benos Posted September 7, 2004 Share Posted September 7, 2004 Has anyone had a DVD player that's lasted more than two years? I can't seem to find one that will, nor can any of my friends. It's irritating. A guy at the store gave me the - "they're a problem in AZ because of the dust routine, you gotta clean the optical reader." Of course I bought the cleaner, which didn't do anything. I was so irritated about the whole deal that I couldn't get motivated to even buy a new one. So I went online and searched for "Best DVD player between $100-200" and bought the first one that came up. Which was a Harmon Kardon 22. At least it looks cool even if it only lasts a year or so. be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted September 7, 2004 Share Posted September 7, 2004 The best DVD players we have found for our broadcast video equipment rental business are typically the mid-range ($2-300) Sony models that play any type of optical disc, or the mid to high end ($3-600) Pioneer models. The rest are pretty much crap in a year or two if they get used a lot and even faster if they run hot like most do in crowded dusty stacks of gear. For home use and custom DVD testing I went out and bought 3 machines, a high end Sony ($329), a low end Sony ($99) and a $49 Toshiba POS from Costco. The Toshiba from Costco is the best player of the lot for compatibility, it is also the most recent. It is only a year old, but for $49 bucks, I won’t mind if it croaks in a little bit. Moral here is buy the cheapest POS you can find because they are all crap until you pay real big bucks and even then they are still crap, it just takes a little longer to decompose, The high end Sony’s we put into rental stock back in 2000 had a 50% failure rate after 3 years of hard use. Thankfully we bought the Good Guys $69, 4 year coverage. We didn’t say we used them for rental and we cleaned the ID tags off before we took them in -- Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 Brian, I hate to ask, but could it be your power? Some stuff has cheaper power supplies than others so, spikes due to electrical storms that your powerbook never sees might be blowing out your components of your DVD. There's drastically varying quality of those "surge strips". The cheap ones are single stage. You might need one that's a true 3 stage, that uses a zener + MOV + a flash tube. Don't get me started on cheap electrical crap. I wear headphones when I run, and I'm on at least my 50th pair of headphones (new or repaired) and like my 15 or 20th walkman / CD / MP3 player. I bought an "Outback" waterproof walkman once - the only time a 3 year warranty was ever worth it. I think I got somewhere on the order of three new walkmans before the thing wore out. I'm now on MP3 player numero dos. Deader than a post in under a year. Rios are crap, btw. The new Nike one had better last longer than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
short_round Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 My JVC 3-Disc changer didn't. I got it from Circuit City. It died in the first week of use. They fixed it and then it died again a few months ago after about 2.5 years of use. I haven't got around to getting another one (don't really want to). I'm running DVD's on my playstation now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingman Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 I bought a top of the line sony about 4 years ago or so, still works. But it was pricey. My second one is just a $49 pos and it seems to work fine so far. Used it about a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcoliver Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 My Pioneer DVD component player is close to 5 years, no problems and plays everything. But it was relatively expensive back then (about 400 bucks). I was just wondering, do those sub $100 players you guys mention already include an amp with 5.1 channels and speakers? Or do you spend some more for amp, main speakers and subs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tightloop Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 Like the Hag says in one of his songs;..wish a Ford and a Chevy would still last 10 years like they should.... Feel your pain... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidwiz Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 I have a Sony that I've had over 3 years now and its still going strong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianH Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 Sony....4 years old, still kicking along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin c Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 Sony single disc still running fine after two years, but it really doesn't get much of a workout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyB Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 I've got a Bose 3.2.1 which I've run for 2 years without a problem, but I think they're pretty expensive for what they are. Most consumer electronics I've seen nowadays are pretty sh1t, they are produced in huge amounts to drive costs down, that the component quality is not always as good as it needs to be. Over here, we can now pick up DVD players for £29, which is something like $50, so even if it last for a year, it's no great hardship to go and buy a new one. However, throwing away old machines etc is just going to add to the mountains of waste that we all produce, but that's a rant I'm not going into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 Sony --- for about five years now. Sees probably 1-2 movies a week during TV season, 8-9 during the summer, and spikes whenever we buy cool TV shows on Disk.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tewlman Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 X-box! plus you get the added bonus of kick butt gaming like splinter cell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlad Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 I've had the same Panasonic for about 4 years. No problems what so ever. I'm so used to mine working that I'm surprised that anyone has problems Vlad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 Nope - never had one last more than a year. I buy the cheapest one at Costco and when they die, throw them away and back to Costco I go For about $49 - $69 a pop - who cares if they croak? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed K Posted September 9, 2004 Share Posted September 9, 2004 I agree with most everyone here. Sony makes good products in most price ranges. I just dunped all of my Pioneer decks & put Sony (consumer) DVD players in my rental inventory. I haven't run into any problems so far. That includes the "home made" DVD's that people burn on their computers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted September 10, 2004 Author Share Posted September 10, 2004 Thanks all. The 60 second impulse buy will probably turn out to be a mistake, and if it is I'll be going the $50 route from now on. be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shepard Posted September 10, 2004 Share Posted September 10, 2004 I moved from no dust Florida where I had no problems with electronic equipment to Arizona/California border and have had a great many problems with my DVD, CD, etc equipment. So, I'm willing to believe there is something to the "dust" theory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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