I have two players and they both have trouble with almost every single DVD I rent from Netflix. My first one was a Phillips Recorder/Player. My newer one is a Sony DVD/VCR combination which will play either + or - format discs.

I cannot get thru a single movie without the picture "freezing" over and over. Sometimes I wait a few seconds and it resumes play but other times I hit the "play" button over and over.

These machines are relatively new and well cared-for. When I play brand new DVDs that I have bought in a store, i don't have as much of a problem.
I bought a motorized cleaner at Radio Shack but after I ran it thru, neither one of my machines would play it. The Phillips said "Reading Disc" after I closed the drawer, and then "NO DISC"
The Sony said "loading" but then nothing happened and the drawer refused to open after I pushed the button. I kept pushing it and it finally opened.

I packed the contraption back into its box and took it back to the store. The guy put the disc I had cleaned into three different machines AND THEY ALL PLAYED IT!

What in-the-world is going-on?

I receive and play appox 12-15 DVD's a month from Netflix with virtualy no problem. I have gone through a total of 200 and have only had 1 to give any problem. I have the Sony 777ES changer and the GoVideo D2730.

Since the three players at RadioShack played the DVD okay - you may have dirty lasers on the players you have or they may be to sensitive to play the DVD's that you get from Netflix - as you have noticed I"m sure they are usually fairly scratched up.

Ted

I have tried this webside call itismovie.com, they sell region free DVDs(i hate region lock DVDs) the DVDs can be played on any DVD player. They are having a buy 5 free 2 promotion going on now

All right, already! Knock off the plugging.

As Ted mentioned, it would seem to be that my machines are suspect.
I bought one of those "test" DVDs that has the tiny brushes on it to clean the laser lense. (BTW...are these things any good or a $21 load of hooie?) I ran the thing thru both machines but to no avail.

Tell me...the "too sensitve" or "too unforgiving" thought crossed my mind. These machines at Radio Shack were cheap. Two were under $100! I paid $700 for the Phillips recorder/player and $250 for the sony combination player. That was the cheapest one I could find (at the time) that read both + and - formats.

OldBlueEye -

As I am a 38 year employee of RadioShack - the place of the cheap(inexpensive) DVD players. I am not sure when you spent your $700/$250 for your DVD equipment, but I can tell you we were selling DVD/VCR combo players for $299 a year ago that we are selling today for $129.99. They are just as good if not better than there more expensive predicessor.

As far as the DVD with the brushes - they are able to get into places you can not reach with your hands without taking the unit apart.

It could be an alignment problem with your units. You may want to get a tech to look at them - but beware especially with the lesser expensive one - you may be able to replace it "cheaper" than repairing it.

I have been a member of Netflix since 1999 and have had one defective disc per year on average. I don't know if this is the norm however. I just got one the other day that was cracked all the way through. :-) That disc had taken a beating. They had a replacement out in 2 days. Netflix has been and continues to be a wonderful experience for me.

-Lowpro

I agree that Netflix is a good experience and I have had only one cracked disc in a year-and-a-half. My problem is this annoying "freezing" problem.
OBTW...my Sony is SLVD300P model.

I realize that prices are coming way-down and I would presumably buy one for less than $150 but I would be interested in hearing some reviews of the "juke box" style for storage.

I own three of the Sony DVP-CX985V 400-disc DVD players. The work great! Not a hiccup so far. I would have preferred the higher end model, but needing three I could not pony up that kind of cash at the time.

The Disc Explorer feature for these players will make you want to return them before your 30 days are even up so I've been told. Make sure you have some other method divised for keeping track of which DVD is in which changer slot. There are many ways to keep track of this without having to rely on the built in Disc Explorer interface.

-Lowpro

Low, can you suggest any non-remote-specific methods? I've been considering one of these. My remotes are a Marantz RC-2000 and a Harmony 659, and I have no intention of getting another one.

Danke,

I used netflix for about a year and had the same problem. I bought a cheep DVD disc cleaner and cleaned each disc before I watched it and had no problems after that. ---cope---

Yeah...me too. I bought a "resurfacer" that is supposed to eliminate scratches, at Radio Shack. It really did do some kind of "buffing" to the disk. It was easily discernable with the naked eye. The trouble is that after I did it the disk couldn't even be read by either my Sony of Phillips players. That's the disk I spoke-of that then was read by three different players in the Radio Shack store.

I did buy a simple hand-held chamois type with some kind of liquid you drip on the disk. It did seem to help.

I'm gonna buy me one of them-there 400 disk players. I'm just waiting to hear which one gets the best reviews on this forum.

Old BLue Eye:
We have a SLVD300P also. We had the same problem you had with the freezing. It was intermitent but it was a MAjor problem. WE cleaned the DVDs and the player to no avail. Luckily it was still under warranty. Took it back to Best Buy. They could not fix it, so they sent it back to sony. Sony could not fix it so they sent us another one. We do not have that problem but once in a blue moon. I just click the FF then the play and the freze is gone. But it doesnt happen very often and probably wouldn't if I remembered to clean each DVD.