Philips 5140 won't play retail DVD

[areynaldos]

Hi... I've just bought the Philips 5140/37 after reviewing all the things that it is supposed to play, and reading how it plays "everything that I threw to it"...

The problem is, the second movie I tried to play, "The Descent" from Blockbuster, won't play!

First I see the LOADING message in the DVD display, a "DVD-Video" message is displayed on the TV... A lot of strange noises are heard in the DVD player, and then I will see the FBI warning about piracy. After this, the DVD player shows "STOP", the TV goes back to the Philips screen and nothing else happens. I tried clicking PLAY or MENU on the remote, but only more noises and the STOP message again.

I played the DVD in a very old (>6 years) Sony player and it plays with no problems. I played it also in my computer, no problems either.

Does anyone know what may be wrong and how to correct it?

Thanks!

[Bodyslide]

I would try cleaning the DVD, could just be dirty. Good Luck

[jagabo]

Wonder if it's related to this:

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1636323#1636323

[manono]

Hi-

If it's The Descent Unrated, it's Lions Gate, although maybe someone else distributes it, don't know. But it does have some sort of heavy-duty copy protection on it, and you could very well be right about the player having problems with it. When I did it, RipIt4Me went crazy on it for awhile, opening and closing the DVD tray every time it encountered something strange. Sorry not to be more specific, but I forget the exact terms, and I don't do "new" movie DVDs often enough to be an expert on them and their protections.

[Fleeba]

We are having the exact same problem with the "Descent" DVD. We exchanged the DVD, and have the same problem with the 2nd one. The DVD will play on our cheap old dvd player, but on the new dvd re-writable it will go to the menu screen, but "stop" once you try to play the movie.
Anyone know what Lions Gate did to the dvd, and are we going to have the same problem with other dvd's from Lions Gate from now on?

[jagabo]

are we going to have the same problem with other dvd's from Lions Gate from now on?

Not if everyone returns this one!

[Fleeba]

We wrote a nice little letter to Lions Gate about the issue. I'm hoping they'll actually read it and adjust their little problem. We love Lions Gate films and don't want to miss out on other releases because of this.

Here is their email address, if others want to also write a letter:
'general-inquiries@lgecorp.com'

[Fleeba]

whoops. I guess that email address is bad. Just got a send error.
Anyone else know of an email address to email them?

[areynaldos]

Thanks everyone for following up.

Yes, the DVD was "The Descent Unrated" from Lions Gate. In a way I am glad to hear that I am not the only one with the problem.

It did play ok in my old DVD. I got in contact with Philips and they just said that it might be a problem with the DVD Region... ignoring that I told them that it played ok in my old DVD and my computer.

Please keep posting any other information or responds from Lions Gate, as I don't want to run into problems with other DVD titles.

Cheers everyone.

[FulciLives]

I bought the Philips DVP-5140 around Thanksgiving of 2006.

Since then I have used it extensively to play back a variety of media including retail DVD discs of various formats (NTSC and PAL) in various regions. I have also played back a wide variety of MPEG-4 content ... some downloaded and some created by myself. I also have played back home made DVD discs some of which were burned on my stand alone DVD recorder and some on my computer.

So far I've had like ZERO issues.

Based on things I've heard it seems that the USA NTSC DVD release of THE DESCENT is all buggered up. Fortunately for me I bought the UK PAL DVD release eons ago so I have no need for the USA NTSC DVD release since the Philips has no problem with my PAL DVD release and I also converted it from PAL to NTSC on the computer for a NTSC DVD-R that looks (and sounds) sweet.

It is a shame Lions Gate screwed up this DVD release as this is one hell of a great movie! ... at least for a "modern era" horror film.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[georgetirebiter]

I also am unable to play my unrated (Lion's Gate) version of the Descent on my Philips 5140. I have tried four different discs. Same results every time: "STOP". It will load on my computer, but the sound is broken up. Sounds like this is a losing battle. I was looking forward to seeing this one. Oh well.

george