Some SACD titles not being read by my players.

Or, the companies could go the SACD/CD in one double case route, much like the movies that are sold Blu-ray/DVD.

If the title has some significant remastering or something, it wouldn't be a bad thing to have it on both formats, and it cannot be an expensive proposition to include a CD, given the price point of SACD titles. I would assume that hybrid discs would be more expensive to press, but that's just a hunch on my part.

 

Or they could glue two discs together!!! One side would have the hi-rez and the other would be a standard CD!

Oh, wait . . .

 

Someone had to do it, sorry...

 

I have this issue with 'gold' coloured SACD discs & the Yamaha CD-S2000, no problem at all with 'silver' SACDs

On all other discs, it defaults to the SACD layer but the gold ones default to CD & I have to reload the tray numerous time until it (occasionally) finds the SACD layer. Then it won't play from track 1, it just ejects - I have to jump to something like track 7 and then once playing, skip back to track 1. Fortunately I only have a couple of gold ones but dozens of 'standard' SACD discs. Still annoying though

 

I have had my 3rd SACD player that quit playing the SACD layer of hybrid SACDs. (They all play CDs and single-layer SACDs fine.)

Until I read this thread, I would have thought that cleaning the (clean appearing) SACDs was a waste of time. Very interesting that this sometimes helps.

It seems apparent, to me, that there is more than one cause for this problem. Or different degrees of something that is causing this problem. Or both.

 

Let's face it. If laser drives are asked to see more than one thing on a disc and the drive is slightly out of calibration, there is more chance of failure. Not to mention these cheap Chinese drives aren't exactly Swiss watches.

 

Until recently the only problem I had was with the Lynyrd Skynyrd 5.1 disc, the other two discs play but not the 5.1 one, and now I just got a few dvd/mp3 discs on dual layer that also do not work. I attributed the LS issue to my brand model, which after googling seems to be one of the very few players that don't play LS. Everything else worked, though, until these dvd's-rs. So perhaps it is my laser....

 

So far, I have not heard of this happening with an OPPO player.

Has anyone had this problem with any OPPO player?

EDIT - I just remembered this:

Any other occurances?

 

The pickup in my Oppo BDP-83SE gets dirty over time and eventually the unit refuses to play hybrids. A quick treatment with a CD lens cleaner usually fixes it. More stubborn grime can be removed with a gentle wipe of a microfiber cloth after opening the case. The original laser in this unit did go bad a while ago - hybrids became increasingly difficult to play despite cleaning the lens. A new laser pickup (from eBay, inexpensive, easy to replace) fixed it up good as new.

 

I'm just revisiting this thread as I have 2 Pioneer DV-563A players. I'd experienced this problem before (reading SACD layers of hybrid discs - single layer no problem) and had solved it by cleaning.

Recently the same problem started occurring. I opened the units up and used a camera blower blush on the lens. Both players work perfectly again - fingers crossed!

 

No problems yet with my Yamaha CD-S2100; hybrids play fine. DualDiscs are another story (lots of skips/drop outs).

 

The few times I've had any problems with hybrid SACDs being read by any of my players a quick wash of the offending SACD with soap and tap water did the trick. It seems that my copies of Steely Dan/Gaucho and Deep Purple/Machine Head acquire some kind of film over time thus necessitating a bath.

 

My BDP-83SE unit has had exactly the same problem and I have had to open the case and clean the laser assembly numerous times over the years. Thankfully after doing that it has played hybrid discs without too many issues. I do have one disc that is a faulty pressing and it drops out in the same spot on every play. Have cleaned the disc and laser assembly and it made no difference so I am guessing it is a faulty pressing. Too late to return it for a replacement or refund.

Had a mate over last weekend to watch a blu-ray and the player absolutely refused to load the disc with the drive just spinning labouriously for about a minute or so before it came up with an error message. Pulled the unit out of the rack tonight and cleaned the lens assembly and tried again. The disc loaded in a few seconds. The strange thing is that the player internals look pretty clean though there was a bit of dust on the laser assembly block next to the laser so the player must be importing dust when the drawer is is opened and closed.

I also have a Denon DVD-3930 that wouldn't recognise the SACD layer of hybrid discs from literally day one after purchase (it was brand new). It ended up having laser assembly replaced shortly after purchase as it was a known fault with the laser on those units and I have hardly used it since. Still pretty much in brand new condition.

 

Have you checked what firmware version you have on your 83SE?

There could be a more current version from Oppo that may solve your bluray problem.

I had several problematic blurays that were 'fixed' with a newer firmware release thru Oppo.

Sometimes blurays have poorly written, non-standard java that runs the disc menus and features that a player will have problems with.

New firmware on the player will have 'fixes' to get around the buggy java code.

 

Not trying to sound rude but did you read what I wrote? After cleaning the laser the disc loaded without any problems.

The firmware I have loaded is the most up to date version for that model.

But I certainly agree with you that some blu-ray discs have been problematic due to poor programing. My biggest beef with the Oppo though that I have highlighted elsewhere before is that on a lot of DVD-A discs it has a bad habit of clipping the beginning of songs. I think it's the player coming late out out of its muting circuitry as it goes from track to track on those DVD-A discs where the player has to go hunting for the next track which is a lot of them on the ones I own, mainly the Talking Heads EU DVD-A discs. I had a similar issue on an old Pioneer laser disc player on a couple of CDs. Also interesting is that the BDP-83SE will begin playing the next track on a lot of CDs but the display doesn't change the track until momentarily thereafter. So it appears to be a firmware issue with the Oppo failing to sync the title markers correctly with the title marks on the discs. The Denon DVD-3930 does not have the same problem.

 

Missed that.

What you were describing was exactly what I was seeing on some blurays loading on my 83 - which turned out to be a f/w fix.