Xbox 360 hates DVDs all of a sudden

[Warmsignal]

This is a spare 360 I pulled from the garbage one day, and to my surprise it worked. Just to make sure, I've been watching DVDs on it for over a week now. Issues started a few days ago, it would get an occasional freeze and "attempting to read media" message. Turn it on for some more DVDs today, hit play and the 360 logo screen pops up, as the video and audio signals begin flashing on and off, while the "secure HDCP link" message states that it is lost over and over. 

A bit coincidental that it worked for a bit, and then decided to pull this. Sounds like a laser issue, but the HDCP link message seems like the problem could be either my TV or even the HDMI cable. I really don't feel like cracking the console open.

[Warmsignal]

Solution found, for future reference - It is probably your HDTV. There is a reason that Vizio TVs are cheap. They tend to not support certain video outputs as well as other TVs, and the "HDCP" protocol is a bit sketchy on them. The fix was to simply turn the TV off, and back on. Weird, huh? I'm actually kind of relieved it wasn't the Xbox.

[DreamsDied13101]

Solution found, for future reference - It is probably your HDTV. There is a reason that Vizio TVs are cheap. They tend to not support certain video outputs as well as other TVs, and the "HDCP" protocol is a bit sketchy on them. The fix was to simply turn the TV off, and back on. Weird, huh? I'm actually kind of relieved it wasn't the Xbox.

Thanks for posting this solution. I don't own a Vizio, but I'm sure someone else will run into this issue.

[betelgeuse]

I don't own a Vizio either, but ever since HDMI came out there's been some occasional hiccups in my system. My equipment likes to be turned on in this order: TV, Preamp, Bluray. Occasionally I'll test the waters and once in awhile I'll get the "no signal" error. 3D Blurays can be finicky at times too. I get the "please insert a 3D disk" error. In both cases, I do the same thing you did and simply turn off and turn back on.

[insektmute]

Most issues people have with HDMI are related to a poor quality cable (I swear by Blue Jeans Cable), or - if playing Blu-ray - the pause resulting from playing 1080p/24 content. Some TVs and receivers drop out for a good while when this switch happens, or lose signal entirely.

If you're getting an 'attempting to read media' message though, that's pure 360 suckery. It seems to be a non-issue with newer slim models, but through most of its life, the 360 was saddled with an inexcusably piss-poor disc drive. I went through 3 systems prior to my current one - 2 got the RRoD, but all 3 had drive problems. Your was probably in the trash for this same reason.