My house seems to eat DVD players

[Incorrigible]

Bit of an odd one this

I've gone through 3 DVD players in as many years. Not desperately good ones £150ish

I only watch a couple of films and maybe a random other hour through them per week, so they can't be worn out.

I've tried taking the covers off and cleaning them, but to no avail. This happens with brand new DVDs so it's not a disc cleanliness problem

Any suggestions about how to fix this or have I just been unlucky

[TEKNOPUG]

Incorrigible said:

Bit of an odd one this

I've gone through 3 DVD players in as many years. Not desperately good ones £150ish

I only watch a couple of films and maybe a random other hour through them per week, so they can't be worn out.

I've tried taking the covers off and cleaning them, but to no avail. This happens with brand new DVDs so it's not a disc cleanliness problem

Any suggestions about how to fix this or have I just been unlucky

You have children?

[Incorrigible]

TEKNOPUG said:

You have children?

The old "why doesn't the toast play" problem

No, no children

[jimmyjimjim]

Only time I've ever killed an appliance was last November.

Humidity at about 15%, reached over to turn it on, and smote it with a lightning bolt that almighty Zeus himself would have been proud to call his own.

Result - one completely numb finger for about ten minutes, and a DVD player that needed dismantling to remove the disk, before binning the player.

Might be worth checking the grounding, possibly?

[Incorrigible]

jimmyjimjim said:

Might be worth checking the grounding, possibly?

Everything else works fine (in fact DVDs through the Play Station work fine (ignoring the shocking quality of course))

And the house wiring is fairly new. How would you test the earth anyway

[Xerstead]

Incorrigible said:

And the house wiring is fairly new. How would you test the earth anyway

jimmyjimjim said:

Humidity at about 15%, reached over to turn it on...

What he said...

I've got a surge protector guarding my electrical stuff just in case. Or you could just be unlucky.

[Mark34bn]

Could be a loose wiring connection at the socket (or anywhere on that ring main) causing occasional voltage spikes.

[Thudd]

Dust?

You don't say what the symptoms are.

Try leaving a disk in. And a surge protector can't hurt.

Are they adequately ventilated? Could they be overheating?

[Dan_1981]

"A random other hour through them per week"

Go on then - whats that for eh?

[Incorrigible]

Thudd said:

Dust?

You don't say what the symptoms are.

Try leaving a disk in. And a surge protector can't hurt.

Are they adequately ventilated? Could they be overheating?

Could well be dust, but I've tried cleaning them with the cover off. DVD is at the top of the stack so as well ventilated it' going to get

Symptoms are a bit like a dirty disk; the film will starts jumping and then give up altogehter. Although inspecting the disc it's clean and will still play through the PS2

All other appliances seem OK, just DVD players

[headcase]

I think you are haunted by a DVD hating ghost

[Incorrigible]

headcase said:

I think you are haunted by a DVD hating ghost

Yep that's probably it. Should I start another thread "how to exorcise DVD hating ghost" or just keep it here ?

[stevoknevo]

If it's at the top of the stack, what's below it? Possibly getting cooked by whatever is below it, especially if it's a receiver.

[Pupp]

It's not just you. My tally runs to a couple of Pioneers and a bloody expensive Marantz that all keeled over with very little use. Strangely (tempts fate), I've never killed a CD player 'though

[JustinP1]

Incorrigible said:

jimmyjimjim said:

Might be worth checking the grounding, possibly?

Everything else works fine (in fact DVDs through the Play Station work fine (ignoring the shocking quality of course))

And the house wiring is fairly new. How would you test the earth anyway

DVD through a PS3 is actually superb.

I have recently ebayed my old £3000 DVD/CD transport as it just wasn't as good...

Only thing I can think of is do you turn it off at the plug all the time, rather than leave on standby?

[headcase]

The main problem with modern optical drives is that the laser assy's use a plastic lens, the days are now gone where glass is used, basically the plastic starts going cloudy causing read errors this is exaggerated by temp so if you have alot of stuff together it can happen quicker.

[Thudd]

By "stack" are the units directly on top of each other?
As pointed out, my AV Receiver kicks out a lot of heat.
Try bodging in a spacer?
Or make like my mate when we were students, and go bricks - flag - bricks - flag - bricks - flag

[Incorrigible]

Thudd said:

By "stack" are the units directly on top of each other?

Unfortunately yes. However they're only on for a few hour t a time and there's a CD player and VCR (how retro am I) in between the amp and DVD Player on top. It doesn't get that hot

There's quite a bit of dust going around, on account of me being unable to finish any of the DIY (time and money constraints) so maybe they're never going to be that long lived. ho hum

Maybe I'll just invest in a PS3.