Do consoles suck as DVD players?

Not game related, but it's gaming hardware, so...
I rented Amelie and neither my PS2 nor my XBOX can play the damn disc more than halfway through the movie. I assumed that the disc was damaged, so I exchanged it for another one. I tried the new disc, and I got the exact same result. Both copies locked up at the exact same place, and the entire second half of the movie is completely unwatchable. All of my other DVDs play fine, but neither console wants to play this movie. I'm guessing that the lasers used in the DVD-ROM drives used by sony and ms just can't cut it with dual-layer discs, but I really don't know. Anyone else had similar problems? This is really pissing me off, because I've never seen the movie beforr and I want to finish watching it.

Well that sucks. I have the stupid movie sitting on X-box waiting to watch it. Fuck...

I mean.

Fuck that shit. That's a girlie movie.


:confused: ...yeah

I've heard something about the double layers DVD's being unplayable, but I think it has more to do with the version of PS2 you have.


I watch my DVD's on a real DVD player, made by Sony BTW.

That does suck. I hope you have better luck than me.

I've heard of the PS2 and Xbox not playing certain discs. The PS2 DVD player is fine for free, and from what I hear of it, the Xbox one is fine for a $30 one.

My PS2 works fine. My Xbox is a testy little bitch.

Any idea what percentage of movies are dual-layered? I need something that will play all movies, not just single-layer, but I really don't want another box in my entertainment centre. It's cluttered enough as it is.

My Xbox played Amelie fine actually... Odd. Don't know what to tell you. Good movie though.

for some reason my ps2 is extremely bad when playing cdr's for music. itll play my usual PNY and Imation discs fine for about 30 minutes and then start skipping really bad. and it wont even recognize my Fujifilm discs. havn't had any DVD problems yet. it's a version 7 system btw.

Great movie, by the way. I've had no troubles with my Xbox DVD player (shitty Thompson's). I've viewed both dual layer and flip DVD's (i.e. Goodfellas) and have had no problems. Can't really comment on the PS2 DVD player as the quality is so atrocious I can't bear to watch any DVD on it and hence, don't even attempt to. Unless you're a college student, don't watch DVD's on your gaming console. It just ain't gonna cut it.

I actually like watching DVDs on my Xbox. Looks nice...

Consoles may suck, but the alternative gaming platform, pcs, kick ass for DVD playback and tv output.

I enjoy watching DVDs on my PS2, when it actually decides to play the damn movie and not have a disc read error, which happens a lot more than I would like.

My PS2 plays DVDs fine except for an annoying humming sound it makes. It's a first generation PS2 machine. I'm debating whether to get the remote for my Xbox. Is the quality that much better?

And Amelie is a great movie.

Having a phobia of people sucks.

I'm not sure about quality but I do know that my buddy Celeryface can't get his Evil Dead DVD to work on his Xbox

Just to put in my $0.02:

I'm an avid user of netflix.com and I only have my Xbox as a DVD player. It plays them rather well most of the time.

There are times when some DVDs just don't work. And by not working, I mean they stutter and pause for long periods of time and they pixelate to hell and back. I can hear the laser head zipping back and forth trying to find it's place.

Amelie played fine for me, but one that I particularly remember not working was Kiss Of The Dragon (the new one with Jet Li).

I'd say 95% of DVDs have worked fine, but there are a few that just won't work.

i personally dont like either as a dvd player

Amelie worked fine on my PS2. the only movie i couldn't play on my PS2 was Fong Sai Yuk 2, and yes, it was region 1.

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Originally posted by Shin Johnpv
i personally dont like either as a dvd player

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Agreed. Though if its all you have they get the job done.

you can tell the color in some dark spots with the xbox, on ps2 the color gets pretty nice, but then you still have a rough picture.

I think my toshiba is better. :)

I had no truoubles watching Amelie (and that movie rocks) on my PS2 but I had problems watching... ugh The One.

Yeah, Amelie is really great....just got the soundtrack even :)

And Audrey is sooooooooooooooooo beautiful...

The Xbox (at least mine) has some serious issues with displaying the color red. It's a launch system so it could have been fixed in the current hardware version, but any scene that has red in it becomes badly pixilated around the edges. It's particularly noticeable in anime where characters are defined by bold straight lines. In Blue Seed, one of the main characters is always wearing a bright red coat and the outline of it becomes a blocky mess.

I thought it might be a problem with the Advanced AV pack I was using for S-video, so I changed it to the composite cable and the problem wasn't quite as bad, but I attribute the improvement to the lower resolution of composite.

If I put the same DVD in my PS2 it doesn't exhibit any of the color issues. I'm just wondering if anyone has noticed this with their Xbox.

I used my PS2 as my DVD player for two years and it got the job done, until I got this nice KLH one for a New Year's gift.

well, that's odd. i just tried to play amelie in my ps2 and it worked fine all the way through. i didn't buy my system at launch, but i got it before the new dvd drivers were released. i would try it on my xbox, but i still haven't picked up a remote.

oh, and amelie is a great film. jean-pierre jeunet is one of my favorite directors. delicatessen is excellent as well, though it's much darker than amelie. [/off topic]

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Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
My PS2 plays DVDs fine except for an annoying humming sound it makes. It's a first generation PS2 machine. I'm debating whether to get the remote for my Xbox. Is the quality that much better?

And Amelie is a great movie.

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I've actually A-B'd them a bit, and I can tell you that the PS2 DVD image is considerably better than the XBox's. Someone mentioned the color red earlier. On the GCN DVD, watch the Metroid video on the XBox and you can see it's problem with red on the Metroid logo. I've never had a dedicated DVD player, so I really can't comment on how the PS2 compares to that, but I'm pretty happy with it. I just wish I could play my VCDs on it.

I've encountered quite a few problems with the Xbox as a DVD player.

First of all any Artisan DVD (Pi, Stir of Echoes, Dog Soldiers ...) cannot recover from a pause. I have to reboot, and start over.

I have had one DVD, Master of the Flying Guillotine, refuse to play beyond chapter 18 on the Xbox. When I put it in the PS2 it was fine.

My Nuon (Samsung N2000) is my best DVD player. I try to use it as much as possible, but unfortunately it's been put on living room duty.

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Originally posted by Hybrid
The Xbox (at least mine) has some serious issues with displaying the color red. It's a launch system so it could have been fixed in the current hardware version, but any scene that has red in it becomes badly pixilated around the edges. It's particularly noticeable in anime where characters are defined by bold straight lines. In Blue Seed, one of the main characters is always wearing a bright red coat and the outline of it becomes a blocky mess.

I thought it might be a problem with the Advanced AV pack I was using for S-video, so I changed it to the composite cable and the problem wasn't quite as bad, but I attribute the improvement to the lower resolution of composite.

If I put the same DVD in my PS2 it doesn't exhibit any of the color issues. I'm just wondering if anyone has noticed this with their Xbox.

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I was at Korly's house a while back, and we started watching a few Nightmare on Elm Street DVD's... needless to say, Freddy looked terrible. You're not alone. Oh, Korly's box is a launch box too.

I once asked some information at the videostore where the guy behind the counter said that PS2 only plays 60% of all DVD's.
I never bothered with the PS2 as a DVD player because I thought, and still think, it sucks.
I was also adviced to not buy a Philips DVD coz they have the same problems and are very bad quality.

I bought a Sony DVD + wega theater and it runs every DVD I've bought/rented. It's only too sensitive about scratches.

Do consoles suck as DVD players? YES!

You can get a great stand alone player with all the bells and whistles for hella-cheap anyway.

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Originally posted by PBMaX
My Nuon (Samsung N2000) is my best DVD player. I try to use it as much as possible, but unfortunately it's been put on living room duty.

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Same here. It's a really sweet DVD player.

Interestingly enough, my N2000 choked on the Infinifilm features in Blow. I put the disc in my PS2 and the Infinifilm features played flawlessly. I thought it was very ironic, since the special Infinifilm features were pretty much what the special NUON features in NUON-enhanced movies were supposed to be like (or at least what many people hoped they would have been like), but designed in such a way that they would work with almost any ordinary DVD player. Odd that my NUON machine had a problem with it.

Apart from that, though, it has worked really well. I've never experienced any problems with the PS2 as a DVD player, although I've only played about 1/6 of the number of movies in the PS2 that I have played in the NUON. I generally prefer to play DVD movies on the NUON...but I prefer to play games on the PS2. :)

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Originally posted by burgundy
My PS2 works fine. My Xbox is a testy little bitch.

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You've got one of those damn Thompson DVD-ROM Xbox's. Some are OK, some are fussy and others become very problematic.

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Originally posted by Hybrid
The Xbox (at least mine) has some serious issues with displaying the color red. It's a launch system so it could have been fixed in the current hardware version, but any scene that has red in it becomes badly pixilated around the edges.

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I have noticed the output is bright, the colors do seem to bleed when I play Roger Waters' "In the Flesh" Live DVD - but then they did on my Toshiba DVD player too ( which I gave to my parents after getting the Xbox kit ). All in all I'm quite happy with the Xbox's DVD playback. There's no VCD playback though ( there isn't on PS2 either ) which sucks but I use my Dreamcast ( remember that?! ) for VCD and MP3 playback with excellent results.

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Originally posted by kbuchanan
I've actually A-B'd them a bit, and I can tell you that the PS2 DVD image is considerably better than the XBox's.

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The quality of the output circuitry may be different, but it's generaly accepted that hardware MPEG2 decoding is prefered to software decoding, like the PS2 uses. I dunno, maybe Sony's improved the algorithm or something but I seem to remember most early PS2 vs. Xbox DVD comparisons almost always favoring Xbox, at least in terms of artifacting.

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Originally posted by PBMaX
First of all any Artisan DVD (Pi, Stir of Echoes, Dog Soldiers ...) cannot recover from a pause. I have to reboot, and start over.

My Nuon (Samsung N2000) is my best DVD player. I try to use it as much as possible, but unfortunately it's been put on living room duty.

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That's EXACTLY what my first ( Thompson DVD-ROM ) Xbox does. You cannot pause a DVD without it f**king up. I haven't tried the "DVD-ROM tweek" on it yet, but my new Xbox has no problems pausing at all. Ironically, they are either Philips or more likely the Samsung DVD-ROM drive from what I've heard.

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Originally posted by Geruto
I was also adviced to not buy a Philips DVD coz they have the same problems and are very bad quality.

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You were advised incorrectly my friend! As far as "bang for the buck" is concerned, you'll do well with one of those $120 Philips DVD players from Target, etc. Not only do they have composite-out but they play VCD's, SVCD's, MP3CD's, etc. Philips SHOULD know how to make decent DVD players, being the main patent holder for the format, not to mention cassette, LaserDisc, and CD. Did I mention Philips rocks? All of my Philips stuff ( including the now 10+ year old CD-i ) still functions and I've yet to kill a Philips/Magnavox TV set. Some of the Mag stuff pre-Philips owning them is questionable, but I love the brand so much I made my wife buy a Philips toaster. Don't laugh, we'll probably be handing it down to our kids.......

I hate the PS2 DVD player...I fucking took an hour for it to recognize Dagon without giving a DRE, then played it fine...took another hour to recognize Vulgar, and then fucked up the second half...unfortunately I dont have a standalone...

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Originally posted by burgundy
My PS2 works fine. My Xbox is a testy little bitch.

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Other way around for me.


Xbox has never frozen or locked up on me once, the PS2 I have one of out of every five dvd's I rent won't work.

There are a few wack ass DVD's (Akira) that won't play on a PS2 or other obscure DVD systems because they arn't encoded properly. Anything above a small percentile not playing is chalked up to shity hardware.

i personally like panasonic dvd players my last one was and it was fucking great till it died on me :(

need to replace it one dayw ith an other panasonic one

Xbox outputs a stronger color signal than PS2. Turn the color down and it looks fine.

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Originally posted by sphere79
The quality of the output circuitry may be different, but it's generaly accepted that hardware MPEG2 decoding is prefered to software decoding, like the PS2 uses. I dunno, maybe Sony's improved the algorithm or something but I seem to remember most early PS2 vs. Xbox DVD comparisons almost always favoring Xbox, at least in terms of artifacting.

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OK, I'm stupid, but I do find this interesting. Can you explain how the PS2 plays DVD's in comparison to the X-Box or a standalone player? What differences are there between software and hardware MPEG encoding?

For the record, I've had good luck with DVD playback on my PS2.. I've only seen artifacting crop up once or twice, on Lord of the Rings. My Toshiba standalone handles it flawlessly, though.

I don't really know. I tend to use my videogame consoles to play videogames.

Well, after buying, and then returning, one of those dirty dirt-cheap chinese DVD players(it mysteriously died during the region0/macrovision trick), and then buying and installing a DVD drive and software for my pc, I finally finished watching Amelie.

I must say, it's a good thing that movie didn't suck, because after all the trouble I went through to watch it, I would have snapped if it hadn't been worth it.

I'm still planning on using the XBOX for most movies, but it's nice to have the pc as a backup.