sony dav-dz270k alignment or just dirty lens?

[marts_8]

have the dvd player for about 4 years and have tried playing original and DVD-/+R discs. it didn't gave me problems until last week when it just spins the disc forever. i have tried playing the discs that it played before:
1. original
2. DVD-/+R that has videos at its almost max capacity around 4.5gb
3. DVD-/+R that has videos around 2gb
4. DVD-/+R that has videos recorded converted using convertXtodvd around 2gb worth of videos
5. DVD-/+R that has multiple folders and videos in each. burned in multi-session and also not in multi-session with total data size of about 3.5gb

all mentioned above cannot be played by the player. the disc just spins inside, i waited around 30 mins. however, discs that have total of around 1.8gb can be read by the player.

havent tried cleaning the lens yet as some forums said store-bought disc cleaners can scratch the lens. said it was better to just open the player and q-tip the lens with alcohol. Or does my lens need alignment as it cannot read beyond 1.8gb?

[jman98]

The lens cleaning trick fails to resolve playback problems for most people who try it. It does work for some. I am pulling this number out of my butt, but I would guess that maybe 20% of the time it solves the problem. The odds are that it will NOT solve yours but it's easy enough to try it.

Consumers don't like to hear this but the reality is that the marketplace demands cheap DVD players and thin ones. Manufacturers love this. The thin designs mean that they have to air cool. The reality is that the average American home (this may not apply to people elsewhere) has some gigantic wooden monstrosity "media center" that their DVD player and TV and other electronics are in. Women love these things. They are horribly inefficient at cooling because they usually don't have much empty space. Heat buildup causes DVD players to burn out over time. The demand for cheap players also causes the manufacturers to use lower cost and lower quality components, which also means that players don't last as long as they used to. The manufacturers all love this because while you may buy a $40 DVD player today, the odds are in 2-3 years that you'll be buying another one because the one you bought today won't last due to the cheap components or heat damage.

I know that you are going to be like everybody else and you are going to say that 4 years ago you paid X for your player and this was just some impossibly exorbitant sum of money at the time and that player should have lasted longer than it did because of what you paid for it. You can pay for a repair if you want, but it won't be cheap. Honestly most people should just throw their players away and buy new cheap ones when they fail. Just look at them as goods with a limited lifespan. Even if you get it repaired eventually the player is going to die and you are going to have to buy a new one.

[hech54]

Try a lens cleaner, open it up clean the lens with a a q-tip, make sure the rails that the lens moves on are free from obstructions. If these don't work then throw it away because you won't be doing a lens alignment on your own.

[marts_8]

there is no clutter on where it is located, it's properly ventilated whenever it is being used so its not the reason why it is acting up right now.

i agree, products nowadays are built to be thrown out a few years after. ill try popping it open to clean the lens. if it doesnt work, ill just buy a DVD-RW to play movies since it can still read at least 1gb data. BTW, any good recommendations on DVD-RW that can last for a hundred times of burning?

also, just curious, how do dvd players work? do they read the whole disc first before they start playing?

[hech54]

BTW, any good recommendations on DVD-RW that can last for a hundred times of burning?

also, just curious, how do dvd players work? do they read the whole disc first before they start playing?

I gave up on RW media years ago. To me they all suck.
DVD players and computer drives read what is called "lead-in data" which tells the device what type of disc it is.