I've experienced a similar problem that may (read MAY) be solved by simply powering the player down, and then unplugging it for a few minutes and plugging it back in. My player exhibited this problem about a week after it was out of warranty (about 9 months ago). It started out by refusing to read the occasional dis (although it never locked or froze in the middle of discs-this problem may be related to something else) and over the course of a couple of weeks got to the point of not reading anything. My owner's manual actually suggest unplugging the player in the trouble shooting section (but who reads manuals!), as this essentially reboots or resets the player. I still run into the odd situation where the player freezes when I load a disc, maybe once every month or two, and unplugging it and plugging it back in solves the problem. I would also suggest cleaning every rental DVD with some kind of a commercial cleaner, as most of these discs don't look too good to me. I clean every one I rent, plus treat them with Auric Illuminator, and in 2 years of heavy use (both CD and DVD), I've only had 2 movies that froze in the middle of playback.
Is my DVD player POSSESSED?
My theta DaViD is starting to act strange. It refused to read a DVD the other night. It made 3 clicking sounds then spit the disc out.(So much for that movie) It worked ok on the next two or three movies,then last night it spit out another movie after the picture started freezing and skipping.(About half way through) I have checked these discs in another player and they work fine. The problem occurs in the same place every time. I have wiped the disc and have ruled out any problem with the software. Any easy fix short of sending the piece back to THETA? (Currently 6 week turn around time) Thanks in advance