I just recently moved and tried to use my Sony MDP-455 for the first time tonight only to find out it no longer works. It will turn on and there is a video signal, and the tray opens and closes. But when I load a disc in it does not spin and the laser does not move up or down the rack. I have taken some pictures of the insides and a video of a disc trying to load. If you can help me repair it please let me know your suggestions.

Here are the pictures.

http://imageshack.us/g/694/4qlt.jpg/

and here is the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q0e2ZVy ... e=youtu.be

Maybe the flex cable needs to be reseated?

Which one is the flex cable? The one on the laser? I already pushed that one in as far as I could.

yes, that's the flex cable.
from what others say sony LD players aren't that great anyway, i would just look into getting a better player.
you can find some great working units for under 100 if you can afford more then look for even better ones.

Yeah, I was thinking about getting a better one, do you have a suggestion for one that would have the best picture, or is there somewhere on this site you could point me with a list of good models or something? I was going to be using it to capture rare movies and transfer them to DVD so one with a good picture from an S-Video out would be ideal.

you will have to search.
my 2 cents are:
double side play, parts available for future repair, picture quality.
i've only had 5 players, i can only tell you about 3 of them, the other two were so long ago that i can't remember.

CLD-3070 older player but great, real workhorse, used it daily for LD and CD playback from 89-2004
it still works but the old grease is sticky and i need it cleaned, just cleaned.
parts are no longer available so you will have to stock up on players or get in touch with duncan/ldservice or duane/grasshopper
grasshopper has parts players around so i know that he can still fix them into the future, i'm sure duncan has parts also, but i never asked him about that.

CLD-D503 great double side player, lower quality but works fine for what i need in my office space.
parts are still available.

CLD-R7G great picture quality, lesser build quality, have it from 2004 to now and i've had to get it fixed twice.
parts are still available.

others say the panisonic 900 is a great player, i'm sure it is but you can't get parts anymore.
hope that helps.

The LX-900 is a great player, but you have to be willing to buy another to have as a spare for parts, or an LX-600 which uses most of the same major parts like the laser, slider/U-turn system, spindle motor, etc... It's like the Runco - now that's a truly superb player but again I have to keep spare LX-900's around for parts replacement in case something goes wrong - luckily all of the custom Runco circuitry was off-the-shelf stuff like another power transformer for the audio section, AD811 video opamp's (in both the video and audio sections due to their speed and performance), Zettler relays, a better master clock for both the audio and video sections, etc. One major advantage of the LX-900 and players based on it, is the analog FM audio - its head and shoulders above Pioneer's analog audio playback, which is weird because Panasonic used Pioneer's analog audio FM demodulator/CX NR IC in the 900 - anyway, the 900 suppresses the ticks and pops and chatter of rotted discs and you never hear helicoptering - nor do you hear sibilance splatter or any of the other ills that can affect the analog FM audio tracks - that can be important if you have or collect a lot of the older analog only titles or prefer the analog tracks to the digital ones.

Rein-o, what have been the problems you've had with the R7G that required repair? Does the player feel cheap and give off the low-cost 'clackity' plastic sounds when it loads or changes sides? I just wonder because I didn't know that was a cheaply made player - and doesn't it use Mitsubishi's Super 3D Adaptive Comb Filter IC?

I guess I'm lucky as I've had my R7G since 2005 and haven't had a single issue with it :knocks wood:. It is light. Lighter than any of the "higher end" players like the D70X or LX-900. So I guess that's one of the indicators of the build quality.

The Mitsubishi comb filter is great. Really cuts down both dot crawl and cross color.

i've played over 700 discs from 2004 to now, and the laser was going bad.
when i received it, the bar on tracking the laser poped out during shipping from poor packing,
and i didn't know what else may have been wrong with it.

could you take a look of it trying to load a disc, make sure there is no disc there so you can see the laser movement.
and also with a cd, if it plays audio cds?

it could be the laser got knocked a bit and cant find the disc. on most optical laser , the laser will move up and down to try to focus on the disc.

also see if you can manually move the laser gear forward/back. just dont force it , but see if the gears or track broke.

the noise could be the laser or laser gears, or the spinner or something else... try to locate it.