Awesome! That's great to hear. Thanks so much for watching and subbing!

I bought the exact disc and it also freezes around that time but has no scratch

If you research... the Sony UBP-X700M has specific issues when playing discs at the 1 hour 40 minute mark, which exactly matches what you said here. It's the player, not the disc. Look at forums and you'll see this issue.

@@smilesometimes I'm trying to get sony to replace mine but bet my new one will have the same issue.

@@noname__1617 I strongly suggest that people do not buy the Sony or any Sony 4k player.

No problem! That's exactly what I was going for with this series... I wanted to try and cover some of the issues that come up with physical media that people don't necessarily always talk about a whole lot. Thank you for watching and subbing! I really appreciate it. I'm glad I could be of some help.

Awesome! That's great to hear. Thanks for watching!

Thanks so much Ken! I appreciate you watching and subbing!

Mate you should not be wetting ur discs this could cause even more issues you should buy a proper disc cleaner.

@@NewfieNick. Most of that is snake oil.

I did also look at the back of the Last Wish disc, and yep, there are markings on it. Several almost fully circular lines, that I assume are left from the pressing of the disc.

The disc is a dual layer disc. Panasonic does a much better job switching layers than Sony does. My UB820 has not frozen yet, but my X800M2 and X700 both freeze occasionally.

No problem! Thank you for watching and subbing!

Good stuff! I've not personally needed to do too much more than I laid out in the video, but yeah, some good ideas here. I've not had any problems with light scratches using the microfiber cloths I have, but I am definitely VERY gentle when wiping. And I totally agree -- it's important to be super careful when cleaning these things so as to not leave any hairline scratches, etc.. In fact, I wish I'd emphasized that a little bit more in the video than I did. Thanks for watching and weighing in!

Rules of the Game looks like it may be okay now. Dunkirk looks better though I may try cleaning it with soap and water (this is what Criterion suggested when I e-mailed them about my issue.) I've never heard of off-gassing residue before. I wonder how many 4K discs get returned when all they needed was to be wiped down. Wouldn't it make sense for the manufacturer to do a rinse or something before shipping them out? Anyway, thanks again for the video!

Welcome to 4K! It's actually a great format, and I don't really have that many problems very often. Most discs play just fine for me. And it does seem like maybe quality control has improved a bit since I made this video. I haven't noticed as many issues with discs these days as I did earlier last year leading up to this video. Thanks for watching!

Yes all my wb 4k don't play or freeze

And the paper sleeves don’t scratch up your 4k and blu ray discs?

I have the oppo-203 and it’s better than 95% of current top players. I’ve had to exchange several 4k discs. Always check physical media immediately after buying. The new exchanged discs worked flawlessly. Don’t know why but I blame the manufacturer of the Disc.

@@gallynuts Absolutely.

Almost all people reporting disc freezing have pristine discs. No finger prints. No scratches. Spend some time on hardware specific forums and you’ll see. It’s 100% the players, and most of the timing being reported is about the place where layer changes happen on the disc. This has been known for years.

Yes, i bought 4 brand 4k disk new and all dont play without skipping and freezing..im using ps5 ​@warpathh

Yeah you might be right about that. Now that you mention it, I have heard of other people having similar problems with LG players. My dad had one too, and he had a number of repeated issues with his LG player. He ended up upgrading to a Sony X800, and he hasn't had any problems since. The Panasonic players are good units too. I do like my Panny UB820.

I would probably send it back anyway, seeing as it has all 3 Jurassic World movies.

Thanks for watching!

I really don't have a lot of freezing and skipping issues... and all I do is check and clean my 4K discs.

It would give me more anxiety to return a disc, then to clean it. To each their own.

Yes, I am going through this now..I will replace my 2 that skipped and be done

Let’s give the guy some benefit of the doubt & assume he’s not chucking his new 4K discs into his player haphazardly, and is making sure the underside of the disc is free of any smudges or residue from the inside of the case itself. If he’s got a cheap player or isn’t using a dedicated standalone 4K player, this could be an issue. Besides, the standards for UHD disc authoring are far more complicated & more nuanced. Some players have issues with reading past a certain layer. Needless to say, there’s definitely more to it than just “clean your disc”.

Thanks for watching. You may want to also check out my companion video to this one, which is focused specifically on Sony players (I have a Sony X700 as well, and mine runs like a dream). Some settings tips here for you: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/id-da8SqtNawXWg.html

Honestly I've never had that problem with my UB820. I do use the eArc connection between my receiver and TV, but I have my UB820 connected directly into another HDMI port on my 4K TV. I don't run my UB820 through the receiver first. When I turn on the power on my UB820, it automatically turns the power on everything. But I do not have to power down anything to turn my UB820 on... if I'm on a different input, everything just automatically switches over to the Panasonic when I power it up on the remote. Maybe try running your Panasonic into your HiSense directly (into a different HDMI port than the eArc port on your TV... just leave the eArc port connection between the soundbar and TV, but don't run the Panny through the soundbar first. If you run it through the TV instead, the audio should route back out through your soundbar). I don't know if that will make a difference or not, but it might be worth trying.

Interesting. Yeah I'm sure the third layer change is a factor sometimes in some cases. I just kind of chalk that up to an imperfect technology doing glitchy things on occasion. But I haven't personally found BD100 discs to pose as consistent a problem as the quality control issues I've been noticing on the factory discs. I can't remember the last time I had any layer-switching issues with a BD100 disc, but it probably has happened once or twice. That said, I don't have the 10 Commandments 4K (I still gotta pick that one up!), but I do have that Beastmaster 4K from Vinegar Syndrome... I've only watched it once on my Sony X700, but I didn't have any problems with it when I did. So it's possible it might not even be a problem the next time you play those discs.

Almost all people reporting disc freezing have pristine discs. No finger prints. No scratches. Spend some time on hardware specific forums and you’ll see. It’s 100% the players, and most of the timing being reported is about the place where layer changes happen on the disc. This has been known for years.

I'm not sure, honestly. Maybe different players/drives have different tolerances or something. It could just be the nature of the tech... and the fact that it's not a perfect technology. Interestingly, I've not really had many, if any, problems playing BD100 discs on my Panny UB820. But there have been a couple discs (just BD66 I think) where I got this weird pixelated/freeze type of thing going on (which apparently is a known issue with Panasonic units)... and I found when I played the same discs on my Sony X700, I didn't have any problems. And I've heard the X Box can be pretty reliable in playing 4K discs, even if they don't have all the bells and whistles of a dedicated player. Thanks for watching... and my apologies for the delayed response. This comment somehow slipped through the cracks on my end.

Yeah there have been circumstances people have described like that where I'm genuinely perplexed and don't necessarily have a good answer. So I'm thinking maybe there really was some sort of manufacturing error, like you suggested. I'm sure sometimes, there really are legitimately "defective" discs that have some sort of problem that we have no control over. Perhaps that's what's going on with your BTTF discs. I can tell you I have that same BTTF box set, and I didn't have any of those problems with my discs, playing it on a Sony X700. Thanks for watching and weighing in!

@@TheOriginalFuzz thanks for replying. I do want to get a dedicated player eventually, as the PS5 doesn't support Dolby Vision. I will consider the X700. I've also had the same problem with UHD of Tenet.

My ps5 does the same with 4 4k brand new movies.

Yeah that's a fair point. I think that's just the nature of the tech. Sometimes there are weird little glitches or what not that aren't necessarily a result of something on the disc surface. And even in the best of circumstances, weird stuff just happens sometimes with 4K. I think there's just a lot more information on the 4K discs, so the tolerances are a lot lower for any kind of errors that affect playback. Thanks for watching!

Honestly I don't know anything about ripping discs. I've never done it. I've always just watched the retail discs. Sorry I can't be of more assistance.

Yeah sometimes if there's an issue, it's good to just give them a gentle overall wipe-down, just in case there's any film on the disc that's hard to see.

I have not had many problems with my Panny UB820. It's been a pretty solid player. But there have been a couple discs where I got this weird pixelated glitchyness going on. This does apparently happen with these units on occasion, and I'm not sure if there's really a known fix for it (unlike with the Sony players). So I don't know that there's anything I could do with the settings that would alleviate this problem when it does happen. There have been a couple times where I had to yank the disc out of my Panny and pop it in my Sony X700 just to watch/get past that glitchy section. But this seldom happens. Most discs I've played in my Panny have performed just fine.

The Panasonic UB820 is a great unit! But it is a bit of a different animal. For 4K discs, the Panny has an HDR Optimizer which is really cool and can be very helpful for tweaking the image. And there are separate settings that you can adjust for each format (blu-ray vs. 4K, DVD etc. -- like brightness, contrast, etc.). But the cool thing about the Panny is that everything is a lot more automatic than the Sony players. So you don't have to manually turn on Dolby Vision or 4K upscaling, etc. The Panny just does what it needs to do depending on the type of disc it's playing. So, once you get your initial setup done and your image settings adjusted to where you like them for each format, the Panny will automatically recall and apply the last settings you used for that format. In other words, you don't have to adjust them every time you switch from 4K to blu ray or what not. It automatically adjusts the settings for that format to wherever you had them last. As for additional settings, this is the video I would recommend watching. This is what I used when I first set my Panny up: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/l8him5ZhyreYkps.html Thanks for watching!

Thanks so much for your quick reply. I enjoyed that lesson and I will put it to good use! Have you done any posts on selecting which Blu Rays to update to 4K??? I was considering getting some new versions of the blu ray movies of the original Star Trek movies, for example, but it is hard to know if they are that much better than the blu rays I already own...@@TheOriginalFuzz

If you're referring to those eco-cases, I gotta say, I am not a fan of those (in fact, I'm actually working on a video right now about those cases). The discs aren't very well-protected in those cases, and I worry about the long-term ramifications. The way I see it, off-gassing residue can be wiped off easily enough, and it doesn't do any permanent harm to the disc. So it's not that big of a deal for me... I'd rather deal with wiping down the discs than risk any potential long-term degradation as a result of storing them in eco-cases.

Likely Most people aren’t ripping so they won’t have the software or hardware setup. People probably don’t want to spend time validating, and just watch the film, and This also doesn’t take into account the disc surface contaminants.

A lot of people's laptops, do not have a cd / dvd / blu ray player on them anymore.

Interesting. I don't think half the 4K discs are defective... Most of the time, my discs play fine (including on my Sony X700). But I too have noticed there are more issues with 4K discs from the factory than I ever had with blu rays or DVDs in the past. It seems to me like 4K is definitely not a perfect technology, even under the best of circumstances. I've noticed even Panny UB820 players can have problems sometimes, and those players are considered the gold standard for many people. As for other freezing/performance issues on your Sony, there are a couple other things you can do that might resolve the issue: (1) Do you have the 4K upscaling setting turned on in your X700 "screen settings?" If so, I would keep that turned off and not use that function on the Sony players (just let your TV do any blu ray upscaling -- Sony upscaling isn't very good anyway, in my view). (2) Also under the x700 "screen settings," you might want to try setting the Cinema Conversion Mode to "Video" and not "Auto." I've heard those two settings can affect performance on the X700, and that tweaking these may resolve any other freezing issues the X700 has been having (that's what I keep mine set to, and it's run very well for me -- I almost never have any problems). Thanks for watching and weighing in!

​@@TheOriginalFuzzmy issue with sony x-700 it will not play any DVDS or special features on blu ray or 4k discs. Any idea what I can do will be very welcome.

​@@mikefisher2673 Weird. I haven't had any problems playing DVDs on my X700 (although I've only tried a few, since I almost never watch DVDs unless it's like a music or film documentary or something). I know the X700 supports DVDs (and a bunch of other disc formats), so they're supposed to play on that unit -- Unless maybe they are from a different region? That's the only thing I can think of. The standard X700 model is region-locked for blu rays and DVDs (unless you have the multi-region version, which I do), so you wouldn't necessarily be able to play DVDs and blu rays from other regions. And I'm always able to watch the special features just fine on my X700, whether they're in HD or SD, on blu ray or DVD. But I do have to switch the region on my X700 for some European discs, because the special features are often included on a region B-locked blu ray. The standard x700 units don't allow for that, but I paid a little extra for multi-region capabilities. Otherwise, if that's not the issue, then I'd probably wonder if maybe there's a problem with your specific player, because I haven't heard of others having problems like that with their X700 units (outside of the region coding issue).

@@TheOriginalFuzz Thanks for responding it might need an update that will be my next test, but it's all dvds region free. It played them when first used the player then just quit playing DVDS.

@@mikefisher2673 Oh weird.... yeah that is definitely not supposed to happen with the X700. Sounds like a good plan... definitely try an update and see if that resolves the issues. And if you're still having issues, you can also try just doing a total factory reset on the player, restore it back to the way it was when it was brand new (I can't remember how to do a factory reset, but it's in the manual, or you can google it).

I haven't really encountered that before. Without knowing any specifics, I would assume maybe trying to do a factory reset might help. But I would first try unplugging the power cable from the 4K player and letting it sit for a few, then try to plug back in and see if you can get the disc to eject. Maybe just a glitch or something? What model player are you using?

I'm not sure how impactful that is, honestly. But yeah I assume some of the residue could get on the laser lens, so I definitely try to focus on cleaning the disc ahead of time to avoid that. There are laser lens cleaning kits you can buy to address this (although I've never used one, so I don't have any direct experience to draw from on that). In fact, I think someone posted a laser lens cleaner recommendation somewhere else in the comments of this video.

Thanks for the question. I've never used any kind of laser lens cleaner for any of my players (even going back to blu-ray), so I don't really have any experience with that or first-hand info to share. I've always just focused on cleaning my discs, so I feel like cleaning the laser lens was never necessary. That said, I have heard from other collectors who have used those blu-ray lens cleaner kits, but I can't personally recommend anything in particular, just due to my lack of experience with those. However, this particular lens cleaner I found on Amazon seems to fit the bill. Maybe check out some of the reviews in this listing to see what people think of it: www.amazon.com/Digital-Innovations-CleanDr-Blu-Ray-4190300/dp/B00419ZT3E

@@TheOriginalFuzz thank you…I think that would be the way to go.. I was always under the impression if you kept your disks clean you wouldn’t need to do the lens.. thanks for validating that for me…

4ks have bigger capacity meaning that scratch or finger print can cause more problems

@@Mowglibaloo2 obviously

Yes wb titles are horrible

Thanks for watching!

I know exactly what you're talking about. I've had that happen with a few discs on my Panny UB820... I would get a freeze-up on the Panny, but then the disc played fine on my Sony player. It doesn't happen often on my UB820 (maybe like 3-4 times total since I've owned it in the last couple years), but whenever it has, I've found that replacing the disc seemed to solve the problem. It's not a perfect technology, and little glitches can happen from time to time. But overall, I've found my Panny UB820 to be a very solid player, and it hardly ever gives me any problems.

Yeah I think it certainly doesn't hurt to update the player firmware, etc. I think sometimes there are little bug fixes and what not that can be included in the updates. Thanks for watching!

Yeah I hear ya. It hasn't happened very often, but there are a few discs that have given me the exact problem you're describing on my Panasonic UB820 (which I believe is essentially the same interface as yours? Same internals?). And come to think of it, at least a couple of those titles were Criterion. I know Shaft was one of them. So yeah, I have definitely noticed some quality control issues with several Crtieron releases I've picked up over the last couple years. I had to return a couple. And I agree... I've always had great luck with Arrow titles. The discs always look immaculate and play without any issues on my players (even with BD100 discs).

Sometimes there are just bad discs... even if they look clean. I've had that happen a few times. I would return it and replace with another copy if you're still able to. Most of the time when I have any issues like this (which is very seldom), returning and exchanging seems to take care of the problem. Do you have a Panasonic 4K player?

Not really... If you've tried the settings changes and tried cleaning the disc, then it's entirely possible you just got a bad disc. That has happened to me a few times. Are you still able to return it and maybe exchange it for the same thing? I believe Army of Darkness is a Scream Factory disc if I remember right, and I have had these issues with some of their discs occasionally in the past. Usually exchanging it for another copy seems to take care of the problem.

@@TheOriginalFuzz funnily enough, I had already bought two copies, the regular and the steelbook. The freeze and lag did happen once after changing the settings, but after I unplugged and replugged the system back in, it’s been running very smooth. Hopefully it’s better now, otherwise, the fault is just on scream factory discs. I did have one question tho, if the disc has Dolby vision, will that still show if the Blu-ray player setting has Dolby vision switched off?

​@@lydiawoolfy8952 No I don't think it shows up without DV activated. But I don't have access to Dolby Vision because I have a Samsung 4K TV. So I've never turned it on.

@@TheOriginalFuzz thank you for you help! It’s all fixed for me now. I cleaned the disc on both sides and I uncapped the fps on the system. Apparently it was capped at 24p by default