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Some more of the more atrocious DVD releases that I have run into follow:

Recent Tai Seng U.S. release of Hard boiled. Same cover as Mei Ah version, but only 120 minutes. Appears to be UK release with seven minutes of the most violent imagry cut (exploding eyeball near end is an example of what was cut). Other problems: This is one ugly dvd. Original source was badly scratched and spotted, burnt in subs that are nearly impossible to read, obvious reel change halfway through with black screen for several seconds. Audio muffled. Avoid this release at all costs especially since there are much better releases available used.
On the plus side, Tai Seng has released a new version of Hard Boiled with new cover---errr, but it is listed at running 85 minutes--THATS 42 MINUTES MISSING! OH BOY! The prime time TV version for your viewing enjoyment! Don't know about the picture quality, but why bother?

Next--another Tai Seng U.S. release: Needing You. Two and a half minutes into chapter four, in the middle of a dialog scene, the disc skips directly to chapter five. Cannot back up to watch missing footage (about 15 min). Time stamp doesn't show anything missing, but yup, it is. This appears to be a mastering error and I would guess that all of copies would have this error, though I have not received my replacement yet to be sure.

Tai Seng has a seriously mixed bag of DVD quality, generally their DVDs are acceptable, sometimes great quality, but then you get the real stinkers, and WHOOF Do they smell!

Now onto el cheapo releases: Avoid just about anything with Front Row Features (or Entertainment) on the cover. Avoid anything by Telefilms International (although, their release of Five Fingers of Death isn't too bad). Both of these places used VHS masters--sometimes seemingly VHS EP masters--so don't expect real DVD quality out of these, even though you can usually pick them up for next to nothing.

Vintage Movie Classics - Jackie Chan Triple Punch Collection -- Contains Young Master, Fantasy Mission Force, and The 36 Crazy Fists. More VHS master copies, heavily compressed, with FMF being vertically squeezed to make it appear to be letterboxed. Hey, it was $3, and worth all of $1.35 for the really nice box it comes in.

Finally: Mei Ah HK release of Ashes of Time. No menu, just leaps into the film, burnt in subs, damaged source. If they have not done so already, Mei Ah should be releasing a remastered version of this sometime soon, so hold out for that one.

Note on bad DVDs: (Just be sure it's the DVD thats the problem and not just a compatibility issue with your specific player, I always test mine on two players and my computer before designating them worthless.)

Ultimo Ross,

Did you test the DVD in more than one player? Some players simply don't like certain disks. Some examples can be found here (as well as other DVD information)
www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.41

Otherwise:

I have run into some DVDs where the "English" subtitles also ended up being in another language instead.

If you have not already tried this, try switching on one of the Chinese subtitles and see if you instead get English ones. That is what I had to do on the couple of DVDs that I have that have this problem.

Apparently the person making the DVDs mislinked the subtitles to the wrong line of code.

Ultimo Ross

Very interesting. Try a few other DVDs in your XBox and see if any of those do the same thing. That will rule out any possible problems with the XBox itself.

One more thing to do, go to a friend's or relative's house who has a DVD player and try the disc in their player.

Something you could do is pick up a cheap Apex DVD player as a backup player. I have seen these sell for under $40, and though they don't seem to be rugged enough to be the prime-use player (my friend has gone through three of them by wearing them out), they also appear to play most any DVD you throw at them. Not sure about all of their models, but at least one of the ones he had also played both NTSC and PAL discs and was region free. That one may have been a $80 model.