The life of a DVD player. Discuss.

[AntnyMD]

I'm starting to get concerned about how long these things are supposed to last, given I watch many, many DVDs and VCDs, skipping back and forth, pausing for awhile, sometimes forgetting the DVD in the player while it loops the main menu all night.

About two weeks ago, I noticed my Apex started flashing the display and power ON light, intermittently. All of a sudden, it freaked out. It no longer reacts to the remote, and the power button is ironically powerless. This Apex 1500 (I think thats what it is) is fairly new, since "traded in" my old Apex for this one by claiming to Circuit City that the wrong DVD player came in the box! Circuit City labs are such a blast to double-cross!

Anyway, since it took me two weeks to even try to see what was wrong with it, I'm not really heartbroken. However, it raises a question -- How long are these machines supposed to last? I noticed that the Apex that died didn't give better picture quality than the older one -- it was merely more flexible in terms of nonstandard video CDs.

My other player is a JVC, and now I'm worried about it dying suddenly, too! And with a disc inside! The Apex died with a VCD CD-RW inside and I can't get it out! The JVC sometimes plays VCDs out of sync that a year ago it played perfectly.

I'm going out on the net today to shop for a new DVD player. Good thing these things are cheap if I'm gonna have to buy a new one every year.

[tigerwolf]

Actually the players should actually last pretty long. Though on any electronics equipment you have a heat issue when you use them for long periods of time. Some units handle this better then others. Such as my samsung got much hotter then my pioneer 440 does. Always give receivers, players and etc plenty of breathing room. Also on a dvd player never put it on top of another unit, such as vcr or reciever. THe dvd player should be on its one separate shelf or space, nor should you put anything on the player. Okay, next.

Lets give a little marker here for how long players should last.
My first player an emerson, purchased 1999, I sold it to a friend and he
is still using it and it works perfectly. So its lasted almost 3 years no problems. My philips dvd711 I purchased Nov. 2000 and just sold it to another friend and it still works beautifully. A different friend had a toshiba unit for about 3 years before replacing it, and it didn't have any performance problems just wouldn't read certain discs. As far as the players that I've owned they go through extensive usage. I mean extensive. With kids and etc. I've had it running basically 24/7 before or virtually. I have music or a movie going at all times, even when I go to bed.

I'd say if you have the cash get the pioneer 440, its a pretty sweet player and so far it seems pretty solid. So to answer your question I'd say the dvd player should last about as long as a cd player, given it uses very similiar technology, which if this is the case I have a cd player here made by technics that I bought for my wife when we were dating so its about 10 years old now. Though I'd give a dvd player a good 3-5 year performance.

Side note, I like jvc except when it comes to dvd players they are just a little to weird with their dvd units. Their mp3 units will only play mp3 out the analog ports, the same applies to the dvd audio unit a friend bought, it would only play out the analog ports as well.

hope this helps and wasn't to much of a ramble.