Originally Posted by Mark D. Zacharias

Take advantage of this opportunity and get into another brand. Almost
anything would be better. Never buy Philips again. Seriously. Their
low-to-mid stuff is the worst.

At this time Pioneer dvd players seems to hold up the best.

Most people find surround receivers from Yamaha, Onkyo, Denon, and possibly
Rotel are about the best.

Mark Z.


"jmasters" wrote in message
...

I have a Philips Home Theater unit (basically a DVD player, amplifier
setup) MX 3550D.

We've had intermittent problems with scenes stalling, maybe freezing
the unit, and has gotten worse to where we're lucky to play brand new
DVD's in it.

Tried a lens cleaner, but that didn't work.

Used a canned air blast to try to knock dust from the lens area (not a
direct blast)

But I can hear it grinding around, before it freezes up (bad enough to
where the eject doesn't work, and power off works after several
seconds)

I'd like to replace the DVD pickup assembly, and am wondering where I
might find one.

My wife says to just buy another one (she watches dvd's more than I
do), but being unemployed, and this being an amplifier too (only
apparently sold with another set of speakers, $300-400, etc) I don't
think it's going to be worth buying another one. I've fixed VCR's
monitors, copiers, printers, computers, etc. So I'm not worried about
diving into this.

Anybody know what other tests I can do? Or should I try cleaning the
lens? I have some swab sticks to reach into small spaces. I have some
audio/video head cleaner, but I think it's more for VCR's and tape
units, and am afraid it might damage a laser pickup lens.


Justin


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jmasters