Panasonic DMR-ES15 DVD Drive Intermittently Works

[alitek12]

Hello,

I recently found a Panasonic DMR ES15 at a thrift store and heard that these devices are great for video passthrough, but I'd like to use its DVD drive for recording VHS video. Interestingly, this unit doesn't suffer from the U61 error, but instead it intermittently reads discs. Majority of the time the unit displays a "No Disc" error. When it displays this error, it seems like the laser transport isn't even trying to read the disc at all, which sometimes leads to the unit trying to read a disc even when the tray is open. But when it does work, it is able to perfectly function and do everything including play record and finalize discs. So this makes me believe that the issue isn't the laser, but maybe the transport. Has anybody experienced this issue where the DVD drive intermittently works? Help would be appreciated.

I'd like to add that I notice circular scratches on the disc after inserting the DVD, hopefully that will serve as helpful info.