Cyberhome 1 year old DVD recorder bad caps

[Jeffhs]

I have a Cyberhome DVD player that's almost a year old. Still works very well. But when it goes I'll get another of a different make--one that will operate with a universal remote. Mine will work only with its own remote, which bothers me as I'd like to be able to use my All-for-One universal with it. Is there some reason why Cyberhome designed its DVD players to operate only with their own small remotes? The company's website even says in its FAQ section (in answer to the remote question) that there are NO universal remote control codes available for their DVD players. Doesn't make sense to me.

[dr.ido]

I bought a Thomson digital set top box/hdd recorder for $15 from a guy who collects junk of the streets for a living. Less than a year old, but it was still thrown out. All it needed was a few caps in the power supply. Works perfectly now, but without the remote I can't use most of the functions so I'll probably end up pulling the 40GB hdd and putting it in a PC.

[mg196]

It is interesting to see just how low end some of these units go. What are the retail outlets for companies like Cyberhome. Wal-Mart?

My DVD player, a Pioneer DV-353 that I bought from Crutchfield for $120 brand new, was the low-end model that year, but it is probably miles beyond Cyberhome and other deep-discount brands. Nothing fancy at all, but the thing is a workhorse and has never caused me any problems. I've had the thing for several years already! It plays Thomas The Tank Engine for hours on end, day after day after day...

[dr.ido]

Judging by the DVD players I find at the junk markets here the difference between the cheap no name players and the brand name players is the kind of faults.

Many of the cheaper players I find have jammed trays, bad caps, etc. Many of the Pioneers, Toshibas, etc have dead lasers.

[Dave A]

I bought a cyberhome 1600 DVD recorder. What a headache. Sorting through 21 pages of chat on this thing, I finally got it right.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...7&page=1&pp=30

Firmware updates and a bad production model. All for $99. If you have one that is acting up, go to page 6 of the thread and you will find instructions on how to update it.

Now I have to worry about caps?

Dave A

[andy]

My Philips remote works with a Cyberhome DVD player. At least it works with the CHDVD300 I got for free because of bad caps. My player seems to be an early version because it won't play DVD+RWs at all, but my friend's plays them perfectly. Both are fine for DVD+/-R.

I've found that the biggest problem with these cheap DVD players is the internal software. Every no-name DVD player or recorder I've used has had lots of annoying bugs. The more expensive brands usually have bugs too, but not as many and not as serious. On the other hand, my Philips DVD-R1000 first generation DVD recorder has the most bugs of any device I've ever used. The timer is almost useless because of the software problems.

[mg196]

Bugs? I thought these things were sorta like calculators (and CDP's?) in that A+B=C when it comes to the functions. Inform me!

[Jonathan]

This royally discusts me how crappy electreonics have gotten. The no name DVD players are usually made of of a power supply, a main motherboard, and a drive. The motherboard and drive come from China as a set. Manufacturers combine this set with a power supply and case and you are good to go. I got a progressive scan memorex player from my local drugstore for $40. It plays well, reads DVDRs and CDRs well, has decent video quality, but is region locked and has no possibility for VGA output. I've wanted a cheap progressive scan player that I can get VGA output from adding a few components. I really wanted it to be with this memorex player, but it doesn't output VGA at all, just component video and I don't want to use a converter.

Jonathan