When Spiderman 3 came out, I bought a copy to watch at home. Unfortunately, it would not play on my Sony DVD player. After exchanging it for another copy, it still would not play. However, it would play on my computer. After several more DVD purchases, it became evident that newer movies most likely would not play on my Sony. I contacted Sony expecting a "firmware" upgrade but found that they were not interested in helping me. Their telephone response was that maybe if enough people complained, they "may or may not" do something. Although the player palys older DVD's, they kept telling me to have it serviced (at my expense), but that servicing would not help it play new DVD's. I also sent Sony and email. Their response:"Since the DVD specifications changes periodically, some discs may not play depending on the disc type and the version. This is normal. Unfortunately, this cannot be resolved by any upgrades." These aren't "some discs"- these are ALL recently released videos from all studios!
Maybe I'm too ideslistic, but I think that a DVD player should play any officialy issued DVD. I thought that the DVD symbol was meant to guarantee compatability.
It appears that Sony thinks it has a cash cow - change the DVD format every few years and force people to buy new players. If this was done with CD players, we would all still be playing LP's!
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