I have a couple of faulty players:
1) a DVL-919E - it plays LDs but not DVDs
The DVD laser lights up (very bright!) and the DVD spins, but after a couple of tries the disc is ejected.
2) a DVL-909 - it powers up but does very little. Pressing buttons causes the relevant action to be displayed - OPEN, PLAY etc. - but nothing mechanical happens. Both lasers are back in their little cage. I've tried winding one out onto the bottom track, but it makes no difference. The only movement is if I wind the cage round so the DVD laser is on the bottom, then when the player is powered on it rotates so that the DVD laser is back on the top again.
Assuming there's nothing simple I can try with the 919's current laser, I was wondering whether the shortest route to getting a fully working machine might be to try putting the 909 DVD laser pickup into the 919.
How easy would that be? The obvious method to remove the laser would seem to be to remove the top tracks, then manually wind it out of its cage, disconnecting the ribbon cable somehow - but is there a better way?
Would there be complex realignment adjustments needed after the swap, requiring an oscilloscope and test discs (neither of which I have)? From what I can make out in the Service Manual, there is only one adjustment for the DVD carriage, the Tangential adjustment screw - can that be done with trial and error?
(Incidentally I realise that DVD playback on these machines is nothing to write home about, but I'd still like to fix it! I do have working players as well, these two were inexpensive purchases to tinker with - in an earlier thread here, I already asked about swapping spindle motors and in fact the 919 currently has the worn spindle motor from my 'best' player.)
Thanks for any help