Samsung DVD/VCR combo disk unreadable

[pauleon]

Hi,
I just got my VCR/DVD player out of storage and tried to view a dvd on it. The mechanism seemed to work ok, but the menu told me the disk (every disk I tried) was unreadable. It worked fine before I put it in storage, so I opened it up to see if I could find a problem. The laser works, and the mechanism that moves the laser seems to be moving to the right spot on the disk, but still I can't figure out why it won't read. Anybody here had, or better yet, fixed this problem? If you can tell me what you did to fix it, I'd really appreciate it. I would like to avoid replacing the unit if I don't have to.

[leone184]

I had a Samsung brand DVD/VCR player that did the same thing, except it started slowly and got worse. Every now and then it would say a disc was unreadable. Before long, EVERY disc was unreadable. The VCR stopped working properly shortly after I bought the unit, but I didn't think much of it since I didn't really own any VHS tapes at that point.
What it boils down to is Samsung is garbage. I'll never buy anything made by them again. They were always a 2nd (or 3rd) rate company, and I should have known better. Obviously It will cost less to buy a new deck than have the old one repaired. I highly recommend you replace it with a Toshiba or Panasonic.

Hope this helps

[HayZee518]

any disk player needs to have a constant focal point to read the "pits" on a disk. the laser light goes through optics to focus on the disk and its rebound light path goes through the same optics to a photo transistor where the information is read. if the deck is crooked it won't read it. if the motor speed isn't constant it won't read it. flimsy disk transport media just won't hack it.