DVD Compatability

All Video 125 DVDs and Blu-ray discs are professionally replicated and are stamped out hundreds at a time by the same plants that produce DVDs and Blu-rays for the film industry. We do not use DVD-Rs or individually copied Blu-ray discs.

The DVD specification is complex and open to interpretation. DVD-Video title authoring is also very complex. As with any new technology, there are compatibility problems. The DVD-Video standard has not changed substantially since it was finalised in 1996, but some players don’t properly support it. Discs have become more complex as authoring tools improve, so recent discs often uncover engineering flaws in players. Some discs behave strangely or won’t play at all in certain players.

Sometimes going into the DVD player’s menu (or settings) can fix the problem. For example make sure that the machine’s area zone settings are correct. (In other cases, manufacturers can fix the problem with an upgrade to the player). In the worst case, disc producers need to reauthor the title to correct an authoring problem or to work around a player defect.

Checklist

If you have problems playing a disc, please try the following:

• Make sure the disc is clean. A simple thumbprint can cause a disc not to play or to freeze in places.
• Try a newsgroup-search on Google to see if your particular DVD player is listed as having had compatibility problems (we've had problems in particular with Toshiba DVD players and a few Hitachis).
• Try playing the disc a few more times. If you don’t get the exact same problem every time, then it’s not likely to be the disc. It is almost certainly a problem with the player.
• Try the disc in a different machine (visit a friend or a nearby store that sells DVD players). If the disc plays properly then your player is likely to be the problem. You might contact the manufacturer of your player to see if there is a firmware upgrade, or, if you bought the player recently, you may wish to return it for a different model.
• If none of the above fix the problem, please return the disc to us for exchange. If, the problem doesn’t recur, it indicates that your first copy was probably damaged or defective. If more than one copy of the disc has problems in more than one player, it may be a misauthored disc in which case we need to know about it in order to ascertain the problem.
• NB: 9 out of 10 DVDs that are returned to us as “faulty” play perfectly well on our DVD players here. This means that in most cases there is no point in us testing a new disc before we send it to you because the incoming one performed well anyway.

USA / Canada / Japan. If you are in these countries you might have a setting on your player that will allow you to switch from NTSC to AUTO. However, we have been told that few players have this facility and customers have had to purchase PAL system players and compatible televisions to watch Video 125 (and other UK) DVDs.

Finally, we are sorry if you do experience any difficulties with any of our DVDs. Bear with us and we will try to ensure you end up with a satisfactory solution.