more dvd freeze problems

[dblake2]

I've been pulling my hair out with my 2nd dvd player now acting up with freeze problems. The 1st
player was a Panasonic which was admittedly a little old. I replaced it with a Sony dvp-ns75h which
is now about 20 months old, I estimate 2000 hrs playing time.

It was great at 1st then a couple months ago a couple universal commercial pressed disks froze. I
didn't think anything of it as they have a rather notorious reputation for putting out crappy
disks. Then my startrek enterprise disks started freezing, at least once each episode. I noticed a
noise coming from the player like its trying to reread so I tapped it on top & the disk skips ahead
& starts playing. I can then rewind to just b4 the freeze & it will usually play thru ok. Another
way around it is to copy the dual layer disks to a standard 4.7 gb disk (I use verbatim dvd +r/w &
they'll play fine, In fact I've yet to have one of those 4.7 gb disk hang on me in that player.
I've used 1 of those memorex cd/dvd disk cleaner disks with the brushes a couple of times but that
makes no difference.

Any ideas on whats going on? I get the sinking feeling these dvd players are rather like disposable
cameras & am puzzled as to why the 4.7 disks do so much better than the 7.8 gb. Wider tracks easier
to read maybe? Is 2000 hours normal life for a dvd player?

[Krispy Kritter]

Sounds like a dirty or most likely failing laser. Tracks are the same on SL and DL media, the only difference being you have two layers. Since you seem to only be having issues with DL media, it sounds like a laser or tracking issue. If it's under warranty, have it repaired/replaced, otherwise, it will likely need to retired.

Lifespan varies for all hardware. My original DVD player, a Samsung purchased in 1999 with The Matrix and The Mummy, still works just fine. And I'm sure it has 1000's of hours by now.