Hi everyone!

I bought a Sony MDP-455 LaserDisc player at a Goodwill store several years back, along with a few dozen movies ("Blade Runner: The Directors Cut"! Yum!) for $20 or $30. Now, here I am, wanting to (finally!) get this thing running, but I'm having a snag. When I load a LaserDisc movie, the tray shuts (after I push the "Close" button), the player flashes "PLAY" for a bit (it also shows the same flashing "PLAY" on the TV screen), but after a few moments, the tray slides back out as if I'd ejected the disc. I tried doing the same thing with an audio CD, and it (more-or-less) repeated the same pattern, but with considerably more time spent flashing "PLAY."

Any ideas? I'd hate to let these great movies (not to mention cool player!) continue to go to waste!

Thanks,

Huxley

If you let this player lay around for a couple of years then it would not hurt if you gave it a thorough cleaning job. Laser optical devices do not take kindly to an accumulation of dust. Be careful with cleaning the optical system, lenses and all.

If it's an electronic failure then you're just out of luck. Not a chance you can get it repaired for the kind of money you spent on it to start with. You might be able to find another laser disc player somewhere so you can enjoy your discs but these players tend to become collector's items nowadays.

Hey, thanks for the reply!

Your guess was correct - after removing the cover and poking around in the guts, I was able to see that the mechanism that raises the disc off the tray was working fine, but the disc wasn't spinning and the laser assembly wasn't moving on its track.

Long story short - after a few (semi) gentle bumps and drops (a few inches onto thick carpet), whatever was blocking the works came loose, and the 455 is now working like a charm!

Thanks again for the advise!

Huxley