I've bought plenty of new DVDs and they've all worked just fine

[MrScorpio]

Yesterday, I picked up a copy of "Kick Ass" from the Blockbuster bargain bin and the fucking thing refuses to play.

Could it be a corrupted disc, or is there something that I'm not considering?

It's not scratched, I checked... and the individual video files are all squirrelly when I try to play them individually.

It refuses to play on different players and well.

My other discs are fine, the players play them well.

[Chan790]

1. Could be minor scratches...

lots of little scratches, small enough that you can't see them, actually affect playback more than one or two big ones.

Also repeated playings wears out and warps the disks. People think because it's done with lasers and there is no contact with the disk in the player that they last forever if kept pristine. They actually wear out just as much as other physical media; they also degrade in time, more than other forms of physical media.

I'd take it back to Blockbuster and ask for a trade/replacement...I've often found them to be reasonable about this because they want to keep you as a customer and it's not worth the $5 to lose a customer.

[MrScorpio]

2. Except that this is a new disc, never been played before

And when I bought it, the clerk pointed that out, asking me if I wanted to buy a new disc. Of course, I said that I did.

If he was trying to tell me something about new discs, I have no idea what it would be.

[Chan790]

5. Oh, that's probably either an encoding error, corrupted data...

or the disk is out-of-region. They encode them so that you can't play disks purchased overseas in US players or vice-versa as a copy-protection measure.

The solution is the same, take it back and tell them they sold you a brand-new disk that doesn't play.

[MrScorpio]

6. Yeah, that's my suspicion too

It goes back. Hopefully, they're have another copy of "Kick Ass" to trade. or else it's a copy of "Prometheus" for me instead.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Tis not you,methinks.

I get dvds from Netflix. I play them in my puter. Every once in awhile, one will not work.
I called Netflix. They "suggested" that there is DRM code that blocks playing in some playback machines, including puter dvd players.
Some refuse to play at all. others are so pixilated they are not watchable.
btw..I use VLC to watch the discs, and that will play almost anything. Plus I try the same disc on Mr. Dixie's machine, still no play.

[MrScorpio]

4. Yeah, VLC refused to play it too

That was my next move

[hunter]

7. May be some over-the-top copy protection scheme.

Do you have an old DVD player with a slow drive, not a lot of computer power, that's not been modified to play out-of-region movies?

There's some noise on the internet about this DVD having copy protection issues.

[MrScorpio]

8. I just bought a new external DVD player for my iMac a couple of months ago

No go.

[EdwardSmith74]

10. Try washing it with dish detergent in luke warm water. Gets the boogers off.

Always stroke from the center to the outside - never use circular motions. Pat it dry with a paper towel (no stroking) and then air dry it by swinging it around. Our Blockbuster shut down, but I have that problem all the time with the RedBox discs.

[mockmonkey]

11. No sex threads please! n/t

[jakeXT]

12. Some DVD's abuse the DVD standard to create a copy protection scheme

AnyDVD removes them, maybe it helps.
You can donwnload a 30 day trial version.

You can then copy it to your hard drive and try to play it with vlc. Or just play it with a player from the disc.

[MrScorpio]

13. Mac version? nt

[jakeXT]

14. Looks like there are only alternatives, I don't know if they work as good

http://download.cnet.com/Wondershare-Video-Converter-Ultimate/3000-2194_4-75865591.html

Maybe you know somebody with a windows machine, and you can try it there.