Hi all,

I have the standard RSE kit (alpine DVD changer in boot etc) on my 2006 RRSS.

Just a general question to see what people's experiences are with disc playback on the alpine unit. I have done a ton of experiments with different qualities and types of DVD media and find that with almost any type of recordable disc I throw at the alpine unit it will always get to a point where the disc freezes as it moves between chapters. I can "unfreeze" it by hitting next chapter once and then back twice in quick succession, so it appears to be the laser losing track of what it is up to as it moves forward through chapter boundaries.

The reason that I have burned media in the car is due to not being able to operate the menu while the car is moving, I have re-authored a bunch of my favourite concert DVDs to keep the 5.1 sound which I think the HK Logic 7 system does a great job with, but to lose the menu system and just run straight through with the concert / tracks - that way I don't need to worry about it nipping back to the root menu and me being unable to do anything with it while moving.

Does anyone else get this type of issue? I did buy a DVD lens cleaning disc (but the fussy RR wont even recognise it as a playable disc to do its job - as an aside does anyone know of one that does work nicely in the alpine?) as I wanted to check whether it was a dirty / faulty laser to blame. Or is it just that the unit does not play nice with burned media. I could test the original discs by working my way through the menu when stationary and then letting it play the whole way through on a drive I guess to get a direct comparison with a standard disc (that might show a dirty / faulty laser to blame and not the media I guess).

Before I go too far into it though I thought I would canvas for everyone else's experiences in this department which would be gratefully received!

Thanks

i have had no success with burned media at all in mine, i bought a tesco dvd lens cleaner, and the alpine read that, played the music and the short film great, i put a copy dvd in, and i get "no disc", yet orginal dvd's play fine, im at a loss with this as i have a copy disc in the dvd nav drive, and that works fine 07,TDV8,Black, Black Heated leather all round, Rear Entertainment with Headpones & Remote, TV, DVD, Pure Dab Digital Radio, Sidesteps, Adaptive Headlights, sunroof, now working fuel burning heater )))

I must say that I originally had problems making discs that would play in the DVD, at the time I was using a piece of software called DVD Shrink which resulted in discs that were not able to be played. I then found that using a piece of software called ConvertXToDVD resulted in a disc that the Alpine would play. The alpine turns out to be extremely fussy about the structure of discs. I was never sure if this was a symptom of my player being dodgy or not.

I would recommend trying to backup one of your discs using ConvertXToDVD and then burning it utilising a branded disc like a Verbatim and always burn it at the slowest speed that your software and DVD Burner support. In my case this is 4x for a DVD.

This has resulted in discs that work for me with the exception of it sticking on chapter changes as described above. I have tried making versions of my discs with a single chapter to fix this, but with no easy way to fast forward while driving (I.e. the DVD player is not controlled from the steering wheel controls) it is annoying to have to let the entire thing play, especially if you are listening to a music DVD and want to skip to a favourite track.

Does anyone know if there are any lift and drop replacements for the Alpine RSE standard DVD player? I have seen that for other vehicles you can get more advanced players that allow you to have HDD storage and play back of DivX and other formats while keeping "factory" in terms of connectors and interface.