Problem w/ Denon DVD 2930ci

I've had my 2930 for 5+ years and it worked fine until the last 6 months or so. It first started showing problems with the new SW Yes dvd-a's. I suspected the authoring was to blame on CttE, as others reported similar problems, but then it also started skipping/stuttering on TYA dvd-a and even worse on the Relayer dvd-a. I had a copuple intermittent problems earlier reading some discs (e.g. The Wire) but these discs had known problems. Recently, it's started misbehaving on more discs. It seems to skip/stutter at places- it sounds like the data is not being processed correctly, like it's overloading. It sometimes will totally lock up the player (esp. on those SW discs from Pangyric), requiring unplugging to reboot. Today, for the 1st time, it stuttered, then stopped playing a CD. And yes, I have thoroughly cleaned any of the effected discs to make sure that was not the problem. I have also successfully played these same discs on my other universal (Samsung HD-841) and in my PS3 (using DTS tracks of course, since no dvd-a capability).

It is connected by HDMI to a Denon 2309.

I know these have a history of laser problems, but it still plays most discs fine. Does this sound like the symptoms of laser assembly going bad? Any help will be much appreciated.

 

No 2930 or 3930 owners can shed any light on this?

 

I don't have this model but did you try cleaning the laser? Or is the software capable of being updated? Did you check with Denon for troubleshooting suggestions?

 

Thanks for your help- good suggestions; I will try them. As for cleaning the laser, I'm not sure how to do that- is there a a good way to do that that you can point me to?

 

Sure, buy a laser lens cleaning disc. They're relatively inexpensive ($10 to $20 or so).

My Denon 2910 was doing similar skipping and picture-dropout things after ten years. It was replaced by an Oppo 103D two weeks ago. I loved the Denon player and it gave me ten solid years of satisfaction. Can't really ask for more. Good luck with yours.

 

Thanks for the info. I had heard that those laser cleaning kits were snake oil and actually could damage the lens, but I guess I was misinformed? Will look into that right away.

 

BTW- glad to hear you had such good service; I've seen many horror stories of this player over on AVS- where I first tried to research my problem and posted this question. No one seems to look at the DVD player section over there anymore. It appears that the 2910 was much more reliable than tyhe 2930.

Wish I could afford an Oppo! Have fun w/ that!

 

Essentially, these are CDs with tiny brushes running the circumference of the disc, which give you audio instructions once inserted into the drive. No snake oil.

 

I have one currently in my cart at Amazon- just looking for something else to add to get free shipping. Thanks again for the help.

 

I have had only a couple incidents of Denonitis with my 2910 which will be 10 years old soon. It started skipping a few years back on multiple CDs and I found instructions online for performing a "reset" of some sort by holding a couple buttons down while powering off/on, which seemed to solve my issues as it has not had any problems in last few year now. I can't remember the button sequence but you can probably find it via Google like I did.

I also own two DVD-3800 players which were purchased used. One of them I picked up for like $30 because the seller said it needed a new laser. The symptoms were slow loading of discs, stopping, stuttering, skipping around, or not even reading certain discs. I bought a laser pickup off eBay for about $35 and installed it myself. It's been playing fine since. It's an easy fix you might want to try if a reset does not help and you or Denon customer service determine that it's the laser that has gone bad.

You can find a YouTube video out there to see if it's a procedure you can handle trying.

 

A couple of years back I performed a firmware update, which fixed things for a while.
But it's too late for my Denon 2910. The garbage man took delivery of it last week.

 

http://www.filleritem.com

 

Well I'm retiring my 2910 soon as well, but keeping it for possible audio use in another system one day. I'm replacing with a used Oppo BDP-83SE but have not yet compared the two players in the same system.

 

It's the end times for Denon 2910 players, I guess. I loved mine and would've repaired it if that had been feasible. Good luck with yours ... it's a great machine.

 

My 2910 won't play redbook or CD-Rs anymore, but plays DVD-A and SACD discs fine.

I use another Denon CD player for redbook CDs.

I'm waiting for the 2910 to crap out all together before I replace it. Will probably get an Oppo at that time.

I don't use it for video much so I'm not sure if DVDs still work or not.

 

Sounds like another worn out Denon laser head.

Not surprising that we all seem to be thinking Oppo now as a replacement since like the 2910, those seem to have that same feature set of CD/HDCD/SACD/DVD-A playback and multichannel analog output. That feature set is almost extinct now even with Denon.

 

And then there's the sound and picture!!!!

 

Thanks for your help. I am well acquainted w/ the reset, as some of the problem discs have frozen the player. I have also read all about the laser problems these units have had over on AVS, where there are many posts discussing replacing the laser assemblies. I just want to make sure that is the problem before going that route. I'm going to try cleaning the laser before attempting anything else, since that is the simplest and I imagine if/when I call Denon they will say to try that 1st.

What I can't understand is how intermittently this happens. The player will work fine 98% of the time, for dvd-a's, dvd's (including new ones like the SW Tull dvd-v's) and cd's (I use my other universal player for sacd's via analog outs, as I use the Denon through HDMI). There are just some problem discs that have shown the issue: some discs of The Wire series (which has a history of such problems in all players, from what I've read); and SW's TYA and Relayer re-mixes. It wasn't until I had this problem w/ a CD that I seriously considered the laser to be the problem; I had chalked it up to some incompatibility between my player and the authoring of these new discs. Apparently there is a firmware update for these machines, but it's only available from Denon for European models (you need to access a European Denon site and provide a serial # from a European player).

Anyway, I appreciate everyone's help and will report back how the cleaning works and if it doesn't, how subsequent attempts to resolve this work out.

 

Unfortunately, there's no firmware update available for my 2930, at least in the US (see my post above).

 

Thanks for the link, but I was looking at close to $30 to add, as the cleaner I got was just under $6. It was really just a matter of picking things from my wishlist, which I'd be getting sooner or later anyway. I ended up w/ a pre-order of Yes Progeny highlights, The Corner miniseries on dvd and a book on the philosophy behind Yes music.

 

Maybe your player just does not care for Yes? Myself, I could live with that exception, but sounds like a deal-breaker for you.

With my 3800 that had a bad laser it was somewhat similar in that I could get it to play most of the time before replacing the part, but there were certain discs that just always had problems or wouldn't even load. I have no idea why some discs would be harder to read than others but it seems to be the case.

 

LOL. I'd fear you'd be right (Yes does seem to garner strong feelings, one extreme or the other), but the player never had any problem w/ my older Yes dvd-a's (Fragile and Magnification) and it's played the new CttE OK, except that I have to switch from audio to video to get it to play the extras that aren't in 5.1 (that is just how this player works- that's the only way to get it to play files in the video folder of dvd-a's). And it plays other prog dvd-a's fine (e.g. ELP, KC).

Good info about how intermittently your 3800 acted up before you switched lasers. I'm hoping a cleaning will work, but I fear I may end up having to replace the laser assembly.

 

Wow, that's very similar to what happened with my Denon. Every time I got serious about dealing with whatever weirdness was happening, it'd operate just fine for awhile. It was bit by bit, never more than one issue at a time and it'd usually work itself out, which I didn't understand.

 

So the intermittent aspect doesn't rule out laser going bad at all. That's very likely what's happening, it appears, though I'll still attempt a cleaning 1st. One difference in your situation though, it would appear, is that I have some discs that mess up every time (SW's TYA and Relayer), which will make assessing a solution a lot easier. Even though they have skipped/stuttered/frozen the player every time I've played them (except I think I got through TYA once), it always happens in a different place. But as soon as I clean the lens, I will pop in Relayer and know.

I consider myself lucky to have lasted this long after reading all the problems over on the dedicated 2930 3930 thread on AVS. It's also not a whole lot different from replacing a stylus on a TT- maybe a bit more labor (and a bit more complicated), but a little less expense.

 

Update: Got the disc cleaner, used it, then popped in Relayer and problem still exists. A call to Denon cust serv proved unhelpful- even a bit frustrating. The rep told me that since my player wasn't malfunctioning on all discs, but just a few specific ones, it was the discs, not the player. When asked about the firmware update available for European models, he knew nothing about it and said he had no way of finding out about it other than google. He could confirm that there was nothing available for US models, which of course I already knew.

Anyway, it looks like a new laser is in my future. Thanks for everyone's help.