Hotel Babylon playback issues

[CochiseGuy]

Just got Hotel Babylon in yesterday, UK import of the BBC series. It's the first import combo disc I've encountered - one side is HD DVD, the flip side standard DVD, PAL Region 2. The HD DVD side just won't load on my trusty XA2. I tried washing the disc, but repeated attempts result in my XA2 saying "loading" for a minute or so and then finally "Disc error - this disc is not in the DVD format".

Just tried it again this morning, it's loads & plays fine on my backup A30 player in the den, and the Xbox add-on drive on my PC reads it fine. I don't have my PC setup for HD playback yet, but I could see the HD DVD side contents in Explorer and the PAL DVD side loaded & played fine.

I'm shocked - I've never had any playback issues on my XA2. I hope this doesn't affect all the UK combos - I have Robin Hood & Bleak House on the way and I think they both combos as well.

[mistermono]

No playback issues on Bleak House on XBOX 360 add-on, FWIW.

I'm really tempted on HB since I could watch in HD and then lend to my mom (who has a couple of region free dvd players).

[bruceames]

Combo discs can be finicky, and in your case it sounds like the disc as mine plays fine in my XA2 (at least disc one does, I haven't tried the others). Did you wash it in hot water?

[CochiseGuy]

Originally Posted by mistermono

No playback issues on Bleak House on XBOX 360 add-on, FWIW.

I'm really tempted on HB since I could watch in HD and then lend to my mom (who has a couple of region free dvd players).

Just checked Amazon.co.uk for specs - looks like Bleak House is HD DVD only while Robin Hood Season 1 is a combo. Hotel Babylon does look nice & sharp in HD. HMV.co.uk has it for £4.99 + £4.95 shipping to the US.

Originally Posted by bruceames

Combo discs can be finicky, and in your case it sounds like the disc as mine plays fine in my XA2 (at least disc one does, I haven't tried the others). Did you wash it in hot water?

Yeah, first thing I tried - I used discwasher with no results, then hot tap water & dish soap. Still no go, but I did just try disc 1; if it works on your XA2 I'll try the other discs.

[tormond]

I just got this in yesterday as well and I will try it on my XA2 when I get home for you.

[blaster999]

My first set of had problems with disc 2.
My second set with disc one
At this point I dug up my back up 30 still config to 1.3 found it played with no problems
It seems my main 30 has been spoilt by playing Planet Earth and refuses to play such "common" entertainment,

I rechecked some discs when this problem first
came up and Eastern promises also failed with the same error message, yet it played ok when spun it on purchase, the only difference between my two 30 is the firmware 1.3 in one 2.0 in the other.

[kannisto]

My Hotel Babylon disc 1 (I haven't yet watched disc 2 and 3) does have some playback issues on my RD-A301 (3rd generation) but it played fine on my HD-XF2 (2nd generation). It seemed to play OK on my LG PC drive as well.

On my RD-A301 it loads OK but during playback there are some video image dropouts / pixelation that start getting worse and worse and eventually the playback stops with an error code. I think the drive has difficulty reading the disc properly and starts losing some of the video image gradually.

I did try to clean the disc but it didn't improve playback on my RD-A301. I just figured I'd play it with my HD-XF2 instead of RD-A301 when this problem happened and it worked fine that way.

In any case, it seems these BBC combo discs can be somehow challenging for some player hw...

[CochiseGuy]

Well, I tried it again last night, disc 1 just won't load in the XA2 even after another cleaning, but disc 2 & 3 loaded fine right out of the box. But disc 1 plays just fine on my backup A30, so I watched most of it last night. Great PQ, fun series, I really enjoy it, but I work in hotel management so I especially relate to the hotel theme. But what is it with UK labeling? (Thinking of the UK Brotherhood of the Wolf that claims to have an English audio track that doesn't exist) The packaging says Dolby stereo 2.0, but I was pleasantly surprised the player & my Onkyo receiver report DD 5.1 audio.

[tormond]

Ok I tried my set last night in my XA2. Disc 1 plays (however the labels on the disc are upside down and the HD DVD side is actually the DVD side and the DVD side is actually the HD DVD side). After getting "Region Error" because I had the disc in "upside down" I flipped it over and the series started playing. It seemed to be rather jerky in playback and got to the main menu. I hit "1st Floor" which I am assuming is the first episode from the menu and it started playing. The jerkiness got worse as playback progressed until finally it just went all crazy lines and then a error "8000bwhatever those errors are" and would not play anymore. I ejected the disc (it did not lock the player) and put it back in and it immediatly threw an error code. I haven't had a chance to try the other discs or to see if it plays in any of my other players yet.