New DVD Player

My old reliable. The Panasonic that can play VHS tapes and DVDs, that I've had since forever, is starting to give out on me. It used to be perfect. It would ignore skipping issues that other plays had and operate any disk smoothly. But now... it's losing its edge.

Occasionally it will make a funny noise when I put a disk in. Occasionally it will tell me that a disk cannot be read. Occasionally it will start to skip. I was watching Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino just now, and it started giving me skips. I rewound and played and it made it past that part smoothly, but then it gave me more skips soon after. When I tried playing the disk in my PS2, it gave me skips in the opening Funimation Logo, before I even played the episode. My 360, of course, can play the disk just fine.

Well, almost just fine. There's not any skipping issues, but 360s have a distortion issue. If I put a disk in, pause the episode, and hit the xbox guide button, the image is fine and straight. But if I hit the xbox guide button again to make the menu go away, I notice a tiny amount of lines go off-screen on either side. Meaning the Xbox displays my shows slightly wider than it should.

It's hardly noticeable, and it may seem like a petty complaint, but it's too much for me. I absolutely hate it when the artists' original work is altered in any way whatsoever. When I'm watching anime, everything must be perfect as possible. And I treat my disks like Aztec Gold. I don't let any dirt or scratching get on them.

So, I need a new DVD player. I was thinking of getting a region-free DVD player, for obvious reasons. But on the other hand, those aren't common, so it's not like I have extensive knowledge on their reliability. I'll settle for a generic DVD player. Another Panasonic or Sony or something, as long as it's reliable and will not give me any skips whatsoever on a perfectly fine disk.

Got any suggestions? Region-free DVD players, generic brand-name ones, anything reliable, what do you recommend? Alternatively, if you know how to get the 360 to stop widening my shows, please do tell!

If your disks skipped in most dvd players.

Thats the disk, not the dvd, also just play it on the 360, that "distortion" issue, is when you press the guide button, everything zooms in slightly in the background, it does it with games and DVD's.

3 pixel lines isn't going to ruin an anime

May as well just make the step up to HD, maybe consider one of the new budget Blu Ray players. You'll be thankful to have it in the future when HD formats become the norm, and it will also upscale all of your current DVD media, so you'll get a better picture overall.

Just get a fucking dvd player chirst

Just get a fucking dvd player chirst

Or this. Either way.

Actually...

If your disks skipped in most dvd players.

Thats the disk, not the dvd, also just play it on the 360, that "distortion" issue, is when you press the guide button, everything zooms in slightly in the background, it does it with games and DVD's.

3 pixel lines isn't going to ruin an anime

I like Link's suggestion. I decided in the end that night to watch the episode on my 360. I discovered that the lighting was significantly better than on the regular DVD player. So I think when I'm having issues with the regular player, I'll just use the 360 from now on.

Jeez, I sure do say a lot of words in my opening posts.

You just want to make sure we fully understand where you're coming from, most likely because you feel the need to justify yourself seeing how much crap we give you for very little reason around here.

I know what that's like.

You should get one of these.