Put in the movie last night and the screen said no format for DVD. I have a brand new A30, just picked it up last week and this was the first HD I have even tried to play in it. Do I take the movie back? Do I take the player back? I put in Bourne Identity and it played just fine. Is this a combo disk issue?

Never had an issue with combo discs here (I have both the A20 and XBox add-on for my HTPC), so it might just be a bad disc.

Put in the movie last night and the screen said no format for DVD. I have a brand new A30, just picked it up last week and this was the first HD I have even tried to play in it. Do I take the movie back? Do I take the player back? I put in Bourne Identity and it played just fine. Is this a combo disk issue?

You might check the persistent storage and try to clean it out if you even have anything there yet, sounds like your player is new. I had the same issue last night with one of my Smallville discs and that fixed it for me.

Sweet for us! One more combo issue.
YEAH!

If you guys are having problems you should also let us know what machine you are playing it on.

For those curious, the LG combo played it fine. I have yet to see or experience myself, a combo disc problem.

It played flawlessly in my HD-A1.

Just watched it last night and had no problems, have the A2.

Tried to watch this last night (rental disc). Played for about 5 minutes in the A2 (latest firmware) then got the 4083xxx error (or whatever it is) on the display panel. Took it out, wiped it down (didn't boil it) and got the same error. Turned it over and finished it in SD. Glad I didn't buy it.

I have been using that DocDvd cleaner system with very good success. I just got my copy so here it goes!

You should not still be having problems with discs, if you are send the player back to Toshiba because it's faulty.

You should not still be having problems with discs, if you are send the player back to Toshiba because it's faulty.

Not sure what the problem is with my A2 and combos, but I'm not worried about it. Oddly enough it will play Happy Feet, Hot Fuzz and one other (can't remember the name) without problem, but all the rest I've tried are problems. If there's a movie on HD that I really have to have that's a combo, I'll order it from Australia or UK and not pfaff around with the US version.

My copy of Evan Almighty played just fine! I used a Toshiba HD-A2. Some people report Combo Disc problems but as of yet I have never had one problem with any combo discs. All the discs played and never once froze and all the special features worked as well.

Played fine in my xbox add on, but it didnt make the movie any better..

The picture freezes abot 25 minutes in on my A1 but the audio keeps going. I have played every combo out there up until now on the A1 and all have played back just fine. Defective disc?

Tom

Played this movie twice on my RCA HDV5000, no problems.

Evan Almighty
I have a HD-A20 that is network connected.
It seems to take this disc a while to load... Then plays just fine..
_But_
Also currently it seems the only way that I have found to exit the Web Access area is to turn off the player.. what am I missing?
Heroes and Blood Diamond do not seem to have this trouble?

i wish my player didnt play it. But it played perfectly fine on my a-20

HELP! Any suggestions. At about 31 minutes in on my HD-A20 the movie starts skipping then about 3 minutes later I it stopped and said error code 408c54...or something to that effect. I just updated it today with the latest firmware disc I got in the mail. Any reason why this is happening or any suggestions?

Evan Almighty
I have a HD-A20 that is network connected.
It seems to take this disc a while to load... Then plays just fine..
_But_
Also currently it seems the only way that I have found to exit the Web Access area is to turn off the player.. what am I missing?
Heroes and Blood Diamond do not seem to have this trouble?

I believe you should be able to hit the "top menu" button, sorry if that is not correct. Or also I thought that you can click the left arrow on the remote control as it is basically just an extension of the normal menu. (same as when you open the special features or scene selection)

I also was unable to play Even Almighty with my Xbox 360 add-on to my laptop. This was the first HD-DVD that I had problems with. However, I received a message in PowerDVd stating that I should update the software (first time I saw this message). So I updated PowerDVD and I still was unable to play it.

Evan Almighty seemed to have the worst effect on my player. I have an A20 with the latest firmware. I popped it into the player yesterday, the Universal logo played, then the picture dropped out and seemed to flicker between off and snow. None of the buttons seemed to work including eject and power. I couldn't even turn it off by holding the power button down. So I disconnected the power cord and plugged it back in. Now when I push the power to turn it on, it gets stuck on "welcome" indefinitely. Any buttons I push result in a beep sound, and the only way to turn it off again is to hold the power button down. I can't even get the Evan Almighty disk out of the player. Any ideas?

HELP! Any suggestions. At about 31 minutes in on my HD-A20 the movie starts skipping then about 3 minutes later I it stopped and said error code 408c54...or something to that effect. I just updated it today with the latest firmware disc I got in the mail. Any reason why this is happening or any suggestions?

I had the same issues tonight...Had to turn over and finish on the SD side. What's the point of having HD DVD if you have to do that...:confused:

If you still have any combo discs that are having problems, send me a PM and I will get you in touch with the right person to get an exchange. They want any of these problem discs in order to find out why they aren't playing.

I just sent mine back to amazon. It locked three times during playback.
I have to say. This and Happy feet are the only two combos I have had problems with, and I own a few.

Jorge

My Evan Almighty played flawlessly on my D2 player.

On my Toshiba HDA2 the disc navigates fine and plays all the way through, but for half the movie the center channel(seemingly only dialogue) is garbled. My audio is output via otpical digital to a Technics DD/DTS decoder. Could this be an issue with my DTS decoder?

Warren

I watched this HD title for the first time today and must say it played flawlessy on my A2 with the lastest firmware update.

HELP! Any suggestions. At about 31 minutes in on my HD-A20 the movie starts skipping then about 3 minutes later I it stopped and said error code 408c54...or something to that effect. I just updated it today with the latest firmware disc I got in the mail. Any reason why this is happening or any suggestions?

I'm having a similar problem with a non-combo disk of The Big Lebowski, it skips in 2 different places. Tried cleaning it (I really don't want to do the boiling thing here).

I tried to play it tonight on my A1 with FW 2.3, and it could not load. After trying, it said No Disc. I cleaned the disc and rebooted the A1 and got the same result. I ended up watching the SD side.

It was a Netflix rental, and looked like crap on both sides.

BillyBeatnik,

Would you mind telling what your audio connection is from the A2, and if optical audio out, do you select bitstream or PCM? What audio processor do you use?

Thanks,

Warren

BillyBeatnik,

Would you mind telling what your audio connection is from the A2, and if optical audio out, do you select bitstream or PCM? What audio processor do you use?

Thanks,

Warren

I have my A1 hooked up to my Onkyo 603 using 5.1 analog to the Onkyo Multi-channel inputs. I also have an optical cable hooked up to the 603 and have it set to bitstream. Sometimes I will switch over to optical if there is not a truehd soundtrack. But mostly I use analog.

It works with my HD-A2 with Firmware 2.5. One of my friend he got the Combo Issue with Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift. I told him to upgrade the firmware and it played fine!

Disable network connectivity in control panel for a PC user. I have computer with XBOX DVD drive and PowerDVD HD and I could not play this movie. I tried many things then I found a issue with another title where network (web enabled content) was a problem. I disabled all my network conneciton, and it played. No problems with other HD DVDs. This version of Evan Almighty is the dual format (HD DVD an DVD). Also, for those looking to build a HTPC, get a video card that supports the hardware decoding of the HD DVD. Im using a ATI HD2600XT by visiontek with the new black AMD athlon (5000+), MSI Neo digital MB, and 2GB ram. Smooth playback, CPU usage around 20-25%. Tried this setup without a good video card (the onboard MSI video, ATI X1250) and it ran, but skipped allover. The ATI X1250 onboard could not decode the HDDVD, and the processor was maxed out and couldnt keep up. Get a good, fast video card and enjoy

HELP! Any suggestions. At about 31 minutes in on my HD-A20 the movie starts skipping then about 3 minutes later I it stopped and said error code 408c54...or something to that effect. I just updated it today with the latest firmware disc I got in the mail. Any reason why this is happening or any suggestions?

I had the same issues tonight...Had to turn over and finish on the SD side. What's the point of having HD DVD if you have to do that...:confused:

I ran into this problem as well -- my first problem with a combo disc. I'm running it on an A2 with the 2.5 firmware update. It plays great for while, and then it starts to stutter and the audio drops out. Then it just quits and gives me the dreaded error code.

Evan Almighty is one of the first HD DVDs with the new MKBv4 keys, lots of players (both hardware and software) are having problems with it.

For hardware players, make sure you're running the most current firmware, if it still gives you problems, take it back and send the AACS LA a nastygram.

For PowerDVD users, make sure you're using at least 3310a.0 or higher, it doesn't seem to want to work in prior versions, even if it's ripped with AnyDVD HD.

I am so tired of this format. I finally popped this in to watch with my son and, like almost every other combo, I could not make it through the movie. 24 minutes in and the stuttering and locks start. Can't make it through the movie. Again.

I can't believe my favorite movie this year, The Bourne Ultimatum, has to be a combo. Not that non-combos don't stutter, too. They just don't usually lock up.

Brandon,

Have you sent one of your discs into the HD DVD Promotional group as outlined to you almost a month ago? Personally, I think there is something wrong with your player. If you haven't taken the time to exchange any of your discs then it is no ones fault but your own that you are having these problems.

Brandon,

Have you sent one of your discs into the HD DVD Promotional group as outlined to you almost a month ago? Personally, I think there is something wrong with your player. If you haven't taken the time to exchange any of your discs then it is no ones fault but your own that you are having these problems.

Wow, thanks for the great advice there, Dave. Now I know that it's my fault that the majority of the combo discs I've played don't work.

Have you actually read that HTF thread? I have. Here's the problem. They do not have MY player. So, given your opinion that my player is to blame (not sure what testing you went through to arrive at that, but, ok...), how are they going to troubleshoot my issue by my sending the disc back? You'll also see, if you read through that thread, that people get back discs that still don't work. So, am I going to send a disc back to them at my own expense for them to "possibly" replicate the problem and send me another disc that may not work anyway? No, I'm not.

See, you have had a problem free existence with your review discs, and that is great. Good for you! I truly envy you. But, please don't come in here and tell me, who have had an insane amount of problems with this format, that it's MY fault. After going through this again today, I'm honestly not in the mood (hence the lengthy rant). I've invested a ton into this format (too much) and I don't see why I need to be blamed for not being a good beta tester, which is what you are expecting me to be. Here's an idea. Why doesn't the HD-DVD group actually pull a random sample of combo discs out of the production line and <gasp> test THOSE on the few players that are out there. Given how I've made it through only about 20% of the combo discs I've played without issue, I'm either the unluckiest person in the world or they are likely to hit upon some discs with issues.

I have done way more troubleshooting and testing with regard to the combo issue than I'm betting you have (since you've never had a problem). Look around. I'm not alone. Your experience is not absolute, just as mine is not. I have had the same combo discs lock up in an XA2 and play fine in an A1. Player problem? Ok. Then, that same disc plays fine 30 minutes later in the XA2. Given the random nature exhibited in that example, I can't gaurantee that Microsoft is going to replicate the issue between this disc and MY player.

Of course, then there's the issue where these problems occur in the exact same spot for multiple users. The spots being reported in this thread? Same for me. What a conincidence that all of our players choke at the same spot. All of us need new players? And what if that IS the solution? That's acceptable? Keep buying players until you get a "good one"? It's one or the other. Either there is a significantly high defect rate when it comes to combos or there is a significantly high defect rate when it comes to players that play combos. If MS wants to pay for me to send them my player AND disc, I might go for that one...

Personally, I think it has to do with the bufferring being done by the player and some players have issues and there are points where they just choke. I don't know if these areas where they stop are points where the bitrate spikes and things start choking in the buffer and it just can't keep up... But, that's the only thing I can think of that could explain why users have issues in similar spots. Sometimes, the player actually makes it through. Of course, when some get their discs to work by boiling, that theory goes out the window.

And since Toshiba themselves kinda disowned combos months back on their very own website, I'm even more surprised that it's "MY" fault that I can't play them. They had a notice on their site that combos "may" not play! And Microsoft wants me to send them discs for testing? How about calling up Toshiba and asking them why they thought combo discs may not play on their players?

You know, you're right... it IS my fault. I keep BUYING them, which is incredibly dumb on my part. I have been close to trying a different player, but I just can't bring myself to throw more money at such a glitchy format. I look around every player thread and see problems listed in all of them. So, it seems just as likely that I can get another "glitchy" player, if the player is to blame.

But, no... I thought about sending the disc back to Microsoft, but reading through that thread does not lead me to believe any real benefit will come of it and there is just as much of a shot that I will get a good disc back from them as if I just roll the dice and get another one from Amazon. Plus, really... what happens to all of these defective combos that get sent back to retailers? Don't they return them? I honestly don't know if they make it back to Universal Home Video, but you would think they would... Why isn't anyone looking into all of these defective returns? If they want my disc, all they need to do is ask Universal for it in about a month.

Brandon,

I just sent you a PM on this. As far as returns from retailers...they have been very small on the studio side which is why they went this route for finding problem discs.

I went to watch my copy that I got from Netflix today. Put it in my XA1 and it read "No disc". I've only had one other problem with Netflix disc's. Pull the disc out and though it felt flimsy. Then I noticed it was separating down the middle. :(

Is this actually a thread about what the OP posted on? Difficulties playing Evan Almighty?

It's curious the original poster never replied.

Yet one poster rants on about Microsoft being involved (?!?); Toshiba disowning the Combo format (?!?); the HD DVD Group not properly testing (?!?); boiling discs; bitrate spikes; and generally pissing on another member who provided a solution path.

Evan Almighty=yes play HD DVD is a more suitable thread title. It's got a bunch of features, all of which worked on my XA2. The thread itself started with someone who didn't even bother to respond to suggestions. And meanwhile a few others jumped on in a partisan fashion.

For the record, I bought my copy on eBay and it played without incident on an XA2. It's hardly a movie to make cinematic history ... but it's a charming bit of fluff, very nicely presented and time well spent viewing.

I am so tired of this format. I finally popped this in to watch with my son and, like almost every other combo, I could not make it through the movie. 24 minutes in and the stuttering and locks start. Can't make it through the movie. Again.

I can't believe my favorite movie this year, The Bourne Ultimatum, has to be a combo. Not that non-combos don't stutter, too. They just don't usually lock up.

Brandon, I have read the rest of this thread. Send me a PM. I'm not going to debate this, but if you want to try to resolve this problem for yourself, PM me. Also, there are NOT hordes of others that have bad combo discs. I'm NOT saying you are NOT having a problem, but there are not HORDES of others. Bill Hunt has yet to send us one of his discs that he reported are bad and we have only received SEVEN from the rest of the world.

At any rate, PM me and lets see if we can get this resolved for you.

- kevin

I watched Evan Almighty last night with the family. It was a good, mindless laugh (mindless being the key word). Anyways, I didn't experience any problems until the end credits when the C+C Music Factory song was playing. I tried pressing the stop button on the remote and it didn't respond. I then tried the stop button on the front panel of my HD-A1, and it didn't respond. I tried pulling the HDMI cable and it still kept playing. There was no way I could get the player to stop playing (tried eject, power). I finally had to pull the power cord from the back of the player to get it to stop. It was like the disc possessed my A1 player. This had never happened before on any other movie I've played on it (and I have close to 100 HD DVDs). A message from God?:D

Brandon, I have read the rest of this thread. Send me a PM. I'm not going to debate this, but if you want to try to resolve this problem for yourself, PM me. Also, there are NOT hordes of others that have bad combo discs. I'm NOT saying you are NOT having a problem, but there are not HORDES of others. Bill Hunt has yet to send us one of his discs that he reported are bad and we have only received SEVEN from the rest of the world.

At any rate, PM me and lets see if we can get this resolved for you.

- kevin

Just saw this. You can't really assume that posting to a couple of AV internet forums and requesting discs is an accurate study of how many bad combo discs are out there. That isn't how this stuff works. You have absolutely no idea how many bad discs are out there. Neither do I. All you know is that people who happened to read a thread on an AV site didn't send you discs. That doesn't mean there isn't a problem. All it proves is that not many people sent you discs. So, whether or not there are "HORDES" of others that have problems is completely unknown. All I can go by are the number of people who report problems in these threads.

I honestly am convinced that we are just dealing with the same manufacturing issues that plagued DVD-18s. I don't really need to send a disc to you for testing when it's simpler for me to just exchange it and get one that works. I did that in this case and my replacement copy of Evan Almighty worked fine. Now, had the replacement not worked, I probably would have considered sending it to you to look at.

If you want to get a better figure as to how many bad discs there are, ask Universal or WB to offer up the number of defective discs returned to them. I mean, don't they HAVE to know that? You assume everyone hangs on to discs that don't work, but, in reality, they probably return them. So, Universal and WB know whether or not there are combo issues. And I'd be interested in knowing what made WB decide to abandon combos. Did they find out most people didn't want them, were they cost prohibitive, or did they get a significant number of returns and decided to abandon them, just like they abandoned DVD-18s?

I'm sorry BrandonJF but you are coming across as someone that doesn't really want this issue fixed but rather someone thats wants this to stay out there as an issue.

Not sure if this is intended or not.

Each time someone suggests something or asks you to do something you simply come back with another tirade.

I just got my hands on Evan Almighty in a buy 3 get 2 free deal. My A30 would not play it at all. I was able to watch the DVD side. My A30 seems to have problems with all the dual format disks.

Put in the movie last night and the screen said no format for DVD. I have a brand new A30, just picked it up last week and this was the first HD I have even tried to play in it. Do I take the movie back? Do I take the player back? I put in Bourne Identity and it played just fine. Is this a combo disk issue?


A friend of mine had an indentical experience with Knocked Up on his A30, the DVD side would play fine, but the HD DVD side would read as non format. So he let me take it home to test it on my system, an HD-A1. I had no problems with playback on his disc so I wiped the disc down with a micofiber cloth returned it to him and it played perfectly on his A30. Maybe that would help you?

I just got my hands on Evan Almighty in a buy 3 get 2 free deal. My A30 would not play it at all. I was able to watch the DVD side. My A30 seems to have problems with all the dual format disks.


Read my post above.

My Evan Almighty combo HD-DVD plays just fine in my HD-A30 (firmware 1.0/1.1). The standard definition side worked just fine on my computer also. The game on the HD-DVD side doesn't work correctly however - there doesn't seem to be a way to answer the questions asked (at least I could not make it work).

I barely made it through this movie. My HD-A2 worked fine; it was plot that was defective! :D

Put in the movie last night and the screen said no format for DVD. I have a brand new A30, just picked it up last week and this was the first HD I have even tried to play in it. Do I take the movie back? Do I take the player back? I put in Bourne Identity and it played just fine. Is this a combo disk issue?



F-I-R-M-W-A-R-E--U-P-D-A-T-E!!!!

I just got my hands on Evan Almighty in a buy 3 get 2 free deal. My A30 would not play it at all. I was able to watch the DVD side. My A30 seems to have problems with all the dual format disks.

^^ Im quoting myself.

We watched "The Kingdom" last night which is a dual format disk and it worked perfectly.

I just got my copy of Evan Almighty, it's the UK edition, so normal HD-DVD and no combo, but after 40 minutes, my ep35 starts freezing and there is no way to keep watching the movie, also jumping some minutes forwards.
The disk is perfectly clean, and it's the first time i've a problem like this..... so do we have to wait for another fw update to watch the movie until the end?

Jimbo

I tried to play it tonight on my A1 with FW 2.3, and it could not load. After trying, it said No Disc. I cleaned the disc and rebooted the A1 and got the same result. I ended up watching the SD side.

It was a Netflix rental, and looked like crap on both sides.

Same issue here. Must need 2.4 FW on A1 to play ?