This would be sad after I pledged $5000 to the HD-DVD movement. But, Ollie G. in da house sez: Invest in multiple players, just in case. You know, belts, suspenders, and bulletproof vests.

More testing 3-29-2007: Played the disc more or less fine with the HD-A1, firmware v. 1.4. Only a very short stutter around 29:50 or so, when the fish is swallowed by Gloria. No lockups. This firmware version does not support true hd audio, so if this is the cause of the problem, I'm waiting for v 2.1 to sort out the problems of v 2.0. Yeah, I'm way behind.

Testing 3-31-2007: Had a chance to watch this all the way through with an HD-A2, latest firmware, using HDMI. No lockups, but at around the 28:50-ish lockup point, there was a glitch in a few frames. It looked like the mangling you see with film projectors that are passing crinkled frames. There was also a brief audio stutter around 29 minutes.

In summary, I think the problem is with disc manufacture, most likely. Those with discs that cause a hard lockup should try their copies out on other people's machines to see if the problem is reproducible. This will verify my hypothesis.

If it turns out that it is a mix of the two (bad disc AND/OR finicky player hardware/firmware, depending on the phases of the moon), then Toshiba and WB better get their acts together and figure out the cause(s) of the problems.

I also experienced a freeze when the penguin is in the water on chapter 9, and I needed to unplug the A1 in order to reboot. It froze again on the exact same scene the 2nd time, so I needed to advance beyond the scene. I NEVER had an issue with freezing on any disc before, and I have over 100 movies (not that I've watched them all, but I've watched plenty). It sounds like a bad batch of discs to me.
Just let you know you can hold the power button to reboot A1. You need to hold it in for a few seconds.
I had same problem last night with Happy Feet. My wife is tired of movies freezing. I am angry this is a brand new disk we bought and it froze when they first went into the water to go fisshing. Im not sure which chapter it is. I know it was chapter 8 on SD side. I ended up watching SD side. Big let down after watching HD side. :mad:

Add me to the list.
I have the first gen RCA player with latest firmware.
I usually have zero problems, skips here and there with rentals put not a complete lockup like this.
Luckily I have an Xbox HDDVD drive but there goes my DolbyHD benefit.
In the Xbox drive, the scene breaks up at the same second but then continues to play.

Very disappointing especially when watching with my 4 year old.

I want to return to Amazon soon but why do that when I'll probably get the same bad pressed copy?

I hope this is properly recalled.

Later, I watched a rental of Jet Li's Fearless and it played flawlessly in the RCA so it is not my player.

Sorry you guys are having problems with Happy Feet too. It's just ridiculous. On my A2, the first disc totally froze where the penguins meet up with the elephant seals, about 2/3s of the way through the film. It didn't wanna play after that. Total system freeze. Had to unplug, etc. After rebooting the disc just wouldn't load at all. On ANY player I tried.

Second disc wouldn't load at all, on any player as well. Got so fed up my roommate returned it to Best Buy and got me the Blu-ray version instead. Haven't tried it out yet, but I sure hope this one works....

It's indeed silly to be spending this type of money on equipment/discs only to be on pins & needles the whole time you're watching a movie. It takes all the fun & joy out of the whole experience, worrying if/when there will be a freeze or glitch. At least with regular DVDs they ACTUALLY play! Wow what a concept!

I had a problem 28 minutes in. The picture just stopped, stuck on the screen, but the timer on the HD-A1 continued to count like it was playing. I seem to always have an issue with my HD-A1. Though, I'm not a heavy movie watcher, been a couple months. I mean when I put this movie in I thought to myself there better not be another freeze. Since I was alone I didn't care when it happened, I threw some popcorn in the microwave. But if I had guests, the time it takes to stop the player, read the disc, and finally get back to the movie point in time ruins the experience.

Not to say this never happened with my PS3. I've watched 4-5 Blu-rays and 2-3 have froze in a simular manner.

I have a original launch HD-A1. This is begining to bug me. This freeze, or the other stuttering problems, loss of audio, that don't happen in the same spot in movies. I got an extended warranty from Best Buy. I wonder what would happen if I used it.
28 minutes in must be the layer change because that's where mine froze too. Luckily a couple of pauses fixed it, but I'm sick of it as well. I'm beginning to think TrueHD isn't worth the hastle and I'll just get BDs from now on.

This is weird....how is it that some of us do and some of us don't? I have watched Happy Feet twice on my add-on and not one single problem. Can some explain this to me?

This is weird....how is it that some of us do and some of us don't? I have watched Happy Feet twice on my add-on and not one single problem. Can some explain this to me?
It doesn't make any sense to me either. Same machines, same firware, yet some of them have these problems. And it seems to happen more frequently with combos that include TrueHD tracks.

Toshiba probably knows what is causing it. Hopefully they are working on a firmware fix. All I know is that I've had it. I've invested too much money into this format to have it STILL be having the same problems it did at launch.

Of course they've probably abandoned the A1s anyway. When's the last time we had a firmware update for them?

If I want to show off HD, I'll put in a BD disc. They play straight through without incident. A couple of times the screen has gone black for about one second, then returns and plays flawlessly. That's a heck of a lot easier to put up with than all the problems HD DVD still has. Even the second generation HD DVD players have the glitches! That is unacceptable!

At least for WB and Paramount releases, I'm just going to buy the BD version from now on. Enough is enough.

Since you can count the number of available HDDVD players on one hand, there is no excuse that it made it by testing, unless this is a specific bad pressing from a single factory.

I got my copy from Netflix 2 days ago and it played fine. I have an HD-XA2 v1.3 firmware.

I dunno what the cause is but it's old already. It's not just happening on A1s because my A2 didn't want anything to do with Happy Feet either. I wonder if it's because it's a combo disc. My A2 has only given me problems with these types of discs. The Departed, Superman Returns, now HF.

I've basically talked my sister into getting into HD, but with all of these stupid occurrences and glitches, maybe I should just save her the trouble.

These are the exact problems I experienced with The Departed and now after reading about Happy Feet, I'm glad I waited before I purchased. What is the deal with quality control. I'm going to start waiting for user reviews before I purchase for a while. Standard DVD has no such problems.

The Departed, Superman Returns, now HF.
What's the common denominator with those 3 discs?

I'm telling you it has something to do with TrueHD. It's as if the machine just can't keep up with the stream when it has to pas TrueHD and the video.

If my theory is correct, that could explain why some machines can handle it and others can't. HD-A1's did undergo a change a couple of months after introduction. They replaced the main processor as I recall. Maybe that new processor is faster and can handle the streams better.

That doesn't explain the A2s having the same problem unless they used the original chip too. We deserve to know what the problem is. I assume some of us here might even buy the A20 if we could be assured that it won't have these problems.

Have you guys played Ant Bully yet? It's a combo disc with True HD. I've played it several times on my A1 (Blockbuster rental no less!) and have had zero problems. Just curious whether there is a difference between this disc and the other combo discs that seem to giving everyone problems. I have Happy Feet and an XA2 in transit as I post this so I'm crossing my fingers that there are no issues.

I think the problem is simple. It has everything to do with few discs with bad press. My XA1 came back from repair center couple of months ago and have been performing without a glitch. Anyway, I think the same glitch would also happen when playing with DD+ track as well, so it's probably the disc condition alone causing or exacerbating the issue. My replacement copy of HF is being processed to ship out and I'll try a new copy when it's here. I will keep the old copy until then. Maybe the new 2.1 firmware for XA1 supposed to help with such discs, but where hell is it? I'll also test it with XA2 today once set up.

Have you guys played Ant Bully yet? It's a combo disc with True HD. I've played it several times on my A1 (Blockbuster rental no less!) and have had zero problems. Just curious whether there is a difference between this disc and the other combo discs that seem to giving everyone problems. I have Happy Feet and an XA2 in transit as I post this so I'm crossing my fingers that there are no issues.
That's true, I didn't have any trouble with Ant Bully.

I don't see how it could be a disc issue because they are authored the same. Unless there's a factory that screws up everything it produces and Toshiba somehow hasn't figured that out yet, I don't think it could be a disc issue. It's got to be hardware and/or the software that runs it.

That's true, I didn't have any trouble with Ant Bully.

I don't see how it could be a disc issue because they are authored the same. Unless there's a factory that screws up everything it produces and Toshiba somehow hasn't figured that out yet, I don't think it could be a disc issue. It's got to be hardware and/or the software that runs it.

I don't believe everyone who purchased HF is having such problem. I do own few other combo with trueHD track and never had an issue until now. I also own superman returns, ant bully, fearless, and departed and all played fine.

Actually, hoping that 2.1 firmware can help since it's supposed to help with playability for 1st gen players.

Anyway, we'll know for sure when we get more user feedbacks and with a new replacement copy coming soon.

28 minutes in must be the layer change because that's where mine froze too. Luckily a couple of pauses fixed it, but I'm sick of it as well. I'm beginning to think TrueHD isn't worth the hastle and I'll just get BDs from now on.


I'm not sure I was playing the TrueHD track when it happened to me. Though, I did start off the movie with trueHD, but by the time they showed the crack in the ice and avalanche as they cut to an egg hatching it had absolutely no bass at all, but switching back to optical it was powerful. So I think I took off TrueHD long before I hit 28 minutes, unless even using TrueHD at an earlier point would have still caused this.

When it froze I changed channels and the HDMI was no longer detected so I went back to the input and it loaded up. This time I did not choose TrueHD track at all, and jumped to the scene in question. But I never allowed it to play, I kept it paused and used fast forward and rewind until I got the point right as they burst out of the water with the fish and birds. Then everything was fine for the rest of the movie.

But overall I swear I can't get through a movie 70% of the time without some stuttering, pausing, and audio loss. This makes it hard to invite anyone over given the time it takes to recover from the glitches, then to have it happen again later in the film.

Mine too same spot

Happy Feet played fine all the way through for me -- running on an A2 with 1.3 firmware...I was also listening to the TrueHD track. Player is hooked up with HDMI for video and Opitcal for audio...not sure what is going on with these things, hard to believe that it is a disc problem (how would it be that widespread...i.e. people w/ bad discs in such different geographical locations)....Children of Men is another story, however, as it consistently freezes (video freeze, counter keeps running) at the 1:18 mark. Toshiba and/or these disc manufacturers need to get their Sh$t together - I have no problem spending all this $$ on players/movies provided that they work propererly.

Very odd, I to had the issue on my A1 ver. 2.0 firmware. Hopfully a new patch is made.

It does seem combos have the most issues. Happy feet is the first disc to lock up on me. At most all my other discs get get a speed up no audio issue. Mostly its a audio drop out. If anything my last few discs played perfect..

Lets recap this. For those that have the freeze issue at 28 or so minutes, repost saying yes and the player and firmware.
Yes. HD-A1, FW 2.0, bought July '06. Playing the TrueHD track BTW.

This is very interesting. On mine, once passed the to 30th minutes, everything plays flawless. Even the beginning up until the 28:49 plays flawless.
Same with me.

Okay... now I'm little embarrassed to report that mine stopped getting freeze ups. I decided to stay home to welcome my new XA2 player and I wanted to check out Happy Feet again.... and i went straight to the problematic part and it just played this time with slight stutter, but no freeze. I then changed the audio output to TrueHD and play the scene again and it just played through w/out a hick up. So, I went back about 6+ more times switching back and forth between DD+ and TrueHD... but it just plays through now.

This is weird, because I've tried everything last night and it would keep freezing at the save scene, even after hard reboot and unplugging & draining power. Now the disc seems to play perfect. Well... amazon already shipped out the replacement...... I'll just sent the unopened box back, unless the problem comes back.

I have the 360 addon and had no problems at all...even with the TrueHd soundtrack on. Have watched roughly 20-25 hd discs and have never had any probs(with the exception of the free NIN demo disc from BB-sound prob)

I did not have any problems at all. HD-A1, FW 2.0. However, since I had read about problems here, I did not choose TrueHD when I played it.

I hate to be another guy with nothing to add other then I had absolutely zero problems with Happy Feet, ran it from start to finish without a hitch, then a second pass with a few long pause breaks to take a few pictures (check sig ;)), resumed perfectly, etc. Hate to hear that some are having issues, I know that would bug me - you expect new things to work properly, pain in the ass when they don't. A2 and 1.3 FW here FWIW.

Happy Feet played fine all the way through for me -- running on an A2 with 1.3 firmware...I was also listening to the TrueHD track. Player is hooked up with HDMI for video and Opitcal for audio...not sure what is going on with these things, hard to believe that it is a disc problem (how would it be that widespread...i.e. people w/ bad discs in such different geographical locations)....Children of Men is another story, however, as it consistently freezes (video freeze, counter keeps running) at the 1:18 mark. Toshiba and/or these disc manufacturers need to get their Sh$t together - I have no problem spending all this $$ on players/movies provided that they work propererly.

Oh great, guess what my second 3/27 purchase screening is tonight? You mean I have to go through the freezing nonsense a second night in a row??? :mad:

I took my HF HD DVD back to Walmart today and replaced it with the BD version.

Now on to more frustration with COM...ahhh life on the bleeding edge of consumer electronics! :mad:

What's the common denominator with those 3 discs?

I'm telling you it has something to do with TrueHD. It's as if the machine just can't keep up with the stream when it has to pas TrueHD and the video.



The even bigger common denominator is that they are all combo discs. This is why Toshiba is issuing disclaimers that combo discs may not play. And I have a feeling it's why Universal's most recent announcements include zero combos after they previously stated the majority of their releases would be.

WBs TotalHD idiocy should work out great.

I just tried out Happy Feet between the 23:00 and 30:00 time frame. No lock-ups, but it stuttered twice. Each time, I rewound past where is stuttered, played again, and it played through fine the 2nd time.

Still, better audio isn't worth it. This is the last HD-DVD I buy when there is a version available on Blu-Ray. I still haven't had one problem at all playing Blu-Ray discs on the PS3 while my experience is almost the opposite on HD-DVD. Granted, most of the problems occur on combo discs... I can't think of any disc that wasn't a combo where I had an issue.

Okay.... I just tested XA2 with firmware 1.3 and no freezes with HF disc I had trouble initially.

Very strange indeed. How can you explain that?.... people are reproducing same problem at the spot on the disc, yet, now the same problematic disc works fine on both XA1 and XA2.

I'm glad that it doesn't freeze no more...but I'm very confused by how it fixed itself....

My replacement disc from Netflix played flawlessly. It must have been from a bad batch. And fyi, i have an xa1 on 2.0.

Most of the disc problems make no sense. Originally, as I stuttered my way through "Miami Vice", I assumed it was some kind of bufferring issue. Something gets out of sync in the buffer.. I'd pause....wait... then move on. Repeat a few times.

When I briefly had an XA2, I got stopped at the exact same spot in Hollywoodland repeatedly. I messed with it for about a half an hour. I took it downstairs to the A1, went straight to the same spot, it played. Took it back up to the XA2 one more time, went straight to the same spot it had already locked up on about 5 times and... it played through. Any logic there at all?

I really believe there is just something with these combos that players don't like. Sometimes you can get through them, sometimes you can't - heck, maybe the weight of the disc (they have to weight more than a normal disc, right?) is causing some kind of issue. For whatever reason, Toshiba doesn't want to apparently support the combo or entertain issues with them. Universal really does seem to be running from them until I see a new combo title announced.

But, when we swap out discs (and I did so with Superman Returns), was the original disc actually defective or did we just get lucky that time when we played the replacement?

I'm going to try flipping over my HD-A1 and seeing if that helps. It worked a decade ago with my PS1, anyway. :)

A couple of buddies called me this afternoon they are also experiencing issues with this movie (we all have the A1 model).

To be honest I seriously thinking about buying the blu ray version. I was initially sold on the HD DVD version because of True HD. But as someone stated earlier, the enhanced audio is not worth the hassle.

Watched it this evening while playing back in TrueHD and it was just about flawless. It did stutter for only 2 seconds at the same part everyone is talking about. Other then that, completely flawless. I have the A1 with 2.0 firmware.

Well contrary to what I expected the Universal combo Children of Men played flawlessly on my HD-A1 (FW 2.0) tonight...the same setup that gave me reproducible freezes at the 28:49 mark of the Happy Feet HD DVD last night. Go figure!!!

heh, yeah, just about... so annoying, to be sure... I too am thinking of ditching for the BD version... This does -not- make me happy to be doing so...

I'll wait 'till FW 2.1, try it then, and if it barfs, I'm for sure going to find a way of exchanging it.

Do you think a store like Best Buy would allow an opened HD-DVD to be returned for a Blu-ray version, plus the $5 difference? (Especially noting the problem with the disc)

Also, this is the only movie I wished the case was blue for obvious reasons :)

Do you think a store like Best Buy would allow an opened HD-DVD to be returned for a Blu-ray version, plus the $5 difference? (Especially noting the problem with the disc)

Also, this is the only movie I wished the case was blue for obvious reasons :)

I can't speak for Best Buy but I returned my opened Happy Feet HD DVD to Walmart today and they allowed me to exchange it for the BD version (and I got $3 back to boot since the BD is cheaper!)...

Same problem here with Happy Feet and at the same time in the movie. May exchange it for the BD tomorrow. I'll enjoy the TotalHD tonight and kiss it goodbye. I'm so sick of this crap. I've had problems with Hollywoodland, Superman Returns, The Departed, and now this one.

I've had very, very few problems with my A1 Fw2 player. In fact, all problems I've had I couldn't reproduce, and were on Netflix discs.

This one, however, happens every time at the 28 minute mark already mentioned. Sometimes it locks, and sometimes it skips a few frames when hitting that point and just continues on without any problems.

Definitely sounds like a bad batch of discs.

I've never had to return anything in my life to Amazon. So I'll go to their website that they list for their "returns are easy!" instructions. Hopefully they are. Anyone have problems with Amazon returns, or are they pretty good about it?

Arrrg. Should have come back to this thread sooner. I read this post back when the first poster reported a problem at 28 minutes. I assumed it was an isolated issue, since I've had very few problems with new disks (but plenty of issues with rentals).

Tonight we had relatives visiting from out of town. You guessed it, we picked Happy Feet to showcase the Theater....and yes, it froze up hard at 28 minutes. I had to power-down the A1 by holding the power-button for 5 seconds. With guests present, I had no intention of futzing around with the player to see if I could get it working, so I flipped the disk and we watched the rest of the movie on the DVD side. I guess that's one advantage of the flipper disks...gives you a back-up plan.

As I was rushing to get things up and running again, I heard my sons on the back row comment to the guests that this always happens when dad makes us watch the movie on HD DVD. :o The HD DVD disks certainly look and sound better, but unless you're a PQ/AQ nut (like most of us), it's certainly debatable whether the overall viewing experience has been improved.

--
Bryce

Arrrg. Should have come back to this thread sooner. I read this post back when the first poster reported a problem at 28 minutes. I assumed it was an isolated issue, since I've had very few problems with new disks (but plenty of issues with rentals).

Tonight we had relatives visiting from out of town. You guessed it, we picked Happy Feet to showcase the Theater....and yes, it froze up hard at 28 minutes. I had to power-down the A1 by holding the power-button for 5 seconds. With guests present, I had no intention of futzing around with the player to see if I could get it working, so I flipped the disk and we watched the rest of the movie on the DVD side. I guess that's one advantage of the flipper disks...gives you a back-up plan.

As I was rushing to get things up and running again, I heard my sons on the back row comment to the guests that this always happens when dad makes us watch the movie on HD DVD. :o The HD DVD disks certainly look and sound better, but unless you're a PQ/AQ nut (like most of us), it's certainly debatable whether the overall viewing experience has been improved.

--
Bryce

Oh, BTW. After the guests left, I went back to the HD DVD side. The second time I played through this scene, it only glitched briefly and continued playing. The third time it played through without issue. Rotten luck it completely locked up when the guests where here. Either way, the disk clearly has an issue and will be going back to Best Buy tomorrow.

I ran the disc again at the 28 minute mark and it purred right along this time.......

I am glad I found this thread. I have come to the conclusion that there is a major issue with all combo disk. I watched Troy, not a combo, from Netflik and it looked like someone used it as a sanding block. It never froze but it did want to speed up once. Happy Feet is the only combo disc I own. Every movie listed here has froze for me also. I will return mine to Amazon. What's the deal with combo disc?

Just picked up HF, March of the Penguins & Children of Men. MotP had very bad PQ, just awful. I bet the DVD version looks exactly alike. Ugh. But that's another story.

After watching that I stuck HF in. Awesome PQ, but beginning at chapter 19 the thing basically starts stuttering. Then a freeze, then a complete freeze, followed by the dreaded error code. Then my A2 froze and I had to reboot it. Tried going back to that part of the film, another freeze. Then tried skipping to chapter 20 instead. You guessed it. It wouldn't even play at all.

So I then tried flipping the disc over and trying the DVD side, but after showing the WB logo the screen stayed black. So then I finally tried playing the DVD side on my 360, but the Xbox kept making a strange noise, probably because it was trying to read the disc but couldn't. Failed again.

I'm just tired of this crap. It's lame. I pay $35 for a movie, and for what? Just to sit there and hope for 90 minutes that it plays all the way through? Utter nonsense.

Last week Rocky Balboa stuttered on my Samsung Blu-ray, got another copy today(don't wanna test it out because I'm already angry enough). Before that Superman Returns froze. Before that The Departed didn't want to load. Now Happy Feet. Heck I don't even wanna try and watch Children of Men at this point.

I know, the first thing youll ask me is if I've updated the firmware. it shouldn't even be about that. This technology is already over a year old. Yeah there's quirks but enough already. I could've just purchased the DVD copy(yeah with inferior picture) for less than half the price. And you know what? It would've worked perfectly. That's the saddest part.

Now I'm hesistant to purchase any HD content. Spent all this money, went format neutral, the whole thing. And what do I get? I pay 30-40 dollars on discs that have about a 50/50 chance of actually working. It's just beyond silly.

Welcome to the world of early adoption.

Arrrg....

...As I was rushing to get things up and running again, I heard my sons on the back row comment to the guests that this always happens when dad makes us watch the movie on HD DVD. :o

--
Bryce


Sorry about your sitch but that is a pretty funny story. I will be a dad in seven weeks and I can only imagine the crap I'll hear one day with all the equpiment I have.
What's funnier is that every kid I know, (niece, cousins etc...) are happy as clams watching a regular DVD on a 27" interlaced set with audio through the TV.

;) d

But everyone knows BD doesn't have studdering problems, just HD DVD! :eek:


:rolleyes:

Rockford, sorry for your frustration. I think everyone's felt some sort of growing pain with the new formats, but they will mature.

None of my 25 BDs have ever stuttered. The reason BDs stutter sometimes on the PS3 is a glitch in the console where the WiFi connection is lost momentarily and this causes the PS3 to freeze. If you disable the Network Connection there will be absolutely no stuttering, and this will be fixed in the next firmware update.

That Xbox 360 add-on has been having some issues with Children of Men though :o

Just as a note, when my HD-A1 froze, and kept counting, I did not have to hard shut it down by holding the power button. All I did was change the input on my tv and the player gave the HDMI not detected error. This way when I got back to the correct input all I had to wait for was to start the disc, not start the player.

I heard my sons on the back row comment to the guests that this always happens when dad makes us watch the movie on HD DVD. --
Bryce

How old are you sons? LOL

Welcome to the world of early adoption.

Not really. When people write off all of these HD-DVD issues with a shoulder shurg and "early adoption!", they are really downplaying these issues. I'm an early adopter and can't recall ever seeing anything with as many issues as HD-DVD. Sure, DVD had some early growing pains, but the only issues I ever had were some compatability problems playing a bonus feature. Never had one problem worrying about whether or not I could get through a movie.

Again, if it weren't for these combo discs, the format would be virtually glitch-free. This mess could have been avoided.

There's another thread about how Universal is starting to re-release earlier combo titles as "HD-DVD" only titles. I think the writing is pretty much on the wall as far as these combos are concerned.

I didn't notice stuttering problems playing it on my A1. Dolby True HD thru analog outs. Audio Digital out set to bitstream.

The only problem I had was with the scene transition after the blizzard. The screen seemed to turn all green for about a second. Anyone else see this?

Also, I did have troubles with The Departed (it locked up) at the scene in the bar where Leonardo and Jack are talking about the rat. It locked up twice in the exact same spot. I cleaned the disc and it then played fine.

-John

Just want to chime in as one who didn't have problems in the 28th minute... thankfully. I feel for those that did thought.

360 add-on for informations sake.

sigh. Although I have yet to experience a single stutter on my HD-A1, now I'm contemplating whether I should even bother trying to play HF (due to stutter) and MotP (due to the reported bac PQ).

Maybe I should just return them to Amazon.

Maybe I should just return them to Amazon.

Sounds like a good plan....... ;)

None of my 25 BDs have ever stuttered. The reason BDs stutter sometimes on the PS3 is a glitch in the console where the WiFi connection is lost momentarily and this causes the PS3 to freeze. If you disable the Network Connection there will be absolutely no stuttering, and this will be fixed in the next firmware update.

That Xbox 360 add-on has been having some issues with Children of Men though :o

This is off topic, but disabling the network does not always prevent stuttering on the PS3. PS3 as its share of glitches playing back BD, I have one.

Back on topic, my A1 has plowed right through minute 28 fine now several times, since it hung up the first time..... interesting.

Happy Feet has to be one of the most amazing animated movies I've ever had the pleasure to watch!

Story = Excellent!
Animation = Excellent and beyond!
High Definition Quality = Excellent and beyond!
DolbyTrueHD Sound = Excellent like HOLY CRAP THAT WAS FREAKING AMAZING EXCELLENT!

Seriously, this is why I changed everything over to High Definition! This movie was the first one to finally convince me that all the money spent was well spent!

I've never seen animation that good and the sound was insane powerful!

Oh yeah, did I mention that I experienced no problems with the XA2 and HF.

Do you think a store like Best Buy would allow an opened HD-DVD to be returned for a Blu-ray version, plus the $5 difference? (Especially noting the problem with the disc)

Also, this is the only movie I wished the case was blue for obvious reasons :)


Well after returning 2 different copies of Happy Feet to Best Buy I asked for the Blu-ray version on the third trip there, and they had no problem with my request. If anything, they were very apologetic about my predicament.

And as for the BD version, although I've only skipped to various spots in the film, so far no glitches or blurps. Yet. On another note, maybe it's just my particular setup, but HF looked a wee bit sharper on my A2 than it does on my Samsung BD player.

I just want equipment and discs that I can rely on. Reading earlier in this thread about the guy who had people over his theater only to have HF freeze, that just totally ruins the whole experience. It just does. We pay a premium for this "so-called" better technology, and what do we get? We get to hope and pray that our movie will play all the way to the end without messing up. Ugh.

Same thing happened to me on my A1. Right when Mumble is with Gloria underwater and that bird steals the fish (about 28-29 minutes in, like you), the player then did the exact same thing.I guess I'm joining the club. On my 360 add-on, I got a momentary judder when Mumble chases after the birds who stole the fish, followed by some skipping issues. This is the first problem I've noticed on any of my discs.

All I can say is play it few more times, and it just may fix itself. The same disc that was freezing on the same spot on XA1 now plays flawless every time. As I've noted, I do have a replacement copy on it's way from amazon, but I'll just return it back unopened.

I think there is a good chance that new firmware (when it's out) may help with particular disc stutter/freezes on the 1st gen hardware.

Anyway, hope you guys have better luck giving the disc another chance.

Xbox Ad On here. No skipping problems to report, but the disc won't load sometimes. If I restart the box, it starts right up.

I've watched this twice, no playback issues yet! Some of the best eye candy available on HD-DVD! Using the HD-XA1

Well contrary to what I expected the Universal combo Children of Men played flawlessly on my HD-A1 (FW 2.0) tonight...the same setup that gave me reproducible freezes at the 28:49 mark of the Happy Feet HD DVD last night. Go figure!!!

My experience with my XA2 just the opposite. Happy Feet played flawlessly, CoM (1st disc sent) would not play at all-even with unplugging/replugging etc. The second disc Amazon sent played great for about 1 hour then froze, now the player does not recognize the HD DVD side at all-but SD works. Go figure. Called Toshiba, just for kicks will haul out my A1 and see what it does with CoM. They suggested I send it (XA2) back for repairs.

Not really. When people write off all of these HD-DVD issues with a shoulder shurg and "early adoption!", they are really downplaying these issues. I'm an early adopter and can't recall ever seeing anything with as many issues as HD-DVD. Sure, DVD had some early growing pains, but the only issues I ever had were some compatability problems playing a bonus feature. Never had one problem worrying about whether or not I could get through a movie.

Again, if it weren't for these combo discs, the format would be virtually glitch-free. This mess could have been avoided.

There's another thread about how Universal is starting to re-release earlier combo titles as "HD-DVD" only titles. I think the writing is pretty much on the wall as far as these combos are concerned.
If the culprit turns out to be combos discs there's going to be mass killings when The Ultimate Matrix Collection hits store shelves! :eek:

How old are you sons? LOL

They are 5, 8, and 10...and they all feel pretty much the same way about the HD stuff...they couldn't really care less. Of course, they also complain when they are watching a 2.35:1 movie with the mask and projector configured for 16:9, and dad comes in and "fixes" it for them (can't help myself). :)

--
Bryce

Again, if it weren't for these combo discs, the format would be virtually glitch-free. This mess could have been avoided.



Hmmm. There might actually be something to this. It occurs to me that the only other new disc I've had glitches with was Superman Returns, which is also a combo disk. Other than these two all my other new non-combo disks have played flawlessly. Wish I could say the same for me experience with rental disks. I'm about ready to give up on rental HD DVDs, as it's so hit and miss (more miss than hit of late) compared to rental DVDs.

--
Bryce

The one time I had a problem with a movie playing, (after I had updated the firmware of course) was corrected after I cleared the persistant storage. Does anyone know what exactly it is used for? Other times I've gone in, it was clear. Is it supposed to clear itself? I've never had to clear it since.

I pick up a new rental of HF on HD DVD from BB to test for the problem that everyone having. Guess what it froze up at 28:50 into the movie. I'm returning my HF and COM to Best Buy and getting HF on BLU-RAY. I will not buy anymore HD DVD until this problem is fixed. :mad:

Happy Feet played fine all the way through for me -- running on an A2 with 1.3 firmware...I was also listening to the TrueHD track. Player is hooked up with HDMI for video and Opitcal for audio...not sure what is going on with these things, hard to believe that it is a disc problem (how would it be that widespread...i.e. people w/ bad discs in such different geographical locations)....Children of Men is another story, however, as it consistently freezes (video freeze, counter keeps running) at the 1:18 mark. Toshiba and/or these disc manufacturers need to get their Sh$t together - I have no problem spending all this $$ on players/movies provided that they work propererly.

My Children of Men started having audio break-up at 1:18 and completely froze at 1:19. Playing on the XA2.

However, just before this happened, I had to pause the movie (at the 1:13 mark) and left it paused for 5-10 minutes. I've heard this causes problems on some players/discs. I powered off and back on and played through 1:18 (and the rest of the movie), with no problem.

They are 5, 8, and 10...and they all feel pretty much the same way about the HD stuff...they couldn't really care less. Of course, they also complain when they are watching a 2.35:1 movie with the mask and projector configured for 16:9, and dad comes in and "fixes" it for them (can't help myself). :)

--
Bryce
That's why I don't have kids. :cool:








http://kensforce.com/dianem16.jpg
"..............That I know of! YEAH BABY, YEAH!"

The one time I had a problem with a movie playing, (after I had updated the firmware of course) was corrected after I cleared the persistant storage. Does anyone know what exactly it is used for? Other times I've gone in, it was clear. Is it supposed to clear itself? I've never had to clear it since.

persistant storage? Would you kindly explain. Thanks.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JJJschmitt
The one time I had a problem with a movie playing, (after I had updated the firmware of course) was corrected after I cleared the persistent storage. Does anyone know what exactly it is used for? Other times I've gone in, it was clear. Is it supposed to clear itself? I've never had to clear it since.

persistent storage? Would you kindly explain. Thanks.

Hi. I try since I'm not at home I can't give exact directions but. In the area where you go to update the firmware there is an entry, I believe it say maintaince. And under that the is an entry called persistent storage, when you select it you are given an option to clear it. I did it thinking that maybe this acted as a buffer for the system and maybe that was the cause of my problems. Once I cleared it my video problems went away. I brought unit as a BB display model and I guess it had never been turned off since they set ti up on that poor Quality TV it was connected to (I like to think of it as rescued). Well, I hope this helps. After I did that I haven't had a problem since Dec. 06.

I just watched the movie again. This time I just let it start playing and left the audio alone, so no trueHD, and it froze exactly at the same spot again.

I could bring up the menu, but it wouldn't work when I tried other chapters. I had to stop it, go back, then fast forward to just after the problem spot and it plays fine from there. Again, HD-A1 with latest updates, not using truehd.

Got my copy from Amazon today. Froze at 28:50. Retried several times, froze at exactly the same time each time. Tried switching from TrueHD to DD+, still froze. In all but one case, I was able to bring up the menu, pick the next scene, then rewind back to just after the error and continue. That one time, though, it hard froze and I had to reboot.

A1, 2.0

I'll pull the plug for awhile tomorrow then try again.

As far as a bad 'batch' goes, would this mean a bad day on the line, or would it mean the entire run of discs? In other words, any point in an RMA?

add me to the list. just got HF from hddvdworld.com, and with the xbox addon, it won't even read the disk. as in, it says "reading" and it never says anything else (no errors, nothing).

i haven't seen anyone talk about the physical disks. on mine, you can definitely tell there are two disks glued together. you can feel the seam between them, and it even feels like they're just barely off center or something. i feel like i could pry them apart with my fingernails. with my other combo disks, it never even occurred to me that there were two separate physical layers, they were so seamlessly attached.

anyone else seen any physical problems with their disks?

oh, and to add insult to injury, children of men won't play well either. it usually gives me a "can't read disk" error, but i did get it going once by repeatedly unplugging things, but it stopped about 1:18:00 into the movie.

I've never had a problem with any hd dvd's before, combo or otherwise. and i went back an played a few and they all still work. i guess i've made up my mind which matrix set to get.

ARG.

Same issue - dies 28:47-28:50 (somewhere in that range) into the movie. HD-A1, FW 2.0 (Canadian model, if it makes a difference). And HF was purchased in Canada. (I went for HD-DVD as I've had better experience with my HD-DVD player than blu-ray... at least, the PQ of the HD-DVD tended to be better for me).

HF was the first combo I've seen to have this issue... hrm. I did note that you can go to the next chaper, then rewind to around 28:50 and play, and it works again. Just something odd in the couple of seconds there. Rewind too far and it'll stop, but rewind as close as you can and it isn't too bad.

It freezes on my A1 - dolby trueHD or digital 5.1, no difference.

I did note that it halts for about 10-15 seconds, then plays back with no audio until I pause and unpause it. When I pause it, it continues to play for the 10-15 seconds before stopping.

It doesn't look to be the disc because pressing my ear up against the A1 doesn't seem to result in read-retry sounds (the HD-DVD drive seems happy to continue reading), so it looks to be a firmware issue. Probably with the audio decoder.

Sometimes, if I let it play past it, hit pause, then play (to re-enable audio) the video continues to stutter - like the movie crashed one of the audio decoders and gave up waiting for it to resume.

Looks like there may be a bug in the firmware. Hopefully Toshiba releases a firmware patch, even though the A1's "obsolete" and doesn't show up anymore. I can't even find the 2.0 update information.

Wow, this is starting to resemble one of those old Universal dvd-18 SDdvd threads!!!!

yep, Same thing happened to me on my A1. Right when Mumble is with Gloria underwater and that bird steals the fish (about 28-29 minutes in, like you), the player then did the exact same thing. I just restarted the disc anf fast foward to the same spot and a loud pop and a few sec of bit map picture and then all was well.... (scrach head) hum?

I just finished watching HF on my XBOX 360 HD-DVD addon....had no problems whatsoever. PQ and AQ are stunning.

I had the 28 min freeze as well. Rental from Blockbuster store (looked like a brand new disk). I'm using my HD-A1 with 2.0 firmware.

-John

that's it, I'll definitely return it back to Amazon.com unopened! Arrrgh!

Glad I passed on it, actually got the SD version for about $9. It looked great upconverted on my Sony Megachanger. I though the film was OK but did not live up to the hype, I have the same problems I had with George Miller's Sequel to the Bright and Sunny Babe, sometimes I think he goes a bit too dark and depressing with these films its almost like he wants to make Mad Max 4!. I enjoyed it, but after seeing it I can proclaim that Cars Was Robbed.

BTW I officially Hate Combo's Now. With all the problems people are having, the high Price, and that fact that they are'nt really giving SD People a chance to get into HD, they should just Abandon them. Warner , first they stick us with endless Years of Snapper Cases, Now it's Combo Disks. I'm just saying no and will buy the SD for Now and Possible the Blu Ray in the future (If I ever Get One)

Yes. HD-A1, FW 2.0, bought July '06. Playing the TrueHD track BTW.


Same with me.


Yes. HD-A1, FW 2.0, bought June '06. Playing the DD+ track BTW.

Was able to rewind and play through it the second time though. Let me add that this was the only problem through the movie. With how awesome the HD picture looks these little problems really don't bother me much. It's the same as watching HD cable and having to deal with the stutter or macro blocking. Yes I would love for these small problems to go away but it's a small price to pay for absolutely awesome picture and sound.

Returns on these "opened" disks can be a little tricky. When I tried to return mine to Best Buy, they indicated that they couldn't do a return due to Federal Copyright law. I knew most stores have had this type of return policy for DVDs for about as long as DVDs have been around (for obvious reasons), but I had no idea there was a law prohibiting such a return (go figure). I had hoped to get an exception since exchanging for another copy of the same title on HD DVD would do me little good in this case. They indicated that only way to get my money back on a return would be to contact the disk manufacturer.

In the end, they agreed to exchange the disk for the same title on another format and refund the difference to a gift card. Had to choose between DVD and $15 back or BluRay and $5 back. Went with the Bluray version. I'd say trading TrueHD and $5 back for a disk that actually plays through all the way is a reasonable trade-off.

--
Bryce

I just tried watching it and, even though it played through with some minor stuttering when I spot-checked the same spot yesterday, it did completely lock up when I played through from the beginning today.

I've had it with these HD-DVD combos. That was the last one I'll be buying and it's going back to Amazon. I'll be ordering the Blu-Ray version.

I just finished watching HF on my XBOX 360 HD-DVD addon....had no problems whatsoever. PQ and AQ are stunning.


Ditto! This must be a batch issue.

Well....crap. I purchased HF last night, brought it home and unwrapped it planning to watch it sometime this weekend....I'm not feeling lucky about my A1 (1.4) with which I've promised myself I'm one glitch away from format abandonment...

I wish I hadn't opened it before reading this - I'd return it to BestBuy. If I have the same problems as most, I guess I'll be trading it for BD as my first title in my new preferred format....

Any oddsmakers out there???

I've watched Happy Feet HD-DVD completely through twice now on my XA2. Not a single problem. I purchased mine from Best Buy (I had a gift card).

I feel for you guys with problems. I suspect this is a problem pressing with a specific pressing facility. It seems most (all?) of the problem ones came from Amazon?

What we need to do is get two people together in the same city, one having the problem, one not. They could try their discs in the other person's player. It would be interesting to know the results.

Mark

I watched Happy Feet HD DVD last night glitch free on my new XA2, FW 1.3.

I purchased HF online from Amazon.

Now I'm feeling nervous about watching COM tonight though.

Mine froze at an underwater scene just over 28 minutes in. Normally, I have very few issues -- maybe four or five total out of 80 HD DVDS. Most of those are just audio sync issues that a "pause" and "play" method solves fairly quickly. I've had two hard freezes -- this being my second.

As for the movie itself . . . the PQ is excellent. The audio is excellent. The story? Well, I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. Maybe the hype raised my expectations too high. I'd call it "good. I really don't have a urge to re-see it any time soon.

I read some articles stating that the whole story is really about the acceptance of homosexuality?

Update from my HD-A1 w/ 2.0 running TrueHD: First time, I had the full freeze during the underwater chase. Last night, I had only a noticeable skip and then the movie kept going fine after that. Still I gigantic pain in the butt, but better than a total lock up I suppose.

Update from my HD-A1 w/ 2.0 running TrueHD: First time, I had the full freeze during the underwater chase. Last night, I had only a noticeable skip and then the movie kept going fine after that. Still I gigantic pain in the butt, but better than a total lock up I suppose.

I had the reverse (noticeable skip first time, total lock up the 2nd time), but it just shows how inconsistent these issues are. Some that have no problems may go to watch it again one day and see it lock up. It just isn't worth it anymore. Toshiba isn't officially supporting these combo discs and I'm joining them. I just cancelled my pre-orders for "The Good Shepherd" and "Smokin' Aces". I'll revist when/if Universal reissues them in a non-combo form.

If combo disc is in fact the culprit of the problem. HD DVD camp should be very careful when Warner is releasing The Matrix HD DVD because it's using the combo structured discs (HD DVD feature on one side and SD DVD9 for the special feature on the other side).

Were watching it tonite so hopefully it will be issue free...

If combo disc is in fact the culprit of the problem. HD DVD camp should be very careful when Warner is releasing The Matrix HD DVD because it's using the combo structured discs (HD DVD feature on one side and SD DVD9 for the special feature on the other side).

Yeah, that's a good point. I had ordered the "Ultimate" version and will probably cancel. I haven't taken a good look at all those features, but I already own the DVD set, so I probably already have them anyway...

I took a close look at the disc for the first time, and like someone else already posted, it does look like two discs glued togethor, but slightly off so you can actually feel and pick at the 2 sides a long the edges. Though, I checked my Tokyo Drift disc and it was similar, but not as bad. And looking at the HD-DVD side, you get some oily like color patterns that seem 3 times more apparent than the Tokyo disc. And flexing the Happy Feet disc I can hear a slight creek or crick to it, while the Tokyo disc does not.

I don't know what this means, either the 2 sides being slightly off more than normal effects it's rotation, maybe no glued perfect to cause the creek and more visible oil color on HD-DVD side effects it too, but hard to imagine those imperfections being repeated so perfect each disc that we'd all have a problem at 28 minutes.

What we need to do is get two people together in the same city, one having the problem, one not. They could try their discs in the other person's player. It would be interesting to know the results.
doing it tonight. taking my copy to a friend's house and then i'll borrow his.

I posted this in the HD DVD player forum also, but for those of you having issues with this disc, try selecting the DVD option in the Twin Format Disc option menu. My Happy Feet disc wouldn't even load until I changed this option to DVD instead of HD DVD. After that it played through just fine, didn't even freeze at the 28:00-29:00 minute mark that everyone is talking about.

Can't hurt to try.

Played HF with the TrueHD soundtrack on my XA2 approx. a week ago; no problem to report!

Well I trudged back over to Best Buy again this morning and got another copy of Happy Feet. And wouldn't you know, this one is WORSE than the one I just returned. It took nearly 5 minutes to get the thing to even load on the A2, what with all the "error code", "Not a DVD", and other crap the unit kept displaying. Stupid.

In fact it won't even play at all. Not even the DVD side. And again, I tried playing the DVD side of the combo on two different players besides the A2, and they couldn't get it to go either. This is just beyond shameful. This has to be a disc problem.

It's funny because I ended up borrowing the regular SD-DVD copy from a friend....and that played fine in the A2. But with downgraded PQ, something I didn't like looking at after seeing a bit of it in HD.

Something is up with some of these HD-DVD HF discs. All I know is, when I go back to BB to return this latest crap copy, I'm going to try and exchange it for the Blu-ray version instead.

Two possibilities, exchange the player and/or update the firmware. I've no special knowledge, but it sure seems like something may be up with your player or FW.

no one's mentioned the biggest problem of all with Happy Feet: it SUCKED!!!!! as far as recent animated movies go, Flushed Away was the best and most original. Over the Hedge was ok and Open Season sucked as well.

no one's mentioned the biggest problem of all with Happy Feet: it SUCKED!!!!! as far as recent animated movies go, Flushed Away was the best and most original. Over the Hedge was ok and Open Season sucked as well.

Really? I enjoyed the music and dancing and the characters, so most scenes were fun to watch. It gets a little long and somethings could have been left out like the whole zoo thing and enviornmentalism stuff, or atleast done in a way that was less in your face. But I like in the Zoo when the girl taps the glass when all hope seems lost and his feet starts tapping to it, just like how when all hope seemed lost when he hadn't hatched and baby Gloria was tapping on the egg and his feet popped out first.

I enjoyed Flushed Away, but it was kind of forgettable. Open Season and those likes were just eye candy.

no one's mentioned the biggest problem of all with Happy Feet: it SUCKED!!!!! as far as recent animated movies go, Flushed Away was the best and most original. Over the Hedge was ok and Open Season sucked as well.

The only thing I don't like about the movie is the environmental message that's being shoved down the viewers' collective throats. :p Give me dancing penguins anytime! :D

HF played perfect for me with Dolby True HD. I have a HD-A2 with v. 1.3. The PQ and AQ are outstanding!..plus the movie is really cool and has a great message.

I think using live actors was a bad move. They create a spectacular animated world, and when you see the real people, you get ripped out of that world completely. Instead of losing yourself in the fantasy, you are suddenly reminded that it you are watching a cartoon. It would have been much, much better if the people were animated as well.

Another A1 with 2.0 firmware and a hard lockup @ the 28 min mark. Playing the TrueHD track.

Another A1 with 2.0 firmware and Dolby TrueHD that had no problems. Now, to try it on the A2. What a great movie!

No problems at all with my Xbox 360. I set it to TrueHD just for the heck of it...I know it's just DD...

My disc played fine. No issues. And I was very happy since we had company... :)

no one's mentioned the biggest problem of all with Happy Feet: it SUCKED!!!!! as far as recent animated movies go, Flushed Away was the best and most original. Over the Hedge was ok and Open Season sucked as well.


I thought Happy Feet was better than all of the animated movies you named.

I think using live actors was a bad move. They create a spectacular animated world, and when you see the real people, you get ripped out of that world completely. Instead of losing yourself in the fantasy, you are suddenly reminded that it you are watching a cartoon. It would have been much, much better if the people were animated as well.


I had no problem with that scene.

For the record, I have an XA1 w/ 2.0 fw and Happy Feet played perfectly for me with TruHD.

Watched HF last night with no problems on my 360 addon with TrueHD audio selected.

My copy of Happy Feet also locked up the HD-A1 at 28:49. The Toshiba has the current firmware. Off to try another copy from BB.
Also Children of Men from Netflix on Thursday was a horrible stutter/out of sync experience. We don't deserve this !

I had no problems with Happy Feet played on my A1 with current firmware. This was a Netflix rental.

Just like many others - freeze @ 28 minutes - A1 w/1.4; audio+video freeze with clock continuing to run. After a few seconds playback resumed with garbled audio+video. Reversed to just prior to the freeze point and replayed - brief glitch (pixelated display) but no freeze and continued on.

Further on I had an audio dropout - reversed to just before dropout and replayed without incident.

my HF would not work in my xbox addon period. no disk error, nothing. i'm also the one the mentioned that it felt like the two sides weren't glued on exactly straight.

so i took it over to a friend's house to play it on his addon. worked perfectly every time. only difference is his player is set up vertically and mine is horizontal. he also had the movie so i borrowed his copy.

tonight i'll try both copies with my drive vertical and horizontal to see if gravity has an impact.

Just like many others - freeze @ 28 minutes - A1 w/1.4; audio+video freeze with clock continuing to run. After a few seconds playback resumed with garbled audio+video. Reversed to just prior to the freeze point and replayed - brief glitch (pixelated display) but no freeze and continued on.

Further on I had an audio dropout - reversed to just before dropout and replayed without incident.
I experience no such thing. Did you? :rolleyes:

Just got back with my second copy and it locked up again. I walked away in discust and it resumed playing after 5 or 10 minutes but it did jump forward a few scenes.
What do we do with this thing ? Write to Warner maybe ?

I thought Happy Feet was better than all of the animated movies you named.Agreed.

Rockford sorry about the bad luck, but I have a HD-A1 and have had little problems. Most of my problems were from badly scratched discs from Netflix. Just got Happy Feet today and it is the best looking animation movie I have ever seen. The whales, seals, and penguins look incredible. It did freeze for just a second around the 28 minute mark, but it kept going and no problems after that. MOTP got four stars on highdefdigest.com and they do a great job reviewing the HD discs so I have to agree with scoob on that one. Also, if you are paying $35 for your discs then you are going to the wrong place. Amazon and several other sites have HD movies ranging from $15 to $28.
Just watched it on my A1. Absolutely no problems. Oh, and it was a Netflix rental.

Sorry.... Wait a minute what am I saying! (Sorry for YOUR problems, but I've not had many with my player).

Not really. When people write off all of these HD-DVD issues with a shoulder shurg and "early adoption!", they are really downplaying these issues. I'm an early adopter and can't recall ever seeing anything with as many issues as HD-DVD. Sure, DVD had some early growing pains, but the only issues I ever had were some compatability problems playing a bonus feature. Never had one problem worrying about whether or not I could get through a movie.

Again, if it weren't for these combo discs, the format would be virtually glitch-free. This mess could have been avoided.

There's another thread about how Universal is starting to re-release earlier combo titles as "HD-DVD" only titles. I think the writing is pretty much on the wall as far as these combos are concerned.
They've played fine on my A1, but I'll be glad to kiss the combo discs goodbye!

Played fine on my A2 with 1.3 firmware.

Played without a hitch, kids loved it. :D

Happy Feet, purchases at Amazon.com

XA2, made in China, fw 1.3

sry to hear others having problems :(

I had a problem 28 minutes in. The picture just stopped, stuck on the screen, but the timer on the HD-A1 continued to count like it was playing. I seem to always have an issue with my HD-A1. Though, I'm not a heavy movie watcher, been a couple months. I mean when I put this movie in I thought to myself there better not be another freeze. Since I was alone I didn't care when it happened, I threw some popcorn in the microwave. But if I had guests, the time it takes to stop the player, read the disc, and finally get back to the movie point in time ruins the experience.

Not to say this never happened with my PS3. I've watched 4-5 Blu-rays and 2-3 have froze in a simular manner.

I have a original launch HD-A1. This is begining to bug me. This freeze, or the other stuttering problems, loss of audio, that don't happen in the same spot in movies. I got an extended warranty from Best Buy. I wonder what would happen if I used it.

X2

Mine stopped on chapter 8 28:50 into the movie.

A1 w/ 2.0 FW; same problem with the movie freezing at 28:50.

It really bummed me out because I have never had any of the freezing problems that folks have reported with some other films. Until this I have only ever had problems with rented discs that were dirty.

Since I haven't had this problem before, I haven't followed some of the other threads very closely; have any of the studios ever explained what the problem was when many people have a glitch at the same point in the movie? Do I just keep returning it until I get one that works?

Still enjoyed the movie and love the player, don't get me wrong.

Yet another 28:50ish problem here. HA-A1 with 2.0 firmware. Machine froze, had to unplug it.

Multiple players, all at the same time code.

Get your f***ing act together Warner.

My A-1 with 2.0 firmware played the movie perfectly. Looks like I got one of the good discs from Amazon. :)

Since I haven't had this problem before, I haven't followed some of the other threads very closely; have any of the studios ever explained what the problem was when many people have a glitch at the same point in the movie? Do I just keep returning it until I get one that works?


You can try that. Personally, I'd be interested to see if people who end up getting a disc that works actually never experience the problem again on multiple viewings. I can say I had the same stuttering/freezing on Superman Returns that many others reported (pretty much exactly the same behavior that occurs in Happy Feet). I exchanged that disc, went back to the same spot, and it worked.

However, I haven't played it again since and I have seen "problem discs" behave differently at different times. I've seen the same disc that previously locked up play straight through the same spot later. What changed? I have no idea. It certainly seems unexplainable that an issue that can be reproduced at the same spot can all of a sudden work. I just have to wonder if one success means you're safe forever.... And it isn't like there haven't been issues with these double-sided discs on DVD. Universal and WB finally have started giving up on those, too.

I think I will check out my Superman Returns disc again and see if still plays through that same scene without issue....

I've yet to see an explanation for this beyond Toshiba stating that "some combo discs and twin format discs may not be compatible". That's the closest to an acknowledgement of a problem as I've seen. One person posted in an old XA2 thread that Toshiba customer support offerred the solution to the problem as "don't buy combo discs". I'm hoping that "The Good Shepherd" and "Smokin' Aces" are the last two (I cancelled my pre-orders for those yesterday).

Rewatched this last night, and I had an audio hicup. I didn't notice anything the first time I watched it.

A2/1.2 here, flawless playback beginning to end...quite a disc.

I had a dvd not play at all ( no disk on front display )
ran my lens cleaning disk and no more problem.
watched HF with no problems ( # 1 PQ disk in my opinion )

I think it's the tighter focusing of the laser beam being effected by dust ( I clean, I clean ) I also have found that some light scratches or mars, that on a regular dvd would pose no problems, will cause a HD-DVD to skip.

get a lens cleaning disk people. (diskwasher, ect.)

Why?

get a lens cleaning disk people. (diskwasher, ect.)

how is this going to fix any pressing error? :rolleyes: Please don't post for the sake of posting.

how is this going to fix any pressing error? :rolleyes: Please don't post for the sake of posting.

because your special I'll :rolleyes: :p edited my post.

because your special I'll :rolleyes: :p edited my post.


LOL! :D Still, although the logic of a clean disc is perfectly... uhm... logical. In the case of Happy Feet HD DVD, it's clearly a pressing error. It's very improbable that a whole bunch of people happen to have a stubborn speck of dust stuck right at the exact same spot. :p

I got HF from netflix, didn't bother to clean it. played perfectly begining to end.
the lens cleaning disk worked for the problem I had, it will be the first thing I try next time.

Watched it the first time with the family last night. Locked up at 29 minutes in had to reboot but played fine after that.(A1 2.0)

Art

Hi Guys,

I watched HF yesterday and it played great. I had to crank up the volume a little though. I played it on my A1 with 2.0 firmware. I'll test it out on my 360 add-on later this week.

Just watched the movie and no problems with my A2. Just got the thing yesterday so no updates on firmware. Build date of October 2006 so it's probably the original firmware that was released.

I sent an email to warner requesting a replacement. I really don't want to send it back to Amazon and then have a chance of getting another bad disk. Hopefully WB will step up to the plate and do whats right.

I rebooted twice and tried multiple times, it can never play through that 28:50ish mark (it's right after the bird grabs the fish and he chases him). The only way I can get past that is to fast forward.

I don't have problems with any other discs and besides that Happy Feet played without a hiccup.

The fact that it freezes at the same spot means either all or a large batch of them are defective.

Xbox Ad On here. No skipping problems to report, but the disc won't load sometimes. If I restart the box, it starts right up.

Here's an update. The disc plays fine. It takes a little longer too load than some other HD-DVDs, but I obviously do not have the same problems that others have had.

BTW, there a parts of this movie that look better than anything else I have ever played in HD.

I had the same problem. What I did was I cleaned both sides of the disk with a mild soap and both Happy Feet and Children of Men played all the way through with no problems.

ok, i had the happy feet where the 2 disk sides felt like they were badly attached, and it wouldn't be recognized by my xbox addon. so i take it to a friend's addon, and it works fine (and so does his copy of the movie).

so i take both copies home, and now they both work. occasionally (during many, many tries) the disk wouldn't load, but i found that if i cycled the power to the xbox while the disk was in the drive, it came up and played every time. so i still think it may be a physical explanation for not reading the disk at all, like the edges of the disk aren't perfect, but they get worn down through repeated attempts or something.

about the 28:49 glitch...i watched this section over and over and over (opening/closing the tray between each time). one time i got the stutter, and then it played fine after that. and every other attempt, it played the section with no problem. so i think this issue is software related. basically i think this is a very complicated sequence and the decoder just chokes on it sometimes. i could probably be convinced that this is indeed a pressing error, and due to error correction the player will sometimes make it through unscathed. but given the scene's complexity and movement, it seems more likely a decoding problem.

I had the same problem. What I did was I cleaned both sides of the disk with a mild soap and both Happy Feet and Children of Men played all the way through with no problems.
COM is still DOA for me, so i'll give that a shot. i'll also try the pen-around-the-edge trick to see if there are any edges that need to be sanded down or whatever.

i suppose i could just return COM, but where's the fun in that? :rolleyes:

I ordered Happy Feet from Amazon (along with Children of Men), but it wasn't here in time for the weekend (planned movie night for Sunday). Based on the fact I made plans, and the feedback here I ended picking a copy up at the local Futureshop. Played flawlessly in my addon (I even tried later with each audio option, and no problems). PQ was really breathtaking!

My unopened copy from amazon will be returned to Futureshop, whenever the postman delivers it... :rolleyes:

While I did mention earlier that it played perfectly, and I stand by that, i did test it with TrueHD enabled on the 360 (yes I know that's pointless) and there were sync issues when doing so.

However having it set to DD5.1 was absolutely perfect.

While I did mention earlier that it played perfectly, and I stand by that, i did test it with TrueHD enabled on the 360 (yes I know that's pointless) and there were sync issues when doing so.

However having it set to DD5.1 was absolutely perfect.
And thusly my theory is buttressed.

LOL! :D Still, although the logic of a clean disc is perfectly... uhm... logical. In the case of Happy Feet HD DVD, it's clearly a pressing error. It's very improbable that a whole bunch of people happen to have a stubborn speck of dust stuck right at the exact same spot. :p
But then people have played the same disc through later and it plays fine. Something in the player's software is goofy.

But then people have played the same disc through later and it plays fine. Something in the player's software is goofy.


I think both hardware and software are at fault. The hardware seems to be sensitive enough to catch it, but it's probably aggravated by how it's prepared on the disc.

BTW, I've had some guests over the weekend and played HF without an issue on the XA2. So, the initial problem can not be reproduced anymore even on the XA1. I think the firmware 2.1 may be the solution if it does improve disc playability.

We need word on this one way or another. What happened to Amir? Has anyone asked him about this? Is progress being made at some level? Is it something we're just going to have to live with?

saw Happy Feet the other night, had a hiccup on 29:00. i ejected the disc, wiped it clean with a disc cloth, then played flawlessly.

I have no idea what is going on in this forum It seems people keep manufacturing issues with HD DVD movies that I and some never seem to have. :confused:

Where the heck do you guys who complain buy your movies??? :confused:

The only HD DVD movie that ever gave any issue was "The Matador' and all it did was load of very slowly, but when it finally began to play, it played flawlessly.

I'm going to start a poll regarding this movie.

I'm going to start a poll regarding this movie.
please make sure it is an open poll, so the BR fans don't ruin it.

It is an open poll. I already create it.

Clicky here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=828559

Have any A2 users with 1.3 FW had an issue with Happy Feet? I am an A2 1.3 user and had ZERO issues.. it played with no glitches, no speed up, nothing.. perfect... It sounds like it is associated with G1 players?

I had this same problem on my HD-A1. I don't know if it was at the exact same time, but it was the scene where Mumbles is chasing the birds that had snatched Gloria's fish. The picture froze, but the counter continued. I advanced to the next chapter, where it continued playing. I then scanned backwards to just before the point where it froze, and hit play. When it reached the trouble spot it "gliched" for one frame (digital breakup, with a small "pop" in the speakers") then the movie continued perfectly. I checked the disc, and found some speckles of dust on it, so these might have contributed to the problem. I also noticed that it took longer than usual to read the disc, and it seemed to struggle when it went from the ratings screen at the start of the movie to the opening logos. I'll have to try it on my 360 add-on to see if it's a disc or player problem.

I have exactly the same issue as you in the same movie sequence. I had to stop my HD-A1(rev 2.0) and went to the same sequence and fast forwarded thru it. This disc and THE MATADOR are the only issues I have w/ my HD-A1 since rev 2.0. I agree that the pic quality is superb on both these movies. :confused:

I just bought the A2 yesterday along with the 4 free movies and updated it to the 1.3 fw. Last night we watched Happy Feet, it stuck at 1:00:42 . I tried to selected different chapter after that point, it still couldn't play. Then I tried the SD side, it stuttered and stuck again at many spots but not at the same point like the HD side. But the other 3 movies are no problem at all :mad:

I have no idea what is going on in this forum It seems people keep manufacturing issues with HD DVD movies that I and some never seem to have. :confused:

Where the heck do you guys who complain buy your movies??? :confused:

The only HD DVD movie that ever gave any issue was "The Matador' and all it did was load of very slowly, but when it finally began to play, it played flawlessly.

Yeah. The numerous posts in this thread are all part of some grand conspiracy to "manufacture issues" that don't exist because you didn't run into them.

Congratulations on making it through so far with no issues and count yourself lucky.

I have no idea what is going on in this forum It seems people keep manufacturing issues with HD DVD movies that I and some never seem to have. :confused:

Where the heck do you guys who complain buy your movies??? :confused:

The only HD DVD movie that ever gave any issue was "The Matador' and all it did was load of very slowly, but when it finally began to play, it played flawlessly.


I'm not making anything up. I'm now on my second copy of Happy Feet. They both locked up at 28:49 and they came from different Best Buys. I'm still waiting on a reply to my e-mail to Warner.

I'm not making anything up. I'm now on my second copy of Happy Feet. They both locked up at 28:49 and they came from different Best Buys. I'm still waiting on a reply to my e-mail to Warner.

If it is a bad batch then doesn't matter how many times you exchange it, it'll still be coming from the same batch of pressings. :D

This problem with Happy Feet (and Children of Men) seem to be a really weird one. Some people report problems, some have non at all. Those that report a problem at the 28 minute mark seem to have different results. Some machines freeze up, but the counter continues, some require a hard reboot, and some get just get a bit of break-up, but it continues playing. It seems to be the disc, but at the same time almost seems that my A1 is "learning" how to correct the problem. I know that not what's happening, but as I reported, the first time it froze with the counter continuing. I skipped ahead then searched backwards to the trouble spot and hit play where it broke-up for one frame and continued playing with no other problems. Last night I popped it in to see what it would do, and this time when it got to the same spot...nothing. Nada. Zip. It just played through as if there was never a problem I even watched the two deleted scenes (the Steve Irwin cameo with the whale should have stayed in the film) plus the Tex Avery short with zero problems. Weird.

Just a note: each time I viewed the disc, I was listening to the DD+ soundtrack, NOT the TrueHD one.

I received second copy from Amazon last night. It froze in same spot 28:47. I then took it to a friends house and put it in his A1 and it froze in the exact same frame. Does anyone know how and when this will be fixed. I just want a copy that doesn't do this. I don't want to keep sending them back to Amazon. Is this happening on all players? I have A1.

Just an update. My 28:50ish lock up was eliminated with the 2.1 firmware update for my A1. It still pauses momentarily at the same spot, but after a second it continues playing normally.

I received second copy from Amazon last night. It froze in same spot 28:47. I then took it to a friends house and put it in his A1 and it froze in the exact same frame. Does anyone know how and when this will be fixed. I just want a copy that doesn't do this. I don't want to keep sending them back to Amazon. Is this happening on all players? I have A1.

I have the A2 with v.1.3 and Happy Feet played flawlessly...not a hint of anything and I was watching carefully due to the reports here.

Zero problems with mine.

Mine still locks up with the 2.1 upgrade at 28:50 ish. I did get a responce from warner and they will send me a new disk once I return the old. They are sending me a prepaid package to the send the old one back in. Pretty good customer service so far.

Just an update. My 28:50ish lock up was eliminated with the 2.1 firmware update for my A1. It still pauses momentarily at the same spot, but after a second it continues playing normally.

I have an A2 with 1.3 firmware and it locks up everytime at the 28 minute mark.

I have an A2 with 1.3 firmware and it locks up everytime at the 28 minute mark.


I have the same set-up and had no issues at all... it must be " in the water"!

I have the same set-up and had no issues at all... it must be " in the water"!
I just emailed Warner for a replacement disc. This is the only disc that I've had a problem with. :(

It's just silly to have to wonder/worry if it's your player, your copy of the movie, or both. The fact that at times you can play it through with no hiccups, then try it again and have problems, is just absolutely maddening. Then to wonder if it's because you don't have the latest firmware installed. Then even if you do it still won't play correctly.

I love having an HD-DVD player and a Blu-ray player in my setup. But I loathe that a lot of the time I cannot count on either to function properly. It's insane.

Just an update. My 28:50ish lock up was eliminated with the 2.1 firmware update for my A1. It still pauses momentarily at the same spot, but after a second it continues playing normally.

Which doesn't mean it was "eliminated", but that you made it through one time without a lock. I made it through the first time I tried with just some stutters. Then, the second time, I got a hard lock. I'd be very surprised if the 2.1 update had any impact on Happy Feet given that you're still seeing stuttering at the same spot.

My A1 consistently stops playback around 28:47-28:50. It will not stutter, it will continue counting, but the picture and audio stops. Sometimes it recovers by itself (but requires a rewind/play to get audio again), sometimes hitting Next works, other times, it completely locks up my A1.

I upgraded to 2.1, and it still stops at the same point.

I'm going to try to replace the HD-DVD with another copy at the store tomorrow.

Mine still locks up with the 2.1 upgrade at 28:50 ish. I did get a responce from warner and they will send me a new disk once I return the old. They are sending me a prepaid package to the send the old one back in. Pretty good customer service so far.


What e-mail address did you write to ? I have had no responce from them yet.

I used an online form from their site and selected "dvd/video" for the regarding area.

http://www2.warnerbros.com/web/main/help/customer_service.jsp


What e-mail address did you write to ? I have had no responce from them yet.

My RCA with 2.1 Firmware still locks up at the same place.
The only time it didn't lock up is when I didn't use the DolbyHD track.
I can't confirm that it is repeatable though.

I'm going to contact Warners and see if I can get another disc.

My disc locks up at 28:49 mark & then at approx an hour into the movie the picture is gone & it gives an error message on the screen. I will update the firmware & try again. IMO Warner should recall this disc.

I used an online form from their site and selected "dvd/video" for the regarding area.

http://www2.warnerbros.com/web/main/help/customer_service.jsp


Thanks very much ! I just sent them an e-mail.

Same problem as everyone else. (A1, 2.1FW)

- Stutter/Hiccup/Lock-up/Screw-up/What-ever-you-want-to-call-it occurs at the same spot with the True HD track only

- Replayed the scene with the standard DD+ and no issues.


I decided to go into the player's setup menu and delete the "Persistent Storage" (Flash Memory).

Went back and replayed the scene with TrueHD track and this time the error occured, but the player was able to recover/continue playback.


Personally, I think this issue is probably more FW related and needs to be corrected as such. Maybe the TrueHD support from FW2.0 and on is some how flawed.

I sent an e-mail to Warner also. Lets see what happens.

I didn't have any problems with it on my A2 1.3 FW.

I sent an email also at 1:30 PM on April 4th. I'll post here if I hear back from them. I would appreciate it, if anybody else hears back from them, if they would post here also.
UPDATE: I quit waiting this morning and called them for a replacement. :)

e-mail sent

I sent an e-mailed to WB yesterday and I got a reply from them a few hours later. they are sending me a pre-paid label for me to send the movie back to them and they'll send me a new one after receiving my return. Hopefully this time it'll play on my A2.

I sent an e-mailed to WB yesterday and I got a reply from them a few hours later. they are sending me a pre-paid envelope for me to send the movie back to them and they'll send me a new one after receiving my return. Hopefully this time it'll play on my A2.

strange, no response to my e-mail.

I just got HF in from the Warner Bros. Store, along with a few other HD DVDs. I guess I'm lucky, no skips, freezes, or hiccups of any sort on my HD-A1 with FW 2.1. I have had problems with my HD-A1 in the past on some movies, although the three I've watched since updating the firmware to 2.1 (King Kong, MI III, and HF) have played flawlessly. I thought the movie was meh, but the kids loved it. PQ and AQ (TrueHD over HDMI to my VSX-84TXSi) were both excellent. In some scenes the PQ was really amazing, the elephant seal scene for example.

Just finished watching HF from BB online and it played perfectly on my A1 with 2.0 FW. I guess I am lucky, I haven't had any skips, stutters, etc. since I have had my player.

No problems on my new AX2 with the latest firmware...played perfectly

No problems here... A2/1.3.

Happy feet problem. Around 28 mins and 40 ?? seconds, where Mumbles is chasing the birds that stole his fish.
Tosh A-1
2.0 firmware

Disc stuttered, then froze for over a minute. When it finally started working again, no sound. I had to rewind to get the sound to kick back in.

got this movie from Netflix yesterday and watched it-with no problems on XA2 (no firmware upgrade) ..go figure, seems like a real crapshoot on some of these titles. Tonight its COM, we'll see. Oh and the picture quality is simply stunning-great demo material!
thetman

Here's my theory of why some people are getting repeatable problems on disks like Happy Feet or Children of Men. I don't "know" all of this, some of it is just ideas bouncing around:

I presume HD-DVD disks are made the same way CD and DVDs are made. There is not one single master that all copies are pressed from one after another. Instead, there is an array of pressing masters (a 4x4 or 10x10 grid) that stamp out the copies we buy. Each of those pressing masters was made from the true master, so they should be identical, but because they are physically individual "plates", a flaw in one of them will only affect a part of each batch.

If the QA of the pressing masters somehow missed the flaw, and the pressings are also getting through, then we'd see consistent flaws in the product, but only in a predictable subset (1 out of 16 or 1 out of 100, in my examples).

Maybe the flaw in the pressing master and subsequent pressings is not enough to violate the technical spec, but is enough to cause players that have slightly out-of-spec laser heads to complain.

So, certain people could have players that are more sensitive to these problems. And maybe certain disks from a pressing are more problematic. Thus, those certain people will be the ones always having problems, though they won't have it with all disks. And those folks who have non-problematic players may never experience a problem, or may experience the problem as less-bothersome if they get a "marginal" disk.

The combo disks may have a higher rate of marginal-quality, due to the manufacturing technique, or maybe because they come from one plant only. (Does anyone know how many plants actually make combo disks?)

The next question is whether new firmware releases allow the player to handle minor disk errors better than before? Since this is all just "software", maybe the new firmware does the opposite of that nasty CD copy protection stuff: disentangles bad signal or allows it to be ignored or simplified. Sort of like what CD oversampling was advertised to do years ago.

Comments? Anyone have technical info to support or refute my suppositions?

shinksma

I got the error code at the fish scene. This is the first time I have had an error. I have an A2 with 1.3. Turned off the power and the movie played fine... Wierd.

Today I received my prepaid shipping stuff from warner. Will have it sent out Monday.

Got my copy from Amazon today. Froze at 28:50. Retried several times, froze at exactly the same time each time. Tried switching from TrueHD to DD+, still froze. In all but one case, I was able to bring up the menu, pick the next scene, then rewind back to just after the error and continue. That one time, though, it hard froze and I had to reboot.

A1, 2.0

I'll pull the plug for awhile tomorrow then try again.

As far as a bad 'batch' goes, would this mean a bad day on the line, or would it mean the entire run of discs? In other words, any point in an RMA?

UPDATE:

Downloaded FW2.1 today. Tried HF again, and got a hard freeze @ 28:50. Rebooted, tried it again, and it stuttered bad but got through the scene. Tried it a 3rd time, and it played flawlessly. Same for the 4th try.

Weird. It's like 2.1 allowed it to 'learn' how to get through the scene. With 2.0, I tried it several times in a row and was never able to get it to play without freezing.

Happy Feet has to be one of the most amazing animated movies I've ever had the pleasure to watch!

Story = Excellent!
Animation = Excellent and beyond!
High Definition Quality = Excellent and beyond!
DolbyTrueHD Sound = Excellent like HOLY CRAP THAT WAS FREAKING AMAZING EXCELLENT!

Seriously, this is why I changed everything over to High Definition! This movie was the first one to finally convince me that all the money spent was well spent!

I've never seen animation that good and the sound was insane powerful!

Oh yeah, did I mention that I experienced no problems with the XA2 and HF.


Yea, my sentiments exactly. We have LFE butt kickers and we have NEVER had an experience like we did with HF. Unfortunately the disk froze at 28:50. I restart and FF through this exact spot was all it took to continue on. This is the 1st disk to have such a problem (close to 30 HD DVD). A1 with 2.0 playing trueHD sound track.

If all movies were this powerful we would have sensory overload.

k

UPDATE:

Downloaded FW2.1 today. Tried HF again, and got a hard freeze @ 28:50. Rebooted, tried it again, and it stuttered bad but got through the scene. Tried it a 3rd time, and it played flawlessly. Same for the 4th try.

Weird. It's like 2.1 allowed it to 'learn' how to get through the scene. With 2.0, I tried it several times in a row and was never able to get it to play without freezing.
I wouldn't necessarily attribute this behavior to the 2.1 firmware. I had the exact same results on 2.0. It froze hard the first time, skipped through the 2nd time, played through without a glitch the 3rd time. Didn't try a forth because I was already on my way back to the store to return the disk. :)

--
Bryce

I wouldn't necessarily attribute this behavior to the 2.1 firmware. I had the exact same results on 2.0. It froze hard the first time, skipped through the 2nd time, played through without a glitch the 3rd time. Didn't try a forth because I was already on my way back to the store to return the disk. :)

--
Bryce

True, could be coincidence.

Did you return for a replacement or a refund? If replacement, how did it turn out?

True, could be coincidence.

Did you return for a replacement or a refund? If replacement, how did it turn out?


I have a friend who bought the SD-DVD. He complains that it froze up as well in his 480p player and had to be restarted. So this kind of thing is happening with all optical disks.

How does one get a replacement that is sure to work right? I found a pause-play-pause-play sequence gets it going again without further issue.

I finally got around to watching Happy Feet on my HD-A1 (just update to 2.1). Got 2 stutters, one short one around the 20 minute mark, and a bigger glitch with a harsh noise around the 30 minute mark (didn't look at the time exactly when it happened). At least for now, I was just happy to make it through the movie, especially since there were not any more problems for the rest of the movie. After the hard crash of Children of Men, I'll take being back to the occasional stutter (which I'm consistently getting on every movie lately).

Watched it last night and at 28 minutes in, player stuttered, I stopped it, put it on stand-by, powered back up and it went flawlessly. It was on a A1 with 2.0 fw. To note this is only my second problem with any discs, and I bought the floor model A1 for Xmas. ;)

Same thing happened to me on my A1. Right when Mumble is with Gloria underwater and that bird steals the fish (about 28-29 minutes in, like you), the player then did the exact same thing.

I had that problem also right about at 28:49. Tried playing past it twice. All I could do was re-start the disk and press the chapter skip button to get past that spot so I missed about 1 minute of the movie. Doesn't matter much for this type of movie though. Good thing it was cheap (around $21 -- Warner sale).

(XA1, 2.0)

A1 with 2.0 FW, zero problems during the first viewing. I received my copy from Warner on 4/6/07.

I had that problem also right about at 28:49. Tried playing past it twice. All I could do was re-start the disk and press the chapter skip button to get past that spot so I missed about 1 minute of the movie. Doesn't matter much for this type of movie though. Good thing it was cheap (around $21 -- Warner sale).

(XA1, 2.0)


Since I bought mine from Amazon I asked for a replacement. They "assure" me the new one will be fine. The good news is they are shipping out a new one with 2nd day air. I need to return the old one within 30 days.

This is by far the best HD DVD I have watched. I would actually rank it higher than King Kong. LFE effects are fantastic with LFE shakers in our seating.

k

Both my Amazon pre-ordered 1st HD DVD and 2nd replacement HD DVD (received last Friday) froze & locked-up my HD-A1 (w/v2.0 FW) @ 28:48, ... which required soft re-boot! So, at this time, I'm returning the HD DVDs for a Refund.

Amazon Return process immediately lets you print a pre-paid USPS Media Mail return label w/Bar Codes, ... so it was easy and very user friendly - both HD DVDs were sent back Saturday.

Fun movie though, ... all 15 family/friends that were over for my Friday NITE HD DVD presentation, ... enjoyed "Happy Feet"!!! We used the re-boot time to get our dessert(s) that some of the friends brought, ... Marie Calendar Strawberry Creme Pie, Fresh Baked Apple Pie, Louisiana Crumb Cake, Vanilla Ice Creme, etc.!!! :D

Phil

I also have the problem at the exact same place. I have never had a single issue with my A-1 player. The first time I watched it the player stuttered a bit at the 28:40 mark, but the second playing, the movie locked up, but the counter continued and the player required a hard reset.

yeah, more fun... I was taking back my copy of HF to Future Shop today for exchange and thought I'd throw it into the LG combo player... I found it somewhat amusing that the disc in the player was actually a DVD-R.

Anyhoo, I FF'd to the 27 minute chapter and let it play - all was smooth. I didn't, it should be noted, try TrueHD, as the menu structure on the LG player is a mess.

Brought the new disc home, threw it in the A1/FW 2.1, went to the relevant chapter...and had it do the hiccup at the 28:49 moment... rewound, played through again without incident... kept it going through the queen song, only to have another stutter.

The soundtrack -is- pretty kick ass, but frankly I'm seriously leaning towards the bloody BD disc at this point, just to get through the damn film without incident...

I got a new copy of Happy Feet and it worked flawlessly on my A1 & A2! Obviously a bad batch of discs, and I'm glad to have a perfect copy now!

e-mail from Warner representative replying to my information (and also gave the AVS link to), a direct copy and paste.

"Dr. Susilo,

Thank you for the information; I have heard from our head office that there is indeed a problem with some of these HD discs.

I will test the one I have now ordered from the warehouse when it gets here and send it to you once I know it is alright."

e-mail from Warner representative replying to my information (and also gave the AVS link to), a direct copy and paste.

"Dr. Susilo,

Thank you for the information; I have heard from our head office that there is indeed a problem with some of these HD discs.

I will test the one I have now ordered from the warehouse when it gets here and send it to you once I know it is alright."

Doctor, huh? :)

Was this Warner US or Can? Will be interesting to see if there's a good way of determining batch...

Doctor, huh? :)

Was this Warner US or Can? Will be interesting to see if there's a good way of determining batch...

well, the person have known me for eons way back when I was working on my doctorate. :p I didn't even know that she's works for Warner i was just bitching about Happy Feet the other day. Oh, to answer your question, she works for Warner in the US.

BTW: how long does it take for Warner to get back on the e-mail we sent to them? Still no reply on the e-mail I sent them last week.

...it'll be interesting to hear about whether or not Warner Canada is even aware of the issue, and/or whether your email will be passed along to them...

I'm still thinking player instead of disc, but I'm skeptical that way...

After reading about the problem at 28:50, I played my copy last night starting at 27:30 through to 31:00 with no problems. (HD-XA1 with 2.0 fw) Also played Children of Men at 1:31:00 which is apparently a problem area and again no problem. Out of over 70 titles, I've had maybe 8 give me an occasional 1 second pause, usually only once per title. So the problem is perhaps something to do with the drives in the player, rather than discs or firmware. (Or perhaps an HDMI connection glitch? It would be interesting to know how people, with many problems, have their player connected to their TV)

I'm using Xbox 360 for HD-DVD movies, i had no problems with Happy Feet at all...Children of Men however was a different story, the video was studering, but the audio was fine, it was really weird, i thought "oh, know, it's finally happened to me too", so i restarted the movie again, and it played perfectly..I've watched it again since, and it also played perfectly...Weird, i guess i looked out.

just for fun, I exchanged my disc at a completely different retailer - this being my third disc, it still does the barf with TrueHD consistently at the 28:48/49 mark...

Amusingly, once it plays through once the title continues normally.... Powering off the machine, restarting the disc, selecting TrueHD and playing the entirety of chapter 8 through replicates the problem with 100% frequency.

Rewinding the scene and -replaying- seems to have it play through as if nothing was ever wrong...

My system is hooked up to a Monster 5100 power thingy, and I have it that all my players power off when my AVR shuts down. Thus, I'm getting a full power cycle every time I shutdown (I do wait, of course, for the A1 to finish its "goodbye" message before killing the system so that the fan has time to do its thing.)

For fun, I tried to simply power off the machine by pressing on/off, and restarted the disc with the method above - barf again. Rewind, played fine.

Other than this spot, is anyone finding specific and repeatable times in the film where barfing occurs? What's remarkable for me with this title is the consistency with which I can replicate what for me is the most egregious problem with these machines, one that has, frankly, made my everything-is-equal title selection lean towards BD. With absolute certainty, if the BD version was in TrueHD I wouldn't for a milisecond bother with this madness for this title. Hell, I even paid -extra- for the privilege of a disc that doesn't work on my system as flawlessly as it should...

just for fun, I exchanged my disc at a completely different retailer - this being my third disc, it still does the barf with TrueHD consistently at the 28:48/49 mark...

Amusingly, once it plays through once the title continues normally.... Powering off the machine, restarting the disc, selecting TrueHD and playing the entirety of chapter 8 through replicates the problem with 100% frequency.

Rewinding the scene and -replaying- seems to have it play through as if nothing was ever wrong...

My system is hooked up to a Monster 5100 power thingy, and I have it that all my players power off when my AVR shuts down. Thus, I'm getting a full power cycle every time I shutdown (I do wait, of course, for the A1 to finish its "goodbye" message before killing the system so that the fan has time to do its thing.)

For fun, I tried to simply power off the machine by pressing on/off, and restarted the disc with the method above - barf again. Rewind, played fine.

Other than this spot, is anyone finding specific and repeatable times in the film where barfing occurs? What's remarkable for me with this title is the consistency with which I can replicate what for me is the most egregious problem with these machines, one that has, frankly, made my everything-is-equal title selection lean towards BD. With absolute certainty, if the BD version was in TrueHD I wouldn't for a milisecond bother with this madness for this title. Hell, I even paid -extra- for the privilege of a disc that doesn't work on my system as flawlessly as it should...

My 2nd HF disk also has the exact same issue. Pause at 28:49. I can rewind and replay and it still pauses at 28:49 however. pause-play-pause-play will get it started again.

I will send Amazon another message again but I don't think a replacement is worth my time now. Since I have a 4 yr replacement warranty on the HD-A1 I might go back to BBuy and ask for a new unit ... they will have to supply a XA2 since I want the analog outs.

k

...it'll be interesting to hear about whether or not Warner Canada is even aware of the issue, and/or whether your email will be passed along to them...

I'm still thinking player instead of disc, but I'm skeptical that way...

I used the link earlier, and Warner replied on Monday (I emailed on Friday - I wasn't expecting a miracle). I sent my address, and 3 hours later, they said they'd forward it to the Canadian division. Yesterday, I got an email from Warner Canada saying they're FedExing me a label and envelope to send the HD-DVD back in. They said they'd get a replacement from the warehouse, and would let me try it out to make sure it's flawless.

Looks like they might be mildly aware of the issue, and it's difficult to tell the Warner US from the Warner Canada division.

I could've exchanged it, but decided against it - most likely if it's a bad batch, the rest of the store's HF HD-DVDs would be bad. So I'll let Warner get me a fresh one.

Unlike other's attempts, my disc consistently causes my A1 to stop. Sometimes it locks up hard, other times, it continues. But it consistently stops. No stops once, then stutters, then perfect. Uncannily consistent.

It has been over a week and I have yet to hear back from Warner!

XA2 played the 28min scene perfect...FW 1.3 :cool:

Mine froze at around 20 minutes but recovered a minute later then froze again at around the 28:49 mark and locked up the player. Had to unplug and power back on just to get the disk out. Tried it a couple more times with same result (in the same places). Got my local Walmart to give me a refund (came from Walmart com -- my local store doesn't carry ANY hd dvd's).