This has been happening for years and years now, we have seen it over and over again and not just with Sony players but all brands, expensive or cheap. A customer buys a DVD player, uses it maybe three times and then it stops reading discs. The warranties are very short on these players (usually one year for parts and 90 days for labor.) It is such a shame because the players usually physically look brand new but are almost never worth fixing out of warranty because of their low cost of less than $100. This is so hard to predict, too, models change so quickly that it is often difficult to get any kind of reliability record on a model through reviews before it is discontinued.
Tip: Keep the boxes and receipts of units like this at least through the warranty period and test the unit shortly before the warranty is about to expire to make sure it works, and if it doesn’t have it sent in for repair. Also, write reviews of products that fail online so that other people know to stay away from products that fail in an unreasonable time-frame, and not to support companies that make disposable electronics.