[MacDV] DVD player "cleaning"?

[R B Williams]

No, they shouldn't croak so quickly but they can easily get dirty. I've found that
compressed air does a better job than the disk with microfiber "brushes" imbedded in
them any day. The same holds true for cd-rom or dvd computer drives. Just remove the
outer shell and blow out visible dust. It won't harm the mechanism and often takes care
of the problem. What you don't want to do is scratch the lens itself with kleenex or
some other abrasive material.

On the flipside, players are incredibly cheap and the digital-analog chip in a new DVD
can compensate for read errors much better than those produced even 18 months ago. They
also handle the higher bit rates that iDVD dishes out easier.

R.B.

Steven Rogers wrote:

> Lately, I've been having trouble playing burned DVDs on my DVD player
> (Sony DVP-S560D). At first, I thought it had something to do with my
> Mac, but now I'm starting to see the problem with commercial disks. The
> main symptom is that the player gets "lost" while playing the disk, and
> particularly when changing menus, and flashes the wonderfully user
> friendly "C:13:00" which means "disk is dirty". But of course, it
> isn't. My DVD-Rs play fine on the Mac, and they used to play fine on
> the DVD player, but what used to be an occasional drop-out has turned
> (in about a 6 month period) into almost unplayable DVD-Rs.
>
> I've heard those DVD player "laser cleaning" devices are a hoax, but
> I'm starting to get desperate. DVD players are so cheap, I'm not sure
> its worth it to have the thing professionally serviced. Anyone have any
> experience with this sort of thing? The player is maybe 3 years old -
> do DVD players croak that quickly?
>
> Thanks,
> SR
>
> ----------
> <http://www.themacintoshguy.com/lists/MacDV.html>.
> Send a message to <MacDV-DIGEST at themacintoshguy.com> to switch to the digest version.
>
>  XRouter | Share your DSL or cable modem between multiple computers!
> Dr. Bott | Now $139.99      <http://www.drbott.com/prod/xrouter.html>
>
>    Cyberian   | Support this list when you buy at Outpost.com!
>    Outpost    |         http://www.themacintoshguy.com/outpost.shtml
>
> MacResQ Specials: LaCie SCSI CDR From $99! PowerBook 3400/200 Only $879!
> Norton AntiVirus 6 Only $19! We Stock PARTS! <http://www.macresq.com>