I have a 4 or so year-old DVD player by Samsung. It retailed for about $200 at the time - I got it free as part of buying our home theatre systems from hifi.com back then.
Anyway, it sometimes can’t read discs. Either pops them out without ever reading them or mid-way through a movie, it seizes up “Can’t read this disc” appears on the screen and the disc pops out.
I know about damaged discs - I am careful to polish discs before putting them in. The last straw was over the weekend - my wife rented Mr. & Mrs. Smith and it seized up about half-way through. Upon inspecting it, the disc is immaculate - clearly brand new, no flaws. It even ran on the cheap-ass portable DVD player I got for the car and have hooked up to the kids’ TV in the basement.
So - does this sound like anything that can be fixed? Like a mis-aligned laser, which I have heard of but know nothing about. I don’t want to have to pay a lot of $/hour for a problem that essentially can’t be fixed, if that is the case.
So - when does it make sense to repair a DVD player? Does it sound like mine is fix-able? What resources are available on line to learn see if I can better diagnose my problem?
Tyr looking at the player rather than the disks. I have had similar problems which were supposedly cuased by accumulated dust. Try using a compressed air spray inside the DVD tray or even blowing (with your mouth) into the slot. I’ve also used the Allsop lens cleaner, which is a DVD with little brushes on it to clean the lens.
Yes, it’s similar. Here’s the Allsop one for $6.99.
The one you linked to can only be used for DVD players whilst the Allsop one can be used for CDs and DVDs at a third of the cost. I’m guessing that the only reason the Maxell one is DVD-specific is that it has an on-screen menu, rather than any fundamental differences in the way that DVD players and CD players build up dust.
I’m not shilling for Allsop but would recommend you get a combined CD/DVD cleaner if it’s cheaper than the DVD-specific one.
And if it were me I would blow into the DVD slot a few times before purchasing anything (though someone will probably come along to tell us that this will ruin the player/invalidate the warranty/burn your house down).
If you can’t make it right by popping in a cleaning disc, chuck it and get a new player. Unless you’re an ardent videophile, you should be able to get one for $40. (At Xmas, they were available for as low as $20.) Even at that price, they often have component video outputs in addition to standard composite video, and can play pretty much anything that fits in the tray - audio CDs, DVD movies, CD-Video, MP3 discs, etc.
And it truly doesn’t matter if it’s a cleaning CD, DVD or whatever. It’s just a very short brush that whirls around and hopefully gets that bit of dog fur off the lens.
i second GotPasswords advice, it sounds like a dvd-player issue more than a disc issue. I’d say if the lens cleaner doesn’t completely clear up your problem, it’s best to cut your losses/time investment in the ordeal and get a new one. You may want to glance at the sale ads for your local retail/electronics store, you might be able to find a good deal on a new one and either way, most dvd players are fairly affordable.
I tried to watch Female Trouble a couple of weeks ago, and I got a C:13:00 error on my Sony DVD player. I got an exchange from Amazon.com and the new one worked. Last night I tried to play a DVD that I had played a few times before and got the same erfror.