Hdd Player Won't Play Discs

[Lulu77]

I have a well loved Toshiba HDD player which has been running fine until just recently any DVD we put in keeps bringing up the disc unsupported, scratched or dirty however the offending DVD's have been tried on other machines (rental from a shop, who checked the offending DVDs and rented them out to other people with no problems). We did have issues with the TV just before christmas and ended up replacing the freeview box, which resolved the issue until a couple of weeks later when we lost a load of channels due to poor signal (not a problem in the past).

Just checking to see if it could be anything stupid I have/haven't done or can resolve myself before taking the player to be fixed or forking out for a new one. Would appreciate any advice.

[Tuvok]

Could be the dvd part has packed up.

My fist dvd recorder got to the stage where it was fussy about what disks it would use. Ended up only liking Asda dvd-r, and fussy about dvd+rw disks.

One night I decided to see what dvd drive was in it - and found it was an ide drive.

Just happened to have a spare drive, so stuck that in.

Only thing with it is that if I use a used dvd+rw it only gives me the length of the previous recording unless I wipe the disk elsewhere.

You could try replacing the drive - might be cheaper than a new recorder!

[Tuvok]

Just out of curiosity, will it play cds?

[Old_Geezer]

I suspect your TV channel issue is unrelated.

Could be anything. The circuits/chips. The laser. My suggestion is to see how much it'd cost to get it even looked at and then decide whether to take it further or to bite the bullet and sling it.

Coincidently I have a similar issue with a large CRT monitor. It seems to have a minor issue but the cost of even looking at it means it sits in the corner of my room awaiting me to have the time to open it up ans try to spot something obvious. Long gone are the days of repair and get working again. Now it is all sling and buy new :-(

[bhg481]

Have you tried cleaning the DVD player? You can get special CDs with little brushes on which will clean the lens. It's worth a try. This sort of thing:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dvd%20cleaner&sprefix=dvd+cl%2Caps

[Lulu77]

The plot thickens, have tried cleaning the machine tried two rental discs on it (not re-writable or anything). One works perfectly, the second came up with the same message (unsupported/scratched/dirty).

Tuvok - how do I find out what drive I have?

[murraymints]

rental disks are notorious for causing problems as you are gathering dirt from countless other machines..always clean them before playing and always clean player afterwards....