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  1. Member
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    Hello!

    I am having problems viewing some VCDs from Hong Kong (namely those from TVB) on my Magnavox MDV422, which is really perplexing me as this player claims to play VCDs and I have played other VCDs on it fine. Help!

    Whenever I play these VCDs, it plays fine at the beginning with the ads and intro to the drama, but when the story begins, I get these brief pauses that last about 5-8 seconds on the screen while I still hear the audio. Afterwards, when playback resumes, I hear the audio that was just played during the pause. The whole cycle begins about 5-10 minutes later. What is weird is that at the beginning, I hear the two languages being offered on this VCD simultaneously, as if Cantonese is on the left and Mandarin on the right (which I believe I solved later on, but any clues about this?). But my main worry is these pauses, as I would *really* like to watch these VCDs.

    The strange thing is that I can watch these VCDs fine on my computer, but I would like to view them on my DVD player. I have not had these pauses on other DVDs, and VCDs (like those MTVs that come with CDs) so I don't know what is happening or what I should do. I have noticed that these problem VCDs and the VCDs that play fine are all indicated as "VCD 2.0" by my player when inserting them into my player though.

    I called a Magnavox rep today who told me that this player is actually old (released about Nov. 2002) and hence, no upgrades can be made to allow the playing of such VCDs and probably due to outdated lasers or such like. He recommended to try burning these VCDs to another compatible disc, but I don't have much time or money to do this (I might as well just buy another player since they are quite cheap nowadays). Otherwise, he said I could buy a newer DVD player as it's likely that the newer models would be able to play them.

    What do you think? Can this player be salvaged? And if I were to buy a new player, what kind of player should I seek (e.g. model, specifications)? I am not sure what I should do at this point, so any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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  2. Member Soopafresh's Avatar
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    It all depends on how much work you want to put into it. One method might be to re-encode the material to DVD. Easy for a few VCDs, but a lot of work if you need to convert many. With DVD players so cheap these days, it might make sense to buy a newer player.
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  3. Member
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    The VCDs in question are a set of 24, and to me, it would mean a lot of time, money and effort to convert them to DVD. Besides, I don't have a burner or DVD recorder at the moment. I have been thinking of getting an additional DVD player, so does anyone have any recommendations i.e. one that has a better chance of playing such VCDs?

    BTW, besides these VCDs in question, I have a few other VCDs that have the same pauses, so this problem seems to recur in this DVD player.
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  4. Member Soopafresh's Avatar
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    This article is Excellent for choosing a DVD player that includes Mpeg4 playback capability as well as DVD/VCD. If you're getting a new player, you may as well get one that can play as many formats as possible.

    https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?guideid=820#820
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  5. Hi ezone25,

    I have also had similar playback problems when playing some Hong Kong VCD's on my CD-i player and DVD player. The only solution for me if I wanted to be able to play the Hong Kong VCD's in both my players was to re-author the Hong Kong VCD's. This solution requires a lot of work and it is also very time consuming so my suggestion is that you buy a new DVD player.

    vcd4ever.
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  6. Member
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    Yes, I now realize that buying another DVD player seems to be the most viable option for me, so as I mentioned in my last post......does anyone have any suggestions as to what player I should buy??

    Price isn't really an issue (within reason, of course), as I'm more interested in quality.
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  7. Member
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    BTW, does anyone actually know what causes these pauses on the VCDs e.g. incompatibility issues?
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