DVD Lens Cleaner (1 Viewer)

[Ike]

Did a search, couldn't come up with any threads. I figured this goes in the Basics area....

The first stand alone player I bought know has problems with skipping after extended periods of play, or on just some discs. It'll begin hiccuping, and if you go back to the spot it had problems with, it won't repeat it. The same disc will play fine on my other player.

Also, another weird anomaly, is that it once read CD-R's, but now won't at all.

It's been in the bottom of the pile in my cabinet, and it's probably pretty dusty. Should I pull it out, give it a dust off, and use a lens cleaner? Or are lens cleaners just bogus, and the player is just exhibiting it's age?

I was mainly looking at these: An Alsop, A Discwasher, maybe this more expensive one, which can do optimization tests, or this one.

If lens cleaners are the answer, which of these would work for me?

 

[John Garcia]

I don't think a lens cleaner will solve this problem. IMO, these cleaner things are just a gimmick. Two of my DVD players are 6 and 5 years old, and I have never had to clean either. My old, OLD, CD player is 9+ years old and also has never needed any kind of cleaning.

This player with the problems wouldn't happen to be a Panasonic A110 or A310?

 

[Ike]

This player with the problems wouldn't happen to be a Panasonic A110 or A310?

No, it's a Samsung something or other.

 

[John Garcia]

Oh. I know the A110 and 310 had some issues at one point. I have an A300 1st gen - no problems still, but my 110 would run for about 1/2hr then just freeze, never the same spot, on most discs. Sounded very similar. My Sony 560 is just starting to show the occasional error, at about 4-1/2 yrs old, but it is hanging in there.

 

[Geoff L]

I had 2 friends that had DVD players that started to frezze & or hiccup. Took a laser lens cleaner (Maxall brand 11.00) to it and they both work fine now.

Bottom line it won't hurt to try as it worked for both these lower end players, and they both where in a smokey or dusty envirorments for a year or so before the problems started. It continued to get worse as time went on, till one actually would not play at all.

Gimmick or not, they are playng DVD's again where as they would not before!
Some DVD manuals do mention cleaning the laser lens after every 10 to 20-hrs or so of play, interesting that they would mention that if it truly is a gimmick.

Regards
Geoff

 

[cineMANIAC]

I've got a 4-year-old high-end Denon DVD player that refuses to play anything. It reads "Disc Error -- Playback may not be available on this disc -- Please eject disc". I've considered trying a lens cleaner before I take the thing to a repair shop, but a) It can't be this simple and b) I don't believe that a lens cleaner actually works. Has anyone had any real success with them?

 

[CB750]

As far as I see two things happen to DVD players and Read/Write DVD's installed in PC. The lens can get dirty and in that case a lens cleaner disk may help. If the disc read lens goes out of alignment it will no longer read DVD's or CD's In that case especially in PC's it's cheaper to buy an new burner that it is to have it repaired.