I have an original Discovision release of Jaws. As with pretty much all Discovision titles this laserdisc has playback problems.

When I got the disc I was using a CLD-V2120D player. While playing the film on this machine sides 1 and 3 would play mostly fine (a bit of lock up here and there) but sides 2, 3 and 5 would never start playing, the disc would just spin and eventually give up. However I found that I could get around this problem by inserting the disc and skip to around frame 500 using the CHP/TIME button on my remote (without pressing play) and it would start playing from there, If I wanted I could rewind to the start of the side. I assume this is because the player couldn't find the start of the side.

I am now using a DVL-919E player and things have changed a bit. Now there is no laser lockup at all, the video plays without interruption and side 2 works without any prompting. However sides 3 and 5 still have the same problem where the player can't find the start and the disc just spins. I tried pressing CHP/TIME to see if the fix from my CLD player worked but found that I can't select a frame unless a disc is playing and as a result these sides are now unwatchable.

It's a tough release to find here in the UK so it'll probably take a while to find other copies of the problem discs and I'm planning to give away my CLD player as I don't really have the space for two players at the minute.

Does anyone have any advice on or similar experience with this problem? Does anyone know of a way to select frame numbers when play is stopped on a DVL player?

Thanks for any help.

I've had this happen to me on a couple Discovision discs. Finding another copy of Jaws would probably be the easiest fix. Not sure how much shipping would be to the UK but I do run across it from time to time and may even have an extra in my collection. Not sure if that helps but it is an alternate solution for you.

Ron

Have you tried giving the discs a good cleaning? Might help. I've never had a DVL player, but I know with the CLD players I have some had laserlock, and problems starting a side. My CLD-1030 and my CLD-3030 play back my Discovision the best.

What you can try is putting your disc in upside down, and try B-side playing it. (for the sides that won't start)

I'll certainly give that a try if I can't get the player to read the discs.


I gave the discs a good clean when I got them but will give them another go over, see if I've missed anything.

Side 4 works fine so last night I did try starting on side 4 and tried B-Side playing Side 3 and got the same problem of the disc just spinning and nothing happening. This was with Quick Turn enabled which starts playing the side without reading the index at the start of the disc to save time when switching sides. As I'm assuming that the index is the part the player is struggling to read I didn't think skipping over it would do any harm, but now I think about it I'll try giving it another go tonight with Quick Turn switched off.

Thanks for the suggestions so far, I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Supposedly a Pioneer LD-660 will play any kind of disc, including discovision.

I have a couple of them if you're interested in one.

Cheers, but I've just got my new player working (bought it broken and fixed it up) and as I've already said I don't currently have the space for more than one player at the minute.

I seem to have made progress on the issue though. I was trying out what I suggested earlier (putting in side B and flipping to A without Quick Turn switched on) and it worked! I experimented a bit more and found that 9 times out of 10 it would start playing after about 30-60 seconds, others it would just spin. This seems to be the case with both Quick Turn switched on and off and whether I'm flipping or just starting with side A. Perhaps I was just unlucky the other night while I was trying to watch the film and it wasn't starting up.

I least I know now that my player CAN play the whole film even if sometimes it wont. Interestingly it sometimes starts one of the problem sides 300 - 400 frames in and I have to rewind back (similar to my manual solution on the old player) other times it starts from frame 0. I guess this is just the joy of Discovision!