I have a SonicBlue DVD/VHS Dual Deck #DVR4250 manufactured 2002 by GoVideo. I have had five or so years of trouble free regular use (two or three times a week). Recently when I put my NetFlix DVD in, the screen showed the GoVideo/SonicBlue logo and the small spinning disc in the lower right corner (which is normal). However it never would play. I listened carefully and it seemed to start spinning for a second or so, abruptly wind down to nothing, then immediately start up again. This cycle would only stop when I ejected the DVD. I tried other DVD's to be sure it wasn't just the NetFlix one, with the same result.
What can I do? Please help!
The laser may have stopped working or could be a computer board issue. You could try using a lens cleaning disc to try and remedy the problem. You could also try using the compressed can of air and blow out any debris that may be causing the problem. Lastly you could dis-assemble the case and try cleaning the laser lens with a cotton swab and rubbing alchohol. And honestly unless you find a loose motor drive belt for the laser head or something simple like that...It will cost you more to buy the parts and fix it then just getting a new combo dvd/vcr. Let me know if you have any other questions.
The previous comments that you have made do not show up until after I have posted a comment so don't be too hard on the other experts because they are not seeing your previous posts to others. It really may not be worth the effort to repair because it will be difficult to locate parts for something that is electronic and 5 years old & if you did locate the parts they would probably cost more than it is worth. Sorry I could not help you further.
Being able to see the laser means that it is working(cd/dvd laser is visible to the eye,Blu-Ray laser is not) but does not mean that it is reading the disc though. It is "tracking" the disc when it is first inserted and should usually do only one pass. The disc is actually read from the inside out. All the disc info(chapter/track info/disc name ect) are stored in the inner most part of the disc. When the laser does the intial pass it is verifying that the info track matches what is on the disc. So it sounds like it is being directed to read the info by the computer board firmware but is stuck in that mode. Does not sound like a simple fix. And being that the unit is 5 years old any warranty or even replacement parts would not be available. You might be able to find another unit like that one on e-bay for really cheap. New combo dvd/vcr units have really come down in price because HD Blu-Ray units are starting to sell more and have come down in price also. Well you took it apart and gave it your best. It did not hurt to try since it was not working anyway;)
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When this model was released, sheer versatile and packed with accessories and many bought because of accessories in the cabin, but the only catch was blue ray DVDwich were in HD format for improving the image quality. But the down side is as with previous optical disc formats, HD DVD supports several file systems, such as ISO 9660 and Universal Disk Format (UDF). All HD DVD titles use UDF version 2.5 as the file system. In the file system, a multiplexed audio and video streams are stored in EVO container format.
Plus all HD DVD players are required to decode linear (uncompressed) PCM, Dolby Digital AC-3, Dolby Digital EX, DTS, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD.A secondary soundtrack, if present, can be stored in any of theaforementioned formats, or in one of the HD DVD optional codecs: DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and DTS-HD Master Audio.For the highest-fidelity audio experience, HD DVD offerscontent-producers the choice of LPCM, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MasterAudio.
Wheras HD DVD video can be encoded using VC-1, AVC, or MPEG-2. A wide variety of resolutions are supported, from low-resolution CIF, all SDTV resolutions supported by DVD-Video, and of course the HDTV formats: 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. All studio-released movie titles have featured video in a 1080-line format, with companion supplements in 480i or 480p. The vast majority of releases were encoded with VC-1, and most of the remaining titles encoded with AVC.
Now all such formats can be read/interpreted by using various media player whjich were capable of decoding whichever media player that player suited best. The way u can use/listen or see netfix DVD'd is to use a audio cm video covertyer to convert the entire DVD to a format compatible with your player, on to a pen drive or any such compatible device recognized by the nlue ray DVD player.
I do hope sincerely that you could the above abbreviations used in trying to explain WHY.......................................sodeep
Please post acomment if u need the full form of the abbreviations used........................sodeep
Respected Sir/M'am
Kind Attn: 'gjpluth'
Ref: Comment posted regarding the 'GoVedio' SonicBlue DVD/VHS Dual Deck SonicBlue DVD/VHS Dual Deck Model No.: DVR4250 manufactured in the year 2002.
I am extremely sorry! To have behaved in our gibberish method of passing on Inherited this trait of my falling backwards, I agree, this, but I am a homosapian, bad habit of the native Indian method of communique! & therefore prone to err sometimes.
What I tried to convey to you is that fact that the blue optical Ray, is, that since the intensity of the optical lens as compared to the conventional 'red' ray lens, commonly used in such devices are prone to fail because of afore mentioned reason. Netflix, as far as I know is used in Gen-Y PCs, can be recorded best on a PC if it has been download over the Internet as a streming NetFlix recorded on any PC and then burned on the Digital Video Device/Disc, directly withot chamgimg the format of the file and then repeatedly tried to play in SonicBlue DVD/VHS Dual Deck SonicBlue DVD/VHS Dual Deck Model No.: DVR4250, player the optical(blue ray), lso tried its best to read the format soince the disc rotation sdtart before the optical head to receive the digital signal to do so.
If am not been so dumb, and simply answered without the current Lingo, made popular by no. of users have has 100-fold tan those days when no one knew about it. The first one being TOSHIBA who recalled such player and sopped manufacturing their model which was introduced into the market at around the same time period.
Again I beg your pardon my way of answering technical issue's, because I wanted to explain why? and the remedy too.
Your's Humbly
so deep
I hope this language is what is known English. Thanx for thr advice.........................sodeep
Sir
No offense intended or implied, my answer means...........replace the optical lens only.
Thanks. & sorry for the comlplex terminology used...............................sodeep
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The laser is more than likely dirty. lens cleaner don't work well
in fact they spread the dirt around .
plug the unit in press eject DVD tray then unplug it,
with the tray out.Now remove all the screws to take off
the lid and you will see the dvd player lens take a q-tip
with a little windex on it and clean the grime off
now try a dvd if it still does not load up you will
need to replace the laser pickup .
a good repair shop can do that for around 100.00
if you have any questions just email me
Rob
Yes remove the lid/cover should be 5-6 screws, 4 black on the side and 1-2 smaller black ones
in the back , when you lift the lid you will see small black cube with a tiny 1/8"
convex lens . right where the DVD player is it Looks like a contact lens on steroids. Make sure the tray is open or it may be harder to see take 2 q-tips , twist the tops of the Q-tip so it's a little
pointy-er then soak in windex (window cleaner ) and gently touch the lens with the presoaked Q-tip
and twist /spin it 190deg back and forth now do the same with a dry Q-tip leave the lid off
put a DVD in the open tray and plug it and turn it on,close the tray , and watch the laser
reset , disk spins up laser scans ,locks, reads, if it doesn't work lts a dead the laser
Rob
I tryed to comment after you said the laser did whats
called a full sweep then returned home repeatedly .The
fact that you could see the laser does not mean the
laser pick up was necessarily good , the fact it was
scanning meant either it is to weak or the detector
(optical pickup ) is dead . Eather way was true. I said
if the cleaning didn't fix it you would need a new laser .
And in fact that was and is still the case.
I sourced a new laser out for you . could you please
reconsider your rating .since I was unable to respond
threw no fault of my own.
Thank you
I would still be more than happy to help you.
Rob
you with price and location,
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Thanks Rob. But exactly what do you mean by "the lid" and where would you say I might find the screws? Do you mean the two screws on either side of the unit and the lid meaning the whole housing that wraps the unit? While we're at it, what does the lens look like (shape, size, material)? And where is it set in relation to the disc drawer?
This unit was purchased at a military commissary. Since the models they sell are generally not the same as what is offered outside the military, might they not look exactly like what is expected?
Eagerly awaiting your thoughts, Greg
okay, I cleaned the lens. then while I had the lid off I put in a DVD and without turning anything on (didn't touch a button or remote), it stated running! I saw what was happening according to what I had originally heard: yes, the disc was spinning but the start/stop sounds I heard was the laser scanning across the whole width of the disc again and again. I could see the glow of the laser beam through the disc.
 so. any new ideas? appreciate your help. Greg
sodeep-
In your "solution" here , you have not responded to the issues I am experiencing and, as well, you wrote a lot of gibberish that makes no sense. Is English a language that you know and speak? Do you understand my problem?
Sincerely, Greg
Further more, have you read all of my explanations and followed what has already transpired with FixYa? I have to know what you know of my situation before we can have any intelligent discussion about this. Thank you.
twice "Sodeep" from India has written to me regarding my problem but, if you saw what he wrote you would understand why I don't understand! Previous to that,"Rob" had me try cleaning the laser lens which I did. But when I saw what happened after inserting a disc (since the unit was uncovered), it does not seem that a dirty lens is the problem.
In the past, simply inserting a DVD did not prompt the machine to spin the disc and have the laser scannig across the full radius of the disc about every one or two seconds, over and over until I hit the "eject" button. In the past(six years), using the remote, the DVD player would wait for me to turn it on and hit play.
Please, PLEASE, tell me first of all if you are able to read all of my previous interactions with FixYa so that I can know what you know about the problem. Thank you so much for any help. Sincerely, Greg
thanks for your straightforward writing.
I still have the housing un-screwed from when I cleaned the lens with an alcohol/windex solution and subsequently observed the glow of the laser coming from below the spinning disc. Does this prove that the laser itself is okay? The issue seems to be the fact that as soon as the disc is inserted, it begins to spin and the laser tracks across the full radius of the disc in just over one second then back again and again from the middle to the outer edge. About every third time, it hesitates in the middle briefly and continues this pattern until I hit the eject button. Remember, this occured when, just after I cleaned it, I placed a disc in the tray and pushed the tray in. I did not physically turn on the TV or the DVD/VCR player.
Can you tell me specifically what these symptom point to so that I know for sure that there is no simple fix or if I indeed need to buy a new unit?
Thanks so much, Greg
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