Why won't my DVD players play DVDs anymore?

Question

I have three DVD players. Two are downstairs and one is upstairs. The two which are downstairs are the newest ones (about two years old), but they won't play ANY DVDs while the older one will. However, they will play audio CDs. I read in a forum that such a thing can be caused from the laser diode being defective (from dropping, mishandling, or poor manufacturing). However, I have never mishandled or dropped them. Likewise, they worked up until about two weeks ago. Oddly enough, they worked until I got Adelphia cable. I know that everything is connected correctly. I am very good at connecting stuff like that, as I do it for people who have gotten satellite and/or cable (when the ignorant installers get it wrong because they don't know how to connect the boxes/receivers to multilple items. Is there any way that the cable has something to do with the DVD players not working? I disconnected cable, but they still won't work. Could the cable have somehow caused a defect?

There have been no changes. I check just to be sure, and it's still set for America.

Another thing that I don't understand... One is a recorder. It will still record but will not play. It won't even play the DVDs that have been recorded. But I know it has successfully recorded, because I can play the recorded DVDs in the one player that still works.

I don't know if this information will help, but I'll share it anyway...
The three players I have are ilo, cyber home, and apex. The ilo and cyber home are the ones that no longer play DVDs. The apex is the one that works (which is strange since I hear that several people have had problems with apex players).

Sorry, I forgot to specify that the changes I checked for were whether or not the region code had been changed. But I suppose that's obvious since the only person who has responded asked about that.

Answer 1

Did someone change the DVD region code? If so, change it to USA or region 1. You can only change the code a few times before it becomes permanent. If it's permanent now on a different region, you need to hack it (however you could do that), or get new ones