Arcam DV137 DVD Player Faulty - Advice

anavfan

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I've got an Arcam DV137 DVD Player that has got fussy about DVDs that it plays - basically I get read errors quite frequently when I put discs in. I haven't actually used it for the last 12 months and it doesn't really feel like it's had massive use so it's a bit disappointing to be honest.

I've spoken to Arcam and if it's the laser mech then the cost will be £250, although there are other possibilities which would mean its £150. The costs are plus my delivery costs.

I'm not sure whether it's worth my while sorting it out, after all, I assume an Oppo would be at least as good a DVD player anyway.

Do I scrap or sell to someone who might want the parts or take a punt and get it repaired?

Thanks for any advice.
 
Always a tricky one giving advice on this sort of thing, but if my DV137 was in a situation like yours, I'd probably get Arcam to repair it for what seems to me a reasonable price. For me, the DV137 is a wonderful SACD/DVD-A player, in addition to playing DVD-Vs and audio CDs.
 
If the repair is warranted for a few years then go for it. If you are otherwise happy with your 137 then it's money well spent IMO. Sometimes Arcam fix these things for free. Maybe they are getting a bit tighter.. but at least it can be fixed - many a cheapo player would simply be bin fodder.
 
If the repair is warranted for a few years then go for it. If you are otherwise happy with your 137 then it's money well spent IMO. Sometimes Arcam fix these things for free. Maybe they are getting a bit tighter.. but at least it can be fixed - many a cheapo player would simply be bin fodder.

Very well put, in my opinion.
 
OK thanks guys. I'll send it off to them and see what they say. I still don't think I'll spend £250 on it though. I'm just not convinced it's worth throwing that at it despite it being/was a great DVD player.
 
OK thanks guys. I'll send it off to them and see what they say. I still don't think I'll spend £250 on it though. I'm just not convinced it's worth throwing that at it despite it being/was a great DVD player.

Well how long has it lasted? How long is the warranty on an Oppo? You could spend £500 on a Oppo 93 and it goes belly up soon after the warranty period is up. Arcam DVD players (pre BDP100) last for ages. How many DV88 do you still see on Ebay - lots! That's a good sign that the money for repair would return a good extra few years of usage.
 
I'd guess that for £250 they'll be replacing the transport - that seems expensive for a transport swap, but there's not much else in there that's going to wear out, so you end up with a new player.

You might want to look and see if you can acquire a transport as a spare part from somewhere and install it yourself - I'm not sure if it's just a straight swap-over, or if the new transport needs to be calibrated after installation - if the latter, it's probably a non-starter.
 
Is it worth a shot trying a Allsopp Carbonedge laser lens cleaner? Only mention them as they are normally effective.

Other than that manually cleaning the lens with a tiny bit of isopropyl alcohol?
 
Is it worth a shot trying a Allsopp Carbonedge laser lens cleaner? Only mention them as they are normally effective.

Other than that manually cleaning the lens with a tiny bit of isopropyl alcohol?

I've tried that and unfortunately it didn't work :(
 

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