Alto not reading BDs and some DVDs

[maverick72]

I wanted to experiment with K and recently bought a used Alto. Importing my disc collection has not gone smoothly. Approximately 1/3 DVDs and all BDs are not being read. I mostly get the first error, more rarely the second one.

All the disks are US region, clean and pristine - no scratches or dirt. I tried cleaning the optical lens with the Endust cleaner - not much improvement. The cleaning disk is being ejected very quickly - is there a way to have it play longer?

K support sent the following:

The logs for the Alto do show 30 instances of where it was unable to read the inserted disc and displayed the message "The inserted disc is not a DVD or a Blu-ray disc."

I also show 23 DVD's were successfully catalogued on the Alto in the past 4 days.

Not reading - either there is dust/dirt on the laser preventing the disc from being read or the optical drive is failing. If it is dirt/dust - often a laser cleaning disc (the type with the brushes on the bottom) may correct the issue.

Any suggestions? Is the Alto optical drive replaceable?

 

[David23]

The disc drive in the Alto is notoriously bad. I have a couple Alto's. One drive now completely does not work. The other works most of the time but the disc will get stuck and not read sometimes. It's very frustrating for such expensive hardware.

 

[maverick72]

Is it possible to replace the optical drive? I know it's not for the HDD, but what about optical?

 

[andy]

Below are the instructions for replacing the ODD in a Cinema One which has much of the same hardware as an Alto.

https://support.kaleidescape.com/article/Cinema-One-Optical-Drive-Replacement

The steps should be the same, but finding the correct optical drive may prove to be the biggest challenge.

Good luck!
Andy

 

[SimonSays]

I had the same issue, and ended up opening the Alto to clean out everything INSIDE. After that, my success rate went up drastically.
That said, I still clean every disc before I insert it, and some still fail.

I looked for a new drive about a year ago, but couldn't find one.

 

[maverick72]

Thanks for all the advice. At this point I've been able to import about 90% of my DVDs and BDs via the Alto. I'm calling it a success.

I used this drive cleaner as well as compressed air that I briefly blew into the ODD slot.

Some disks needed to be cajoled into being recognized - first they wouldn't, but a quick brush of the disk itself and a shot of compressed air into the ODD slot would help.

Then there are the weirdnesses of some of the disks from a multi-disk collectors pack not being recognized - like the first Godfather movie not working, but disks 2 and 3 working just fine. Some not being recognized were brand new, still in shrink wrap.