'Children of Men' -- Official Playback Problems thread

[PeterB]

Moderator Note (Blurry): Since the problem seems to affect other players than just the 360 drive, I have renamed the thread to be less specific to the 360 drive.

I've opened up this dedicated thread to discuss playback issues with 'Children of Men' on the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive:

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...yback_Snag/552

Feel free to discuss your issues/experiences here. We'll be posting an update as soon as we hear from Universal and/or Microsoft on just what the problem is, and if there will be a recall/exchange program.

[sascha23]

I am having no issues viewing this movie on my hd-dvd add-on drive.

Perhaps I got lucky.

I do wonder if it's the disc or the drive that's the issue.

S

[aeonfett]

I just received my copy today from amazon.com... No playback problems on my 360 add-on...

[TAguilera]

I have my 360 hooked up to a Pioneer Plasma running in 1080i, can't run the 1080p the tv wont let me, anyhow I played it the other night and saw maybe about 25 minutes before I went to bed. Don't know if the 1080i has anything to do with it.

[Aodh]

Same thing happened with me and Hollywoodland. I got through 4 copies before I just got a refund. Each copy had varying levels of playability, some got to the menu, others blacked out on load, others wouldn't read at all.

One thing I'm going to suggest (and it worked for me, eventually) is keep ejecting and re-inserting the disk. Eventually it works, as it did for every copy of Hollywoodland I got, they all eventually worked. But I'm not willing to put up with that when I want to watch the movie. But it shows the disc is ok, kinda, and it's something with reading the disc that causes the problem.

[Picard]

Everything is working like charm here, no problem at all !

[Topweasel]

Full play back Capabilities with my Add-On. It was also one of the first times I used U-Control.

[HDAddicts]

Haven't opened my copy yet, hopefully no problems tonight. I'm glad to see it is working on some people's add-on players.

[movie15]

I am having the same problem playing it on my xa2. It plays just fine on the a-1 and the hd dvd add on.

[sentury111]

My copy works, but not when I fast forward. I watched the disc all the way through, but could only due chapter skips and no fast forward. The extras didn't play everytime either.

I exchanged the disc after watching. I didn't know there was supposed to be a problem. I haven't opened the new disc. So, I'll make sure to check when I get home to ensure my new copy is working.

[Blurry]

I got mine Today and I put it into my 360 add-on and played the movie for about 10 minutes. No problems.

[irascian]

I think this is the most worrying thing about HD-DVD - the inconsistencies and differences that people supposedly with the same hardware and firmware get. The technology just doesn't seem ready for prime time yet.

I've had all manner of problems with Weinstein titles. Clerks II will frequently display the symptoms described here for "Children of Men". I still can't get any of the extra's on "Wolf Creek" to play properly, no matter how often I open and close the drawer. And why should opening and closing a drawer, or rebooting the XBox suddenly clear an intermittent problem that only surfaces with specific disks? Something somewhere is wrong. Very wrong!

Just got an email from Movietyme to say that they've found "Enemy of the State" won't play on any "Generation 1" players, only to see others saying it also won't play on their second generation player.

It seems like we are guinea pigs and the hardware/software manufacturers don't know what Quality Assurance is. It's not as if there are many players out there that need to be tested!

A very poor show all round.

[lstlmh@cox.net]

I might be able to add something even though I don't have an 360 add-on. When I called Toshiba about Hollywoodland, they immediately asked for the ISBN number on the disc. This number is usually located above the UPS code and begins ISBN: ###... Hollywoodland did NOT have this number. Toshiba Support implied this number is some indication that the disc fills all requirements of the HD format. I noticed Children of Men did not have this number when I purchased it and was concerned it wouldn't play on my XA2. I was happy when it played fine on the XA2 but could there be something to this ISBN number and the issues exhibited by these discs? Has anyone else been told anything similar by Toshiba?

[bear89103]

You think this may have any correlation to people who had add-ons made by toshiba versus those made by lite-on? I know it's not substantiated about lite-on making drives for toshiba, but how else could you explain some add-ons with no problem and some which can't even read it at all.

[watchtower41]

The first time I put it in HD add-on, the menu screen showed up fine....no glitches, when I first started to watch the movie however, the frame would skip every 10 seconds or so.

I took the disc out and wiped it off with a cloth (before I knew of these widespread problems), popped it back in and it worked fine. I'm kinda curious if this is gonna be a touch and go situation.


I did have the Clerks 2 problems with my add-on, but dl'd the update from xbox live and aloowed it to at least work. It still has some problems loading to the menu flawlessly, a parental warning flashes for a second before the menu shows up, but before I grabbed the update, it wouldnt get past the parental screen at all on the several Clerks 2 discs that I tried.