[rant] unplayable DVD

[impmon2]

Had DVD since 1999 and right now well over 1800 discs (not counting borrowed or rented DVD) I finally run into a problem. I just got a brand new Star Trek Into the Darkness. It would not play on my player or my laptop. I get an error message that the DVD is not intended for region 1. Today I tried again at my parent's DVD players and their computer, same thing. So unless somehow a Magnavox player, Apex player, Sony player, Windows 7, and Ubuntu conspired to annoy me, the problem is the DVD disc itself.

Brand new DVD from a local Walmart not a region 1 or region free??? Now I got to make a 20 minutes drive to the nearest Walmart and complain. I hope it is only a one time freak incident, possibly mixed up at factory. Since I got it Tuesday morning, it's much too soon for someone to have imported a non-R1 DVD, switched the DVD, reshrinked the case, and have it back on the shelf for me to buy it. AFAIK home made DVD would be region free anyhow so it is not likely a bootleg or illegal cam disc.

Can a defective disc throw a false region error message? Or can that happen only as factory mixup?

14 years broken by a faulty disc...

[DB83]

Do you have a software dvd player such as PowerDVD ? That would throw up a dialogue if the Region Code is not the same as the dvd drive.

Would one pressing plant handle all releases for different countires ? If so any error is possible. I also notice with this release that there are all sorts of versions (different extras) which vary according to where you buy. So I suppose anything is possible.

[davexnet]

Would VLC or MPC-HC play it? If I'm not mistaken, starting from Windows Vista,
this was controlled at the hardware level.