DVD Repair

Post by **The Robman** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 10:52 am

I just found a site that repairs many different models of cheap DVD players, with very reasonable prices. Staying true to the "you get what you pay for" theory, many of today's cheap Chinese DVD players will fail for various reasons after not too long (I've experienced this myself with the Raite AV715). So this site gives advice on how you can fix things yourself or send the broken parts into them for repair. It also advises on some things you can do to prevent known problems from occurring.

http://drx9000repair.netfirms.com/

If you use this site, please post back about your experiences (good or bad).

underquark · Post by **underquark** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 5:23 am

I'm finding (in the UK at least) that the DVD players are sometimes cheaper than the DVD's. When when one does fail you can steal the PSU from it and transplant it into the even poorer-quality Bush LCD TV that you got for a "bargain" off eBay (unless, of course, it's the DVD's PSU that has failed).

"Buy cheap, pay twice" as they say.

Post by **The Robman** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 7:51 am

It does seem like all the cheap players have problems, which is not surprising given the price, but the cheap players are usually capable of doing a lot more than the regular brand players (at least in the US).

It's a lot less likely that a Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, etc brand player can be hacked to player DVDs from any region and you can't just assume that you can play VCDs or MP3s or karaoke discs on them, whereas most cheap players can handle all of those discs, just as long as the player keeps working!

So, if you know how to fix things, it might be worth it to get a cheap player.

Me personally, I have a Raite AV715 sitting on top of a Pioneer DV525, one for the foreign discs and one for US discs!

zaphod7501 · Post by **zaphod7501** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 6:25 pm

The capacitor failures are found on a lot of products. I just fixed a 42" LCD with several bad filter caps. (causing digital corruption after warmup) Many of the bad caps will bulge at the end and give a visible clue also. My friend's Polaroid DVD Recorder needed several replaced when it started acting flaky.

The highly regarded Oppo DVD player almost came with a warning to replace several filter caps before you even bothered to use it.

I personally suspect that the attempt to make the newer components eco-friendly (biodegradable) has also made them unreliable and very short lived.

Post by **The Robman** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 7:54 pm

What do you think is causing the problems, is it bad caps, or are the caps failing because of other problems in the units?

zaphod7501 · Post by **zaphod7501** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 8:53 am

It's the caps.
When there are failures, they are almost always of the same value and from the same manufacturer. That's what makes the sets repairable. You change all of the similar caps, regardless of their condition, and it fixes a large percentage of the units. You could never actually troubleshoot the circuits and find the bad ones.

The problem is aggravated by the design of using the lowest voltage rating possible. ie a 10 volt cap in a circuit running at 7-10 volts. (no headroom) The normal repair process will use a voltage rating at least one step above the original. The actuality is that the part is capable as long as it is in perfect condition. As the cap ages, the ripple that starts to rise starts to exceed the voltage rating. In a TV the vertical power supply (and CRT drive) is fed from a pulse that is about 350 volts, peak to peak. The cap is usually rated at 250 volts DC. As long as the cap is good, the DC is only about 200 volts DC, with no ripple. As it ages the DC drops slightly (not enough to notice) but the P-P voltage rises above the rating of the cap causing it to fail very quickly

Post by **The Robman** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 9:03 am

It's interesting to me that so many of these cheap DVD players can be fixed by a slight alteration to the circuit (ie, not just replacing some bad caps). For example, look at the fix for the Raite AV715 in the site above where he replaces a zener diode with a cap and a voltage regulator.

I know these are cheap players, but with just a little bit more care and attention, plus better quality parts, these players would have a lot less problems.

zaphod7501 · Post by **zaphod7501** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 11:10 pm

My theory on these cheap players (I picked up a Cyberhome for multiregion) is that they are designed for a world market. One product for all locations with simple changes to modify them for the intended sales market, hence the easy region hacks.

Since the rest of the world (outside of the USA) seems to pay full price for products, they wouldn't accept the cr*p we buy here that was built especially for our discount market. In other words, world intended products are better built than USA intended products.

I think many of the chronic problems are caused by eco-friendly requirements that were instigated by people that had no technical knowledge; or they ignored the expert's advice.

At least that's my jaundiced view of consumer electronics manufacturing and marketing.

Post by **The Robman** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 9:49 am

Maybe you should check to see what mods he recommends for your Cyberhome as maybe a little preventative medicine will help keep it running for a long time.

mr_d_p_gumby · Post by **mr_d_p_gumby** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 12:08 pm

zaphod7501 wrote:I think many of the chronic problems are caused by eco-friendly requirements that were instigated by people that had no technical knowledge; or they ignored the expert's advice.
At least that's my jaundiced view of consumer electronics manufacturing and marketing.

My view from the design-side of the fence is similar. In order to sell your products in a world market these days all components need to be RoHS compliant, and this has affected the entire electronics industry. Even the solder has to be lead-free.

The other issue regarding the electrolytic caps is that most engineers don't focus on the design of the power supply, i.e., they treat it as sort of a necessary evil. As a result, you often see the wrong type of capacitors used (too much ESR; too little ripple current ratings, etc.), and they compound it by making sure they run at a high temperature by placing them right against a heatsink, further shortening their lifetime.

Post by **The Robman** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 12:28 pm

This is one of the reasons why I love the internet as it brings together regular folk with the experts. I don't know anything about electronics, but I was able to fix my DVD player using info that I found on the net, and I'm sure that many others will fix theirs using the info on sites like the drx9000repair site.

underquark · Post by **underquark** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:44 am

I have a PVR - Topfield TF5800 (actually, three, and no problems luckily). It has a complex PSU and cap's failure is #1 hardware issue.

Link

Post by **The Robman** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:05 am

From the first page in your link, it sounds like replacing some of the caps with better quality caps will fix potential problems. So, are you going to give it a try?

HamburgerHelper1 · Post by **HamburgerHelper1** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 5:18 am

Yes bad caps are a problem but I am seeing fewer cases of that in newer products
The problems vary immensely but a close second to bad Caps is poor solder joints.
The switch to Eco-friendly Silver solder instead of Lead solder has become another serious problem. Silver solder so far is not he answer to get rid of lead in our products
so more research needs to be done to find alternatives to lead based solder