help? 4 players in 3 years time

[AKORIS]

Hey guys, was hoping I could get some input from members here on what types of problems blu-ray players have--

Since Christmas of 2008 I have just now replaced a 3rd player-- 1 Panasonic, and 2 Sony's. The last 2 were from Costco so luckily they simply replaced them for me but now I feel unconfident about the longevity of any player...

the first player simply died and would not play discs at all, the 2nd 2 players would simply not read the discs (messages were cannot read disc or cannot play)

Yes, I checked many discs, it was all the same-- not a firmware issues on certain blu rays--

All I do is play movies, usually a typical movies length on a daily basis--the average time my players last are about 8 months!

Any ideas? Is there anything I could be doing wrong? What experiences have you all had in this regard?

thanks!!

[Ski31]

In my line of work, something like that is usually "User Error"
Maybe next player should be a PS3?

[Big-byrd]

i agree with getting a ps3, even if you dont game, its still one of the best out there. plus its upgradable to 3d if you want to go that route. just buy it from costco just incase.

[fdm]

Some things that come to mind:

Static. Do you ever notice getting shocked when touching your player? (Probably not, but I always touch something metal (the rack) whenever I approach my "stereo"). When/if you "dust", do you dust with something that may be causing static? (Me, I use a slightly wet cloth, seems to pick up the dust without causing much (if any) static.)

Smoke. If you or somebody in your house smokes, the optics in your player could be getting messed up fairly easily.

Dirty discs. Do you do a lot of rentals or buy used discs? If they're dirty/dusty, some of that crud could find its way into your player.

Dust. Is you player kept in a dusty area? Dust more often.

Power. Failing all of that, do you have a surge protector, or better yet a UPS, in place in case of power failures, lightning hits, brownouts, etc?

Otherwise, need to buy less junky players. Or keep buying them from Costco.

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by fdm

Some things that come to mind:

Static. Do you ever notice getting shocked when touching your player? (Probably not, but I always touch something metal (the rack) whenever I approach my "stereo"). When/if you "dust", do you dust with something that may be causing static? (Me, I use a slightly wet cloth, seems to pick up the dust without causing much (if any) static.)

Smoke. If you or somebody in your house smokes, the optics in your player could be getting messed up fairly easily.

Dirty discs. Do you do a lot of rentals or buy used discs? If they're dirty/dusty, some of that crud could find its way into your player.

Dust. Is you player kept in a dusty area? Dust more often.


Power. Failing all of that, do you have a surge protector, or better yet a UPS, in place in case of power failures, lightning hits, brownouts, etc?

Otherwise, need to buy less junky players. Or keep buying them from Costco.

thanks for the input so far-- I do dust my electronics, I don't rent usually though I have played a few NETFLIX dvd's in the player (though I only started doing that this past year so it would not have affected the other players). I do not have a surge protector-- I will buy one.
As for junky players-- I didn't buy Memorex or Vizio-- the Sony's have been in the 300 series range...

I will keep buying from Costco but I feel guilty exchanging them over and over again-- they will eventually think I'm "up to something" if this continues and I don't want it to--

has anyone else had players go bad with these symtoms??

[AKORIS]

one other question guys--- do you run firmware updates every 6 months to a year whether you need to or not?

could this be the reason my players start going bad?

[Moefiz]

Originally Posted by AKORIS

one other question guys--- do you run firmware updates every 6 months to a year whether you need to or not?

could this be the reason my players start going bad?

I try to run firmware updates has soon has I can, never had a problem after I had run them.

[BIslander]

Conversely, I have a Panasonic BD55 that I bought when they first came out two years ago and have never updated the firmware. I rent most discs rather than buy and it's played every disc without a problem, except for one Netflix rental that had a single bad spot. Sorry you've had such bad luck.

[nolfoc]

Ive had my Sony S550 since Nov. 2008 purchased at Best Buy and it has never given me any problems.. i dont think twice about purchasing another player

[Grand Bob]

I am also on my fourth player, and I haven't had too many problems, except for my first player, a Sony BDP-S1 - which was "not ready for prime time" when it was released. My current player (Sony BDP-570) has been flawless thus far. The good news is that the new players are better and faster, and only cost about $100 (as opposed to the BDP-S1, which was $1000).

[oppopioneer]

AKORIS, there could be many reasons why your bd players are not lasting. Let's try to find the source.

One of the reasons could be surges or "dirty power", are you in a densely urban area right in the city in a apartment or out in the suburbs in a single family house? Do you ever lose power when someone uses a vacuum? Has anyone else in your home experienced reliability issues with their plugin electronics? That can effect the electronics performance and their longevity.

What else do you have in your entertainment system? How many things plugged into that circuit outlet? Is it on a 15 amp or 20 amp circuit outlet? If it's on a 15 amp then you could be overloading the circuit, even too many things plugged into a 20 amp circuit can stress it. If you have a flatscreen tv, reciever pre/pro, amp, bd player, cable box or satellite tv, sub, speakers all plugged into one circuit outlet that's just too much on one outlet and can stress the circuit and performance of equipment, raise the noise floor etc. A amp and sub should be plugged into a dedicated circuit and nothing else. Connect your other equipment into a seperate dedicated circuit outlet, make sure all outlet circuits are all seperate dedicated and all on the same phase. Behind every entertainment center there should be alteast 3 seperate dedicated circuit outlets. I have 4 seperate dedicated 20 amp circuit outlets around my room I use that my electronics are evenly plugged into so not one circuit takes the brunt of it.

You should plug all your electronics into a surge eliminator, a good quality one like a SurgeX which doesn't use mov's, it uses patended Series Mode which eliminates surges.

You get what you pay for, if you buy cheap players then don't expect longevity. The PS3 and Oppo's are very reliable, I'd get either one of those.

You should download the latest firmware and update your player as soon as they are released. Depending on the company they are released at all different times, some companies like Oppo release one every few weeks, other companies only twice a year.