DVD movie won't play on my DVD player

[MichelleE]

I have one DVD movie which does not play on my DVD player. When I put the disk in, the trailers automatically play and they play just fine. But as soon I start the main feature on the disk, the DVD player just stops. It is as if the DVD is trying to read the disk but then automatically stops. The disk and all its content play perfectly on my PC. I returned the disc to the store from where I bought it and replaced it with another. The same thing happened - the trailers play as does the logo of the movie studio but not the main feature. I even went so far as buy another DVD of the same movie from a different store and it too has the same problem. All my other DVD's play without a hitch, except this one. Can anybody give me a reason for this?

 

[americanaudiophile]

When a DVD is mastered it can be done in such as way that your player cannot read properly. You may need to do a firmware upgrade on your DVD player in order to play that particular disc (and others). Check the makes website and see if there are any available. Good to do this periodically to keep the machine up to date. Bluray players have internet access and can be updated directly.

 

[368833]

Your DVD player is probably Broken. All my DVDs play just fine. My Angry Birds toons Season one volume one DVD however is scratched up. But the good news is. it only messes up on Episode 9.

 

[Solandri]

The fact that the previews play suggest this isn't a problem with the DVD player's hardware, nor the DVD.

The movie on a commercial DVD is encrypted with something called CSS (content scrambling system). The details are unimportant here, except that it's a standard key/certificate system. Using the certificate, multiple keys can be created which will decrypt the same encrypted content. But more importantly, keys can be revoked so that they no longer work on new DVDs without affecting the efficacy of other keys. Each DVD player model and DVD playing app was issued a different key.

The early DVD ripping programs were based on keys lifted from DVD players. If your player was one of these, the key would have been revoked (to punish the manufacturer for failing to sufficiently safeguard the key). DVDs issued after the revocation cannot be decrypted with that player since it's using a revoked key. (Later programs exploited flaws in CSS itself, rendering all keys useless and thus defeating the entire system.)

https/cyber.harvard.edu/openlaw/DVD/dvd-discuss-faq.html

What I'm about to suggest is technically illegal. But given that you have a legit DVD player which has been made unusable through no fault of your own, and you've bought and paid for a legit DVD, I think it's morally justified. And given that DVD CSS has been utterly and completely cracked, I don't think telling you what to do will encourage any more piracy than already occurs (the pirates prefer to rip Blurays anyway). I would just get a DVD ripping program, use it to rip the DVD (which strips off the CSS encryption), then burn that to a DVD-R to create an unencrypted version of the DVD. Assuming that the problem is indeed a revoked key, the resulting DVD-R should play in your player.

 

[Gam3r01]

Its been almost 6 years since this thread was posted, and the OP never once came back after they made this post.
For the sake of us all, Im closing this thread.
Ill leave the current posts in place in case someone else comes across it.