I ordered several HD-DVDs recently from amazon.ca (Complete Matrix Trilogy, Galapagos, 2001). The first 2 movies I tried (Matrix Ep. I, Galapagos) had freezing issues. I have about 10 other HD DVDs, store bought locally, and never an issue. The first 2 I try from Amazon, both froze. Galapagos was the worst, had a freeze in the 1st and 3rd chapters, so I had to stop, start, and FFWD through the frozen section. Embarassing when you have people watching with you.

I have an HD-A20 with firmware 2.5, set to 1080i, Film/Video setting is Auto.

Anyone else have the same experience with Galapagos in particular? Or Matrix, or Amazon discs in general?

No trouble with Amazon discs (which, like, are identical to all the other discs) on either an HD-A2 (Jan 2007 build, 2.5 firmware) or an XA2 (Mar build, 2.5 firmware) for Matrix 1 or 2001: A Space Odyssey (and many other you didn't mention) -- freezing or otherwise.

I have Galapagos, but haven't opened it yet. Does it fail at the same point repeatedly? If so, where?

Nope, but I am seeing the same issue with The Big Lebowski It freezes about 30 minutes in, and then again at an hour and thirty in. Does the whole stutter thing, I have to skip the rest of the chapter to get past it.

Makes me wonder if it's a disk issue or if the laser on the player is not up to snuff.

bought it at Wal-Mart.

I have heard of some people changing from 1080i to 720p on their players and seeing the issue fixed, I'll have to try it the next time I run through it, see if it helps. I don't want to "boil" the disk. (Can't exchange it as my wife threw away the receipt. doh!).

No trouble with Amazon discs (which, like, are identical to all the other discs) on either an HD-A2 (Jan 2007 build, 2.5 firmware) or an XA2 (Mar build, 2.5 firmware) for Matrix 1 or 2001: A Space Odyssey (and many other you didn't mention) -- freezing or otherwise.

I have Galapagos, but haven't opened it yet. Does it fail at the same point repeatedly? If so, where?
In the 3rd and final episode on the Galapagos disc, during the 6th and final scene, it was freezing repeatedly at 44:26, just after the wildlife officer shoots the goats from the chopper and is reloading his gun. I set the player to 720p, and tried again, and it froze at 44:29 (3 seconds later) and then I received the 408bc504 error and the player locked. I powered down and up, ejected the disc, and inspected it. There appeard to be some minor speckles of dirt (I hesitate to even call it dirt, more like a smudge), so I rinsed it with hot water and soap, pressed between two folds of a towel to dry, but still there. I then wet the disc again and wiped the hand towel from the disc hole out to the disc edge to remove the smudges. I dried the disc again, and this time it played through the scene. I reset to 1080i and again it played fine. I could play to the end of the movie, and I know there was yet another freeze point after 44:26, at which time I had given up. So both freeze points were fixed. I didn't go back to the chapter 1 freeze points as I couldn't remember where they were and didn't want to rewatch the entire episode again.

I have had DVDs with much worse dirt than this that never had an issue, I guess HD-DVD is more exacting in its cleanliness requirements?? I guess I will have to start handwashing my discs before I have guests over to watch.

As a sidenote, both the Matrix and Galapagos discs had some damage in the red case they came in, with bits of red plastic left rattling around inside. On the Galapagos disc in particular, some of the red teeth in the disc ring holder were broken off. These are the only 2 discs I have had this issue with, perhaps they are a result of being mailed, although the Amazon packaging seemed adequate. I don't see how they could have contributed to the disc dirt as the play side is down, and they should have caused scratches instead of dirt.

Anyway, I am glad to have it solved, at least for now.