DVD player stopped playing VCD's

[leeuk]

Hi i have had a Mico A980s for nearly two years with it playing everything DVD,VCD,SVCD,CDR's.
But recently it has stopped playing CDR VCD's that i know worked before (it plays DVD's perfectly still) .
Before it stopped playing VCD,s it came up that the disk was dirty , even though it was clean .
Could the actual player need cleaning if so why can it still play DVD's normally.

Thanks Lee

[Macros746]

Have you, by any chance, switched CD-R brands lately? That could definitely cause that problem. Otherwise I wouldn't understand it because, as I understand, it takes a MORE powerful laser to read DVD...so it shouldn't have any issues with your CD-R or CD-RW

Macros

[leeuk]

The disks it will not play now , used to work perfectly , even ones that were burnt ages ago . Verbys , PCline and no name spindles.

[jrhilton]

Sorry leeuk, but when a DVD player stops regognising a certain type of disk it's usually bad news I'm affraid (appart from the obvious annoyance of not being able to play your disks)

This is a very common problem for older Sony DVD players as well- it happened to me!!!!

There are 3 possabilities

1) The laser has come to the end of it's life - this surprisingly is around 1000 hours per disk type (per laser wavelength being produced for more technical minded people) for many players!!! If you have watched 1000+ hours of VCD on CDRs then that could be the problem yet the part of the laser modul used for playing DVD's may still work fine - this insidentley was the ploblem that I had with my sony player (There was no solution except a new laser but that would cost more than a new player) To see if this is the problem look around on the internet for some hacks as it were for your player to get into the setup menu or supervisor menu - if there is one that is, there is usually a section telling engineers how long each part of the laser and other machanical parts have been used. It is hidden from the user during normal use. If the laser time is 1000+ hours that could be the problem.

2) The laser could be dirty. Dust does not effect the laser beam much when it is producing wavelengths neccessory to read a DVD yet dust will certainly impair CD-R pickup due to the wavelength used for CD-Rs. Don't bother using a DVD lens cleaning disk because they almost always don't work because DVD players lasers are fixed onto a movable plate known as a laser sledge. If the player doesn't regosnise the disk the slidge is lowered to protect the lens so the brushes on the disk wont tuch the lens making the cleaning disk useles, and in most cases the lasers are mounted much further away from the disk surface than in CD players so even if the sledge was up the brushes still wouldn't reach the lens. The only effective way of cleaning the laser is by taking the top of the player off, the laser modual is usually covered by a protective piece of plastic with a plastic spindal on it which helds the top of a DVD when it is spinning. Remove this and clean the lens with a cotton woll bud using the solution that comes with laser cleaning disks (the disk is useles but the Solution is not) But be warned - do not press hard - turn the power off And don't do it if the player is under Warranty !!!! It's up to you be careful you have been warned!
Contory to popular belief the players need more power in the laser to produce the larger wavelength neccessory to read CD-Rs and CD-RW's. The old fassioned method of making a player read CD-Rs was actually to increase the voltage over the laser sometimes done at the same time as updating the software or installing a chip to make a player region free. Many old players actually harmed CD-R disks as the lasers were so very strong when producing larger wavelengths neccessory to read CD-Rs.

3) The sledge positioning and/or JITTER information needs to be reset. This would be done in the setup / supervisor / engineer menu (usually hidden from users) It will reset the sledge angel for CDR's and also update the Jitter information. This information needs to be reset over time as parts of the player begin to ware out - e.g. the motor barings will eventually ware down so the disk will not spin perfectley smooth hence why jitter correction is needed. This will effect CD-R playback first as the disks spin faster than DVDs because the information is not stored as densley as in DVD. That is of course of your machine was sold as a machine that could read CD-Rs. If was not sold as a machine which could read CD-Rs then it may have been luck that it read them before.

I'm afraid from experience that I suspect the laser has gone. I could not believe it when the Sony enginer told me that the life of a Dual Focusing lense is usually only around 1000 hours and that my player was effectivly useles!!!!!!! Most lenses are made by only one or two manafactures in the world. Usually Matsushita Electric Industrial Co as with almost everything with a chip in it!!! Hope this helps - give cleaning the lense a try or see if CD-RW's work.