You should have just handed your child the remote. That's what works in my house. One time I had to call my daughter at her friends house to walk me through whatever was wrong with the TV.
I don't miss VHS because skipping to parts where we left off is easier than holding the FF or rewind buttons. But I do miss the ease of just popping it in and having it start without any further effort on my part. :)

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I'm with you Kristen. I despise DVD's with every fiber of my being!!!!! WHY WHY WHY are these better than VHS? I never ever ever rent movies anymore, I wait until they come out on pay per view because it is the same price as a rental and they don't skip or just refuse to play.
I purchased a brand spanking new movie for my daughter, opened the impossible wrapping and popped the movie in and BOOM it skips like every two minutes. WHY??????

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Dvd's have less then half the life of video's. It is probably scratched and/ or played to many times ( we went through 2 Car dvd's in less then 1 yr)/ But the picture is often better and you get the extra features.

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I had the same experience as Kevin. When they first came out we just bought the cheapest one (since they wouldn’t be around for very long!!!) and it didn’t play the DVD’s well AT ALL. We were so naïve that we thought that’s the way it was. There were some movies we didn’t even get to see the “whole thing.” Last summer we kind of “redid” the kitchen and I got one of those TV’s that hang on the wall and we got a new DVD player for out there and this one works SO WELL. We didn’t know they worked like this. I love it so much. I did like VHS but like the others above me said, the quality and the choices of things you can do is so much better with the DVD's. I also don’t let the little ones EVER handle the disks. I keep them upstairs (where they never go),which is easy for me since they don't live here, it's different for me I know. That would be a pain for you young mothers. When they want a movie, I go get it and put it in for them. At their house, I do think they play hockey with them!!

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Kevin, crack me up with the "Rental DVD Neanderthal Hockey Game"!!!

Seriously, I find that a small spray bottle of alcohol and a soft cloth solve most problems with skipping DVD's, even those that have been through the previously mentioned pickup game. Spray a tiny bit of alcohol on the disk, wipe clean, then let it air-dry for a minute. That usually solves most of those skipping problems.

The one time it didn't - on a rental puck - I told the store about it and they gave me my next rental for free (and pulled it from the shelves).

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DVDs last a lot longer than VHS, and retain their quality with no deterioration. I can`t watch VHS anymore, as it just looks so... fuzzy. It`s probably not so obvious on a smaller or older TV, but compared to DVDs, they look awful on larger and newer TVs (LCD, Plasma in particular)

DVDs are easier to damage than a video tape, as the part the player reads isn`t protected like a video. If you take good care of the discs (put them back in the case when you take it out of the player, don`t let the kids play with them, etc) then they are SO much better than videos!

Getting stuck, etc, sounds like it`s the player and not the disc at all (Of course, assuming the disc isn`t scratched). Cheap players are awful, and even good players need to have the laser cleaned periodically (like cleaning the heads on a VCR) to work well. The better players even play scratched discs without a hitch. We have never had a single problem with our player, and it`s not even close to top of the line - but not the cheapest model either.

VHS had worse problems, in my experience. At the very least, I don`t have to worry about my DVD *player* screwing up and *ruining* the disc! I can`t tell you how many times we had VCRs screw up and stretch the tape, rendering it totally useless... And with rental tapes too.

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We had an older player that we ended up having to replace a few years back because it simply didn't play any of the newer DVDs. My parents have exactly the same problem. They claim not to watch enough DVDs to need a new player, but they can only watch movies that they've owned for a long time. Anything new or anything that they would rent at the video store has to be played on their portable. You may just have an older or cheaper player there. I would recommend upgrading. We have never had a single problem with our new one, and being that we are BIG movie watchers who are also parents of a Dora crazy three year old, it gets a whole lot of use.

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i fyour DVD is scratch and smudge free, then it sounds like it's the player. most likely it either the laser or the optical pickup that may be gunked up. you could try one of those laser lens cleaners.

it could also be the tracking mechanism...though there's not much you can do if that's the problem.

it kind of goes back to "you get what you pay for". if you buy el cheapo $20 dvd player, don't expect it to be trouble free (there are always exceptions though). i'm not saying go out and spend hundreds on a player, but a little more money can score you a pretty nice (and reliable player). i've got an Oppo 970 and have had ZERO problems. if something didn't play, it was always a bad disc. easily remedied by exchanging it.

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What brand of player(s) are you using? That can sometimes make a difference. The cheaper players will actually have trouble with some titles. I have a movie that will freeze and skip in a cheap, old DVD player I bought several years ago, but plays without a hitch in a new player I bought this year from a quality manufacturer.

How are the discs treated? If they get too scratched up or smudged that can also bring even the best player to its knees. That's actually my biggest beef with rental DVDs - inevitably the Neanderthals that had the disc before me seem to play a pickup game of street hockey using it as a puck before they return it and it's practically unplayable. I still don't miss VHS though - the image and sound quality as well as the extra features (especially with the new formats) more than make up for any headaches associated with optical media.

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Gotta agree (even though I'm the one with the "clean the disk" post) that it also depends on the brand name of your player. (or the reputation of the company that makes it)

I own a small Magnovox player that I picked up on sale for WAY cheap - $30 - at Walmart. It plays like a charm, and I use it durn near every night. I bought it to replace an expensive brand-I-can't-remember-and-never-heard-of-but-it-was-rated-well player that couldn't play ANYTHING.

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Wow, VHS?? Even WE think that's old!

Signed

Payphones, cassette tapes and the typewriter

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BETAMAX!

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Definitely check the DVD player. Try the problem DVD in someone else's machine (or your laptop!) and see if it's still a problem. Even if the player is new. We got one as a wedding gift that lasted about a year before doing the same thing that your is.

Before wishing for VHS to come back, picture your son sitting in a puddle of magnetic ribbon pulled out of his favorite video--with some cuts from the sharp edges, and one loop wrapped around his neck. Now, imagine his horror when you unwind him and throw away the offending tape. Finally, imagine attempting to reason with the screaming toddler about his broken movie. Still want those back?

Replace the batteries in that remote control also. All that button smashing has probably drained them.

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We were having this problem too. We noticed really cheap and older first run DVDs were playing just fine in our DVD player but any new ones we bought or ones we rented were giving us a hard time. At first we thought the kids had damaged something then we realized we had had our DVD player for 9 years now...it was almost a decade old! We too replaced ours with a $30 Magnavox (it's so small!) and have had no problems since. I recommend upping your player.

However, we do rent movies through Netflix. Sometimes when we get a damaged disc we will run it under a faucet for a moment and it helps. Just plain water. No chemicals.

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I have to agree with most of the commenters above - it's your player. We watch tons of movies, both ones we buy and ones we get from Netflix and rarely have problems. When we do, you can look at the DVD and see the scratch or whatever caused the problems. I would NEVER prefer videotapes again - too much rewinding to find just the right spot!!

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Gah, I feel for you.
We're currently watching dvds on our Playstation 2 and it's getting old fast. When we have problems, we spritz the disc lightly with eyeglass cleaner or a solution of Simple Green & water and then run gently with a soft cloth. This usually helps unless the disc is truly damaged.

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