Alright - if this is posted elsewhere God help me, but I did a search and found nothing. My Father-in-law has a HTIB from Pioneer. The center of the system is a DVD/receiver combo and has a PS2, a record player, VCR hooked in, as well as all the speakers and antennas. The unit works fine for all of its audi functions but it has lately frozen up a lot when playing DVDs. The problem is not the discs because we have tried them in the PS2 and they still work. I haven't a clue what could be wrong - we tried unplugging the other components - he even brought it to a repair shop and they were unsure of the problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

My theory based on what you've said is that the laser head is out of alignment. Sometimes to cut costs on these inexpensive units the manufacturer will use a lot of plastic mechanical parts for the laser assembly. On an all in one unit like this the heat build up from the receiver and DVD player being inside the same case might cause the plastic to warp enough to throw the laser off causing the DVDs not to play. Sony and Awia CDs players in thier shelf systems were famous for this and even had a lawsuit brought against them for it.

my XV-DV55 only plays DVDs if they are in near perfect condition, if i try to play a DVD with the slightest scratch on it then it will freeze. Its the same with CDs, its fairly obviouse that the laser head has some how become dirty but in the manual it strongly recomends that i dnt use a commercialy available lens cleaner as they can damage the lens. should i just buy a lens cleaner anyway?

I've used a commercial lens cleaner that had very soft brushes, on one of which you put a drop of liquid. It helped players that were having trouble due to weak lasers and/or dirty lenses. No damage resulted that I could tell.

Frankly, if your player can't play anything, it's broken. And with comparing repair costs and purchase costs, that means it is garbage. So even if the cleaner damages it, what does it matter? Some might try one just to see if it works.

Usually it is the motors, though. As Chip pointed out.