DVD King

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devynal

I don't think so, not unless there's something physcial on the disc that would transfer into your player while it was being played - like dirt, weird goo, etc.

But it doesn't hurt to clean the lens with a lens cleaner disc very 8-10 hours of use.

Giantrobo

Well, My Panasonic A-110 bought back in '98 and as everyone knows it had issue with the dvd pick up laser. Well one of the things I heard back when I had it fixed years ago was that the pickup unit could be knocked out of calibration by different problmes on teh dvds. Whatever that means....

Spiky

It would seem obvious that a DVD designed to could damage your firmware to the point of ruining the machine. Most players either don't allow updates via disc or make it so you have to press some odd button combination to start them. This prevents the problem since it can't happen automatically and you wouldn't be dumb enough to try it out. Even authorized firmware updates could trash your player if the power cut out while it was updating, which is why some mfgrs don't bother with user upgrades.

Otherwise, I can't see a way they would physically damage the machine without a physical issue with the disc in the first place. Some machines are notorious for getting out of whack, I had a Sony with this problem. Somebody posted the service menu access on the web, and instructions for realignment, which I used several times before giving up on it. But this wasn't due to any disc-caused damage, just the way the player died.

The player locking up is annoying with dirty or scratched discs, but they are really nothing like computers that can have files damaged by such occurences. The software to run a player must be pretty simple, and when it locks up reseting it is no problem. Also, it is ROM and can't be altered. Should be just fine after any lockup, with no permanent issues.

The above is partly experience, partly assumption. It is...FWIW & YMMV.

yashan

I agree with this statement. Unlike a turntable that has a needle physically touching the media, a DVD player never needs to touch the spinning disc. The laser is reflected off the reflective DVD material and caught by an opto-electronic device, which detects changes in light. So unless the DVD shatters inside the drive or some foreign substance is introduced (i.e. water, piece of the label, etc.), simply playing a scratched disc won't harm anything within the DVD player. The loud screeching and popping noises could ruin your speakers, but rest assured, your DVD player should still work.