Pioneer DV563A Hybrid SACD Problem

[bruceh]

My normally reliable 563A has developed a problem with reading the dual layer hybrid SACD's - it reads single layer SACD and DVD Audio just fine but skips directly to the CD layer on hybrid discs. Anyone experiencing similar problems with this unit or the 578-588 series??

 

[Hawkeye]

My normally reliable 563A has developed a problem with reading the dual layer hybrid SACD's - it reads single layer SACD and DVD Audio just fine but skips directly to the CD layer on hybrid discs. Anyone experiencing similar problems with this unit or the 578-588 series??

bruceh,
I have the same player, unbeatable at it's price - I picked mine up a couple years ago for less than $100 new in box. The setting in the home menu > initial setting > options > SACD Playback > had a factory default of "SACD 2 channel". But wherever you have it set, it should stay there until you manually change it again. I'm at a loss as to why yours would default to the cd layer if you had it set to any other option. Can it read the SACD layer if you go in and manually set it for that? What firmware version is the player at?

 

[j_garcia]

There is a chance it detects these discs as CDs due to the presence of the CD layer. None of my players have done this though.

 

[bruceh]

563a

Hawkeye,

I did the very first firmware update that helped with certain DVD Audio discs the player had trouble with, but I don't know what number it was. Are there more? I assume by setting it manually you mean going into the menu and selecting SACD Multichannel or 2Ch in the menu, correct?? I think I tried that once and it immediately kicked back to the CD setting (?). It is a great player I agree. The menu default is set to SACD Multichannel. It's weird, when I load the disc, I can actually see "SACD" come up on the player screen very briefly, then it "skips" through that to the CD layer. I did call Pioneer once and they said they thought that hybrid discs were destroying the players laser, but I don't trust those guys you get on the help line anyway. Thanks for the input!

 

[Hawkeye]

Hawkeye,

I did the very first firmware update that helped with certain DVD Audio discs the player had trouble with, but I don't know what number it was. Are there more? I assume by setting it manually you mean going into the menu and selecting SACD Multichannel or 2Ch in the menu, correct?? I think I tried that once and it immediately kicked back to the CD setting (?). It is a great player I agree. The menu default is set to SACD Multichannel. It's weird, when I load the disc, I can actually see "SACD" come up on the player screen very briefly, then it "skips" through that to the CD layer. I did call Pioneer once and they said they thought that hybrid discs were destroying the players laser, but I don't trust those guys you get on the help line anyway. Thanks for the input!

Sounds like you may be at the latest firmware version since the last one corrected the problem of not playing certain DVD-A's. To check the firmware version hit "Home Menu" on the remote > tab down and select "initial settings" then push the "display" button on the remote, the firmware version should show on the screen. The latest version I know of is 1.906

You said,
"I assume by setting it manually you mean going into the menu and selecting SACD Multichannel or 2Ch in the menu, correct?? I think I tried that once and it immediately kicked back to the CD setting"

Try setting it without a disc in the player. If it kicks back to "cd" at that point, then it sounds like a problem with the controller card, (speaking generically since I've never had the cover off mine). If it switches only after you've inserted a disc, then it sounds like a laser problem to me. - I'm just trying to take a logical approach here and I could be wrong (ask my wife), I'm not an electrical engineer so take this with a grain of salt.