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Won't play Blu Ray disks anymore, only DVDs

My Blu-ray player will no longer play Blu-ray discs.  It tries to read it, and then just stops and this message appears on the screen:  "Cannot Read, please check the disk".  But, It plays DVDs just fine -- no problem at all.  I have tried older Blu-rays from as far back as 2007.  Today, I even opened a brand new Blu-ray disk -- never played before. And the same thing happened.  Could there be something wrong with whatever technology is specific to playing Blu-ray disks?

Update (10/18/23)

BTW - my player is the DMP-BD85, not 89, but I didn't see that listed on this site.

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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Never mind. I found a used player on Ebay for less than the cost of a new optical pickup.

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You can buy a very cheap blue ray player from JB Hifi, my blue ray recorder stoped working and only played dvds but everything else works fine.

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Hi Cynthia,

You're most likely on the right track. Blu-Ray disks and DVD disks use completely different kinds of lasers when reading the disk; the DVD uses a red laser and the Blu-Ray uses a blue (well, technically violet) laser with a lower frequency allowing for smaller dots and thus more data to be packed into the same space.

So yes, it's entirely possible that your blue laser has failed but the red one is still working. They are almost always mounted on the same head so you may have to replace both at the same time. Start out with some basic troubleshooting as follows.

Optical Disc Drive (Blu-ray, DVD, CD) Troubleshooting - iFixit

Go through some of those suggestions and let us know what you find.

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Jerry, I tried everything in the Troubleshooting guide you recommended here. I was able to easily move the laser assembly back and forth. I even powered it on and off a few times, so that I could see the lasers turning on, which they both did. I could definitely see the blue/violet light on the smaller lens. Regardless, I also went ahead and cleaned both lens with alcohol. I put the lid back on the disk drive cabinet, and tried playing both a Blu Ray and a DVD. Unfortunately the DVD played just fine, but the Blu ray did not. So, could the blu ray laser still be failed, even though I can see the Blue/violet light when its coming on?

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The laser that reads the disk consists of two parts; you have the laser itself that generates the light then you have the optical pickup, which receives the light. Given that you've verified you're getting laser output, that pretty much leaves the optical pickup as the most likely source of the problem.

At this point I'd suggest you head on down to @oldturkey03's answer and look at running the self diagnostics and see if they offer any further clues.

He's also got the information on how to replace the optical pickup and the part number you'd need.

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I ran the self-diagnostics, and it came up with code F00, which means: No error information. I don't see where in @oldTurkey03's answer that there is information about how to replace the optical pickup and the part number

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Really blue or violet as you say has a lower frequency I suggest you check the EMR spectrum again

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Blue has a lower frequency shows either you don’t check your post before posting or you have absolutely no clue about the EMR SPECTRUM

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@cynthianay26427 could also be that you have a dirty lens. Sometimes just running a commercially available lens cleaner will work. You can pick those up pretty much anywhere (even places like Walmart have those) If that does not work, and hopefully you have the remote for your BR player, you could run the self diagnostics and see what it tells you.

If you find that this is an issue with the BR then it is most likely the optical pickup unit or a dirty lens. Use the SM Panasonic DMP BD85 to work on your drive. It shows you how to disassemble it from the chassis and page #35 how to clean the lens. To work on it is not as complicated as it seems, just stay organized, keep the parts well labelled and separated and make sure no animal can mess with those (my cat is a pain;-)

While you work on your BR player, take lots of pictures. Once you are done with it, take those pictures and create a guide for iFixit. That will help the next person that has the same problem as you do. Yes there are a few guides for this device, but we can always use more of the in depth guides. It's easy and fun to create these guides. https://ifixit.com/Guide/new The iFixit community will appreciate this.

"from as far back as 2007" I remember it like it was yesterday :-)

Repair is War on Entropy!


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The diagnostics thing didn't work. The choice (80 SRV) didn't come up. Possibly this is different in the DMP-BD85, which is my model number.

See reply I made to Jerry

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@cynthianay26427 I edited my answer to reflect the change in model number :-)

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I ran the self-diagnostics, and it came up with code F00, which means: No error information. I don't see where there is information about how to replace the optical pickup and the part number as is suggested by @dadibrokeit

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Hey @oldturkey03 do you have any further guidance for me?

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I would start with checking for any firmware updates. Page 14 of the owners manual has instructions on how to do that. There's also a troubleshooting guide in there, starting on page 30.

Have you looked inside at the actual lens to make sure it's not damaged?

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The first thing I did was contact Panasonic support. They also directed me to check for a firmware update, which I did and my player is up-to-date on firmware. They also said to do a factory reset, which I did too. And it didn't fix the problem.

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I have the same problem as yours. I temporarily solved the problem by doing the following steps:

Firsly, I played a DVD for a moment. Then, I played a BD successfully. I had to do this every time when I want to play a BD successfully. I do not know why this can work and it is interesting that this can work for me.

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Cynthia Naylor Smyth will be eternally grateful.
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