DVD that won't play...

[DP]

My wife gets movies from Netflix and she received "The Help" but can't play it. A screen comes up saying "This disk can't be played".
OK. We have an old (1999) Pioneer DVD player and the movie does not have a Blu-Ray logo or any other mark that might indicate something different. It's also the first time we've seen this notification from any movie we've rented. Ideas?

[samintx]

It could be a bad disk, some disks don't play on my old Sony. Just return and have them send new one. Might be a bad format or something physical. It could be cracked, too.

[Chakravartin]

Check for scratches. Try cleaning it with a damp lint-free cloth (paper towels work), moving the cloth in overlapping lines from the inside/hub to the outside edge rather than moving it in circles.

Try playing the disc in your computer. Does it play from your Mac's DVD drive?

[DP]

No scratches-I learned a long time to check first before playing them. Didn't think about putting it a computer! Will report back...