ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Once in a while I get bitten by low-ESR caps.
I just had a Toshiba DVD in for repair. The DVD decoder PCB has about 20 Chinese-junk electrolytic capacitors on it, and the Pioneer OWX8060 laser was shot. I replaced all the capacitors with my standard lowish-ESR long-life Nichicon HE, which pretty much work in everything, and put in a new laser.
Hooked up everything, put in a disc, and had a nice picture and sound for about a minute. Then the sound crackled and ... silence.
A quick scope test showed a digital signal entering the PCM1753 DAC, but nothing coming out. Of course, replacing these tiny SMD caterpillars is not the greatest fun, but no choice when the thing's dead!
That crackle before failure reminded me of oscillation problems with other equipment in the past, so I removed the 2 HE caps at the DAC, and replaced them with Panasonic EB - higher ESR, but also long-life, like the HE. Hooked it all up again, and it works fine.
Conclusion - there is no magical one size fits all. The HE's are a great all-round cap, but somewhere, there will be a circuit which just doesn't fit, and will require a high-ESR cap.
Menahem
I don't intend any offense, but I'm curious: why would anyone choose to repair a Toshiba DVD player? Is equipment that scarce where you are?
A quick search of Best Buy (USA retailer) shows a Toshiba blu-ray player with built-in wifi and Netflix for $90. Surely that box can do all the DVD player can do and more for about the cost of repair.
Or are you repairing the DVD player for fun?
1. Triple the USA prices to get Israeli street prices.
2. Here, although it's officially DVD Region 2, and that's what the authorized importers sell here, most consumers buy any DVD's they like from grey-market media importers, which creates a healthy demand for grey-market Multi-Region DVD machines. Because they're Multi-Region, and "illegal", they sell at about 3-4 times the price of a USA single-Region machine.
So, no, a consumer who has a DVD Multi-Region machine, is not going to junk it. He's already paid out a healthy sum on its initial purchase, and a $75-$120 repair is quite reasonable.
3. I'm far too busy to fix DVD's for fun. Now, vintage B&O is a different story ;-)
4. The older DVD players are better-built and will last far longer than modern Chinese crap from the same company. So it's even worth it to overhaul the older machines, than buy a new one. Take Pioneer for example - The magnificent DV-58AV was Pioneer's last original in-house flagship machine. Thereafter manufacture was subcontracted to Sharp. The QC criticism which abounds on the web over that decision, speaks for itself.
5. Blue Ray is not popular here yet, so a regular original non-Blue Ray player is the norm.
Fair enough. Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Menahem Yachad:2. Here, although it's officially DVD Region 2, and that's what the authorized importers sell here, most consumers buy any DVD's they like from grey-market media importers, which creates a healthy demand for grey-market Multi-Region DVD machines. Because they're Multi-Region, and "illegal", they sell at about 3-4 times the price of a USA single-Region machine.
Most of the older DVD players can be hacked to multiregion, I had Philips and Sony that I changed to Multiregion, search the web for Multi region hack.
Collecting Vintage B&O is not a hobby, its a lifestyle.
I know that, and you know that, but 99% of dumb consumers worldwide, don't.
And that's how the grey marketeers make their money. Has been so since time began.
Sell the customer what we wants (not what he needs), and don't tell him how to do it better.