I'm getting bad herringbones on a lot of discs. The player also struggles to start playing many discs, plays with severe distortion or gives up entirely.
Pretty bummed I don't haven't developed brains to do it myself and I don't have a scope or alignment disc, assuming that is the only problem.

The problem I've commonly found is the worm gear that tilts the mechanical assembly breaks, no parts available if that is your issue. Would need to get parts from a parts player. You can see this gear when you remove the bottom cover.

The only worm gear I see there is fine but one of the gears in that assembly is cracked. That doesn't seem to be the problem though, I played an entire movie today with no problems. Another one was vary distorted. Depends on the disc but all these discs play fine on other players.

Cracked gear is cracked gear, no good. Try to repair with epoxy and possibly metal like a washer.

Are you sure that disc is OK?? Do you own another player to check the disc for the same issue.
Now we need to own multiple players, some players are older and dying in the blink of an eye and you really need to have more
than 1 player.

I can’t imagine what the point is of having one LD player. Its guaranteed heartbreak.

This.

"Tilt shaft assembly"
DXB1118 is the original part number, DXB1533 the new part number and both are NLA.

Not all discs are equal, the required tilt angle for correct playback can differ disc to disc, not all discs are equal. One can play clean and another with crosstalk if the tilt doesn’t work properly.

I have two other players, yes the discs play fine on them. You mean more than one of the same model? Don't get me started. Even if I had excellent repair skills, perfect storage and at least two of everything I want, it would be stressful. I wish I could just forget about it all and live in the moment, I love/hate this hobby!

I think Zeta is just referring to having any working number of players on hand just so you have a machine to spin up your discs. I would prefer to have multiples of the same model (and I do) as it would help w/ troubleshooting a complicated issue (simple board swaps can at the most determine where an issue might lie).

But yes, it is a hobby you love and hate @ the same time even going back to days when it was popular. I always hated dealing w/ laser rot or poorly mastered titles. Now I have no choice but to deal with players needing the occasional maintenance or developing odd playback issues. I'm currently getting ready to pull one of main players offline to do a major overhaul and I'm not looking forward to it (but it needs to be done). At least for now I can plug in a good working player for now that actually needed a workout anyway so I am good with that.

Ugh, this just happened to me, I need less stress in my life not more.
Planning on selling off a lot of discs now to keep it to a very, very tight minimum of stuff I will or want to watch again that isn't on
streaming or dollar DVD.

I probably should be selling off more at this point in my life but I’m in a buying spree looking for specific titles on the cheap. Mostly looking for AC3, DTS, and nice box set titles but open to whatever peaks my interest.

I wish I had an alternative. Finland is very much a seller's market. Loads of people selling discs but nobody selling players. I do try to keep an eye out for another one, but every time one does pop up, it's DVL models priced at 4-500 dollars.

Have you made a list of the LD titles you are selling?
Do you have japanese stuff?

Oh yeah, he has a list.

No list but what are you looking for,

I have Japanese LDs yes.

It wudd be easier for me to read the titles from your X-mas list rather than having to think out of the blue what I wish for

Oh no, see, I have the discs, you have the xmas list.
They are listed on ebay, if you haven't bought them you don't like what I have.
Tanks

Yo, you got PM.