Opened a sealed copy of the OVA "D-1 Devastator" vol 2 (CAV disc) last night and watched it, but about 1 minute before the end of the 1st side (this also happened at about the same time on the 2nd side), a single horizontal line similar to disc rot symptoms appeared in the middle of the picture, then after 10 seconds or so my player (HLD-X9) suddenly made somewhat loud mechanical noises as if it had gotten stuck, the picture glitched out, and playback jumped back several minutes.

This happened only at the end and it happened on both sides, and this was a until-recently-sealed copy in a sleeve that had been shrinkwrapped on top of a slab of styrofoam with a space in the middle for a CD, and the shrinkwrap warped the sleeve a bit. This probably affected the LD somehow, but the disc itself didn't seem warped and didn't have visible rot. But since there were tiny scuff patterns on the outer 1/4th of the disc, I'm assuming that it was actually warped because it seems like something was hitting the disc during playback. My player doesn't seem to have problems with other CAV discs (including vol 1, which I got used without the CD)

Does this diagnosis sound correct? Should I try flattening out the disc somehow? If so, what would be the best way to do so?

My HLD-X9 is also sensitive to warping.

Even a slightly warped disc might cause video sync to get lost, audio to glitch and some weird shaking video effect to appear.

Usually after letting the disc flat under some reasonable weight for a few days, everything gets back to normal.

Julien

Thanks, I'll give it a shot.

I have the exact same problem with my X0 ! Hard to believe considering that it is a very heavy player and my other player ( CLD-D925 )
plays the same discs without any issues. Most discs play just fine though but it is annoying sometimes when you are almost 95 % done with one
side and all of a sudden the player is providing me with video/audio sync issues.

Looks like side 1 is now playing okay but side 2 is still messed up. Fortunately the end of that side only consists of commercials for the Mega CD and Super Famicom games so no big loss.

Unfortunately I came across 2 other CAV discs that now show the same problem and trying to flatten them out didn't seem to work. Oh well, they weren't particularly rare titles. Thankfully the 10 or so other CAV discs I've tried lately seem fine, so hopefully my X9 will still play discs for another decade or two.

Had the same issue with a DVL-909. Opened the cover and played the disc. Yes, the disc is warped, and it was physically touching the laser assembly. This stops the rotation of the disc (probably a failsafe), made the laser crawl back a few centimeters and started playing again.

When I put the same disc in my CLD-D925, it plays without any problem.

So I guess that the laser assembly of a 909 - which has also a laser that reads DVD, and thus needs to be closer to the disc, or is somewhat larger - has more problems with warped discs than a D925.

Heh, figures. My backup player is a 909...

Seems the discs also have the same problem on the DVL-919 I got a while back, so I guess it is indeed more of a disc problem than a player problem. A couple of these discs I've had for years and didn't have any problems (at least not that I can remember(. The discs were properly stored for the most part, although my apartment can get a bit hot in summer, but probably not more than 95F.

I too have had a recent disc purchase with warp, it plays fine on both sides but it won't play when it flips.
Looked at the disc and it has a slight bowl shape, and its odd that it will play side A but when the player flips it won't play side B, but
if I remove the disc and flip it the same issue, it will play side B first but when it flips it won't play side A.

Now its been in the shelf flattening as I don't need to watch it daily and it should flatten as my discs are fairly tight in the cases I use.

It is sort of a "How Well Player is Adjusted" - "Degree of Warp" = "Playback Success" equation.

I own a copy of Puppet Master that won't play side A at all and I assumed it was a manufacturing issue. Seller let me keep it but are some of you suggesting that it could be a warped disc and I just have to try to flatten it maybe between two 25 pound weights?

Yes, most likely this is really a production defect. There are different situations and there is never a 100% guarantee that each unit will be of proper quality. It's strange that you didn't change this disc, in theory, according to the law, you could do it.