I've recently had trouble playing SVCDs in my Singer SGD-001 DVD player after a couple of years of hassle free use. All other formats are playing fine so I was thinking that the software which decodes SVCD may be having problems...

Does this sound right? And if so, is there a way to remedy this myself? I have heard that updates are available for such drivers which can then be enabled by playing a CD-R of the file in the player.

Can anyone verify this or point me to where I may be able to obtain this online?

many Thanks,

Katy

-- katy (sushi_pop@yahoo.com.au), February 05, 2003

Answers

I think you're wrong about the problem. Unless you have tinkered with the firmware (it's really firmware not software involved), your player is either just showing its age, doesn't like your media, or you are using a new burning program that it doesn't like. It is possible to update the firmware on some DVD players, but it seems that your model is not one of those. Try going to http://www.nerd-out.com/darrenk and follow the links on this page to the Network54 page and see if they have any firmware you can download. Your DVD player might need service or lens cleaning. I know that CD players have lens cleaning kits available where you just pop a CD in the player and let it do it's thing. If such kits exist for DVD players, you might try using one and see if it helps.

-- Root (root@yahoo.moc), February 05, 2003.

Thanks for the tip...

Re: the lens cleaning -- would this only affect the playback of SVCDs and not DVDs? The problem as it appears is that when the disc plays (*if* it plays) the image becomes extremely pixelated and distorted. It doesn't seem to be loading discs at all anymore (SVCDs only -- DVDs working fine)...

-- katy (sushi_pop@yahoo.com.au), February 05, 2003.

That's a good question. If you're not seeing problems with DVDs, it could be a problem with your laser, which means that lens cleaning won't help. DVD players that support CD-R/W discs have 2 lasers - one to play CD-R/W discs and one for commercial discs like DVDs and audio CDs. Homemade SVCDs would use the CD-R/W laser and you could have a problem with that. If so, it will require repair or you'll have to buy another player. A lens cleaning kit will be cheaper than repair if you want to try it, but based on your 2nd message, I think it probably won't help.

-- Root (root@yahoo.moc), February 06, 2003.