Hello everyone,

Recently I've got a Pioneer DVL-9 (that reportedly rare champagne model with auto voltage selector). I got just the unit, no boxes or anything. But I have the service remote programmed into my PDA so I can change the DVD region or view diagnostic data.

So, the problems with it are:

When I put in an LD, sometimes it won't even detect the LD has a side B, but plays side A fine.
If it detects side B, when I press the B button, the play head moves to the top and tries to read it.
However then it either gets stuck, not responding to any controls, and then stops playback; or begins playing from roughly 00:01:30 into the side B, with an awful lot of distortion to the image and sound, sometimes getting stuck around a certain portion of the movie. However if I use fast forward from there, and move it into like 00:03:00 into the side B, then it plays fine thereon until the end of the disc.

When I put in a CD Audio, it plays most factory pressed CDs fine. However on some it starts playback from the middle of track 1, or even track 2, and the next/previous buttons are not working. This happens with some factory pressed CDs and most CD-R's, especially recorded on a speed greater than 2x.

When I put in a DVD (I only have one DVD at hand currently), it tries to read it. The display on TV shows "SQ100, ALL REGION" (not sure what SQ100 means, but the disc is indeed an all region), and after some time, "CANNOT BE PLAYED".

I tried a DVD-R burned a while ago from Roxio Music DVD Creator, and it does exactly the same. I don't have a DVD burner to test a different format, though.

When I put in that DVD, or a factory CD, and press ESC+Repeat B, the random seek test runs, and shows this:


The NG numbers are constantly rising with the DVD, the OK numbers are rising too but far slower than the NG ones, nearly twice as slower. This also happens on a factory CD, but the NG numbers don't rise as fast.

I haven't tried that test on an LD, though.

I've looked through the service manual (elektrotanya download), but didn't find anything related to these issues.

I've never opened this unit yet. Last time I touched an LD, it was a Philips CDV496 made in USSR, it went from barely-playing-CDs to totally not detecting anything, so I'm kinda afraid of messing it up. But there is no local LD service available too, and I would like to learn how to fix these things.

So what should I look into first of all?

Many thanks in advance!

Side B issues on a Combo LD/DVD we also have: [DVL-909] B side playing issue

A common combi player issue?

Julien

I did check that thread before posting, thanks.
It doesn't sound like spindle problems, it spins up right to the needed speed as I can judge by how it sounds. Though when stopping from side B it indeed makes a "sliding" noise as if something is slipping in the mechanics, but I assumed that's just the brakes.

I'll give it a clean, but maybe any other suggestions?
Thanks

OK, so I was about to post a video of this problem, and I am doing so now.

This is how it fails to play side B, unless I press my finger against the carriage assembly:


And this is the CD failure:


BUT...
While I was filming it, I thought that maybe I could give it a bit of a clean. So I used an optical brush to clean the CD pickup lens, and also detached the top frame that carries the clamper to do that. I also then detached and re-attached the top carriage frame (basically undone the screws and retightened them without doing much). And to top that off, I wiped the clamper and the spindle with some isopropanol using a cotton bud.

And after that, it plays the CDs fine, and I've tried like 3 or 4 LD's, the side B plays on all of them, even really dirty ones, except for Trading Places, but I guess that might be it's just a bit warped.

So I wonder, is that really the fix, or do I need to replace the rubber ring on the spindle somehow? If so, what can I replace it with?

And if it's the centering misalignment, I can do it with an oscilloscope, but do I need the calibration LD disc, or can I use any LD disc, provided I still do the correct procedure using the service remote and scope?

White spindle rings are fine, they are a tougher material. Black rings are the ones that need replacing, IF they need it.

Could have been just dirt on the laser and its working fine now don't mess with it until the next thing happens.

Well it is black on mine indeed!

So is it working now or slipping?
Did you try cleaning it?

It's working for now, except for the DVD part.
Previous owner reports that she was able to play a PAL DVD just fine as long as it was not a DVD(+/-)R(W), so a factory-pressed DVD.

I wonder if it's probably time to rise the DVD diode current a bit? The SM doesn't specify the adjustment location for that though.

Also for some reason the upper 3 screws on the Side B Tilt Base are missing in my unit, as well as some of the case screws. I guess it was serviced back in the day by someone, and maybe they didn't really know what they're doing!

I had a 919 and it never played any burned DVDs.

Why make it do something that it can't do??
Did they even have burned DVDs back in 1997-98 or whenever that DVL-9 is from??

I don't want it to play burned DVDs, that's kinda expected it wouldn't do it and I have a Sony BD player for that.
I just want to play my purchased music DVDs on the Pioneer since it seems like it has a better sound output, and it doesn't play those, too, that's what I mean.

Yeah, I remember the 919 not playing some strange DVD I had, but then again I only had the unit for 1 month and didn't care about what it played in the way of DVD.

Sounds like its fine.
Enjoy it for LD, and if you want better audio from DVD get a better stand alone DVD with an onboard DAC.

I'd rather get a separate SPDIF/Toslink DAC if I have to buy something expensive to do it anyway, but having DVD work on the DVL-9 would be cool for the collection value of the device, as I try to get all of mine up and running as they were at day one.

BTW I just tried a burned DVD+R, and it DOES read it, just the same error, but it detects it's a DVD and that it's region free...

The value in the piece is that it plays LDs.
Good luck with your LD collection.

Thanks!
The discs are ridiculously expensive here, most are more expensive than what I got this player for.

One day back in 2014 an acquaitance of mine found a whole stack of LDs near a dumpster in his town and dragged them home.
It was a batch of about 76 LDs.
Too bad he didn't take care to remove the plastic outer sleeves before storing them.
This year I got these LDs from him and only 11 discs had proper covers with artwork and stuff intact. The rest had the covers eaten by black and red fungus, so I had to toss them and keep just the LDs, sometimes even tearing off the stickers off the discs because the fungus got onto those too.
Best thing, only one of them suffered from laser rot, and the rest are still playable both sides after giving them a proper cleaning! So at least I can use them as media, rather than collectibles.

Maybe the issue is just a region restriction. It's obvious the player recognizes that the disc is a DVD so that means the laser assembly is working and the transport is fine because it can play CD's.



In regards to the B side issue, I wrote about a problem I had w/ my CLD-D704 having issues w/ playing the B side and the cause was a mis-aligned transport assembly. I fixed it by just comparing how off it was to my working CLD-D703 and after some careful bending I was able to tweek the 704 back to full capability.

The fact that you had missing screws tells me they served the purpose of adjusting the tilt which makes sense. In any case, it appears you fixed that so I guess it's all good.

OK, I just got a legit american NTSC Region 1 DVD at hand. Changed the region to 1 via Service Remote, and it plays perfect. It reads PAL too but won't play it.
So looks like it's all fine now! :D

I have this same player. The switching power supply is typical of HK/China based players, but I've never seen an HK player that kept the LDG functionality.

Regardless, I can confirm this unit WILL NOT play PAL DVDs. It might play PAL VCD's, but it hasn't played any of my PAL DVDs.

You are better off never using this player for DVDs. I have never been able to get 16x9 DVDs to display properly on my Sony TV.

That was always my personal opinion from the 1st days of DVD.

Not that I think an LD/DVD combo is a bad idea but I just had a preference to keep and obtain LD players that just did LD and CD playback. In addition, it has been known that DVD/LD units are a compromise in video quality for both formats. Also, most standalone DVD players are simply better in the video department than any DVL units.




I always thought this was more of an issue w/ progressive scan. My letterbox (non-anamorphic) DVD's just didn't cooperate w/ mainly my Denon, AVR-2808CI's, video processor. My easy solution was to simply replace the non-anamorphic titles w/ updated versions and it's fine for the most part. Regular 4:3 material doesn't seem to give me any issues.