Cleaning a movie dvd

ms wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

A 'used' movie DVD? Could it be a bootleg DVD?

Some protection schemes cause brightness variations. For example, if you play a DVD back and try to record it on a VCR or play through a VCR, you will see the brightness cycling from dark to viewable.

As for cleaning the DVD, washing it with clean, deionized water and letting it air dry should work. NO scrubbing!!!!! 'Scrubbing' can drag abrasive particles across the optical surface of the disk and scratch the surface. Window cleaner and lens cleaning tissue, properly used (one pass only, no pressure) over the surface can work also.

You are describing a DVD made from a *bad* print of the movie, one that had little or no cleanup and fixup after transcribing. Not uncommon for low budget transcriptions to DVD.

But it was in the print the DVD was made from. Bet your bottom dollar on that.

No, and you proved that.

No, it won't do what you describe.

Macrovision funnies? How is your TV connected to the DVD player? Is the DVD an original or something someone has knocked off from another source?

Listen to what they are saying. A DVD is a digital media. Dirt may cause drop-outs, noise, pixellation, jumping or skipping frames or more, or even lock up the player. It isn't likely to produce variations in scene brightness.

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ms wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

Thanks to all. I should have mentioned, this is a commercial DVD, the garage seller bought new, the dvd has the expected label side. So IMO it' original.

I will try distilled water as a wash.

ms

Some counterfeit DVDs and real ones can look quite similar side by side.

Forget the wash - that will not fix the symptoms.

I repeat, how is your DVD player connected to the TV?

No.

There is no need for distilled water, nor any need to be particularly careful. Any fingermarked CD or DVD can be cleaned with ordinary washing up liquid, worked across the disc (not around the disc as has been pointed out by others) by your two thumbs. When you have been over the whole disc in thus manner, rinse it off with warm flowing bog-standard tap water. Shake the excess off, and then dry off the remainder with a dry lint-free cloth.

Minor lower surface scratches are of no consequence whatsoever. The error correction systems that are employed, are more than adequate to cope with such minor imperfections.

I would agree with others that have posted answers. The disc in question was almost certainly mastered from a bad print of the original film. A dirty, scratched or otherwise damaged disc, will not cause any 'analogue' effects of the type you are describing.

Arfa

I think your monitor has intermittent problems.

PeterD wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I think you identified the problem. I cleaned the DVD with distilled wster, so after air dry it was again unblemished appearance.

There is nothing wrong with the small TV monitor, or the connections as it plays other movie dvd's fine. As in my OP, I was playing a dvd, not using a VCR tape recorded copy or anything else.

After washing, the movie looks the same, from the opening credits screen. the movie is alternately light and darker. The initial 20th Cen. Fox video and no copy screens are perfectly stable, only every movie screen is a problem.

This is the usual commercial dvd, "20th Cent Studio Classics, etc. ".

But the film quality sure looks just as you described.

A comment on above?

Thanks

ms

Sure. It's a pirated movie. The "initial 20th Cen. Fox video and no copy screens are perfectly stable" because _that_ section of video can be copied from _any_ valid DVD (ergo: Good quality) -- then the pirated contents are spliced on past that (ispso facto: Crappy quality.)

IIRC, way back in your OP you memtioned you bought it at either a yard sale or flea market -- the favored outlet for pirated material in countries where pirated and counterfeit items are more at risk in store front slaes.

Allodoxaphobia wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@shell.config.com:

I live in Oregon, a quiet sales location, not Hong Kong. The package had several Fox sales brochures included, so I think it is original. Very likely the garage sale seller bought it new at a local dept store, etc. I know there are sales where thousands of copies are sold- that wasn't this case, I usually see just 5-10 dvd's they are done watching. So it is seems unlikely IMO this dvd is pirated. Just defective as PeterD indicated. Still a first in my experience that they make a commercial dvd this way.

ms

"The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" is a virtually forgotten film, most memorable for a scene in which Bernard Herrmann shows what a brilliant composer he was. In a few seconds, the music reveals everything going through Gregory Peck's mind.

The question is... Who would _want_ to pirate "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit"?

ms wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

It might play fine on a DVD player with a built in screen, or one that puts out video directly, instead of ch3 / ch4 RF.

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in news:_I2dnYBGBMqtWPvVnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

A good movie, The original dvd package and Fox sales inserts make it likely as normal local purchase.

ms

I doubt anyone making pirates would include the PGC's. More likely that the APS was somehow activated incorrectly by a fault of the disc being manufactured. This would cause the rendered video to act like described but not the PGC. Also the OP should be able to tell the difference between a DVDR and a ROM just by looking at the working side.

Try playing it back on a PC?