My player won't play burned discs anymore.

[uNderdog_101]

My DVD/HDD-recorder, https://www.videohelp.com/dvdrecorders/samsung-dvd-hr737/1627 , won't read burned discs properly anymore. It used to devour all discs with utter glee, but recently it has started giving errors like "this disc cannot be played or recorded" on discs that have worked perfectly in the past. Sometimes, after trying a few times, the discs will start and run perfectly fine, but only some discs will do this, others will not start at all, even if they've worked perfectly in the past.
It starts original discs just fine.
I only had the player for about 6 months.

[wabjxo]

What disc brand, speed and media code (if you know that)?

[aedipuss]

if it's still under warranty maybe return it. if not you could try cleaning it. the best way would be to open it up, but if you can't, try sucking out the dust out when the tray is open. (trying to physically clean the laser lens is not a good idea if you don't know what you're doing.)

other than that you could try one of those cleaning discs you can buy.

[uNderdog_101]

What disc brand, speed and media code (if you know that)?

I use these discs: http://www.sweburn.com/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=77 burned at around 12x, but those are not the only discs I've used, I've have discs burned with other brands as well.

[wabjxo]

If those Verbatim discs are the real deal, they're very good and you shouldn't be having any "fade" problems caused by the media. That leaves only a marginal burn by your DVDR that faded slightly to the unplayable side, or just some dust on your laser lens (or on the DVDs themselves). You can clean the lens with a Laser Lens Cleaner... disc with small brush on it. That's helped several people who thought their burners were bad and about to replace them.

I'd try the lens cleaner first, only $7 or so in the U.S. so cheapest shot at a cure.

(One female dust mite, so small we can't see, can block over 400 tracks on a DVD if on the laser lens... just to illustrate the power of dust! )

[uNderdog_101]

if it's still under warranty maybe return it. if not you could try cleaning it. the best way would be to open it up, but if you can't, try sucking out the dust out when the tray is open. (trying to physically clean the laser lens is not a good idea if you don't know what you're doing.)

other than that you could try one of those cleaning discs you can buy.

I've tried a cleaning disc, as well as hitting the tray with a couple of burst of compressed air, but the problem remains.
I've tried a factory reset, but I don't think I did it right since the clock didn't reset. I'm gonna try pulling the plug for an hour or so to see if it helps with resetting things.

I checked the "DVD-recorders - Fatal Flaws list", it said some Samsungs are cloned Panasonics, so I checked the Panasonic list, and error 6 (Authoring errors can cause discs to not play or copy" seemed slightly related, but wouldn't error 6 be an issue straight out of the box, and since my player could play all discs perfectly until recently I don't think that is the problem.

[uNderdog_101]

If those Verbatim discs are the real deal, they're very good and you shouldn't be having any "fade" problems caused by the media. That leaves only a marginal burn by your DVDR that faded slightly to the unplayable side, or just some dust on your laser lens (or on the DVDs themselves). You can clean the lens with a Laser Lens Cleaner... disc with small brush on it. That's helped several people who thought their burners were bad and about to replace them.

I'd try the lens cleaner first, only $7 or so in the U.S. so cheapest shot at a cure.

(One female dust mite, so small we can't see, can block over 400 tracks on a DVD if on the laser lens... just to illustrate the power of dust! )

Wouldn't the dust issue affect original discs as well? All original discs I've tried work fine.
Also, would the units fan spinning almost constantly aggravate the dust problem? My player is almost always on since the "auto-standby" feature resets to off when it actually goes into standby mode, thereby causing the player to be on until I remember to shut it off.

[jjeff]

My guess, and it's only a guess, is your player is going bad/out of spec. I know on a older dvd recorder I had, it stopped being able to record reliably first. It still played -r and commercial discs. After several months it stopped being able to play the -r discs, but commercials played just fine. I think that it's easier for a machine to playback commercial discs, with there burned in pits, than discs that you have recorded on a home recorder. Note you said that your machine was only 6 months old. Not sure about Sweden, but most machines I've seen here in the states, have a 1 yr warranty.

[wabjxo]

Wouldn't the dust issue affect original discs as well? All original discs I've tried work fine.
Also, would the units fan spinning almost constantly aggravate the dust problem? My player is almost always on since the "auto-standby" feature resets to off when it actually goes into standby mode, thereby causing the player to be on until I remember to shut it off.

You're right, dust on the lens should affect any disc to be played. Getting down to hard reset just in case, or a warranty repair?

[uNderdog_101]

Well, I pulled the plug on the player for a couple of hours for a good hard reset...that did absolutely nothing to help my problem.

Getting down to hard reset just in case, or a warranty repair?

Repair? Hell no, I'm getting a replacement.

[Kintara]

My DVD/HDD-recorder, https://www.videohelp.com/dvdrecorders/samsung-dvd-hr737/1627 , won't read burned discs properly anymore. It used to devour all discs with utter glee, but recently it has started giving errors like "this disc cannot be played or recorded" on discs that have worked perfectly in the past. Sometimes, after trying a few times, the discs will start and run perfectly fine, but only some discs will do this, others will not start at all, even if they've worked perfectly in the past.
It starts original discs just fine.
I only had the player for about 6 months.

Sorry, Bud, but your DVD HDD is knackered. I too had this problem and returned it for repair under warrenty. That was six months from new. Now the problems have started again. Last time they said it was the laser unit deteriorating and would have cost £120 to fix. Now it's going wrong again I suspect the durability of this is not too good. I'm extending the warrenty and will use this to get it fixed after Xmas. At £45 it's cheaper than paying for the repair myself.

Sorry to bring bad news, but I think this unit is not one of the best.

Kintara

[bengt39]

Hi Buddy

I have the same problem -
The Samsung DVD-HR737 doesnt play new DVDs 1-16X very well but its OK with older DVDs 1-8X and 1-4X

I have tested a lot of DVD-makes Fujifilm, Verbatim , TDK all writingspeed 1-16X 1 out of 5 Verbatim works teh other never works

I am making own movies and put them on DVDs and I have discovered this problem when I changed over to 1-16X DVDS. A friend had same player and same problem

If I burn on older 1-8X or 1-4X DVDs it works oK -

And now I have to use 1-4X RW rewritable Discs when storing movies if I want to play them on the Samsung DVD-HR737 as there are no 1-8X available any longer.
I have also a cheap 5 years old regionfree DVDplayer (Gemini) no problem at all to play 1-16X DVDs
Samsung has to correct this with a new firmware- help me push them !!

Samsung is good on screens but this was my first and last Samsungplayer- as their knowhow there seems limited -will go for a Gemin HDD next time ( Find then on NetonNet)

Ben

[uNderdog_101]

OK, so I'm gonna be returning this POC in the near future, hopefully for another player from a different brand.
Can anyone recommend a good name brand for me to change to, meaning Sony or Panasonic, not Lumatron or other obscure brands.

[lordsmurf]

Everybody is dancing around the topic. Lasers die, they have limited lifespans. Yours is dead, sorry. Happens to me too.

Only use good discs in the future. Crappy discs can wear a laser.

If you're a smoker, you give your equipment "lung cancer" and it dies much faster. Optics don't like smoke, it forms a tar just like lungs do.

Look into a Philips 3575, if it's sold over there.

[nestorap]

Hi, I'm pretty new at this so be patient. My son has a Cars TV/DVD Player that stopped playing backup Movies. I backup all his original movies in case he scratches them it won't really matter. The Backups gradually stopped playing but I found it interesting that the originals still worked flaulesly. Here is what I did:

I purchased a can of air from staples (you can find them almost anyware). I made sure i inserted the red extension nozzle. I ejected the dvd tray and inserted the red extension nozzle as far as I could and gave it several squirts of air. (4) I did make the mistake of not unpluging the tv/dvd player after I ejected the dvd tray but that is something I would advise anybody to do. I was suprised that after using a DVD lense cleaner 3 times without success that this accually worked fine. I was very happy that I didn't have to disasemble the tv/dvd player to get access to the lense and fisically clean it wich is what you can also do with the following instructions (make sure your waranty is expired before doing this):

Introduction
Is your DVD player malfunctioning? If you’re getting a no-disc error, you may need to clean the DVD player’s laser pickup. The laser pickup is what reads DVD's and allows you to view them on your TV. If you need to clean the laser pickup lens on a DVD player, follow these simple steps.
Instructions
Difficulty: Moderate
Things You'll Need
Isopropyl alcohol
DVD lens cleaner
Steps
1Step One: Make sure the laser pickup lens is actually the problem. There are a wide variety of reasons that a DVD player might not read a disc efficiently. The disc could be scratched or dirty, for example. Test the DVD player with a disc that you know works before trying to clean the lens.

2Step Two: Purchase or borrow a lens cleaner disc and try it first. You can find these things really cheap at any large department store. They usually get the job done well. However, you may need to clean the lens manually if the store-bought cleaner fails.

3Step Three: Remove the outer casing of the DVD player. Remove the screws that mount the top casing onto the bottom of the DVD player and slide the top casing off. This will expose the DVD deck, which houses the laser pickup lens.

4Step Four: Find the lens. The lens will be glass and under the DVD clamp. The lens will probably have a blue tint to it. If you are having trouble finding the lens, you could shine a light on the components and watch for the reflection.

5Step Five: Use a cotton swab and some isopropyl alcohol to gently wipe the lens. Just a quick scrub will do. Dry the laser pickup lens with the other end of the swab.

6Step Six: Give the lens a few seconds to dry and replace the covering of the DVD player. Test the efficiency of the player. If necessary, repeat the process.


I hope this helps. I'm sure the electronic Companies would love it if we replace our equiment with new ones every year especially if your waranty expired and there is also the fact that you may take your DVD player in to get fixed and either they will manually clean it for you and tell you that the laser had to be replaced and charge you an arm and a leg or some other lie so they can keep and your "busted" gear, resell it and pocket the profits.

God Bless you!!