Solving Common Issues: Repairing DVD Playback When It Keeps Skipping and Freezing

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How to Fix a DVD that Skips and Freezes - More than Cleaning

By Bella Brown ｜Last updated onJanuary 26, 2024

-- I have a Samsung 12” Portable DVD Player and it sometimes will skip a fraction of a second with certain DVDs.
-- I have a Sony DVD player but it freezes up like every 8 seconds with a brand new movie.
-- When playing Incredibles 2 on VLC, the DVD freezes up repeatedly through the entire video. It pauses for a second, skips frames, and starts again in a different part. And sometimes the video is stuck/paused while the audio continues.
-- My brand new DVD freezes though it is in perfect condition, no scratches, no deformities, nothing. However, more than halfway through, the video would pause and skip about a second.

Endless freezes and skips completely kill all the fun when enjoying a DVD. The problem happens for different reasons. For those who have zero ideas on how to fix a DVD that skips and freezes, check below.

Table of Content

Why is a DVD Skipping and Freezing?

1. Laser degradation
As time goes by, the disc will age gradually and become unreadable. The oxidation of the reflective layer, small defect developed in the structure, ultra-violet light damage and de-bonding of the adhesive used to adhere the layers of the disc together, etc. may all affect the beam power. Sometimes, the small artifacts are not enough to make the whole track unplayable but will cause slight output signal drops. Then the old DVD keeps skipping and freezing. It’s getting worse over time. That’s why it’s important to backup your DVD.

2. Scratched/damaged DVD
For a family with kids, scratches are quite common on a DVD. The damages or scratches on the disc make the laser get off track so that the DVD player needs to focus, track a path of pits, acquire the data and then continue playing from the closest point. The whole process will lead to DVD skipping and freezing. If the DVD is more seriously scratches, the player will open the loop, kick the laser to a new spot, re-acquire focus and tracking, and play forward from there and users will suffer skips for a longer time.

3. Dirty DVD or disc drive
Dust and smoke exist everywhere. Dust, fingertips, hair, or any other dirt on the disc will prevent the laser from reading the disc correctly. Then it will skip or have other minor glitches in specific parts of the disc. Also, dust on the DVD player’s laser lens will affect the laser beams of the player to capture the data on the disc. To make a DVD stop skipping/freezing, you simply need to clean the disc or drive.

4. Copy protections
As in many users’ posts, a brand new DVD freezes up with no scratches. If your DVD and disc drive are both in perfect condition, but the playback still skips, then major reason will be the copy protections. For example, region codes allow DVD players to be compatible with discs from a certain region (how to play DVDs in different regions ); Sony ARccOS simulates corrupted sectors on a disc and that will cause errors for some programs; Disney X-project has 99 fake titles…

How to Fix a DVD that Skips and Freezes

Clean the DVD or Disc Drive

First, remove the disc from the DVD player and try another player. If the DVD plays smoothly on the new player, it’s the original DVD player that should be cleaned or fixed. If the disc still keeps skipping and freezing, let’s clean the DVD.

To clean a DVD:

Use an air puffer to blow the dust off the DVDs.
Use a soft, dry cotton cloth like Microfiber cloth. Improper cloth may result in dirt spreading around and scratching the DVDs.
Dampen the cloth with Isopropyl alcohol or water. Then wipe it in a straight line from the center outward onto the DVDs.

Attention: You should not use materials like acetone, organic solvents, tissues, hard water, etc. to clean the disc, or it may dissolve or scratch the DVD. (check how to fix scratched DVD )

To clean the disc drive:

Remove any discs from the DVD player.
Unplug the DVD player from the mains and your TV, and remove it from its stand/case, etc.
Blow off the loose dust or dirt from the drive with compressed air.
Now take a soft cloth and moisten with water or rubbing alcohol. Then place the cloth around a stick and insert it into the drive gently.
Clean the drive carefully and then wait for it to dry.

Attention: If the drive still needs further cleaning, it will require disassembling the drive. If still, the DVD keeps freezing and skipping, you may need to send the player back for repair or buy a new one.

Remove Protections & Fix Damaged Discs

If you have tried the home fix and DVD still freezes up, you need to remove the DVD protections and repair damaged discs.

In fact, we can safely expect that all DVD users know the home fixes above. But what to do when some users say their brand new freezes and the DVD player works well? What if nothing helps after cleaning both the disc and drive? As previously metioned, the major reasons for those “DVD skipping and freezing” problems are protected or damaged discs. So how to fix a dvd that skips and freezes in this case? Virtually, you can do anything with those discs without the help from a third-party tool.

MacX DVD Ripper Pro is a strong program to help make a DVD stop skipping. It will help remove DVD copy protections, convert scratched/damaged DVDs and back up DVD to avoid damage.

MacX DVD Ripper Pro - Remove Copy Protection and Fix Unplayable DVDs

Remove the almost all of the DVD restrictions including region code (1-6), RCE, CSS, Disney-X project, Sony ARccOS, UOPs, NTSC/PAL format limits, etc.
Monthly upgrade to fix damaged/unreadable DVDs, solve “DVD won’t play smoothly” errors, support the latest DVD releases, 99-title discs, etc.
Make 1:1 DVD backup and convert DVDs into MP4, MOV, MKV, HEVC, H.264, AVI, WMV, ISO, MEPG, etc. for smooth playback on DVD players, computers, mobiles, TVs, any other devices.

Download for Mac Download for PC

Run MacX DVD Ripper Pro and insert your DVD into the drive. Click the DVD button to import the DVD. > select DVD Backup from the popping up window and choose ISO tomake a 1:1 digital DVD copy . Or you can select another digital format as you need. > click Run and start to back up. It will automatically remove the copy protections and skip the bad sectors. Then you can play the DVD without skips or freezes anymore.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bella Brown

Bella has been working with DVD digitization for over 12 years. She writes articles about everything related to DVD, from disc drive, DVD copyright protection, physical structure, burning and backup tips. The unceasing passion of DVD movies helps her build a rich DVD library and ensure a practical solution to address almost all possible DVD issues. Bella is also a crazy fan for Apple products.

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Solving Common Issues: Repairing DVD Playback When It Keeps Skipping and Freezing