I bought an "all in one" Panasonic home theater system (ie receiver, stereo and DVD are all one unit, not separate components) 5 years ago. Recently the DVD player refuses to play certain commercial disks I get from Netflix or Best Buy–it simply refuses to "spin" and says "Disc Error–No Play." The only fix I’ve been able to discover is that if I play an older movie in its entirety, after the older movie is over, the player will SOMETIMES load the newer movie (Its bizarre–its like the DVD player needs to "warm up" on the older disks first). I’ve tried a disc cleaner to no avail. Anyone have a solution? Alternatively, since the audio still works great (if I can get a disc to actually play), I was wondering if I could buy a new DVD player and somehow connect it to the current home theater system so I still have surround sound without having to buy a whole new system. Is this possible or do I have to buy a whole new system?
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Stallion says
Ok bro, first of all, it is extremely common for people to have problems playing newer disks in their older players. This is because with all of the pirating going on, disk makers have used more advanced anti-copy technology in their products. (Multi-layer encoding and other variations of that nature) So, as you have experienced, some of the older players were not designed to keep up with the changing variations (especially one that is 5 or more years old) As with all tech, DVD players have gotten more advanced as well and can handle the changes. To be honest, after five years, stuff like computers, DVD players, and cell phones etc. are often replaced by a better version.
In short, if this stereo has places in the back to plug in sound input from other sources, have at it! I don’t know much about surround sound, but I do know the standard Red White and Yellow inputs. (Red-right; White-left, Yellow-video) Set the new DVD player on top and run the audio outputs to the stereo and run the video straight to the TV.
Hope this helps.
guy_from_britain says
well your DVD player probably stopped playing them because DVD are made differently after time, so your old player might not recognize newer discs. all you gotta do is get a new DVD plaer and run the AV cable (the red white and yellow, as referred to above) into your auxilary input, that most people would plug their xbox into. if you have an xbox or playstation plugged into that allready. just run an AV wire from the aux input to a selector. its a little base of plastic with a knob on it. you can run AV wires from the selector to your dvd player and video game system. and use the little plastic knob on the selector to switch which product it works with while you use it. if your reciever has two auxilary inputs or you are simply not using the one it has. all that is unneccesary.
coco2591 says
Depends on Panasonic and if it has any inputs for audio, and you would need a digital optical or coaxial input or RCA or composite inputs. My best guess that it does not. That’s the disadvantage of buying a HTIB. You probably need to buy a new system.