Do you think I need a new player?

[fingers]

I've been using my Pioneer DV333 for quite a while now, I think it's about 5 years old, and I've never had a problem with it until recently.

Now from time to time when I am playing DVD's it will stick, I'll hear 3 clicks, like it lost track of where it was, then the disc will just stop. Or the picture will just freeze on screen.

At first I thought it might be because I recently switched to TDK media, but I've done a read test on the discs, and there are no CRC errors reported, so I think it might be the player.

Another reason I think it's the player is that if I start the movie again, rewind to before the point where it got stuck, then play again, it has no problems getting past the point where it go stuck on the first time through.

I would think if it was a media issue, or a bad burn, then it would continually get stuck on the same point. Given that it's kind of random, it sounds like hardware to me...

Does that sound like the player... I mean the player is pretty old, quite a workhorse, played thousands of hours with no problems before...

[handyguy]

Just clean your laser, that should do it.

[fingers]

I was always under the impression that those kits don't really do anything...

[redwudz]

It only takes a tiny speck of dust on the laser lens to cause problems similar to yours. Try a shot of 'canned air' in there first. Then a cleaning disc, and finally a foam Qtip with denatured alcohol. If you have do partial disassembly the player for the last method, that's still better than replacing the player. You don't have much to lose.

Cleaning discs work fine for many people. Some are better than others. I use the other two methods.

Sometimes the slide the lens assembly attaches to becomes sticky and causes problems. That requires disassembly and careful cleaning/lubing. Most people don't want to bother with this much work.

You can replace the player, but I would still try the first two methods unless you really want a newer/different player.

[handyguy]

I havent used a disk. There are wet disks & dry disks.