Probs w/ HDA1

[Peench]

The HDA1 I have is starting to exhibit some oddities. I'm wondering if its just the nature of the beast or perhaps its because JonLiu had his electronics-destroying-hands on it at some point in the past.

The other day it simply refused to load a DVD. It simply said "No disc" every time I tried.

Yesterday my wife called me in because a movie that had been playing suddenly stopped and it gave the following on the screen:

Cannot Play Disc. Error code: 0x81000C03

It would not eject, stop, play or respond to any commands from the remote. I couldn't find a manual eject hole so I ended up having to unplug it from the wall and then plug it back in again. I could then eject the disc. Popped it in the PS3 and it was fine.

I haven't done a search for that error code yet, but I'm wondering if these types of issues are normal for the HDA1 or if I should send it in for repairs? Any ideas?

My other thought is that since it was owned by "I-destroy-all-electronics" JonLiu, perhaps I should consider simply replacing it.

Thanks for any insight!

[alter_ego_trip]

Considering Jon touched it I would destroy it, and anything else it was connected to.

My HDA1 has been pretty good. Every once in a while it will exhibit some weird quirk (when I was taking screen shots one time, it locked up and had to be manually powered down), I think that is the nature of the 1st gen beasts. I might recommend a hard reboot (holding the power button down for 5 seconds), to see if this helps. Also what FW version are you running? If you don't have the latest I would recommend updating to see if this helps.

[BiffCo]

I've thankfully never had that problem. My player does get kind of choppy now and then, with the audio/video losing sync. Nothing a quick pause/unpause won't fix. However, it's beginning to do it a bit more lately, which has me concerned. Maybe just 1st gen bugs.

-Brad

[CamDawg]

Peench,
I had the exact same problems with two Netflix disks back when I had an HD-A1 - wouldn't play Breakfast Club at all and would lock up hard with an error code at the 10 minute mark of Aeon Flux. I assumed it was an issue with the discs. I bought the 360 add-on before I shipped the HD-A1; the 360 had a slight skip at the same spot on Aeon Flux but quickly recovered (less than a second), and it played BC without a hitch. i think the A1 may just be extra sensitive to scratched/dirty disks.

[alter_ego_trip]

I've heard that HDDVD discs are much more delicate then Blur Ray. Minor scratches cause havoc with HDDVD players where Blur Ray discs can take a beating and play ok. Maybe Jon can throw some more insight into this seeing as he has had both.

[alter_ego_trip]

Oh and Brad, you're officially not allowed to post anything else until you post some screenshot pics.

[Peench]

Well both discs were non HDDVD discs and were store purchased and owned and neither of them looked scratched or dirty when I took them out. Very strange, but from the limited looking I did, it seemed as if many HDA1s start crapping out after a while. I wonder if its like a temporary directory deal. Does Linux have anything similar to that - i.e. a need to clean out the cache every now and again or something? I didn't try the disc again after I unplugged it since I was in the middle of taking the door panels off my car to install new speakers when the kids and wife were hollering about it being broken, but perhaps that might have been the reset it needed. I will also check for the latest firmware, but last time I checked it told me there were no updates (but that was when I first got it from Jon a couple of months ago).

[Jon Liu]

Dang, I'm sorry to hear that you are having problems, Peench! I didn't have any problems with that unit whatsoever, when I had it!

Anyway, definitely check the firmware to see if it needs to be updated, maybe that'll help a bit!

[MadBryan]

Peench, your last post said the kids and wife were using it. Well I'm not talking about them but if their like mine they might have gotten button mashing happy cause of the slow load time. This happened at my house, they treated it like an elevator (repeatedly pushing button) and the HD-A1 definately don't like that

[Peench]

Thanks MadB - I have seen her button mashing and have told her to stop (not that she listens to me!! haha). Of course, I read your post to my wife and she said "oh.. that's BS!" She also said "tell your friend, 'elevator this b*tch!'" She's pretty feisty right now for some reason. she's laughing and I'm laughing right now pretty hard. I wish she would log on here and post. She's always cracking me up.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll try to keep my wife on the "how to stop button mashing in 12 easy steps" program and also check on my firmware. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

[alter_ego_trip]

At least your wife can work a DVD player. My wife won't step foot in the theater room because every time she does something goes haywire. Her and electronics do not get along. I think she must be related to Jon is some way.

[Jon Liu]

low blow, Alter, low blow!

[Peench]

I checked the firmware and it said up to date. So not sure. I don't know what movie it was that was having issues, but we watched Clerks II this past Saturday and it was fine. Is there a way to soft-reset it? If my wife can remember the disc that had problems I'll try it again and if it has troubles, try to reset it.