I HAVE A SONY DV-S560D WITH 5.1 SURROUND SOUND HOOK UP
SHORTLY AFTER 1 YEAR STARTED GETTING THESE LITTLE HORIZONTAL LINES ON PLAY BACK.... SO TOOK IT TO A GUT WHO TOLD ME IT WOULD COST MORE TO FIX THAN BUY A NEW ONE..NOW WHATS UP WITH THAT I MEAN THIS THING WASNT CHEAP TO BEGIN WITH ITS A TOP OF THE LINE SONY DVD.. SO IS THERE ANY WAY THIS THING CAN BE REPAIRED WITH OUT COSTING AN ARM AND A LEG..AND WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH THIS THING ANYWAY..GEE I HAVENT EVEN USED IT THAT MUCH....AND AS FAR AS SONY IS CONCERNED I THINK THATS ASHAME WHEN YOU LAY OUT ALOTTA BUCKS ON VIDEO EQUIPMENT AND IT DONT LAST......ANY ADVISE..? SIGNED HEYJACK8

Yes, I have some advice.
1. Turn the caps lock off on your keyboard. All caps indicates you're shouting, and while that may be what you intend, it makes it hard for others to take you seriously.

2. Cut your losses. Toss the Sony, find yourself a specialty shop that sells Denon, and buy a moderately priced progressive scan unit. During this process, ask for the store manager, tell him you're looking for a salesman with whom you can generate a long term client relationship. And then stay with them. Period. You will accomplish two things here. One, you will get a better piece of equipment. Two, you will have at least an odds on chance of having someone who will look out for your best interest, maybe even to the point of "eating" a product that didn't pass muster, because they're looking at the long term benefit. Now, I mentioned Denon. It doesn't necessarily have to be a Denon, but it should not be a mass-market piece like the standard Sony line. However, IMO, you will have to spend considerably more to beat the value and performance of Denon.

3. No matter whose piece you buy, throw away the cables that come with it, and buy some decent cables. Allow yourself about 15-20% of the cost of the unit for this.

4. Enjoy.

Jeff

Heyjack,
That model was FAR from top of the line Sony. It wasn't even a progressive scan model. As far as repairs go with electronics, it usually costs more to repair anything than replace it unless it is a product worth more than $1k and is pretty new. Also, the fact that you barely use it is probably what caused it to die on you. It probably has more dust in it than you can imagine. If I were you, I'd open it up and blow it out with a can of compressed air, and after putting it back together, put a cleaning disc in it. If it doesn't work right after that, cut your losses and get a new model. Sony actually does make great DVD players, and I actually prefer them over Denon. Denon performs nice, but I think the way they are built seems a little cheap.

If you would like more specific advice...

That line of Sony players was crap. They often have problems, some of which you should be able to fix. I have fixed my 360 repeatedly. It works just fine for awhile, then goes bad again.

[Link: moviebone.com]

Note: if you access a service menu, you do so at your own risk.

Hey thanks for your reply.However i did have the dvd serviced thats when he told me it would cost more to fix than its worth.I can't remember the name of the part he said it needed but it just pisses me off that this thing didn't last longer than it did.Thats why I posted an ad on here thinking maybe i could swap parts off another dvd if I knew what was bad...Because as soon as you buy a player with the 5.1 outputs the price goes up alot.... and it really is a decent player except for all these horizontal lines you see on playback...Also I checked out the link, where do you get those single layer dvds that you mentioned I've never heard of them but I would be game on trying to calibrate it if you think it would do any good...Do you think maybe it's the dvd player itself thats causing this or some obscure diode or something...? I'm am mechanicly inclined so I don't think I'm gonna screw it up any more than it already is....

Most DVDs before a certain date are single-layer. Probably sometime in 2000 or something like that. Any flipper disc with a long movie that uses both sides is single-layer, for instance. I have 2 of these, one is the original version of Amadeus.

Early Star Trek TNG discs were single-layer, I understand. You can go into the display screens and switch the bitrate readout to layer readout. That might help you find out if some of your DVDs are single-layer.

I don't know how much you trust this technician, but try out the re-config in the service menu. If you don't have any old DVDs, just try a current one, which would be dual-layer. It just takes some of your time.

Jeffh9020's advice is SPOT ON! Sony makes two lines: ES and crap. The crap will do until you really look at it or listen to it.



I make a point of telling my customers that it is best "to replace the garbage va-- , I mean, garden variety cables that come with the unit." It helps if I stumble a bit when I say this.