I’d recommend bringing the different troublesome discs to the store and seeing if it is possible to play them on different demo units in the store.
See which player(s) handle them the best.
Solid ideas! In my previous post, I moved up to a higher-end Sony. Should be a better made and more capable player, but who can say? My bad discs still gave me trouble, so I think my collection just has some bad older discs I need to weed out and replace.