New DVD player (LG RH1999H) thinks discs are "unknown discs" - h

[Dave&Nina]

Our semi-new LG RH1999H will not play a number of DVD's that we get from our local video store. It's really strange as it will play some DVD's but tonight we hired 4 (after 3 trips to the store) and only 1 worked. What seems to happen is that it spends a lot of time "reading" the disc before either spitting it out or saying "unknown disc". We have had this DVD player/recorder since around August last year - and it was sold to us as being one of the best.

We thought maybe the store was hiring out dodgy DVD's however they took one of the DVD's and played it in their ageing Panasonic so we know the disc works. We even bought a DVD cleaner disc (and wasted $20 because it still won't play!).

We have reset the recorder and also double checked that we did not have the rating system on but this hasn't worked

We would be so grateful if any advice could be provided or if anyone else has had a similar experience with this LG model.

Thanks from sunny Melbourne

Dave & Nina

[roncaster]

Hi Dave & Nina,
We moved from South Africa to NZ and found that our LG C6230 does the same It does not recognize Mp3, JPEG and music files anymore...only about 1.5 years old.
Your problem might be the regional setting that is out...?
Cheers,
Roncaster

[Ai Haibara]

Dave&Nina: have you checked the 'problem' DVDs to make sure they don't have any scratches, dirt, or fingerprints?

[pelm]

Hi Dave & Nina

I also have a RH1999H DVR with the same problem. I bought it in October last year here in South Africa. It plays its own recorded disks without any problem, but the moment you try to view a purchased or rented DVD, most (nearly all) of them return with an "unknown disk" error on the display, after attempting to read the disk for what feels like an age. The disks I own are all in mint condition with barely a scratch on their surface. However, when I bought a brand new DVD movie with not a sign of a scratch on the surface, and the player refused to read it at all, I knew there had to be a more serious problem within the machine itself.

Bottom line: I sent the machine back to the shop I purchased it from under gaurantee, who sent it back to LG for repair. I still havn't received it back, but I have got feedback that LG are waiting for a replacement part. It thus seems that LG did find a faulty part in my machine. It has been in their possession for three weeks now, which leads me to believe that the part they are waiting for is in short supply, most likely because it is a common problem with this model. Your posting seems to confirm my aforementioned presumption.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Martin.

[roncaster]

I fixed my machine myself!
Blown it out through the video and dvd loading tray's with the vacuum cleaner on blow....It works like a charm and read any DVD, CD copied DVD, CD, mp3 etc.

[hardymaritz]

Hi Dave & Nina
Bottom line: I sent the machine back to the shop I purchased it from under gaurantee, who sent it back to LG for repair. I still havn't received it back, but I have got feedback that LG are waiting for a replacement part. It thus seems that LG did find a faulty part in my machine. It has been in their possession for three weeks now, which leads me to believe that the part they are waiting for is in short supply, most likely because it is a common problem with this model. Your posting seems to confirm my aforementioned presumption.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Martin.

Martin - just created a profile to reply to you.

I have the same machine - same problem.

Returned to my retailer 3 weeks back - they called yesterday to say that the DVD drive needed replacing, but due to a stock issue, LG would take a further 6 weeks to get a replacement ex Dubai.

My store however has an agreement with its suppliers that forces them to replace the item if a repair while under warranty cannot be completed in 21 days.

So - they gave me a new machine yesterday - but I suspect you are going to be waiting at least 6 weeks if my info is correct.

Finally - our machine started the reading now and then in November last year - we tried cleaning and all the other tricks - eventually in February it stopped playing all DVDs, but would still play CDs happily.

LG diagnosed a faulty DVD player and thus need to replace the entire DVD/CD unit.