DVD No Read?

October 23, 2005 12:06 PM

DVD Player dying? My Panasonic DVD-RV60 player ("chipped" or region-free) has lately developed an intermittent problem playing DVDs. Often, when I insert a disc, I get either a "No Disc" or "No Play" message. Ejecting and slightly turning the disc (sometimes many times,) will eventually result in the disc playing. CDs, on the either hand are read flawlessly. Once a disc starts playing, no problem. Is my player dying? I've tried cleaning the lens using a cleaning disc, but that hasn't helped.

IT doesn't appear to have any thing to do with the region code of the disc either - it happens with both Region 1 and Region 2 discs.

posted by Expat to Technology (9 answers total)

Sounds like a "LASER" issue to me. The "LASER" used to read the data from CDs is of a different wavelength than the one used to read DVDs, so that's why your player is still able to read CDs.

I'm not a hardware tech guy, but I'd say death is a pretty accurate prognosis, and considering DVD players are so ridiculously cheap these days, I'd think about picking up a new one.
posted by forallmankind at 12:36 PM on October 23, 2005

forrallmankind: Why are you putting quotes and capitalising the word laser? Sure it might be an acronym for "Light Amplification by Simulated Emission of Radiation" but nobody calls it that anymore :)


Expat: I have had such issues with many a DVD player. It's one of those things which can sometimes be solved by taking apart the DVD player and stick it all back together again. It's due to their mostly plastic construction I think. eventually things move a bit and it can't track the disc as reliably anymore.
posted by alexst at 12:58 PM on October 23, 2005

I've had similar issues with my DVD player too. It turned out to be a bad actuator and the disc wasn't being loaded at the right position.

Mine was still under warranty so I got it replaced (and asked what was wrong with it when the repairs were done).
posted by PurplePorpoise at 1:13 PM on October 23, 2005

alexst, I think it's a Dr. Evil reference.
posted by teleskiving at 1:34 PM on October 23, 2005

I bought a cheapy DVD player a few years ago which exhibited similar behavior. I bought it primarily because it had a secret menu for eliminating macrovision and region codes. Anyway, when it started to die I popped it open and the dvd drive part was nothing more than a PC dvd drive with the face plate removed. I bought another for $20, popped it in and it worked reasonably well after that.
posted by roue at 4:03 PM on October 23, 2005

alexst, I think ["LASER" is] a Dr. Evil reference.

Try playing some Alan Parsons Project CDs.
posted by kindall at 4:18 PM on October 23, 2005

There is a CD section in the Electronics Repair FAQ, but it is looking a little bloated...

Also, a previous question: The CD burner ... has been acting flakey.
posted by Chuckles at 4:25 PM on October 23, 2005

teleskiving is correct: I was being "humorous."

alexst: I don't think anyone ever called it that - by *Stimulated* Emission, one would hope.... ;-)
posted by forallmankind at 5:21 PM on October 23, 2005

I had the exact same problem with my DVD player. First it was more and more touchy about reading DVDs and finally it just wouldn't, but it read CDs fine.

I just figured, laser problem, or maybe whatever computer witchcraft is involved with processing video information. WHo knows. You know, some kind of... chip... or something.

For what it's worth, I did a little bit of investigating at the time and repair was not worth it (and nobody I talked to would give anything like a guarantee they would get it working again - though all promised to bill me for just looking at it). DVD players are pretty cheap at this point.
posted by nanojath at 10:25 PM on October 23, 2005