Sounds familiar. My vcr eats tapes that are too old. It’s not like it doesn’t give me a warning, I’m just too lazy to throw the old tape out and start using a new one. So when it gets stuck, I unplug it and take off the cover. It exposes the ‘guts’ and I can extract the tape.
Are you brave enough to try it with your dvd player? Maybe ask help from someone who is techno-mechanical? Good luck! :-)