Seeking: Robust DVD player

[jacob]

My $13 Walmart player has a hard time compensating for scratched DVDs. I don't know how such things work, but I suspect it goes into hunt&seek mode whenever it misses the beat too much (perhaps longer than a few ms?). Instead of just jumping ahead a few seconds. It's just whirring forever, spinning up and down, and it's possible to hear the laserhead moving around.

Conversely, problematic DVDs play just fine on my old 2009 macbook pro. They might not even show the glitch at all or skip over it too fast to notice. Maybe that has better software or hardware?

I'd like to get a new DVD player (as opposed to hooking up the laptop to the TV) but I don't know what to search/look for to get this robustness.

Anyone?

[CS]

Apple sells stand alone DVD players. I have one - it's nice, but I haven't tried a scratched DVD in it. USB connection.

I don't know if apple quality has gone in the DVD players or not since 2009. Someone else might be more of an expert.

Edit - I take that back. It probably has to be hooked up to an apple computer, not a TV. Nevermind!

[Alphaville]

I don’t know what goes into such mechanisms, but ages ago I bought a refurbished Sony BR/DVD player on Amazon for something like $30, when alternatives were selling for something like $150, and it’s always been great.

I would assume better quality players were made in an earlier era when they were the centerpiece of the “home theatre.” So I’d still look for refurbished model rather than a cheaply made new one.

[OTCW]

Try burning the scratched disc to a clean dvd and seeing if it will play in the old dvd player.

Past that, I have a Sony SR510H that I bought about a year ago for $40. Upscales DVDs to near HD if you use an hdmi cable to connect to your tv.

[SavingWithBabies]

A blu-ray player has components that need to read smaller areas and deal with scratches more strongly. So it stands to reason that a blu-ray player will likely read scratched discs better than a regular DVD player. I expect there are variances in how they are made and older might not necessarily be better in this case (my gut is actually newer would be better and a lower end one wouldn't be a negative). I'd try an inexpensively acquired used blu-ray player. Pre-covid, I was seeing used blu-ray players at our local resale stores. So they have been out long enough to enter the waste stream.

Update: after reading some more, not so sure I'm right about this. I think a Blu-ray player will still use two separate lasers (one for DVD, one for BR). I think this is too much of an edge case to make a solid general recommendation. So I give my suggestion about a luke-warm "maybe". I still think the hardware in a BR might be better so I'd still put my money on a BR player working better but I my wager would be relatively small .

Discussion here is interesting: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/317 ... -DVD-drive

But not sure if you want to go down the rabbit hole of using a computer blu-ray drive (can always buy one and put in a 5.25" external enclosure and hook up to a laptop via USB or another method depending on your equipment).

[Gilberto de Piento]

I have an old sony DVD only player. It does ok with scratches but not better than the old Blu-ray player/DVD burner built into my old laptop.

Many of my old ripped/burned DVDs now hang up. Not sure why, they don't look scratched.

Maybe rip all the DVDs onto your hard drive if you have space and play them that way.