overheating in DVP S9000es?

I think the pause midway thru the disk is the read head refocusing and reversing to play the second half of the program. What I'm saying is that a DVD can only hold one hour of program from the inner "groove" to the outer then it has to reverse to play the second hour (outer to inner). I've gotten the artifacts you mention but only with dirty disks.
Use a high quality disk cleaning machine (like a Nitty Gritty) to clean-before-play. Finally, this machine draws a lot of current (blows the fuse in my Tice Micro-Block power conditioner) but feels only warm to the touch playing CD's (will try DVD next time).

Don-Well I was curious about your query so I watched the Godfather part II last evening, the unit didn't get any warmer then when I started. I have not shut mine off in about 4 months and it maintains the same temp, regardless of what I watch/listen too. You don't by any chance have it above your VK-75 do you? that would make it HOT. Either way it seems unusual, we can't agree on this one.

Tim

My dealer also said the momentary pause is the layer change. He suggested, though wasn't sure, that the additional heat may be due to the additonal laser for the video (are there TWO separate lasers?) or the different angle of the video laser, but admitted he was only guessing. He also suggested I bring my remote in and test it on a store model to see about the need to press twice. The problem is particularly noticeable on the open/close and the pause buttons.
Another dealer I saw later in the day, who doesn't sell the unit but personally performs an audio upgrade on the unit by reconstructing the analog stage for $1500 (Yes! $1500! He said it makes the unit a world beater with no need for an outboard DAC), thought it might be because DVD's spin faster than CD's, but he wasn't sure either.
I'm going to call Sony direct on this.
BTW, Lowell, I'm also using all Snell for surround.

tim, it's not close to the vk-75 but it is directly above the vk-30, which also generates a fair amount of heat. i'm sure that's not helping the situation. nonetheless, the sony definitely gets hotter when spinning DVDs, as opposed the CDs (or that funky demo SACD). i guess i may have to give in eventually and cough up the $$$ for a standalone rack. ugh...racks are boring upgrades.

is it possible that the maze of cicuits in the sony gets more efficient after break-in, i.e. runs cooler?