Sloan Productions

DVD playability issues predominately stem from dirt, dust, smudges, or foreign matter on the bottom side, (non label), of the DVD.

Upon inspection if you find this to be true, clean the disk with water and some dish soap. Do this repeatedly until it is shiny and clean again. Use a soft cotton cloth or towel for both cleaning and drying it. Do not use a paper towel except for perhaps blotting to make sure it is fully dry. Don’t put the disk back in your drive until it is completely dry.

The next cause can be scratches, big or small. Next time you rent a DVD take a look at the bottom of it and you will most likely see some degree of scratches. Scratches can be played through, although they can also cause issues.

Beyond cleanliness, and when your problem occurs at the same point on the disc, it is almost always a defect within the disc. It is rare that defects of this kind are seen by the naked eye.  They are most often a result of poor plating or coating in the manufacturing process and because of the poor reflectivity the decoder in the player gets overloaded with raw data that is full of dropouts and cannot keep up.

There can be problems with compatibility between discs and players but this is rarely the case these days. If it is a compatibility issue, the player won’t be able to read the DVD at all and you never get to the menu screen.

Our advice is to clean the DVD as mentioned above.  this normally restores about 95% of playability issues.  Then try the disk in a different player and see if you get the same result.

The highest quality DVD stock manufactured today in terms of compatibility and quality for burning DVD’s is Taiyo Yuden. This is what we at Sloan Productions use to help eliminate issues with our products.  If you continue to have difficulty contact us and we will rectify the situation.