Has anyone ever had a DVD player that after you put a disc in it, it just goes all to hell?
I put "Breakdown" in my HK DVD50 and ever since then I get a "cannot read disc" error on all my discs or my DVD's will freeze about 15 minutes into playing.

I just ordered the available firmware but was thinking that if I unplugged the unit and let it "power down" that it would restore to factory defaults?

If anybody could point in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated.

-steveo

I'd suggest investing in a cleaning disc. It's a CD with little brushes built into it and it sweeps dust off the pickup lens(es).

Here's a link to one that Best Buy carries.

Lots of views over my post but no definitive answers. Well the DVD cleaner was my first thought, but that didn't work. I read some threads on other boards about other people having the same model and it crapping out after a year of use. Hopefully the firmware fixes it or I will be making an early upgrade I don't have SACD or DVD-A, so I might as well start looking!

I meant to answer this one, but had to run out to work, thanks for the bump to remind me.

I just lost a Toshiba SD-1800 after 15 months (of limited use) to a bad transport. And the SD-3860 is no replacement for the 1800. If this one dies an early death, I'll be buying a stack of the $50 Daytek players and keeping extras on hand - to hell with brand names.

Bren R.

It's been my experience that many DVD players seem to be designed as disposable pieces of crap. I've had 2 Sony's die on my within a year or so of use.

It's strange, the SD-1800 was a Christmas gift 2002 for my fiancee... it's probably run 30-50 movies and CDs maybe 20 times and it kacked...

Meanwhile something like my H-K CD carousel started out as a demo, it runs on average about 10 hours a day and I've had it... 2-3 years - works like a dream (except occasionally it'll spin past the CD it's looking for, realize it's gone too far, reverse and pick it up - but I find I do that a bit myself )

Bren R.

Sounds like your laser "pickup" may be going out. I don't think it had anything to do with the "Breakdown" disc. It was just it's time to go. I had to have one repalced in my older (but expensive at the time) Denon DVD-3000. It cost about $200.00 to repair (2 yrs ago). Contact your vendor about repair.

P.S: I've also had to have a Sony PS2 repaired twice for the same reason. But Sony knows they have a problem with these things and thankfully, they repair the laser pickups for free even if it's out of warranty.

pickup an onkyo from ebay

Thanks for all the diagnoses. Hopefully all what you guys say is not true. I was toying with the idea of waiting for the new HK DVD31 that has SACD and DVD-A - supposedly coming out at the end of this month. There are so many choices for DVD players that one gets overwelmed by options.