First let me say that I know the player is old, but it has a better 480p picture than most players on the market today -- so that's why I'd prefer to not just replace it. I have an old 55" Mits 55807 that is a CRT-based RPTV, and it can display 480p native (without any signal processing) which means produces a very nice picture.

The problem is my RP-56 started acting flaky a couple months ago; meaning that it often has trouble starting up with DVD+R discs (ones recently burned and ones I've had that used to work). Once it finally starts reading them the discs seem to play fine, but often it struggles and gives up (sometimes just stopping and other times putting up a message saying the disc is unreadable). By cycling the tray and/or power several times I can usually get the disc to play, but it's becoming quite a hassle.

I saw there were firmware upgrades for the player so just this morning I went from 045 to 062, but alas that didn't help my problem as I had hope. I have tried a cleaner disc, but that also didn't help.

Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong with my player? Or any ideas of anything else I can try? About all I can think of is opening up the player an attempting to clean the laser lens by hand, but I'm worried I might do more harm than good.

About all I can think of is opening up the player an attempting to clean the laser lens by hand, but I'm worried I might do more harm than good.

That's what I would do. Blow out any dust, maybe reseat the connectors and chips.

-Bill

Since your issue is apparently only with DVD+R discs, consider that you are having burn quality problems. Your description is certainly consistent with that. Try burning at a lower speed and/or using better quality media.

Since your issue is apparently only with DVD+R discs, consider that you are having burn quality problems. Your description is certainly consistent with that. Try burning at a lower speed and/or using better quality media.I considered that too, but it doesn't jibe with the fact the exact same discs that worked without issue 3-4 months ago are now acting flaky. I do plan to try burning future discs at a slower speeds to see if that makes the issue go away.

I considered that too, but it doesn't jibe with the fact the exact same discs that worked without issue 3-4 months ago are now acting flaky. I do plan to try burning future discs at a slower speeds to see if that makes the issue go away.

Cleaning the player's laser certainly won't hurt, but an underlying disc quality issue is still possible.

Well I burned a disc at the slower 4x speed; it might be working a little better, but it's still hit or miss sometimes. I'm using Verbatium 16X (single layer) DVD+Rs, but I'm not sure if it is considered a quality disc.

Well I burned a disc at the slower 4x speed; it might be working a little better, but it's still hit or miss sometimes. I'm using Verbatium 16X (single layer) DVD+Rs, but I'm not sure if it is considered a quality disc.
They generally are considered good discs, by the DVD burning gurus at Videohlep.com and Imgburn forums. (They're pretty much all I burn, and the couple of hundred I've done have been 100% successful and playable.)

If you have another DVD player (or a friend's), you could check them out on that player, which might help determine whether it's the discs or the player. But, it may be time for a new player.

HTH,
Jim

You might want to contact AVS member Sango - he repairs those units and may have some useful information. I have the RP56 and he generously hacked it for me to remove macrovision and Region code restrictions. My everyday DVD player is a H/K DVD-48 so now I only use the RP56 for duping an occasional DVD. I agree it puts out a great 480p picture, better than most higher cost players, including the Toshiba HD-DVD A-2.

Hey everyone,

Seems I've come quite late to this party - I've got a Panasonic RP56 DVD player that has done very well for me over the years. Lately, though, it's had some trouble with newly mastered DVDs. I've tried several types of DVD-R and DVD+R media, including Verbatim brand and it still hiccups during some playback. I have the original firmware for the machine and was hoping that maybe a firmware upgrade would do the trick. It's proving VERY difficult to find though, since this player is no long in the mainstream. Does anyone out there have the Panasonic firmware upgrade software that inlcludes the RP56?

Thanks for any help!!

-Jason

only1miller,
It sounds like your player is having the same issues as mine. I did the firmware update on mine and it didn't seem to fix the problem.