The Fountain - Any solution for Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on owners?

It was hit and miss for me. I wiped it down and it loaded. Another time I reseated the disc and it loaded.

ah crap... i hope this doesn't cheese out on me (shipping next week w/ Matrix)... though i've had good luck with Children of Men and Smokin Aces... fingers crossed and knock on wood...

The first day I got the disc I could never get it to work. It's totally hit and miss for me as well, but I finally got it to work a couple of times. I've obvserved three scenarios: (a) It displays "Reading" in the dashboard and never plays the movie, (b) it switches to the movie mode (black screen) but then says "Can't read disc" in a blade, or (c) it actually plays the movie.

This probably isn't the real "fix", but my chances seem to increase if I stand at the player and eject and reinsert using the button on the drive itself. From what I remember I only used the eject button on the remote the first day.

The eject button on the remote only ejects the 360 tray, it doesn't eject the HD DVD tray.

My copy plays fine, but the first time I stuck it in I got the disc can't read thing, but its worked fine since then.

It works just fine using the XBOX360 HD DVD drive on my PC so if you are having problems playing it with the XBOX console then it is likely the console software not the drive.

It is a full screen screen movie by the way and the PQ is very good.

4:3 full screen?

It's not 4:3 full screen. The picture is 16x9 anamorphic so the image is the correct ratio to fill the whole screen if you have a 16x9 TV.

not anamorphic

Movie works great on mine. No problems. Make sure you have the recent update.

no such thing as anamorphic HD...

same here, no problems

I mispoke. I didn't eject with the remote using the button. It would be stuck on "Reading" in the dashboard. I used the power button to power down and power back up. Then the dashboard gave you the option to "Open HD-DVD tray" after it restarted. I opened the HD-DVD tray (using the dashboard) and closed it again all from the remote. So I ejected using the remote but just not using the eject button.

I have the 5/15/07 HD-DVD update. "Heart: Alive in Seattle", "Discovery Atlas: Australia", and "Disovery Atlas: Italy" work after update. "Fountain" is hit and miss for me and some other people.

I watched it all the way through and the extras without a problem. I'm on my 2nd add-on. My 1st drive had problems playing lots of disc and couldn't read the 2nd layer on a few. My 2nd add-on hasn't had any problems with brand-new and scratched rentals. I think the diodes in some drives are much more finicky then most. If you are having lots of problems and are still in warranty I suggest getting a new drive.

I got my disc today and it loads fine on the add-on, however, I experience some freezes after around 42 minutes of playback. Loading the disc again, the passage works fine, but another one keeps surging.

Well I think it's not a disc issue, rather a hardware problem. When I first bought a DVD-ROM drive to play DVDs on my computer I had problems with Matrix. One time it plays fine, another time not.
After buying a standalone player after several months I never had problems again.

I have watched several anamorphic HDDvds... Slither and Children of Men to name a few... Didn't have any problems playing the Fountain on my add-on...guess I was lucky...

16:9 and anamorphic are not the same thing. I can see how the casual observer can make that mistake, though.

I can get it to play about 10% of the time. The other time's I get the "Can't Read Disc" error. This is on my 360 HD DVD add-on drive.

One time when it played it looked fine except for in about 4 spots for about 30 seconds it had a very poor/low frame rate.

THe second time it worked, today, it did not have that frame rate issue. I only checked the first scene I noticed the frame rate issue, and it played fine this time.

I am not sure whether or not to return it or what.

My copy from Blockbuster Online worked just fine.

Works fine for me, one time it didn't load in the middle of watching the special features but besides that worked 100%.

I watched the movie 100% and a few special features on my 360 without any issues.

HD-DVD is alive and well in the OC. I had no problems with this flick on my add-on but I must say this film is a trip

No issues here other than I hated the movie.

Worked without a problem on my 360 add-on.

Ok, so I returned the movie and got another one.

This disc worked on the first try with no stuttering.

I noticed that my first disc had a creaking sound when you applied pressure or bent it slightly, like it was two peices rubbing against eachother. THis one does not, like it's a single solid disc.

I also noticed on my first one that when I tried the hot soapy wash thing that water got inside the very inner ring of the disc, like there was separationg there between the layers. By the way, soapy water did not help the disc, in fact it wouldn't even play at all after the wash.

However, I am happy again with my exchanged disc.

Seems like a Dual format disc manufacturing problem to me.