Andy Pennell's Blog

I have a weird issue.  A few days ago I purchased and elite system and HD dvd player. King kong HD played great but that system was too noisy so i returned it. I then got another elite system and the salesmen just swapped the harddrive from the previous one into the new one. When I got that machine home it had the three red lights. I returned it again and got a third elite box. This one works fine I did an xbox live migration. When I attempt to play king kong HD the scenes are very blocky and it locks up after about 30 seconds. some scenes will not even play. Some times I will get a notice saying i do not have the correct license to play the DVD and it bounces me to the dashboard. Playing normal dvds in the HD player also appear blocky and glitchy (they do not when playing in the xbox itself). All of this is making me think its some software block or some sort of macrovision and the system might think im trying to copy the dvd (that is just a guess). Any thoughts on this?

Has anyone else had a problem with the "300" dual combo HD-DVD locking up on the "reading" screen and not even loading? The first time I start-up the 360, the movie loads fine. But when I eject the disc and reload it, it locks up on "reading" and goes no further. Installing the latest HD-DVD drive updates/upgrades does no good. Deleting memory from the system blade does no good either. Only after ejecting and reloading the movie 5 or 6 times does it work.

Any solutions? Is this a problem with my player??

I have the US Version of Star Trek Original.  Disc 6, first Episode HD side (Galieo 7) freezes at the oepning credits with or without Starfleet mode.  If you fast forward or chapter forward it continues, biut if left frozen it crashes.

Disc looks in perfect condition.  I exchanged with Amazon.com, new disc had the same problem.

Thanks,

Peter

So Andy are you saying that at this stage no-one needs to get any replacement discs and you can fix this with a firmware or cookie update as I am close to getting a refund for my entire set as I cannot watch this not cheap £120 set (over $240 US) properly for almost 2 weeks now!

Is no-one else bothered about this fact as the problem is if you wait too long for a refund it becomes harder to get one!

Thanks for the update Andy.

I have decided to get a refund for now as it is much harder to get one the longer you wait and reading between the lines this is unlikely to be resolved until the discs are corrected.

When these are corrected and the firmware/cookies are sorted so the playback is as seamless as it should be then I will be happy to buy again but for now not prepared to have an expensive paperweight I cannot enjoy to the full.

Andy I did not misunderstand you at all, many people are having issues with these sets both US & UK. This is regardless if it is on the 360 drive, or a Toshiba player. I have read of others having additional problems on other episodes at different points. So far I have noticed at least 5 issues. To me skipping forward even 1 second to correct such an issue is unacceptable.

In my experience this is probably only going to be fully resolved by a repressing as wel las the firmware/software update.

Additionally in the UK a lot of SD Disc1 are badly either scratched or the HDDVD side has a slight melt mark on the spindle. I looked at 2 different sets in HMV and this was after already swopping out my Disc1 twice.

No way am I going to commit any more money or time to this until I read that it is all resolved. Then I will be happy to buy again.

Compared to my perfect experiences with Bluray this has been very poor indeed at a time when as you know HD-DVD needs to deliver the goods. This high profile release has been poorly handled by the people responsible for mastering & pressing the discs.

I would be surprised if they even did  QA as if so then surely these issues would have come to light before now?

Has anyone encountered issues with Chronicles of Riddick?  After seeing the opening credits, the system requested I download an update from Xbox live.  After the download completed, I am unable to play this or any other hd-dvd disc in the player.  To boot, the hd-dvd no longer shows under memory->System, where I would delete the pstorage and try again.

Thanks for the quick response Andy.  I replaced the cable and tried the two front ports with no luck.  This issue started only after downloading an update requested by the movie, is there way to remove the update from the system?

Andy- That drive is hosed.  I took it to a friends and tried it on their box.  It'll play regular DVDs, but not HD-DVDs.  Still doesn't show up as a memory device on the system blade.  Xbox support was happy to inform me the drive is no longer under warranty (3 months?!), so I'm looking to my Credit card issuer for support now.

Anyone need a doorstop? =)

Andy, I purchased Transformers (UK) and after pausing it wouldn't restart.  The disc would just grind as if it was trying to find the area to begin from.

It did this every single time and I had to reboot the box to be able to continue.  Any thoughts?

If you know what an error code means, it can be immensely helpful in diagnosing the problem with your

Hi! Bought the HDDVD-addon in november 07. Version 2.0.4641. V for Vendetta wont play. I get "unreadable disc", the first time i tried it, directly i got home after buyning it, it worked fine but then the next day "unreadable disc", got back to the store and changed it for a new one, exactly the same problem with the new one. I only got 2 other titles but they seem to work fine. Now i dont own V for Vendetta anymore, got my money back. By the way, i live in Europe, Sweden.

hello,i was just reading all the comments and problems ppl are having and was wondering if its really worth it at this point getting the hd dvd drive.

help on this would be great,i'm in the debating process, i have the elite 360.

My HD DVD works great with King Kong but when I attempt to play other HD DVD (I only have two other Harry Potter and Bourne Supremencey) they both get "Can't Read Disc".  Is there any way to fix this issue or should I do what Tech Support said and return my HD DVD without doing any troubleshooting?

First Bourne Ultimatum Combo on my 360 froze at Chapter 15. Returned it as defective. The replacement prompted an update from LIVE. The replacement takes forever to load and still freezes at chapter 15.

Any ideas??

Bought Transformers and Bourne Ultimatium and keep on getting "cannot read disk" when playing Transformers, after a number of attempts it finally works, then try Bourne and that too errors. Have tried installing updates, deleting the memory but to no avail.

Any ideas, am getting increasingly frustrated!?

The same here. 'Can't read disk error' with "300", "Casablanca", "Apollo 13". Other discs works fine: "King Kong", "Blazing Saddles".

At some point I've been able to watch all of them after trying several times inserting and ejecting the discs.

I'm getting seriously frustrated!

Hi

I have just got a Xbox 360 HD DVD drive. play my "300" Combo HD DVD. worked fine initally until 1hr into the show it freezed up. I stop and restarted the xbox. and from them its not able to read the disc. I tested other HD DVD on the systems it works but just wont read my combo "300". is there a fix or my disc is dead?

this is a wied problem.

I find it funny that you say the update didn't cause when you can search all over the internet and find many users who suddenly received non-stop "disc unreadable" messages. This thread has many people reporting that they're putting brand new unplayed discs into the player and it's not working. You also have people reproting they can play regular DVDs but not HD DVDs. What the hell did the update do to mess up the HDDVD decoding process????

Stopped in to see if anyone else had a similar issue as mine (Dec 15th post).  I'll send you my drive and the Riddick disc as a test case.

hey Andy, any ideas on my post from Feb 4?

thanks

i tried the disc on other HD DVD players and it works every time.  when the disc was working on my 360, it worked every time.  only when those little updates came on did it stop working...

ADD'L INFO after more tests.

If I unplug the USB cord while the xbox is off.  Then replug it in, I hear the drive start up then shut off.  If I pop in Blade Runner or Superman Returns only, I can play either disc once.  If I eject them, then I have to start over with both discs.  Neither will work past this "first time."

Any ideas?  Does this mean definitely a dud drive?  Does microsoft still offer trade-ins if under warranty?

Thanks,

Jason

Sup Andy,

I just got my 360 hd dvd player and i watched the first 3 disks of Heroes but when i put in disk 4 i get a msg "Can't play this content" and Status code: C667000A. the only option is then to press ok which takes me back to the dashboard. Do you have any idea what could be causing this and how to fix it?

Thanks,

Vicdemone2k

Can not play Transformers HD DVD on Xbox 360 HD DVD player as a external USB drive on PC, there were no response when I try play it with CyberLink PowerDVD, others HD DVD disc can play fine, is there anyway to fix this problem? BTW,I don't have Xbox 360.

Thanks for you time and helpful, have a nice day!

I just purchased an Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive. Whenever I play King Kong in the Xbox 360 HD DVD player, the display looks fine for about 5 minutes or so, then the movie freezes and makes a loud static type noise. The only way for me to get the picture back is to restart my Xbox. The only buttons that will work once this takes place are the Power, and Eject. I cannot try to reset the device through the dashboard etc... Any ideas

ive played 300 and king kong fine.

i got planet earth and the first dvd played fine after inserting/re-inserting a couple of times. the other dvds didnt play. went through 2 replacements and still wont play. same thing with blade runner.

i'm ran the update from live and still no go.

I too am having issues with Blade Runner disk 1 of the 5 disk box set. I borrow a buddy's set and no luck. Bought my own copy and no go on that and just got a netflix copy and no dice on that one. Most all of my other disks work fine and netflix rentals but last night a bunch started to act up. Do you think I need a new Drive or is the problem across the board with disk 1 of the 5 disk set of Blade Runner?

I'm having a lot of trouble with Battlestar Galactica discs - disc 1 has only lanched 2-3 times out of a dozen attempts on the Xbox 360, but works fine when the Xbox HD-DVD unit is attached to my PC. I haven't tried the other discs more than once. The HD-DVD unit is only a month old.

My Xbox 360 did the HD-DVD update before I got BSG, and I tried another HD-DVD (Apollo 13) which worked before, and still works...

On the few occasions it has worked, I have tried accepting cookies, not accepting cookies, disabling the internet connection, clearing the HD-DVD cache (memory settings in the console blade). It seemed that it may be relevant to whether it worked if my 360 was connected to the net at all, but that doesn't seem to be the key to whether or not the disc launches.

Help would be much appreciated!

Bruce

Hi there,

I started getting a lot of glitching, followed by freezes, and then the "problem with the license" message whilst watching HD DVD's last week. Then yesterday the xbox would freeze even just navigating through the menus, or when signing in. If I unplugged the HD DVD drive it seemed to be fine again. So I brought the drive back to the store today and swapped if for a new one, got it home, set it up....and the exact same thing is happening.

So the problem must actually be with the Xbox. Have you seen this before? Is the 360 in trouble?

Cheers!

Received American Gangster combo disc sd side plays fine in multizone player.

However HD side just sits in black doesnt go to menu or show any sign of loading.

Tried the washing the disk treatment, and removing saved files from the add on drive.

Same result. Is it coz I'm trying to play on new zealand Xbox have one other combo disc I Am Legend but it works fine and have alll latest firmware updates.

I have had the worst luck with combo HD-DVDs. All of the non-combo hd dvds have worked fine. I got august rush, bourne ultimatum, oceans 13, and i am legend, all combo discs and all get the can't read disc error on the 360 add-on. I have requested a replacement from amazon, and the replacement got the same error. Could it be the drive or is it just the combo format dvds? The sd side on the combo discs work fine.