honestly I really think it has more to do with your machines than the dvds. Digital is all bits and bytes, 0's and 1's, on the discs. they're all the same from one disc to another, unlike analog where quality can vary, depending on quality and age of the tapes. on digital if some of the bits are missing, you'd just get artifacts on the screen, or even losing picture entirely. Have you tried playing the disc you have at other people's tv sets and see how it looks?