hi everyone,
i apologize that my first post on this area is a question. i was referred to everyone's expertise here however from the plextor forum area. this is a long read, so if you want to scroll down, i have a summary for those of you who like me want to skip all the mindless babble.
after extensively reading this subforum, i have a greater appreciation for the software everyone recommends here.
to that end however, i am running into a little bit of frustration that's been happening the last couple of months with recent movie releases.
as i had explained in my previous post in the plextor area, i don't really have a pressing need to rip or backup a dvd. my wife and i are avid movie watchers and we purchase anywhere between 3-4 movies per week (on release tuesday). we will often watch the movies on the home theater system, and often times, i will watch them on my coast to coast flights.
where i started running into problems was a couple months back when some of my dvd movies wouldn't play on my dvd drive (plextor 708a). i thought nothing of it, but as more and more movies i would like to watch on my PC while reading reports or mail, or just simply let time go, i've found it increasingly difficult to watch new release movies.
which brings me to last tuesday. last tuesday, my wife and i bought, "match point", "fun with dick and jane", "aeon flux", and "just friends". NONE of these movies would load or play on my PC.
after several frustrating attempts, i made a call to Plextor, and went through the whole gambit of "diagnosing the problem". after some back and forth conversation, i was asked a question of "does this happen to ALL your dvd's". the answer of course was no. i would load movies i bought 6 months or even a year ago and it would automatically load up PowerDVD, and play. case in point, the guy told me to load a movie and i picked up South Park, and it loaded perfectly.
the rep then dismissed my call saying it's not their problem and basically told me that since the warranty had already lapsed everything to me would be at cost, etc. but from the information i was giving him, he was saying it's not a plextor issue.
i looked all over the net, and finally found this forum area, which has been tremendous. i did everything from using forceaspi, to installing plextor tools, to even unloading, and cleaning up the drive itself including the laser.
so to make a long story short:
Plextor 708A has been self-diagnosed (per Plextor manual) - checks out fine
Plextor has also been cleaned out (laser included) - remounted and works fine
i then tried to play "south park", "the notebook", and "seven" - loaded up powerdvd, and it even cued up south park from where i left it.
i then tried to play "match point" and "fun with dick and jane" - NO GO ><
i tried this for the other movies, and it's the same thing. recent movies - including "wibledon" won't play on this drive, let alone be recognized as anything viable. but older movies - maybe 3 to even 6 months out work great.
i've upgraded all the firmware, and like i said went through the whole troubleshooting process.
i'm stumped, and any info you guys can provide is sincerely appreciated.
my many thanks in advance.
