DVD player not working ... suggestions?

[Tone Malone]

Folks,

 

My Pioneer DV-373 DVD player is showing most of the icons on the display panel when I turn it on and the tray still opend, but it is otherwise unresponsive. Perhaps after almost 15 years of faithful service it decided to give up the ghost after hearing me talk about replacing it with an Oppo or Marantz universal disc player. Or it could've been the fuse in the house going earlier today ...

 

The manual and an internet browse proved fruitless as to what might have gone wrong.

 

Any thoughts from the more technical folk on whether it is cactus or an easy fix?

 

Despite my thoughts about a new player that plays SACD, it wasn't quite the plan to purchase one first thing in the new year, and as a CD spinner I'm sure the Pioneer still kicks the butt of the budget Bluray players out there.

[JSmith]

18 minutes ago, Tone Malone said:

Or it could've been the fuse in the house going earlier today ...

Yes, but maybe not for the reasons you are suspecting... maybe going off standby has re-set something.

 

If it was the power supply, then you would have a dead player more than likely. The fact the tray opens and the display lights up is promising.

 

How do you have the player connected, via composite (RCA yellow) or component (RGB)? What is it connected to and at what resolution, i.e. 480i, 576i or 480p? From what I recall these players would only output a progressive signal at 480.

 

If it turns out to be buggered, well 15 years is a very good run.

 

JSmith

[Dean Gale]

Folks,
 
My Pioneer DV-373 DVD player is showing most of the icons on the display panel when I turn it on and the tray still opend, but it is otherwise unresponsive. Perhaps after almost 15 years of faithful service it decided to give up the ghost after hearing me talk about replacing it with an Oppo or Marantz universal disc player. Or it could've been the fuse in the house going earlier today ...
 
The manual and an internet browse proved fruitless as to what might have gone wrong.
 
Any thoughts from the more technical folk on whether it is cactus or an easy fix?
 
Despite my thoughts about a new player that plays SACD, it wasn't quite the plan to purchase one first thing in the new year, and as a CD spinner I'm sure the Pioneer still kicks the butt of the budget Bluray players out there.

R.I.P. Pioneer buy An Oppo avoid Marantz like the plague.

[Tone Malone]

Thanks for the replies. JSmith you're right, it owes me nothing and has been a great player. For the record, I have it set up as RCA yellow. Have tried unplugging it and resetting it (holding power button for 10 seconds) but makes no difference. It has a strange 7 symbol on the display  (maybe the closest it can show to a question mark?) ... I'm wondering if a power spike has reset it to a point where it is no longer set to a region. Any thoughts on it being set up for RCA vs RGB?

 

Deano, would be keen to know more about your (and anyone's) thoughts on Oppo v Marantz and reasons for avoiding the latter? ... I get the impression Oppo is edging out Marantz in reviews of UDPs but I have a Marantz 8005 amp and it's serving me pretty well. If it's a close run thing I'd probably end up going for matching components. 

[magical]

8 hours ago, DEANO23 said:

10 hours ago, Tone Malone said:

Folks,
 
My Pioneer DV-373 DVD player is showing most of the icons on the display panel when I turn it on and the tray still opend, but it is otherwise unresponsive. Perhaps after almost 15 years of faithful service it decided to give up the ghost after hearing me talk about replacing it with an Oppo or Marantz universal disc player. Or it could've been the fuse in the house going earlier today ...
 
The manual and an internet browse proved fruitless as to what might have gone wrong.
 
Any thoughts from the more technical folk on whether it is cactus or an easy fix?
 
Despite my thoughts about a new player that plays SACD, it wasn't quite the plan to purchase one first thing in the new year, and as a CD spinner I'm sure the Pioneer still kicks the butt of the budget Bluray players out there.

Read more  

R.I.P. Pioneer buy An Oppo avoid Marantz like the plague.

Absolutely right. The laser systems on a DVD player work really hard, and that one must be over 10years or more, retire it and get an Oppo, they seem to have great reliability, but then I haven't watched a disc in the last 6 months, I'm more a music listener/player.

[JSmith]

10 hours ago, Tone Malone said:

Thanks for the replies. JSmith you're right, it owes me nothing and has been a great player. For the record, I have it set up as RCA yellow. Have tried unplugging it and resetting it (holding power button for 10 seconds) but makes no difference. It has a strange 7 symbol on the display  (maybe the closest it can show to a question mark?) ... I'm wondering if a power spike has reset it to a point where it is no longer set to a region. Any thoughts on it being set up for RCA vs RGB?

Ok, so the yellow RCA can only take an interlaced signal.

 

Is it possible the player has been changed to a progressive output?

 

Try this just in case as if progressive scan has been selected then there is no output at all from the composite RCA video connection;

 

Switch the player to standby then, using the front panel controls, press STANDBY/ON while pressing  to switch the player back to Interlace.

 

Also, region 7 isn't right... it should be region 0 (no region) or region 4 (AUS). To change region;

 

1. Open the drive tray
2. Press the Setup button on your remote control
3. Press the buttons 1, 9 and 9, in order and one at a time on your remote control
4. Select the Region option from the menu and change to a specific region or all regions

 

To convert this player to Multi-Region if the above does not work;

 

1. Press the 7 button on your remote control
2. Press the 6 button on your remote control
3. Press the Select button on your remote control
4. Highlight the Region option and press 1 for region 1, 2 for region 2, and so on, or 0 for multi-region playback
5. By visiting the next page of this hidden menu, you may be able to disabled Macrovision by setting an option to 0, although this particular setting does not survive power off
6. Press the Setup button on your remote control  

 

JSmith

[Dean Gale]

Thanks for the replies. JSmith you're right, it owes me nothing and has been a great player. For the record, I have it set up as RCA yellow. Have tried unplugging it and resetting it (holding power button for 10 seconds) but makes no difference. It has a strange 7 symbol on the display  (maybe the closest it can show to a question mark?) ... I'm wondering if a power spike has reset it to a point where it is no longer set to a region. Any thoughts on it being set up for RCA vs RGB?
 
Deano, would be keen to know more about your (and anyone's) thoughts on Oppo v Marantz and reasons for avoiding the latter? ... I get the impression Oppo is edging out Marantz in reviews of UDPs but I have a Marantz 8005 amp and it's serving me pretty well. If it's a close run thing I'd probably end up going for matching components. 

Hi mate , I can only go from personal experience. I have owned both brands an Avr and a blue ray player, Oppo's customer service is unquestionably at the forefront at what can be done. Their response is brilliant , where Marantz's solution is to bring out a new model and dump the problematic item. Get an Oppo, a cleaning disc for the laser, do that every so often and be happy.

[Tone Malone]

Thanks for the feedback and detective work. Quick update, I got the player working again last night at least for CDs and for one DVD. I couldn't get the region hacks to work this morning but agree the display message is probably indicating a region reset of sorts - thank JSmith for figuring that out. 

 

I think the tracking laser ain't what it used to be, but at least with it running again it'll buy me time to decide what types of disc I'll be spinning in future, keep an eye out for sales, and convince my long-suffering better half of the benefits!

 

By the way, I've noticed the 105/205 series Oppos have 2ch analogue audio out, but the 103/203 don't. Is there any way to plug the audio for a 103/203 into a 2ch amp via RCA, with good outcomes for CDs? 

[JSmith]

3 hours ago, DEANO23 said:

Get an Oppo, a cleaning disc for the laser

I'd agree with the first part, but not the second.

 

Cleaning discs with brushes that make contact with the lens can put a BD lens out of alignment. CD/DVD are slightly less susceptible to this.

 

The ones that could be used are the type that use an air vortex crated by a hole in the disc... but even these can just stir up dust from other parts of the machine bringing it into the disc/laser area.

 

Best just to keep the player in a reasonably dust free environment, not keep the tray open for long and ensure only clean discs are used in it.

 

JSmith

[Dean Gale]

Thanks for the feedback and detective work. Quick update, I got the player working again last night at least for CDs and for one DVD. I couldn't get the region hacks to work this morning but agree the display message is probably indicating a region reset of sorts - thank JSmith for figuring that out. 
 
I think the tracking laser ain't what it used to be, but at least with it running again it'll buy me time to decide what types of disc I'll be spinning in future, keep an eye out for sales, and convince my long-suffering better half of the benefits!
 
By the way, I've noticed the 105/205 series Oppos have 2ch analogue audio out, but the 103/203 don't. Is there any way to plug the audio for a 103/203 into a 2ch amp via RCA, with good outcomes for CDs? 

The analogue outs for the 103 are pretty ordinary, I use the coax out into a Dac and use it as a transport for CD playback.

[Snoopy8]

9 hours ago, Tone Malone said:

By the way, I've noticed the 105/205 series Oppos have 2ch analogue audio out, but the 103/203 don't. Is there any way to plug the audio for a 103/203 into a 2ch amp via RCA, with good outcomes for CDs? 

On the 103, you can output stereo via RCA using the L&R outputs. I replaced an old NAD CD player with the 103 and used it for several years. Of course the 105 is better but if you are looking for a good all rounder, the 103 is a good choice.

[Tone Malone]

Folks, I ended up getting a Marantz UD5007 for $300 and couldn't be happier.

 

A few pointers for anyone else considering one:

* Completely understand people may prefer an Oppo over the Marantz. I ended up going the Marantz because (a) I'd heard great things specifically about its sound quality (stereo 2.0) and that was my priority (b) it matched my Marantz amp and (c) I could get one with "lower miles" for the same price point as the equivalent Oppo.

* If you want a disk player with streaming services, I can't recommend the Marantz. The only service it still plays is Netflix, after they discontinued YouTube support a year or two ago. I went into this eyes open, but if I had paid near retail ($960) for this player, I would've been pretty peeved at this lack of support.

* It doesn't play Blu-ray 4K, but seems to play just about any other format. 

* Blu-ray video is superb, I'm stoked at how it brings music concerts to life - the musicians' expressions, the detail on the guitars ... awesome. It also seems to extract just about every drop out of the limited DVD format.

* I had been warned that Blu-ray players could struggle to do justice to CDs, but the UD5007 exceeded my expectations. I did an A/B test with my Bluesound Node (1^st generation) accessing WAV files ripped from CD, and expected the two sources to sound almost identical. Instead, the CDs on the UD5007 had a more open sound. The bass sounded lower and tighter, and there was more definition between the instruments in the mid-higher frequencies. It achieved this while retaining warmth and without sounding harsher on all but the poorest recordings. To put this in perspective, the Bluesound is a decent rather than high-end source, and this difference wasn’t night and day like it can be between different speakers or even amplifiers – I’d rate the ud5007 as a “5-7% improvement”. But the difference was definitely there.

* It's a shame you can't use the UD5007 as a DAC - but then even its upmarket sibling the 7007 doesn't seem to offer that.

* The UD5007 has a "source direct" button for audio playback. It looks good on its credentials, but unlike the source direct button on my amp, I couldn't tell any difference.

* The back panel outputs could best be described as "minimalist"! 2ch stereo of hdmi out to an AV amp should be fine, but it's worth checking before buying that it will work for you.

 

I hope this helps prospective buyers. I think some quality, non-Oppo universal disk players might be flying under the radar on the second hand market (a Denon dbp-2012ud was on Stereonet recently for under $200); and there's a chance to get a high-quality component for a bargain price.