I called customer service and they said basically I need to get a new DVD player. (They said I could try to have it repaired, but I imagine that would probably cost about as much as getting a new cheap DVD player, even if it worked.)
Before I buy a new one, I want to make sure no one here has a miraculous cure available.
What happens is this. As soon as I power on the DVD player, it shows the “scanning” icon on its front panel display for a few seconds, then opens the tray saying “Disc Error.” This occurs whether there is a disc in the tray or not. If I then shut the tray, it scans again for a few seconds, and again opens the tray saying “Disc Error.” Again, this occurs whether or not there is a disc in the tray, and it occurs no matter what disc is in the tray.
The upshot: I can not view any movies, and I can not even keep the tray closed except by turning the player’s power off.
Not for standalone players. I assume he was talking about internal DVD drives for a computer; those often have updateable firmware. Mine came with a little program that “phones home” and tells me if there is a newer firmware revision available than the one I have installed.
Last time my DVD player failed, I unplugged it, walked around the house with it, sat down to watch TV, hit it a few times while I watched TV, got up to throw it out, but then plugged it into a different outlet, where it worked fine, and has worked fine since, for over 6 months, back in its original place and power socket.
<giggle> Yeah, sometimes equipment will sense that its life is in danger, and will behave, but it’s rare.
As for firmware updates, that too, is rare. On a standalone device, it’s not possible to do at home, but for PC drives, it’s not very difficult at all. I used to have a particular DVD player back in the days when they came with fairly serious price tags, and it wouldn’t load in DVDs from certain studios. (IIRC, it simply ignored the existence of Disney dics) The in-warranty cure was a firmware update that took three weeks to have done.
I had a similar issue with my current DVD burner. Wouldn’t even acknowledge that one or two particular discs were even in the drive. My firmware update took less than a minute.
You can update the firmware (I wrote “software” in my post) for some stand-alone DVD players. I recently did it for my Oppo OPDV97HI, a good player at around $200 which I can recommend.
The laser and read head on most DVD player/burners move on a worm gear (essentially a long screw, with a “bolt” that carries the read/write head across the surface of the disk.
What has probably happened is that the threads on the worm drive have become clogged or worn. If you are clever with tools and have a delicate touch, you MIGHT be able to open up the thing and unclog the gear set. (i did this once, it was a cat hair…)
Some models have a nylon plastic “nut” as the transport gear, and it can become worn. In this case you have a piece of junk, as the dismantle and replace is beyond the scope of most home repairs, and not worth the shop time, compared to a new unit.
That might be what happened to one of mine when it was playing silly buggers with the drawer. Like the poster above I smacked it a couple of times, and this likely dislodged the offending particle. It’s a very cheapo player but it plays things that refuse to play on my rather more expensive home one.
I bought my first DVD recorder in February. Lasted 30 days and just completely died. Would not even power up.
I took it back to the alliterative store where I purchased it, replacing it with the same model.:eek:
30 days later, it, too, died. Same problem. Would not even power up.
Took it back. Thought, “Hmm. . . maybe I’ll try a different model this time.”
And I did. And for four months it functioned flawlessly (August).
Then, occasionally a disk would not record properly. I could see that it had been written to, but I’d get a “disk error” when I tried to play it back. Also, the drive was making weird noises, as though some things were making contact that shouldn’t be.
But only off an on. Some (most) disks worked, some didn’t. Then, about a week ago, things really went to hell. I’ve recorded 10 consecutive disks that were all bad.
This weekend I will be purchasing my fourth DVD recorder this year.