Topic: Help! is my DVD Player Dead?

[addicted2dvd]

I just went to pop in the next DVD for my Sandra Bullock marathon and I seem to be having a problem with the player! 

When I turn on the power I don't see any picture. I just still see the blue Video screen. after turning it off and on a few times I popped a disc in anyway. I get sound but no picture!

I checked all the connections. Everything is fine there... no loose wires or anything like that. I briefly pulled the plug (maybe 10 to 15 seconds).... plugged it back in... still the same.

I don't get it... just moments before I watched a movie on there with no trouble... looked great. And this was a movie I burned from an old recording.

I so can't afford another DVD player right now!

Anyone have any ideas?

[Najemikon]

Have you tried another disc, Pete? A retail one preferably, rather than one you burned. Also have you tested that disc in your computer? It might read there, but that doesn't necessarily mean its been completed so it's compatible with stand alone players.

do you have a second tv? If a bought disc still doesn't work test the player with another telly.

[addicted2dvd]

Yeah... The burned disc played beautifully... it is the movie I just reviewed.

I just popped in a store bought DVD that I have watched a couple times before. as well as my second choice. Nothing working.

But even when I first turn on the DVD player (no disc in the machine)... I don't even see the Philips screen that I normally see when I first turn on the player.

[addicted2dvd]

I just unplugged it... leaving it unplugged longer this time... hoping it will somehow reset itself or something.

[Najemikon]

Try another cable as well. In fact, yours is an rca connector isn't it (3 plugs at each end)? While it's on, unplug the yellow one.does the screen change at all?

You could also try swapping the yellow connection for one of the other two plugs, so long as the colours match at each end (switch the tv off first if you try that).

[addicted2dvd]

Try another cable as well. In fact, yours is an rca connector isn't it (3 plugs at each end)? While it's on, unplug the yellow one.does the screen change at all?

Nope... it don't change at all

You could also try swapping the yellow connection for one of the other two plugs, so long as the colours match at each end (switch the tv off first if you try that).

Will try it. I don't know if I have another cable to use right now.

I am about to go plug it back in see if it helped.

[Jimmy]

Phillips is a good brand of reader but they tend to grow old fast if you use them a lot. Every one I've own stop working between 1 1/2 and 2 years... But usually when mine did stop working the reading became more and more jerky, never got only a blue screen.

Looks like you will have to use your computer to watch your film for a while (even if I own a Blue-Ray player I use mostly my computer, so it isn't the end of the world). Check at your Walmart Pete, I'm sure they have some very cheap reader for less than 25$ (as temporary solution of course...).

[Eric]

Pete you don't need another cable to test what Jon suggested.  If you're using RCA cables you have 3 plugs, 2 are for sound (left/right) and one (usually yellow plug) is for video.  Jon wants you to make sure the video cable is good so he's suggesting to swap 2 plugs at each end.

Say your plugs are red, white and yellow.  Swap the red and the yellow plug at each end.  If you get your image back but loose sound on one side then you'll know it's your cable and not your dvd player.

[addicted2dvd]

After plugging it back in there was no change. Still no video what so ever.

I tried unplugging and plugging back in the yellow wire. Didn't help.

So as a last ditch effort I searched for another wire. And surprisingly I found one. So I switched the yellow wire... and It Worked! 

I just don't get it though! How could that wire go bad that fast. Worked perfectly with a beautiful picture one minute... no sooner I wrote my review... and popped in the next movie (matter of a few minutes)... it stopped working? That just don't make sense to me!

[addicted2dvd]

Pete you don't need another cable to test what Jon suggested.  If you're using RCA cables you have 3 plugs, 2 are for sound (left/right) and one (usually yellow plug) is for video.  Jon wants you to make sure the video cable is good so he's suggesting to swap 2 plugs at each end.

Say your plugs are red, white and yellow.  Swap the red and the yellow plug at each end.  If you get your image back but loose sound on one side then you'll know it's your cable and not your dvd player.

Thanks! obviously got it now. 

[Najemikon]

Pete you don't need another cable to test what Jon suggested.  If you're using RCA cables you have 3 plugs, 2 are for sound (left/right) and one (usually yellow plug) is for video.  Jon wants you to make sure the video cable is good so he's suggesting to swap 2 plugs at each end.

Say your plugs are red, white and yellow.  Swap the red and the yellow plug at each end.  If you get your image back but loose sound on one side then you'll know it's your cable and not your dvd player.

Thank you, Eric!

After plugging it back in there was no change. Still no video what so ever.

I tried unplugging and plugging back in the yellow wire. Didn't help.

So as a last ditch effort I searched for another wire. And surprisingly I found one. So I switched the yellow wire... and It Worked! 

I just don't get it though! How could that wire go bad that fast. Worked perfectly with a beautiful picture one minute... no sooner I wrote my review... and popped in the next movie (matter of a few minutes)... it stopped working? That just don't make sense to me!

Good news! When you said sound was ok, my gut feeling was the cable and if you didn't even get a flicker when you tried unplugging the video connection, that was even more convincing. When a DVD players starts to fail as Jimmy described, you will normally get either a gradual deterioration (interference, stuttering) across sound and picture, perhaps intermittent power/signal drop-outs, or a complete shutdown; on one minute, off the next. For sound to keep going, proved a great deal of the player was running fine.

As to why the cable failed? Maybe it got sick of transferring nothing but Bullocks! 

Seriously, maybe it's slightly corroded. Take a moment to give all the connections a polish. Do you have WD40 in the States? Anything like that, squirted on a cloth, give 'em a wipe.

[addicted2dvd]

Thanks Jon!

[Kathy]

I think your DVD player is just sick and tired of playing Sandra Bullock all the time!

[addicted2dvd]

Lets be fair now... this is the first time I have watched a Sandra Bullock movie in quite a while!

[Dragonfire]

I'm glad you were able to get it working again.