SONY DVP-S550D Read Problems (1 Viewer)

[Checkmate1996]

Folks,

I have had the above mentioned DVD player for about 3.5 years. Up to recently, it seems to be more of a struggle to play my old and new dvds lately. I seem to get the c 13 00 error more frequent. I look at my DVDs and they have barely any scratches on them. Could my laser be going bad? dirty? Any thoughts would be great!

Thanks,
Brad

 

[TommyLov]

Other owners of this model have reported this same problem. Also, the S360, which was produced the same year as yours, is prone to the same problems. Apparently, this was just a bad series of players from Sony. There is a calibration you can perform that *might* help.

http://www.audioreview.com/DVD,Playe...3_1587crx.aspx

 

[Checkmate1996]

Thanks for the reply. I am going to try that tonight. I'll let you know if I have any success.

Regards,
Brad

 

[Checkmate1996]

Folks,

Just wanted to write back and say the article was very interesting. However, I don't think it fixed the problem. I think the read head is shot. Anyone know of how to get the parts to fix yourself? or approximate $$ of having someone fix it? I can't afford right now to drop $400 on the new denon...just yet.:frowning:

 

[Checkmate1996]

...part 2...

Just called my local Sony Service center and he said the optical heads generally go out between 200-300+ hours. I checked mine and I have 250+ hours on the head. Approximately $200 to fix. OUCH! I'm half way to a new denon!! BTW, he's NEVER heard of ROM upgrade for this unit. Go figure.

 

[Angelo.M]

Apparently, this was just a bad series of players from Sony.

Not so fast. I think you should take anything from Audioreview.com with at least a pound of salt. If something works well, and you love it, you might not go out of your way to write about it on some Web review board. But, if you've had a bad experience, and you're feeling a bit disgruntled, then you tell the world.

I have a 550 and my brother has the model from the same year minus the on-board decoder (350, I think). Both have been going strong since 1998, and both have well over 300 hours of use. There were some issues with these models (the earliest iteration had a sync problem) but these were and are terrific DVD players.

 

[Checkmate1996]

I agree, I love my player. It's got all the bells and whistles that I need and has a great picture. That's why I'm reluctant to buy a new one however, cost justifying it maybe the case at the rate of fixing it...I'll keep ya posted..