My RP91 has died now too. (1 Viewer)

[PatrickM]

My wife and son are watching a DVD and suddenly it stops and the DVD Logo screen comes up like someone hit stop. Now it won't do anything. I try to open the disc drawer and nothing. It says open but nothing happens and then it goes back to trying to read the disc but never gets past the second "O" on the units screen.

Tried to reset it and re-initialize it and still nothing. Can't even get the disc out. I had heard things about Panny's dying before. I hope this isn't the start of an epidemic.

Going to have to call Panny service tomorrow. Luckily there's a service center not far from here.

Patrick

 

[Richard_T]

Sorry to hear of your problems with your DVD player Patrick. Like you said, I hope it's not the start of another set of problems with the Panasonic DVD players. Fortunately, other than the problems I had with my player (which were fixed by the warranty, thank God!) I haven't had too many problems with mine. Hope you can get yours looked at. Has any one else had problems with their Panny players? :frowning:

 

[PatrickM]

What type of problems did you have Richard? The warranty should cover it since its one year parts and labour and I bought it in May. Luckily the Panasonic service depot is only a half hour drive from my house.

Patrick

 

[Howard_S]

Oh no. And you were just telling me about the RP91. Now it got me thinking of buying an extended warranty or something.

 

[Joseph S]

Expect a month.
Mine died in late Sept/Early October and I only got it back two weeks ago. :frowning:

 

[PatrickM]

Well, I decided to try it again after a few hours and lo and behold it works now. I put in another disc that people have had problems with (Dinosaur) and it works perfectly.

I've tried it for awhile and its still working. I'm going to try it some more tomorrow to see if I can make it break down again.

Only one thing worse than a problem with the unit, an intermittent problem with the unit.

Patrick

 

[Myram]

Patrick.......How do you have it mounted in your rack? Is there enough clearance around the machine to allow heat to escape? Sounds to me like it was overheated and went into an auto-protect mode. Then after it cooled down for a couple of hours it worked find again.
Hopefully this is not a trend that is starting with the RP-91.......mine will be here this afternoon:frowning:

 

[KeithH]

Patrick, Steven brings up a good point. Do you have enough headspace above the 'RP91 to allow it to breathe? When I first set up my Sony DVP-C670D DVD changer, I only had about an inch of headspace above it, and in the middle of a DVD that had been playing for about an hour, the player just shut off. However, I was able to turn it back on immediately and remove the disc. The disc was quite warm, but all player functions were normal. I increased the headspace by a few inches and have never had another problem with the player.

 

[PatrickM]

Steven & Keith,

Thanks for the pointer but if it did overheat it wasn't due to spacing. Its alone by itself on a shelf. I have one of those open racks that is supported at the sides and back with tons of open air around it. It has at least 8 inches above it and its pretty open at the back, front and sides. The temperature in my theater is quite constant and cool. Probably around 69 degrees or so.

If it is overheating then its a problem with the DVD player. I also have surge protection and the power in B.C. is very good and constant.

Hopefully it doesn't happen again or if it does, it stays that way so the techs can fix it.

Patrick

 

[David Head]

Patrick,

You might want to check the disc that had problems for dirt, scratches, hair, fingerprints, etc. I have had similar problems a couple of times and have read posts from others too. In each of these cases, everything worked fine once the disc was cleaned (mild soap and a soft cloth). I've read that the Panasonic players are more sensitive to these types of things...

David

 

[KeithH]

David, interesting. However, I wouldn't expect the player to stop playing and not release the disc if it were just a matter of a scratch or a fingerprint. I would expect the player to skip (mistracking), but not do what Patrick's player did. Admittedly, I am not an expert with Panasonic players. I do have the Technics DVD-A10 DVD-Audio player, which preceded the 'RP91, and it has never done what Patrick observed. However, I only use it for DVD-Audio, and my discs are very well cared for. I've never thrown a rental DVD in it, for example.

 

[PatrickM]

David,

I checked the disc once I was able to get it out and its clean and mark free just like the rest of my discs.

This problem I had is very unusual. Its almost like there was a brown out or power surge that caused it to go wonky.

Today I've played five different discs in it and played it continuously for 3 hours and its still operating fine.

Patrick

 

[John Geelan]

My RP91 pixelated badly on "Shrek" last week but that was caused by fingerprints on the dvd from my wife/kids who were fooling with the disc. Tsk-tsk...
After a wash with soap and water it was as good as new.
So the Panny may be sensitive to dirt etc..
Anytime a dvd player acts up make sure to unpug it from the wall then plug it back in as that usually corrects certain malfunctions.
JohnG

 

[David Head]

Keith,

I also thought the player should just skip when it encountered problems like I described, but my player froze up exactly like Patrick's did. I have had this happen twice; both times on rental discs. I had read about this earlier, so I turned off the player for a while (maybe 15 minutes) before turing it back on and ejecting the disc. Once I cleaned the discs, they played fine.

I've enjoyed both Panasonic players I've had (I also had an A110 that died) because of the great picture and easy to use remote, but I've decided to go with another brand when I get a progressive player in the future...

David

 

[Scott-C]

This problem I had is very unusual. Its almost like there was a brown out or power surge that caused it to go wonky.

If you're able to positively identify the problem, please do post it here. I'd be interested to hear what the cause of it was.

Thanks!

 

[GlennH]

However, I wouldn't expect the player to stop playing and not release the disc if it were just a matter of a scratch or a fingerprint.

Actually, this does seem to be a "feature" of this player. I've posted about this in other threads, but I'll repeat it here.

The biggest problem I've had yet with my RP91 was with a borrowed copy of UNBREAKABLE. At some point in the movie it started pixelizing and stuttering periodically. There was no obvious dirt or scratches. Later it got worse until it completely froze up. The screen displayed a message to the effect that the "tray is locked" (no mention of such a message anywhere in the user's manual). It was impossible to eject the disc or even turn off the player with the power button. The only remedy was to physically pull the plug on the unit. Then reinserting the plug everything cleared out and the disc tray would open again.

This particular DVD would play perfectly on two other DVD players and my DVD-ROM. I later borrowed another copy of UNBREAKABLE from a co-worker and it played perfectly on the RP91.

I've not seen anything like this on any other discs.

My conclusion is that this model may be very tempermental with certain discs for whatever reason, and it may totally freak out when that happens.

 

[PaulKH]

Between the image being shifted over on most RP91's, and discs getting stuck, and weakness with video material among other things, I'm beginning to wonder if the RP91 is worth it - it is after all almost twice as expensive as players like the Toshiba 4700 and JVC 75. My unit arrives tomorrow, so I'll soon be able to compare it to the 4700.

 

[PatrickM]

Even though my unit works now I decided to speak to a Panasonic service rep here in Vancouver after reading the thread about a new firmware version.

I told him about what happened and he suggested I bring it in for them to look at the optical pickup and to get the firmware upgrade as a minimum while its still under warranty so I'm probably going to bring it in. They said it would only take a day or so.

Patrick