OT DVD troubleshooting

[Lucky161]

I got a new TV delivered last night and it works great. However the new DVD player I bought a couple of months ago and just now hooked up stops during play, sometimes even to the point of the screen going black. I rented two DVDs, one that I had never seen and another that I've seen several times for comparison. The problem occurs on both of them. Do I just have a bad DVD player or is something else causing this?

[brickyard1911]

Sounds like the DVD player to me.

[Bombardier R142]

Try cleaning the lens. You can use a CD player lens cleaner if you have one. That fixed a different problem for me (player couldn't read some disks) but it couldn't hurt.

Good Luck!

[mnkywrch]

If you can return it you may as well.

[Jim Wilke]

I rented two DVDs, one that I had never seen and another that I've seen several times for comparison.

A couple of other possibilities:

1. Rental DVDs are notoriously dirty. They are mishandled by a hundred clowns before they get to you. You might try to clean them with a little Windex or some other thin, safe cleaner. Better yet, try a DVD from your own collection that hasn't been viewed many times.

2. It is possible that you may have some conflicts between your new TV and your old player. If you can, try the player with an other TV and see if you can duplicate the problem. If it doesn't happen, then look at the setup menus and try a few things, see if you have progressive scan enabled on the DVD but not the set, try and switch off some of the automatic picture controls. Try and hook the DVD player into a different input and make sure you don't have 2 sources feeding the same input at once, get the cable or DBS into a separate input.

Try a few things before you take the DVD player back. You'll feel pretty silly if the same thing happens with a different unit. OTOH, there are a lot of really cheap Chinese DVD players on the market and if you have one of the $49 specials, it would not be unheard of for you to have trouble.

[Lucky161]

Thanks for the ideas. Yes, it's one of those el cheapo model and I expect it's bad, but at least you folks gave me some other things to look for before returning it.

[KevMcNJ]

Try cursing at it.

Wont fix it but you will feel better.

Works every time.

[Micki]

Originally posted by KevMcNJ
Try cursing at it.

Wont fix it but you will feel better.

Works every time.

Cursing at it is a very important part of diagnosing the problem.

My father tought me that after the formal cursing and blathering and throwing the tool phase, one has a clear mind, and often sees the problem in a new light.

It often works for me, if I don't damage myself during the tyrade...

[R_Mears_Fan]

Try one of your home DVDs first before you really try to do anything. Like Jim said, those rentals are iffy sometimes. If you have the same problem, try cleaning the player. If that doesn't work, go buy a new one. repairing it just won't be worth the money.

[boileracin]

Check to make sure that your tv has a set-up for a RF Modulator. DVD players need to have a RF Modulator to present a proper picture. Most new tv's should have this aleady set-up, but it's worth checking.