Hi, DVD owners please help me out. A fair number of my DVD's (Hollywood films on R1 DVD) have developed some fault because of which they freeze and skip a lot in the second half of the movie (which I assume may be on a different layer than the first half?). Many a time the DVD just stops playing even if I select a scene from the main menu that's on the second half. I've cleaned the disc surface with microfiber cloth but that doesn't seem to do anything to resolve the issue. These issues did not exist initially and I remember playing these movies end to end more than once without any hassle.

This has happened with my DVD's for Blade runner, Superman (Anthology discs), Silence of the lambs etc. I store my DVD's inside a wood closet built specifically for this purpose. Can anyone enlighten me as to what might be the cause and how I can try and fix these discs? It'd be awful if this were a problem that spread over my collection. Being based in India, I have to do a lot of jugaad and cajoling to persuade people abroad to carry movies I've ordered when they come to India. HALP!

I would say buy another Region 1 DVD player and see whether they work in there. Region 1 discs are specifically designed to work on Region 1 DVD players. USA/UK-made DVDs are of a very high quality so there should be no problems. Also, have you tried playing them in your laptop?

This is a very common and frustrating problem. Mostly in Bollywood DVDs and occasionally in Hollywood DVDs. We have had many posts on this topic. The consensus was that it's the cheap media that rots in 2nd layer. Most likely it's the glue between the two layers. It definitely is manufacturing defect. Good luck claiming it from Desi companies (they make quick bucks and disappear/ go-bankrupt before people start complaining. Free replacement from Hollywood companies is equally frustrating as you'll end up spending more in shipping and customs than what the DVD is worth.

I've tried playing the Blade Runner and Superman movie discs on my region free Pioneer DVD player, my ASUS BD-ROM drive (with AnyDVD HD) and a friend's LG region free DVD player. Same issue.
There's no question of asking for refund/replacement because most of these discs have been ordered at least 3-5 years ago from US based online retailers like Amazon and Deepdiscount. I just hope that BD's have more quality control than this. More than money itself it's a fear of how reliable your collection is when you want to watch something.
Damn.

so DVD-5 are better than DVD-9 in the long run?

Lol:) except the ones orig printed on gold media" will be rotten ultimately and unplayable the entire length.