Why do some DVD players do this?

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I got a DVD player given to me what is about 9 months old, but it wasn't used much. But when I insert a disc into it, there is a 50/50 chance it will or won't work.

I know it's not to do with dust, copied/burned discs, or not spinning. All of my discs are clean and the inside of the DVD player must be clean if some discs work in it. I don't own any copied or burned DVDs, all of my films are brought brand new from a proper record shop. And it makes funny noises when I first put a disc in which then gives me that feeling that the disc is not going to work. It sounds like it's spinning then slowing down then speeding up then slowing down, or like it's trying to spin but then stops. Like I said, it doesn't do this with every disc, probably about 70% of the discs I have put in so far have worked well, the picture and sound quality is good, and the DVD player doesn't make a sound.

I look on the back of each DVD and it says which DVD players the disc is compatible in, and it always says the logo of my DVD player (I don't know what make my DVD player is as it doesn't seem to have a particular name, I just recognise the logo). Also if I have a box set of, say, 4 discs, two may work and two may not, or three may work and one may not, etc. I don't know how that works out. It's as though the DVD player chooses certain discs at random what it decides it likes or dislikes.

What's the good of having a DVD player if half the discs don't work in it? What's it supposed to be for? Display or something?

Obviously its not region codes if two will work from the same box.
I presume you keep your DVDs clean and they arnt covered in peanut butter and jam fingerprints?

Funny I found a good quality DVD player was very fussy about what it would play, but a really cheap one I had would play everything.

Try to return it.

Sounds like a defective unit. The most I ever had that happen was a DVD that would not play in my PC but played on a regular player. Maker of the DVD mailed me a new DVD...clearly something wasn't coded right on the DVD which is why the PC had issues with it.

A defective player will have intermittent issues if it works at all.

Curious, does a DVD that played at one time not play at a different time or is the failure always with the same DVDs? If it's the same DVDs, I wonder what is about those DVDs that cause the glitch.

I always had good luck with Sony DVD players. They play burned DVD-Rs and that's what I use. Regardless of brand, they play every DVD-R.

However you also have to have a compatible, reliable encoder and burner software. I noticed that using DVDSANTA's DVD burning capability at lowest speed (2x) creates very reliable discs.

As for encoders, that's trickier. DVDSANTA isn't a good encoder. I still use WinAVI 8, which has its quirks and half the time doesn't start on Windows 7, but it's the best that worked for me. There are others, though.

It has actually played a disc one time then not another time, but not vice versa.

On one of the discs what has episodes on, it plays all but one episode, and when I select the episode it doesn't like, it suddenly stops and says ''no disc'' or ''disc error''. The disc has no scratches on at all, and it worked fine on other DVD players.

None of my discs are scratched or dirty. I look after my DVDs well, make sure they are kept in their right cases neatly on the shelf, and I hold them safely, putting my finger through the hole in the middle and holding the side with my thumb, so I don't have finger marks on the shiny bit.

Some say the picture on the top side of the DVD is too colourful, causing the DVD player problems, but that cannot be helped. I don't make them colourful, it's the design of it what it comes in.

sony units tend to have more robust error correction and a faster CPU/better onboard memory, so they will handle less-than-perfect discs without a lot of dillydallying. so a tv fix it guy told me. I believe him because my sony unit will play discs that no other machine will play without stuttering or hanging up altogether.