Hi everyone,

If you recall, I recently posted about an issue with my 596 and the latest Indiana Jones DVD's. Well, I'm sad to say I have yet another issue with my 596. Here is the message I've just sent to Meridian. I'll keep you posted on what happens.

Dan W.


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To Whom It May Concern:

Last night while watching a movie, my 596 DVD player ceased operating and has seemingly
now decided that it no longer likes DVD's. Here is the sequence of events that occurred:

1) I was watching the Region 1, NTSC DVD of Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
and had gotten to Chapter 25 or so of the movie when I paused the DVD in order
to take care of some things around the house.

2) When I returned to watch the movie, perhaps 10 to 15 minutes later, the 596 had gone
into shutdown, as expected. When I pressed play to resume the movie, the 596 began sequencing
up but never began playing the movie and ceased responding to remote control inputs or
front-panel key presses.

3) In order to unfreeze the 596, I power-cycled the player and it came back to life.

4) To pick up where I left off in the movie, I went into the DVD's Select a Scene menu,
navigated to Chapter 25 and pressed select. At that point, the 596 "froze" and nothing happened.
The movie did not begin playing Chapter 25 and the DVD menu remained on screen. Again,
the 596 was no longer responding to the remote control or to front-panel key presses.

5) I again power-cycled the 596 in order to bring it back to life.

6) After turning the power back on,the 596 spun up the LOTR disc, took a few seconds and
then displayed "No Disc". I removed the DVD, re-inserted, same thing "No Disc".
I inserted a CD and it came up and played fine. Re-trying the LOTR and several other DVD's
they all now come up the same: No Disc.


I am at a complete loss as to what could be wrong. Any suggestions on anything I can
try here at home myself to "fix" my 596? Or do I need to bite the bullet and take it
to my dealer and have it sent back to Meridian for servicing?

My 596 is roughly 2.5 years old and is running Software Version 1.32.

As much as I enjoy the phenomenal sound and picture created by my Meridian gear
(I also have the 568, 562V.2 and 558), I am growing increasingly frustrated with the quirks
and foibles of, primarily, the 596. If this were some $100-$200 DVD player, I'd just shrug
off the issues, throw out the player and purchase a new one. However, after spending close
to $4000USD on this player, I think it is entirely reasonable that I have very high expectations
that the 596 should operate flawlessly.

I thank you in advance for a quick and speedy response to this issue.

Regards,

Dan Westerberg