"American Werewolf In London" combo disc is also a bust for many. Plays the dvd side well but the HD side is glitch city.

Smallville Season 6 glitches out on me on disc 4 episode 1 - The entire episode is unplayable. And I bought this set brand new, so I know it's not scratched. However, I've moved on to the next episodes and they seem to be working ok. But no matter where I skipped to in the first episode, the screen would freeze up and then jump ahead a few seconds.

Didn't know rot was such an issue, I have 300 HD DVDs, many Warners not a single issue thus far.

Own about 100 hddvd's now.
Got them because they are dead cheap these days...
U-571 and sleepy hollow are amazing on hddvd!!

I did notice some discs have playback issues from time to time. Can't really make out what the problem is...? hardware or software related.???
Sometimes the Sahara discs refuses to load properly. After opening and closing the tray on my Toshiba HD-EP10 it finally loads.
I've encountered some freeze up problems on various discs after 60-70 minutes of playback. Movie freezes up or begins to stutter audiowise!
Recently I've purchased the latest Firmwire for the EP-10 player and things got a whole lot better. Sahara and Mission Impossible still seem to be troublemakers for some reason.
I've hacked all my EP-10 players for multiregion dvd playback and installed the last firmwire released! All players seem to struggle with the same discs!
Strangely dvd playback is without issues! HDdvd playback got better since the fw update but on all machines occasionally the picture goes dark for about 0.5 second and comes back without further playback issues. I suspect a bug in firmwire??
Watched unforgiven hddvd a few days ago with only the 0.5 second dark screen to complain about. Picture and soundwise no further problems.

Before I installed the latest firmwire I had issues with every movie I played like no audio or picture after loading. Only way to get it working was INITIALIZE the player again leaving me with re adjusting the Picture and audio settings

Only complaint I have about hddvd is it's low volume. I found out digging trough the menu and manual that audiosettings can make things more dynamic. Still it sounds "thinner" than BR discs and has a low dialogue volume in the centerspeaker.

Don't get me wrong, I love hd dvd discs and like the player(s) but I'm curious if anyone has noticed any of the problems mentioned above....
I'm not giving up on the format like Toshiba who left us all in the dark with our "issues"



Does anyone have similar issues with their HDdvd player(s)??

Some early Warner discs were encoded with incorrect audio levels on HD-DVD and an exaggerated dynamic range. Warner replaced some of the titles with fixed copies, but I don't know which titles got new pressings. The menu sounds on Warner's first discs were too loud too because Warner didn't fully understand the encoding process so Microsoft had to step in and help.

Does anyone know if there have been any further firmware upgrades for the A2 Toshiba player since the 4.0 firmware? All my Universal HD's are fine but my Warner titles are hit and miss for rot, with The Avatior being the worst.

Don't think they got any further than firmwire 4.0 ....
Do or did you experience any freeze up problems with your hddvd player(s)?
I have my doubts about so called "hd dvd rot"
I think it might be a hardware problem somewhere along the line of players....
I owned several hddvd players and some never showed problems even when playing a so called "rotten disc"

I don't now for sure....
As I mentioned before things got really better after installing FW 4.0
Last few movies I watched there we're no problems besides a black screen for half a second during playback. always occurs after about 65 min. in play with almost every disc I own . Happy to say it only happens one time on total running time. I learned to live with it

So, I wanted to play my HDDVD of "We are Mashall" on my XBOX Player.

Was great, until chapter 20 and the layer break.
Not possible to go further... freezed frame.

The DVD side plays fine, but I do not own a region 1 or region free dvd player, therefore I won't see
the end of this movie.

It's really a bad thing for the remaining HDDVD...worst than laser rot.

Watched Full Metal jacket HDDVD last night .
Freezes up halfway trough the film on my EP-10 . I tried the disc on my spare ep-30. Same story
the ep-30 does not show the error message like the Ep-10 does after a few seconds. On the Ep-30 a simple ffw push does the job...
It might be a layer change problem. If I give the same disc a try after an hour no more Picture freeze....
What is wrong with these Warner releases? sometimes they work sometimes they don't
Watched reservoir dogs a few days ago without any problems.
Are the discs bad or is the hardware failing at some point?

any ideas?

In case you didn't follow it, Warners got paid off to crap on HD DVD and eventually switch to only Blu Ray. The Warners switch was what made Toshiba give up, as Warners initially was dual format.

At some point before the switch over, Sony contacted Warners and offered a truckload of cash and all the rights to produce and sell DVDs of the Sony film library, which is really very extensive and filled with a lot of classic and cult films, and desirable B movies.

At that point, the care in making their HD DVDs was gone, but Warners could not immediately announce the switch, or somebody might have smelled the ROT (ha ha) in Denmark. Then maybe anti-trust investigators would have gotten involved. But the Justice Dept was too busy annoying ordinary citizens with the Patriot Act.

Better to wait for HD DVD problems to assist the Sony/Warners game plan while Toshiba slowly twisted in the wind, but it just took too long. The coffin nail came when Warners went Blu Ray excusive. The only disappointment for Sony was that it was Toshiba and not JVC, the inventors/developers of VHS. Sony had been trying to slam both JVC and RCA for ages because of VHS. Talk about a Japanese GRUDGE, ha.

OK, now that I have 2 players (HD-A35 and HDS-8.8), I can confirm that my first player was not at fault... but Warner HDDVDs were.

So far I can’t even load these:

• V for Vendetta, freezes 20s in the movie
  
• 300, will CRASH the player, must unplug/replug power

I won’t reach the end of the movie (looks like layer change fails):

• Constantine
  
• I Am Legend
  
• Happy Feet

Out of these I tested yesterday, only “The Fugitive” seems to be playing normally.

All non-Warner titles are playing fine, did a quick test with: Disturbia, Transformers, Dawn of the Dead, Face/Off.

I have 38 WB titles, including 14 still sealed and 4 boxsets.

I'm contacting Warner for a possible replacement/upgrade to BluRay.

Julien

I agree, given how prevalent the problem is, we will export the LD dreaded rot problem to HD DVD as well... which is really a sad thing to be forced to do

Julien

Strange...
Watched I am Legend recently on the hd-xa1
It's all good!
V for Vendetta (own the European and the US impost hdvd) no problems there.
Only Warner title giving me a very hard time is Lethal weapon 2 (one for the trash bin)
I had several problems with 2nd-3d generation player(s)
Using the hd-xa1 or A1 (running FW4.0) solved every playback problem I've encountered (besides Lethal weapon) with hddvd's

I threw all my EP-10, E1 players out (i've had it with those) leaving me with the imported hd-xa1 and hd-a1 player(s)
They do a very good job so far. I watched several titles in the last few weeks on those players.
I have an hd-ep35 that does a good job playing european discs. Nice machine since it outputs bitstream HD audio. It was fun watching the DD+ logo light up on the Marantz receiver. if I play a combo disc on the HD-EP35 it's troubles for sure during playback.
Out goes the EP-35!
No more 2nd-3d gen players for me!

You can add Santana, Hymns for Peace, Live at Montreux to the unplayable list. My player (Toshiba HD-A3 with firmware 4) does not recognize it at all.

Hey julien. I tested your player with 300. It played back the entire film 3 times back to back with no glitch. There are 2 versions for 300. Hddvd only and combo (dvd on one side). I have both I dont remember which I used. Generaly flipper discs are problematic (even on blu). So it must be your 300 disc.

Another thing I bought almist almost all of my hds before the format was dead. Most was bought new from stores or amazon and has been stored verticaly in room temperature all their life. I know moist and cold is no good for rotters. I am sure after the format was dead remaining stock did not sit in best conditions.

I only have 1 confirmed rotter "forbidden planet" which I bough much later used(out of 300+ titles). I want to say warner titles are defective but conditions they are kept in triggers those defects.

terrible that these movies become unplayable...
Could it be something region or manufacturing related?
I watch my hddvd's from time to time and haven't got any disc going bad in time
There is the one Lethal weapon 2 imported USA discs that doesnt load or freezes up at a certain point but besides that one case I don't have any playback problems with my discs. Threw it in the garbage a long time ago.
I own several imported hddvd discs that show no sign of "rot" or other issues. Eastern promises, I am legend , U-571, Sleepy hollow, blade runner they all play

Before I installed FW 4.0 I had some playback issues with imported combo discs. they all work now
i only play discs on the Toshiba HD-XA1 or HD-A1 player(s)
Other machines are not to be trusted IMHO. Believe me, I've done some serious experimenting. Ep-30, EP-35, E1, EP10 they all had their faults.
My european released discs never gave me any trouble after or before installing FW 4.0
I suspect something went wrong when some hddvd's we're manufactured

For me, my second bad disc - "A Christmas Story" now freezes and won't play when the family goes into the department store and Randy and Ralphie visit Santa. Last year, there was no problem. I tried emailing Warner Brothers, but the Warner Brothers main site won't accept emails ("I hit "submit" and nothing happens) and the WB Store just gives me a canned reply to return the disc where I bought it.
My other bad disc was "Rio Bravo", which Warner Brothers finally replaced with a DVD version (better than nothing).

I just bought myself 200 hddvd's all us releases.
Since I own already 150 hddvd discs meanwhile I didn't see any reason not buying another 200
Someone has to save the format

This may sound strange but...
wash it down
I've done this with a disc that came mint sealed. Washed it with a gentle detergent. It plays great now

Does anyone have Warner discs from Japan ? I can well imagine those were manufactured in Japan and might still work.