Current and former Proscan / RCA DVD owners please read. (1 Viewer)

[Philip Hamm]

Here's what my Proscan has started doing:
Every now and then when decoding a 2.0 or 1.0 soundtrack such as a commentary or music 2.0 track, it will make a loud "pop" from all my speakers. This is very disconcerting and I am afraid may be damaging my speakers! Nothing else does this, only DVD 2.0 and 1.0 tracks, and only occasionally, not reproducable.
The other night I was watching the Dave Matthews Band concert DVD and it "pop"ed, then the video froze up! I had to unplug the friggin player to get it to start working again!!

This could be a mastering or compatability problem, as with some few DVDs, but I'm concerned. I really can't afford a new DVD player right now, but I may need to buy one. Am I looking at the end of the road for this machine or just being unlucky? Have any of you seen these problems? The DVD player is hooked through a Powermax Rackmax conditioner.
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Philip Hamm
AIM: PhilBiker

 

[JohanK]

My brother's ProScan 8630Z (#???) drive will not stop spinning...VERY annoying.
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[Carol Curtis]

Philip, you were one of the people on the HTF that told me at the time to buy a Proscan dvd player which I ended up getting as a Xmas present. Sofar I've had no trouble at all with mine, nothing like your describing or even close to it has happened & I hope mine stays that way. Think it could be the way some new DVD's are written? Is it only happening on newer disc's? or old ones too? I hope you get it figured out & mine never starts doing it. As for money, think TAX REBATE CHECK I'm thinking of blowing mine on a new receiver

 

[Philip Hamm]

Well, I did some more experimenting last night. It popped and froze again during the DMB concert disc. Then Popped again on Paul McCartney's "The World Tonight".

It's 2 years old, I got it for $200 as a floor model. It came with at least $60 worth of Monster cables. It also came with $36 worth of free DVD rentals that I used. And 5 free discs, none of which I would have bought. The picture is still very impressive! I'm going to stick it out to the bitter end. Note: it has NO PROBLEMS WHATSOEVER with DTS 5.1 playback, or as far as I can remember, DD5.1. It's only DD2.0/1.0 and some menu lockup (documented mastering incompatability). We'll see........
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Philip Hamm
AIM: PhilBiker

 

[Matt DeVillier]

Philip,
out of curiousity, why are you listening to the DMB concert in 2.0 as opposed to 5.1?

 

[Philip Hamm]

Because I don't like the 5.1 mix. I listened to the first coule songs in 5.1 and preferre3d the 2.0 mix.
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Philip Hamm
AIM: PhilBiker

 

[Philip Hamm]

OK good news. I think the DVD player is fine. The "pop"ping is nothing but a brief dropout if I use the analog outs instead of my external decoder. This has happened since the piece was new occasionally with DD2.0 and 1.0 tracks - and is documented.
The freezing has happened on a handful of discs (2 or 3 of my 120+). Always the same discs have the problem.
I've been watching a lot of DVDs lateley, watched "Starship Troopers" last nihgt. Perfect dropout free 5.1 sound, absolutely undetectable layer change (hey there is no layer change in that movie is there.

). No freezing dropout or anything. And it plays 96/24 PCM DVDs fine. I think I'm fine. Great, because the picture/downconversion on this thing is freaking KING and the layer changes are seamless.
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Philip Hamm
AIM: PhilBiker

 

[Patrick Sun]

The only thing that indicates that my Proscan PS8680Z may be dying IC-wise is that it sometimes freezes out user control while playing CDs. I run into this a few times over the past couple of months as I've been doing more extensive listening of my DIY speakers. So I find myself skipping CD tracks backwards and forwards a lot, and once in a while the DVD player just freezes (while playing!) out the user control to chapter skip/pause/stop. I wind up having to rip out the AC cord, wait 5 minutes for the player to reset itself (somehow) and then plugging it back in, and it then behaves normally. The only music DVD I have is Mirrorball, and I tried listening in 5.1, but reverted back to the 2.0 track myself. I'll give it a spin and listen for the pops (can't remember if this happened in that past).
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