broken DVD player

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My DVD player (a mid-range Panasonic model), which I've given only light-to-moderate use since buying it 2 1/2 years ago, suddenly stopped working (it won't read discs, and displays an error message - the manual says to take it for service when this happens). I just talked to a repair guy at a local shop listed on Panasonic's website as an authorized service center. I described the problem, and the guy says it's common - the optical pickup on DVD players, he says, goes bad a lot quicker than on CD players. He also says not to bother repairing it - labor alone would cost $75, then the parts another $60-70, and I can get an equivalent model for $80. (I paid more than that for mine, but prices have apparently come down.)

Has this happened to anyone before? Has anyone ever bought one in for repair?

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 00:10 (twenty years ago) link

(It only had a one-year warrantee, of course.)

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 00:10 (twenty years ago) link

Things really aren't built to last or even built to be repairable anymore. The (sad) asnswer is: buy a new one.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 00:16 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah, that's what I figured. I'm gonna get a real cheapy one this time, I guess. Sigh.

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 00:17 (twenty years ago) link

i've heard about certain panasonic models doing this. do you remember what the error message was? trying googling it

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 00:22 (twenty years ago) link

Whoa - you're right. I should have thought of that. Turns out there are thousands of people on the Web complaining about this same problem!

Don't buy a Panasonic DVD player... yikes.

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 05:58 (twenty years ago) link

Here I was panicking and then I remembered, mines a Pioneer not a Panasonic.. haaa.. phew.

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 06:26 (twenty years ago) link

Panasonic is crap - furthermore, their customer service dudes are total assholes.

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 06:32 (twenty years ago) link

eight years pass...

My Samsung DVD/VCR player, at least 10-12 years old, appears to have given up the ghost on the DVD side -- unfortunately there is a library DVD stuck in it that won't eject.

I have the player upside down right now, per a troubleshooting recommendation, before I replug it and try to eject again. If that doesn't work, it'll be the screwdriver.

― Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius), Monday, 8 April 2013 05:09 (eleven years ago) link

Just plonk the player down on the library returns desk and say, "The DVD's in there."

― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Monday, 8 April 2013 08:07 (eleven years ago) link

Some drawer-type DVD players or drives have a small hole on the front you can stick a paper clip into and it'll push the drawer out. Otherwise you can take the case off and see if fiddling with the wheel connected to it will pop it open. Or brute force it.

― we browse anonymo (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Monday, 8 April 2013 10:56 (eleven years ago) link

Just be sure not to damage that NYPL Criterion inside. Somebody else like me want to watch it.

― What About The Half That's Never Been POLLed (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 8 April 2013 12:14 (eleven years ago) link

It's not a Criterion, it's The Five-Year Engagement.

The upside-down thing worked. Obviously I am not sanguine about continuing to use it....

― Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius), Monday, 8 April 2013 12:42 (eleven years ago) link

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