DVD Player help

[Phil]

Since many of you have far more technical skill than I, I was hoping you could help me out:

My DVD Player died and in lieu of payment for a job I was given one by a friend who had three. I’ve no idea why.

It’s a Philips DVP 3040 and it works perfectly until playing a Doctor Who disc with alternative CGI effects, when a blue rectangular box appears for a few seconds to helpfully inform you that this shot is “1/2” or “2/2”.

I found the instruction manual here: http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/d/dvp3040_12 but it doesn’t seem to contain anything pertainent to the problem and I’ve done the software update and no change.

Does anyone know how I might be able to prevent this? I would really welcome any ideas, it’s incredibly distracting.

Topic

[Dave]

Thanks

[peas_and_corn]

By a strange coincidence, Dave seems to have exactly the same problem!

Crazy, I know.

[Tanya Jones]

Gah, it’s a Philips player. We’ve had bad experiences with Philips; our DVD/VHS stopped working, so we sent it back, and then after a few weeks got a new model as a replacement, but that packed up after a few months as well. Get another brand as soon as you are able.

[Mr Flibble]

Alternatively, my Philips TV has been going happily since 1999, and my DVD player since 2001 with no issues at all. In fact, compatibility wise, it’s one of the best out there, but reliability is certainly something that would make me buy one again, not “get another brand as soon as you are able”. A DVD/VHS Combi is likely to be a rebranded box these days anyhow.

But, yes. They do show an annoying blue box during alternate angle content. And I haven’t found a way to get rid of it. But otherwise, you’ll never have trouble with a poorly mastered DVD – I was one of the few that wondered what the Series III recall was all about.

[Zombie Jim Undead]

Ah yes….I recall that I once had a DVD player that wouldn’t play the alternative effects in Dalek Invasion of Earth at all.

Think the Who DVDs are a bit wonky in that respect.

[Andrew]

So what you need is a way to switch off the on-screen info?

Stating the obvious, I guess – try the Display button on your remote. Is there nothing in the Setup menu that looks ‘On/Off’ish for info/display/whatever? (Cos that’s where the option is on my Sony.)

Your link gave me a big directory of stuff. Full manual is also here:

http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/cpindex.pl?slg=AEN&cat=DVD_HOME_THEATER_CA&sct=DVD_PLAYERS_SU&session=20080710044122_82.71.8.73&grp=HOME_ENTERTAINMENT_GR&ctn=DVP3040/12&mid=Link_UserManuals&hlt=Link_UserManuals

[Dave]

Thanks Andrew, Phil may never know how useful that was

[cliff]

My advise is join freecycle in your area and get another one, freecycle rocks! and always has tv,video’s and dvd players people want shut of, it does have the odd strange offer like someone with 6 cans of lager they’ve found in their garage that are 4 years out of date..at the same time there was a guy on there with a 48” plasma screen tv, free to whoever wants it cause it was ‘too big’ for his living room??…dur Sell It!’..takes all sorts.

[Andrew]

> Thanks Andrew, Phil may never know how useful that was

Years of people asking the bleeding obvious – “How do I add an attachment?” “Why won’t this disc play?” – have led me to assume nothing. *shrug*

[Phil]

Why won’t this disc play?

[Andrew]

It’s a Region 2 DVD and you have a Region 1 player.

Also, it’s not plugged in. :-p

[Mr Flibble]

Stating the obvious, I guess – try the Display button on your remote. Is there nothing in the Setup menu that looks ?On/Off?ish for info/display/whatever? (Cos that?s where the option is on my Sony.)

Nope. I’ve tried it all. On my player, anyhow.

[Phil]

>It?s a Region 2 DVD and you have a Region 1 player.

Thanks Andrew. Dave may never know how useful that was.

[Tanya Jones]

>Alternatively, my Philips TV has been going happily since 1999, and my DVD player since 2001 with no issues at all. In fact, compatibility wise, it?s one of the best out there, but reliability is certainly something that would make me buy one again, not ?get another brand as soon as you are able?. A DVD/VHS Combi is likely to be a rebranded box these days anyhow.

Glad to hear it, but I’m not the only one who has had problems; The Mausoleum Club forums have plenty of people who do VHS archiving onto DVD, and they don’t have anything good to say about Philips. I don’t know about the rebranded box, but I did have to return it to Philips themselves for repair.

[Dave]

>Why won?t this disc play?

Turn it off and on again

>Thanks Andrew. Dave may never know how useful that was

Thanks Phil. Dave may never know how useful that was

[James]

It’s crazy when Philips still own the royalty rights to the DVD label, and they can’t even make a dvd/vhs combo. Try Sorny

[peas_and_corn]

But their screwdriver designs still impress.

[Author]

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