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Why is it that a lot of DVDs have those periodic brief 'freezes', where the action seems to rapidly slow down almost to still, and then restarts a second later?

Would these be copied DVD's perchance?
I've actually had it on some original films but I think thats the layer break effect or something!

layer transition...
or even on a pc - hard disk thrashing

Sorry, I meant explanations in English, of course..........for all I know, 'layer transition' could be about sex-changes for chickens.

Not copies, no.
Various sources, and I'd say that it was more or less related to the price of the discs.......not a great problem, just mildly annoying, especially since I don't know the cause.

I?m assuming you're not referring to the couple of seconds in the middle of a movie when the player looks for the second layer of data? Because we know about that already and it's so brief that you hardly notice and I certainly wouldn't go so far as describing it as "annoying."

There are various factors that can lead to the problem you describe - Poor quality (very cheap) discs. Poorly recorded discs. However, I've found that the biggest factor affecting playback is the DVD player itself. Cheapo players (the sort they nowadays give away with 5 Weetabix packet tops) employ crap (cheap) components that start to struggle when they are asked to interpret a challenging (badly recoded) piece of data. However, mid range and high end players from leading Japanese manufactures coasting say ?300.00 - ?1,500.00 employ quality components that work. The higher priced ones also employ expensive digital processing circuitry that can smooth out glitches and have a good guess at what it should be playing in the absence of coherent data on that part of the disc.

The age of the player is also a factor as many first generation players, say two years old or more can struggle with some discs. Particularly older Samsungs that won't play 'burnt discs? ? those that you can record on your computer. I have a nice Pioneer machine that was purchased in 1999. However, if the disc I play on that machine was not perfectly burnt or pressed it will slow down, pixilate and stop. But if I then take that same disc and put it in my more recent Sony it invariably plays fine.


Dibble.

Thanks for explaining. In English.
As it's only a mildly annoying glitch, I'll stick to my ?70 Weetabix Disk-O-Matic for the time being, until such time as I can afford a G+ for the Ferrari GTO Bright Red SuperDooperDiskPlayer With Alloy Wheels and Gold-Plated
Teasmade.......

Mastubating, on the disk before viewing, always happens!