Can not boot off of installation disk - MBP 10.6

I am trying to wipe and reinstall the OS in my 2010 MBP 15. I have tried everything - and it will not boot off of the disk. It sees the disk and starts to boot - but it gets stuck at the gray screen with the darker gray Apple logo. I tried it with the original disks that came with the MBP (has OS 10.5.7). And, I tried it with the store-bought Snow Leopard disks (when 10.6 first came out). 
Here is a partial list of what I've tried:
Held down the C key to boot directly off of the disk - stuck at gray screen
Held down the Option key and then selected the disk - stuck at gray screen
I thought maybe it was the optical drive. So, I put a DVD movie in there - and it played just fine.
Reset the PRAM
Cloned the hard drive to an external HD. Booted from the cloned HD using a firewire. Then, used Disk Utility to Erase the internal HD. Then, restarted with nothing on the internal HD. Still wouldn't boot from the disk
Reset the SMC
Checked hard drive with Disk Warrior - and it found that the HD was fine. Ran SMART - and it also tested just fine
I've tried all I can think of to just get the MBP

If you can't boot from a valid installation disc with no peripherals connected, then you have a hardware problem. Take the unit in for service.

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