Can a DVD Disk Break a DVD Player?

[Ensign]

I know that this is a silly question :P , but, my friend what to know if there is an answer.

He just returned from China with some DVDs (I didn't ask - he didn't tell!).

He states that when he frist played them in his Phillips DVD recorder/player (sorry I didn't get the model number) all went fine. Yet when he tried to play them for the rest of us, the player did not even power up. Let alone play anything.

BTW - Yes, we tried other outlets, and pushed the power on button. Nothing

What he want to know is this:

Can a "questiable DVD" make a DVD player unuseable?

My reply was that the most that can happen is that the disk will not play. Not stop a DVD player from receiving power.

But, since he insists that it did already play the DVD (which is still stuck in the player), there must be an other answer then "another DVD player died on me."

BTW Again - He has not been having good luck with electronics lately. 3 months ago he lost his computer, I am worry what can go next :wink:

What is thoughs of the forum?

[samijubal]

A DVD definitely can't kill a power supply. No matter what people say here, Philips is cheap crap. I've seen the inside of way too many Philips electronics, they are all built very cheap.

[AlanHK]

I can imagine a disk with a label that came unstuck, or possibly one that shattered in the player, and jammed the drive. But killing the power supply would require one of those disks that Jim Phelps used to get. ("If any members of your team should be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.)


And I live in Hong Kong, half the disks I play are made in China. Some are unplayable, but that's the worst of it.

[thecoalman]

Very unlikely, half the poeple in ths forum owuld be complaining about their broken drives. :P

or possibly one that shattered in the player,

There was show on Mythbusters about that, If I remember correctly it wasn't too much faster than 52X. The drive was destroyed.

[redwudz]

Most players have a small hole below the disc tray where you can insert a straightened paper clip and open the tray to extract the disc. I would do that, then close it and try again. If it doesn't respond, even after being unplugged for a half-hour, toss it.

About all a problematic disc can do is cause a lot of 'seeking' with the laser mechanism trying to focus and track. That is if it plays the disc at all. Extended seeking will stress the mechanism and could cause premature failure in it, but wouldn't have any affect on the power supply. What kills most power supplies is heat. A lot of newer players are the 'slim type' and don't dissipate heat well.
'

[orsetto]

Its probably just coincidence, his player just happened to croak with that DVD stuck in it. Could've been a power surge and it blew an internal fuse or something. OTOH, there have been some units that "dislike" certain discs so much that they DO sometimes "play dead" after you load one. Some weird combination of the player losing track of the DVD signal and confusing itself into a permanent "off" state. Of course there were ways to reset them and/or remove the disc. Usually this only happened with early DVD recorders, its pretty rare in a player, but you never know. Your friend may need to disassemble the player to get the DVD out, unless he can wake it up by replacing a fuse.

[jjeff]

I was just reading archived threads at AVS yesterday and saw mention that certain RW discs played in very old Pioneer burners (example in the DVR-7000) could cause drive failure. Doesn't sound like your problem though.

[Ensign]

Thank You all for your replies.

I made copies of them and forward them on to him.

Maybe now he will belive that high-tech and him don't mix

P.S. I told him not to get the Phillips, but, he wanted the S-Video imput, and the Phillips was the only one in his price range (re: cheep!) that had it.

For me?

When it comes to makeing DVD's I'll stick to my BenQ burner/Nero/AMD computer.

At lease has never blown its power supply, unlike his

[JeffM]

Oh no! Killer DVDs sent from China! What will they think of next?

[redwudz]

Ensign, just tell him he should give you all his DVDs so he doesn't have a recurrence of the problem. Worth a try, anyway.

Or he should look into getting the proper equipment for handling questionable DVDs:



But I think it was just his player's time to die. They are so cheap these days that replacements are usually the best choice.

[Ensign]

just tell him he should give you all his DVDs

I would, but, that means I would end up with the one that he is in.

BTW- I am not joking, he was an "Actor" in the PBS documentry "The War that Made America." The Story of the French & Indian Wars. He played an Indian.

Killer DVDs sent from China!

First those Commies Fluoridated our Water

Now they are messing with our pirated DVD.

What's Next - Putting all us Westerns out of work with cheep labor and poor environmental law

Oops, they allready done that

With a little help from Washington and Wall Street :P

UPDATE

My friend went back to the store (Best Buy) to see if he can get the Phillips repaied under waranty.

They told him that he was late - his waranty expired 6 days aga

So, they could do nothing (but they did get his DVD out of the player/recorder) except telling him to call Phillips and see if that they might replace/repair it since less then a week after the warranty laps.

Now its up to the Dutch, or who ever fileds there phone calls :wink:

[handyguy]

With Phillips you often have to unplug it from wall sometimes & plug back in.

I found 2 dvds in my Phillips recently when I opened it up. Not sure how that happened.

They are pretty easy to open up if you want to take a look. But they have a ton of screws.