I have a Yamaha DVD S-795, and while it was pretty top of the line when Igot it, I'm getting the creeping feeling that it's time to replace it. What precipitated this thread is that I cannot play my Alias Season 1 DVD's on my player - I get the dreaded and cryptic "No Play" message. I've gotten this in the past, but with multiple Open/Closes the player finally plays them. I don't know how DVD formatting works, but obviously these are incompatible with my player. Although my instinct is to blame Buena Vista, level with me - is it my player?

Thanks in advance...

It's usually not so much that new titles are incompatible with old players as it is that the laser may be on its way out. The good news is that you can go buy a $50 panasonic SP35 and be back in the game.

I have a 4-yr old Sony S550D and it is still going strong. It does have the occasional lipsync error but it doesnt bother me. The one second pause at the layer-switch does annoys me though. Do current players still do that?

Okay, so I played with it some more last night, and I finally got it to work. But, I mean I sat there opening and closing the tray for a half hour!! Sheesh. I don't know why it does it, and why it only does it with certain DVD's, but at least I know that I'm still kinda in the game with this player... I dropped some serious scratch on it when I got it, planning on it lasting at least ten years.

As far as the pause, I thought that some of the newer players have a cache that allows them to play smoothly through the layer change. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I have a 5 year-old Sony DVP-S7000 that is still working fine. You may want to crack the player open and do a bit of cleaning on the laser pickup and tray rails.

Disclaimer: I haven't had to do so yet on my Sony.