Three and a half years ago, I got a DVD/CD player for Christmas. About six months ago, it stopped playing CDs, now it’s getting flaky about playing DVDs. You can usually get it to work, but have to fuss with it. I think it’s about to give up the ghost. I think a DVD player should last longer, but hubby says not necessarily. What say you all?
I bought a GE unit in 2000 that still plays like new.
I think DVD players have gotten to the “they don’t make 'em like they used to” stage faster than any other hi-tech advice to date. Some of the new ones I’ve seen (including the Sony one I got last year for the familty room) seem to be flimsier than this GE unit.
I have a Panasonic recorder that’s pretty sturdy (it had better be, considering the $500 price tag!).
Well, it depends on how much you actually use it. If the unit is often running, I’d say 3 years isn’t horrible. Unfortunately, the lasers in those things don’t last forever.
Typical consumer electronics have become much more disposable in the last 5-10 years. Manufacturers now expect people to upgrade to the new format or new capabilities every few years, and produce units with such a life-span.
Interesting situation. It should have lasted longer, but don’t expect a new one to last that long.
3.5 years ago, that was a >$200 piece of equipment. Now it’s a $50 one. That has to be reflected in the manufacturing quality.
Interestingly enough, last night my DVD player quit working for good.
It was only about 4 months old.
I pondered sending it back to the manufacturer, or returning it to the store. BUT since it was only about 50 bucks…
… I’m going to hit it with a hammer. Multiple times.
So IMHO, 4 months is too short. 3.5 years is probably too short too. But right now, I am extremely jealous of your 3.5 year old, semi-working DVD player.
- Peter Wiggen
'Tis the season for DVD players to die?
Mine too bit the dust last weekend…I had one of those cheapies with surround sound, but had it for 3 years, using it also as my sound system for the television so I wasn’t all that bummed about it dying after 3 years of daily wear and tear.
By the way, I assume you have bought a DVD head cleaner, and do clean the DVD’s before you use them? That makes a world of difference!
But to be honest, the newer DVD players are far better than the one you probably bought back then, at a small fraction of the cost. So…splurge and buy a new one for about 90 bucks and hope you get another few years out of it. By then, they will have come out with godknowswhat…hollogram players?
I’ve had the motor die in 2 different DVD players so far. Look up your model number on the internet, sometimes there’s a temporary fix, depending upon the error code (if any) of the failure.
Until proven otherwise, I’m assuming DVD players are essentially disposable – fortunately they are relatively inexpensive. No, I’m not willing to buy an expensive one, but I might get my first ever extended warranty (on anything) when I buy my next one.
NOOOOO!
I used to sell TV’s and VCR’s way back when, and extended warranties are for suckers! Something like 50 percent is kickback for the salesperson, and usually the fine print says you have to send the product back (find a box, good luck) and then you wind up waiting for ages to get the product returned, if at all. If you should be lucky enough to have one of the certified repair shops in your state, or better yet, in your city, you will still have to wait and often the repair work is not up to snuff.
Take that money for any stupid extended warranty, put it into a savings account and most likely when your machine dies, you will have ample funds to buy a new one. Especially on something as inexpensive as a DVD player. Plus, most come with a 3 to 6 month warranty, so if you get a lemon, you might be able to take it back to the store for an even exchange (keep your receipts).
Sorry for the hijack rant, but having been on the selling side of extended warranties, I had to vent.
We now return to our regularly scheduled thread…
Well, we were in a local discount store yesterday and they had an Emerson DVD/VHS player for $90.00. I think that perhaps we’ll go back soon and buy that. The situation in our living room is rather unweildy, with our VCR perched precariously on top of our DVD player.
We do clean the DVDs, otherwise the player won’t play them (it’s always been picky about this), but I didn’t even know they made head cleaners!
I have a DVD player that gave up the ghost at the tender age of 8 months. But then again, the last DVD I played was “Manos, The Hand of Fate”, so I have only myself to blame 
I have one DVD player I received as a Christmas gift a little over 4 years ago. At that time, the price point was in the mid-300 range. It still runs great although with the advance to Progressive Scan DVD players, it is now relegated to the “tiny” t.v. in the rec room. Until the last year or so, my expectations for this unit are that it’d last quite awhile.
My second DVD player is the Progressive Scan player I purchased when I got my wide-screen t.v. It was in the mid-100 range but there were far cheaper models available at the time and even more so now. My expectations for how long this will last are considerably different than when receiving my first DVD player mentioned above.
What has changed? Price points. When purchasing a 350.00 piece of home electronics you have expectations of it lasting a long time to be “worth” that price. Now, DVD players have become throw-away products. If something goes wrong, buy a new one. Fixing it costs more than replacing it with new. So, if the second DVD player craps out after 12 to 18 months I’m not going to be too upset. I’ll buy a new one, get more features, at a lesser price than I paid for the last one. That is also why I do not do extended warrantys on items like this. Of course, one could argue you pay more as you replace it more often and I’d agree in principle.
Now, my mother bought a DVD player - one of those 29.99 Wal-Mart types - that died after 60 days. That is pushing my philosophy to an extreme and I’d expect that even at 29.99 you should get a good solid year of use out of it before it goes lasers up!
MeanJoe
Oh! Then before you buy a new one, go to your local Walmart or whatever and get a DVD/CD head cleaner. It is actually a disc, with two very tiny brushes on it. What it does is clean off the dust from the actual laser heads that read the discs. Every house has its share of dust, but if you have smokers in the room, or like to keep your windows open and get that breeze - trust me, those poor little laser heads are piled high with crap. The head cleaners cost about $10-15 and last forever, and even if it doesn’t help your old DVD you will want to keep it to extend the life of your new one.
[QUOTE=norinew]
Well, we were in a local discount store yesterday and they had an Emerson DVD/VHS player for $90.00.
QUOTE]
Oh…and I hope you don’t think I am getting “on your case”, but I wouldn’t buy a combo unit (DVD/VCR) or (TV/DVD/VCR). The reason is when one of the components breaks, it sort of ruins the whole reason of getting it, and you wind up getting a second unit anyway (VCR or DVD, whichever breaks first).
You would be wiser to get a good DVD player, and then get a good VCR. Comes out to a few paltry dollars more to get two components vs a combo.
Hey, get off my case! 
Seiously, although your comments give me food for thought, one of the reasons we want a combo DVD/VHS unit is so that we can record from DVD directly on to VHS. And we aren’t planning on getting rid of our existing VHS player, which is working just fine. We’d just put it away until we need it or something. But I will show this whole thread to hubby, who is the family geek, and what you say might make sense to him, and he might change his mind about the combo unit. At any rate, thanks for all the input. 
AFAIK, copyright protections won’t allow you to record your dvds to vhs. Plus, it’s illegal.
I got my dvd player for christmas in 1998. Still going strong. We watch movies or play cds at least once a day in the thing. It was $150 or so, I think. A Panasonic.
My $500 player which I bought in 1999 died a few months ago, and this was after I had it in for extended warranty repair about 6 months ago. It still plays most DVDs fine, except it had a lot of trouble reading the new multi-episode DVDs like Simpsons or Futurama.
I bought a new multi-format DVD player that plays SACD and DVD-A, as well as MP3 and DVD-R(W). I love my new DVD player.
A year ago December or January, we bought a Toshiba DVD player. The sound died on it after just over a year. We asked around at a lot of places, and everyone said they’d never heard of the sound going out on one.
Two weeks ago, my parents had to replace their Toshiba DVD player, which they’d gotten about 2 weeks before we got ours. Wait for it… The sound went out.
It was, of course, cheaper to buy a new one than have the old one repaired, so we got a new one. A Sony. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that it’ll last more than a year.
Oh, by the way - any hearing-impaired Dopers interested in a used DVD player, cheap?
As far as the legality goes, I was under the impression (perhaps erroneously), that it’s perfectly legal to put a video we own on VHS if it’s for our own personal use. For example: we own a VCR for my bedroom, but only have a DVD player in the living room. If I wanted to put my daughter’s perfectly legal DVD copy of Finding Nemo on VHS so she can watch it in our bedroom, is that not legal? If that is, indeed, illegal, then I’m sorry I even mentioned it. I am certainly not advocating illegal behavior. As far as copyright protection is concerned, I don’t know much about that. As I’ve mentioned, my husband is the geek in this family.
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Extended warranties really are for suckers. Doesn’t everybody know about Consumer Reports, Clark Howard and such???
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Lens cleaning discs for CDs are a bad idea. They frequently make things worse. For DVDs, which are for more sensitive, they are a great way to ruin it if you want it ruined fast.
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For brands/models/lifetime info, see [url=http://www.videohelp.com/]DVDRhelp. Note that some models from even well known brands such as Sony have been turkeys.
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Stop buying those $29 DVD players okay? And those combo units too. Sheesh. You are not saving money, you are throwing it away. “Cheap now” never pays.
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Padmaraga. I fix stuff like that. So I’d take it if the shipping cost wasn’t going to be soo high.
There isn’t much to go wrong with a DVD player. Either the motor died, the electronics died, or the optics are dirty.
Most electronics that are defective will die within 30 days of use.
My suggestion is to unplug the unit, take the lid off and check for a dirty lense. Something like a cat hair laying over the top of the lense will cause havoc. Cigarette smoke will also muck it up.
Did I mention unplugging it. Oh yeah, and unplug it (I can’t sleep at night because there is a lawyer hiding under my bed).