4k Player or Disc Issue?

[chad3w]

Hey. I currently have the basic Panasonic UB-150 4k Blu Ray Player. I bought it in 2020 and have used it frequently over the last four years.

Now I am having trouble with a couple of discs reading as incompatible. The first disc was the Titanic 4k from 2023. When I purchased the disc, it played with no issue, but I wanted to watch it about a month ago, and when I did, that's when I received the first message on my player that "disc is incompatible." When I took out the disc and looked at it, it looked almost as if it had a puncture.

See picture here:

https://imgur.com/a/damaged-disc-cGErNoF

Being new to any kind of player issue, I chalked it up to my error. Perhaps I had put the disc on an angle and it got caught in the player somehow. Or I had something on my hands that somehow caused the laser to "skip" (?). Usually tho, I am pretty good about carefully inserting disc and not touching underside.

A month then past and I watched many films without issue....until a few nights ago when I tried to watch Classic Flix's "Raw Deal" Blu-ray. When I inserted the disc, it would not read and said disc is incompatible.

However, the disc looked fine and I tried 5 other films and they worked. So I cleaned the Raw Deal Blu-ray and it actually played and I watched the film all the way through, and figured it was simply unclean.

But last night, I inserted the film again out of curiosity and it would not read, and refused to be read by the player after 5-8 tries.... until this morning when I tried the disc and it works. And it also works on my PS4 btw.

Firmware is up to date, I also unplugged the power to the machine last night. However, it did not work after restarting the player then.

Therefore, a few questions:

1. Does this sound like a player or disc issue? My gut is that it is the player but not sure if I should overlook issue.

2. If a player is suddenly reading discs as "disc is incompatible", is there any risk you run in potentially damaging future discs by continuing to use the player?

3. If I were to buy a new player, I am contemplating the Panasonic UB420 (within my desired price range). Would you say, regardless of the TV I have, the 420 is a "notable" upgrade over the 150 in terms of picture quality/color grading, or would it be minor?

The HDR Optimizer appeals to me as I watch a lot of Boutique Blu-rays like Criterion, etc. also. I'm not sure if I should stick with the player or simply get a new one and keep the original as a backup.

Thank you for any help.