Trouble with Flaming Lips

I bought and tried to play a copy of the Soft Bulletin on my Marantz player last night. It was the first disk that I had any trouble with. I am not able to access the menu or all of the extra features. I can play the normal album tracks but cannot get anywhere else. The player is trying to find how and where to open the disk, but is struggling. Any suggestions? It plays fine on my iMac super disk.

Bob Shafer

Sorry to hear that you are having problems - I had no issues playing it on the Pioneer 563A - accessed everything without a hitch.

I read on SH some Pioneer Elite 47 players are having trouble too.

I had problems on my Pioneer 563, but was able to get around them. Whenever i tried to go the dvd-video portions (videos and extra audio tracks), my machine would freeze up. The only way to unfreeze it was to unplug it. After troubleshooting the disc on a regular dvd player with no problems, i went back into my 563 and tried setting it to the "dvd-video" option instead of "dvd-audio".

After i did that i was able to access everything ok. I believe the only downside to using that setting is when punching play for a new disc. It will go the main menu instead of playing the first track directly.

elmer said:

Sorry to hear that you are having problems - I had no issues playing it on the Pioneer 563A - accessed everything without a hitch.

Click to expand...

Have you specifically tried accessing the extras? I am having the same problems as bugdaddy and have already had a firmware upgrade. It does navigate the proper album just fine.

I have a Pioneer Elite DV47-A and up until now the only disc I had a problem with was the Eric Clapton - "Back Home" Dual Disc. The Flaming Lips -"The Soft Bulletin" wins the award for the most issues. Like the Clapton disc the problem lies in navigation as the main menu screen is inaccessible. However I am able to play all of the content using the search feature on the remote. The following is how it breaks down. After loading the disc push stop, Then;

For MLP 5.1 - push search, 1 and enter, this starts playback of the first track. From here you can access the playlist.

Dolby Digital 2.0 Outtakes - search group 2.

DD 2.0 Radio Sessions - group 3.

For the two videos (also in DD 2.0) Search groups 5 & 6.

The DD 5.1 was a little harder. After searching group 4 - playback of the first track begins, then stops in 4 seconds. I had to fast forward just a bit for it to start again. Once again from here you can access the playlist. Unfortunately since you can not set up this unit to ignore the DVD-A portion this is the only method I have found. Since I will be primarily listening to the MLP tracks this doesn't concern me that much.

For MLP 2.0 and DD 2.0 I had to switch from 5.1 output to 2.0 in the set up menu of my player, then search groups 1 and 4.

What a royal pain!@: Lets hope this disc is an exception not a trend. Chances are their new title coming out soon will be similar. I hope this will be a help to some Pioneer owners. I don't know about the Marantz model mentioned above but it may provide an avenue for trouble shooting.

All compatibility issues aside "The Soft Bulletin" is very good. This music is just a natural for surround. The surround mix is better than great. If you are a Lips fan you will love it! My only negative observation is in the first track "Race for the Prize" the surrounds seem a little bright. The rest seems fine (could just be my speaker arrangement) This is one of those titles that you need to crank a little to appreciate the artists intent. I saw them open for "Tool" in the early 90's and have followed their music ever since.

Dennis, thank you for this! This makes for an easy workaround with the 563A, searching groups 2, 3, 5 & 6 for the extras.

The playlists are navigable within these groups as well, so the ONLY problems with the 563A (for me) are going into "AUDIO EXTRAS" and "VIDEO EXTRAS" from the EXTRAS menu.

Just picked my copy at Newbury Comics for $17, Circuit City was all out.

Now, I have the Pioneer 578A.

Should I open it?

Bob R said:

Just picked my copy at Newbury Comics for $17, Circuit City was all out.

Now, I have the Pioneer 578A.

Should I open it?

Click to expand...

I bought it two days ago and it plays fine on my 578A. So far I've had ZERO playability problems with this ultra-cheap universal player. I haven't tried the Brick yet, however.

Paul