I didn't find this problem until I couldn't find anything obviously wrong and went to reassemble it. I had removed the DVD assembly to inspect the undercarriage. When reassembling, I noticed that the DVD assembly was sitting cockeyed on the lefthand side.

If you looked at eye level, the entire assembly on the left side was shifted upward. Upon further inspection, I lifted the assembly and noticed that there are two metal tabs in the chassis that provide a slot for the assembly to be positioned into. The left tab was bent forward slightly.

I believe this is a factory defect. When placed into the metal tabs, this forward position along with tightening the rear center screw causes binding of the entire DVD carriage. After bending this tab straight, the DVD appears to load correctly.

Steps:

  1. Remove power from the DVD player.
  2. Remove cover by locating and removing 1 screw on each side of the cover, and 3 on the back.
  3. Pull outward away from chassis on the sides of the cover, and lift upward. Then pull backward toward the rear of the unit to remove the top cover.
  4. Remove 1 screw from the top center rear of DVD carriage assembly.
  5. Remove front face plate by pulling front & side black plastic tabs outward, and past the metal chassis clips enough to disengage.
  6. Lift up the DVD and similarly unclip faceplate from bottom of unit.
  7. Carefully remove faceplate enough to free the DVD assembly. The entire DVD assembly will come with it. You only need to lift it enough to gain access to the left metal chassis tab.
  8. If this tab is bent other than a straight up position, reposition it to a 90 degree angle from the chassis.
  9. Place the front face plate back into position by carefully snapping black plastic clips into the original positions.
  10. With the cover off, reapply power to the DVD player.
  11. Test the operation by opening and closing the DVD with a disc several times while connected to a TV to verify that the disc is loading successfully.
  12. Reverse above instructions to reassemble the DVD player.

Photos will be added subsequently.