My DVD players keep breaking

Sounds to me like bad luck. I don't think the cheap ones should wear out that fast. I tend to doubt a more expensive one would give you better service. Just more features you may or may not need.

I know! That's what I was wondering. If I still smoked, it'd be one thing: but I've never once smoked inside this apartment, and quit smoking altogether within a couple weeks of buying this one. I had a VCR that got fucked up by being around heavy smoking, but that was over a much longer period of time, and it probably could've been fixed.

What I run into is the problem of "well, this could be repaired," but the cost of repair is comparable to the cost of replacement these days, with less guarantee.

I treat my DVDs well. When there's a smudge, I clean it with lens cleaner in a radial motion. I always put DVDs and CDs back in the cases, and don't leave them laying around willy-nilly; if a jewel case breaks, I buy a new one. I'm as scrupulous about that as I am about taking care of my good knives. I have no clue what I could be doing to wear these things out, beyond simply using them often.

Sounds to me like bad luck. I don't think the cheap ones should wear out that fast. I tend to doubt a more expensive one would give you better service. Just more features you may or may not need.

That's my thinking too. I'm trying to look at it in terms of "how many hours of use am I getting per dollar," and I don't think a DVD player that costs five times as much will give me five times as much use. Even the cheap one has the angle/audio/subtitle buttons and plays CDs and mp3s, and other than multi-regional capability I can't think of anything I would be interested in enough to pay for.

I sometimes wonder if using Netflix and rented movies is "contaminating" my player at all, but it's not like the discs are covered in cum and pinesap, or I'd probably notice, and I'm under the impression that's less of a danger with DVDs than videocassettes anyway.

One thing worth asking, when you were doing your calculations...did you count the time the discs spend idling while you're making menu choices? Do you tend to turn the DVD player on and then leave it on a menu for long periods? Because it's still technically playing while it's on a menu screen.

Bzzzzzt

WRONG

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/disc_care/cleaning.html

And yeah, I don't like treating these as disposable either, which is why I brought it up -- but by the same token, if I were to buy a $200 DVD player and it broke just as fast, I'm doing no less damage and I'm out a DVD player anyway. If a better DVD player really will last considerably longer, I'm all for that -- I don't want to have to budget for player replacement.

(And I don't leave the disc idling; when I'm not watching something, I turn the player off, usually empty unless I'm planning on watching the commentary track later or something. 5 hours a day is probably right as an average, to take into account days when I'm not home.)

all discman seem to die after 7 months. They're crap! I hate them.

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/disc_care/cleaning.html

Umm...that site says to clean it from straight from the inside to the outside of the disc...which is radial motion (aka as a radius).

Anyway, my advice to get a model from a name-brand. Never had one go wrong on me; I have had several different ones, but that's solely b/c of moving and things, not failure.

And yeah, treat your babies discs well. If you're England, I second the recommendation on Richer Sounds.

"Distally" might be more descriptive, as "radial" could mean from outside to in. I suppose this isn't physiology. Perhaps we've become so accustomed to hearing about radial tires that the word suggests circular motion to many of us.

Sleeping on it for a few days before deciding on a model, though. They have both Sony and Panasonic in my price range, with comparable features.

(She also said my problem isn't uncommon and she's heard a number of people say roughly the same thing in the three months the store has been open.)

At last we discover where Tep has been going wrong.

What I'm leaning towards, barring some spectacular online deal or negative review, is buying a Sony or Panasonic at the low price end of the middling group (the rest of the group is largely concerned with adding features I won't benefit from, like surround sound and SACD; I have a bottom-shelf television because the movers broke mine, and even though I can afford to get a better one now, I have nothing non-wasteful to do with a perfectly working television). I'll get the four year warranty, which kicks the price up a fair bit but is leagues cheaper than the cost of four years' worth of replacements.

(Presumably in four years I'll want to upgrade to the new blowjob-and-donut-dispensing models anyway.)

I like my Sony DVP-NS725P, it was ~$129 from Fry's six months ago, and quiet enough not to bother me.

xpost; if the windmill has anything to do with donuts and blowjobs, please point me to the sales counter