Freezing during DVD playback on my Home theater

[leoliver]

Lately , I've encountered a problem of DVD movies suddenly slowing down or completely freezing during playback. And it always occurs during the last 25-20 minutes of the movie.
This will happen with both commercial or burned DVD movies.
And the freezing only happens on my stand alone Pioneer DVD player. The same disc's will play fine on my computer.
A friend suggested that I clean the optical lens on the Pioneer player. But I had already tried that with no success.
But I got to thinking that maybe the Maxell " DVD Lens Cleaner" that I used is not doing a very good job of actually cleaning the lens. So I would like to ask 2-questions :

What is the recommended way and product to use to clean the optical lens on a DVD player ?

And what else , besides a dirty optical lens could cause freezing during DVD playback ?

Thanks.

[Ghitulescu]

It may be that the player cannot focus correctly the second layer ... it's time for a new one

[setarip_old]

And what else , besides a dirty optical lens could cause freezing during DVD playback ?An overheating player...

[atreides93]

Larry, are you saying it happens only after watching a movie for a while near the end of the movie? Or if you put a disk in, and skip to the last 25 minutes it starts doing it too?
You need to experiment to see if it has to do with overheating or if it just can't read the outer edge of disks.
So I'd try putting it on when its been off for a while (so its cool) then put a disk inside and skip to the last chapter and see if it plays it. If it still can't play that, and you're sure the disk has no finger prints or smudges on the edges, hen I think it sounds like a hardware defect of your player.
Regarding cleaning the lens on your player. I have a standalone sony dvd player that survived 3 small kids using it for 8 years now, and I have never used a lens cleaner on it..and it still plays movies all the way to the end...
So I just don't see you needing to do that too often....

[leoliver]

" Larry, are you saying it happens only after watching a movie for a while near the end of the movie? Or if you put a disk in, and skip to the last 25 minutes it starts doing it too? "

It only happens after I've watched for a while and the end of the movie is getting near. "setarip_old " posted a reply suggesting that my DVD player maybe be over-heating. So I took some drink coasters and placed one beneath each corner of the player , to get more cooling air under the player. And since then I've watched several movies without any freeze-ups during the last 20-25 minutes of the movie. So over-heating is definitely a major factor.
But what I don't understand is why it just recently started happening ? I've had the player in the same location for about 4-years or more. But why in the last 2-months has over-heating been a issue ?

[Ghitulescu]

Strange issue this overheating for a playing device ... I never experienced a heating problem, even after a DVD was playing in a loop the whole night (my wife felt asleep), also in a Pioneer player.
And I notice a sensible change in temperature in burning devices only after the 4-5th burn ....

However, placing the DVD-player on top of the AVR (like shown in many shops and leaflets) is not at all a good idea.

@larry: was the DVD disk also hot when taken out?

[setarip_old]

"setarip_old " posted a reply suggesting that my DVD player maybe be over-heating...But what I don't understand is why it just recently started happening ? I've had the player in the same location for about 4-years or more. But why in the last 2-months has over-heating been a issue ? Age and/or Dust Bunnies...

[leoliver]

Strange issue this overheating for a playing device ... I never experienced a heating problem, even after a DVD was playing in a loop the whole night (my wife felt asleep), also in a Pioneer player.
And I notice a sensible change in temperature in burning devices only after the 4-5th burn ....

However, placing the DVD-player on top of the AVR (like shown in many shops and leaflets) is not at all a good idea.

@larry: was the DVD disk also hot when taken out?

I can't rememeber if the disk was hot or not . But when I watch a movie tonight I will check the disk.

[leoliver]

Age and/or Dust Bunnies...

I think I will buy a can of compressed air this week.

[Ghitulescu]

I can't rememeber if the disk was hot or not . But when I watch a movie tonight I will check the disk.

I meant actually warm, or warmer than it was inserted.

[subair37]

Lately , I've encountered a problem of DVD movies suddenly slowing down or completely freezing during playback. And it always occurs during the last 25-20 minutes of the movie.
This will happen with both commercial or burned DVD movies.
And the freezing only happens on my stand alone Pioneer DVD player. The same disc's will play fine on my computer.
A friend suggested that I clean the optical lens on the Pioneer player. But I had already tried that with no success.
But I got to thinking that maybe the Maxell " DVD Lens Cleaner" that I used is not doing a very good job of actually cleaning the lens. So I would like to ask 2-questions :

What is the recommended way and product to use to clean the optical lens on a DVD player ?

And what else , besides a dirty optical lens could cause freezing during DVD playback ?

Thanks.


Hi


I had this same issue with my Philips DVP5980 DVD Player, i think the problem is to do with the memmory of the player, last 20 minutes of the movie always a problem in playing on dual layer disks.what i did is changed to a Panasonic BD 85 Blueray player now no problems Hungy dorry.........

[Ghitulescu]

The Philips are generally state of the art* (and thus included in many High End and unpayable!!! gear) but they are extremely sensitive to external factors (I remember it was some 10 years ago a class suit against Philips, they used a vaseline that hardened extremely fast in warm/hot environments and the optics locked). Since then never optical drives from Philips.

*and their pickups are generally part of the standards

PS: Reports on the net are that the blue laser of Pannies is prone to untimely death. Yours is however a newer generation.

[notes]

download a program called speccy
from http://www.piriform.com/speccy
it scans your system and displays whats installed it also lets you see the temperature of your drives
etc.
its from the guys that made ccleaner so its trusted.

[yetanotherid]

Have you checked the burn quality of your discs?

Can lasers slowly die or do they just stop working?
If it's always near the end of the disc it'd be an indication it's having trouble reading them. Burned discs are far more likely to drop in quality towards the end of the disc and if it's a dual layer disc it'll probably be harder to read towards the end....
Maybe the heat contributes somehow.

I do a fair bit of DVD burning and I'm pretty sure the burn quality tends to drop very slightly with each burn. Or.... it's more likely to. But many times I've started burning discs of a slightly lower quality than usual, then when I've returned the next day they're back to normal. Assuming a drive can't get weary, I assume the heat must effect it. Maybe it effects reading discs too.