why do they make double sided DVDs??

[Beastacho]

out of all the dvds i have, only about two are double sided and i don't know if it's my dvd player but these ones always have a part in the movie where they skip and the picture goes all crazy and after it chokes up for a bit, it skips like 10 minutes to where it's ok again. it's really frustrating.
anyone else experience this?

[conscience]

out of all the dvds i have, only about two are double sided and i don't know if it's my dvd player but these ones always have a part in the movie where they skip and the picture goes all crazy and after it chokes up for a bit, it skips like 10 minutes to where it's ok again. it's really frustrating.
anyone else experience this?

I've had that happen on the one-sided DVDs too. It seems to usually happen on the ones that I rent. I don't know what that is.

[Incrediculous]

I'd guess that your DVD is scratched, dirty, or both.

You might need to wash your DVD. Yes, wash it - I know it sounds weird. But, don't toss it in the dishwasher. Here's how to do it.

Hold it under a faucet and let the water rinse over the side of the DVD you want to play. Put some non-abrasive handsoap on your free index finger and gently rub it onto the surface of the disk. Don't follow the concentric paths of the DVD. Instead, lightly rub from "out to in" or "in to out."

Rinse and dry the DVD very thoroughly. You don't want to leave soap spots or moisture on the disk. When it starts a-spinning, the centrifugal forces will throw water all over the inside of your DVD player. That can't be good.

A good hand wash should remove any very light scratches, dirt, or goo that might be contaminating the bottom of your disk. Rentals are usually afflicted by this most often. So before you make a return trip to the video store, try washing the disk. More often than not it just needs a cleaning.

Some DVD players handle dirty or scratched disks better than others. Of course, it depends on the quality of the player, and this is directly correlated to its price. With the onslaught of cheap DVD players (like Apex) being sold in Wal-Mart, more people are finding that their rented DVDs do not play.

DVDs also have what's called a "layer pause." It's hardly noticeable, but I want to mention it so you don't diagnose it as a dirty DVD. DVDs are encoded with multiple layers of information, and the player's laser must reposition to read the beginning of the second layer. About half-way through your feature, you may experience a half-second pause in audio and video as this occurs. It should not be accompanied by picture or audio distortion.

[Beastacho]

^ thanks, that was most helpful and interesting. The thing with my double sided ones are that they are brand new. I looked at the bottom and there are no scratches or smudges at all. My dvd player is also a pretty decent brand, not Apex or anything. and also, it usually only happens with the double sided ones. the single sided ones usually work perfectly.

[Incrediculous]

I'm not sure what to tell you.

I've read a few rare cases of defective DVDs in which the layers were not aligned properly, causing massive skips or failure instead of layer pause. I couldn't imagine why this would only occur on your double sided disks, or why you would have two different DVDs with the same problem.

I suspect its your DVD player if you're having problems with multiple disks. Have you tried testing the disks on another player?