Interesting stuffs 
eBay treasure: $39 (used) Blu-ray player?
- Thread starter MikeyFresh
- Start date
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- Tags
- blu-ray rip sacd sleep mode sony
The $9.99 Sony BDP-S7200 arrived today, as well as the $12.99 BPX-10 replacement part optical drive needed to revive this patient.
Turns out the service manual rigmarole involving about an hour of labor and use of special Sony service software (that no one has) to supposedly "authenticate" the new optical drive is a complete crock of BS.
Absolutely completely unnecessary, and dare I say fraudulent/purposely wrong information in that Sony service manual designed to do one of two things: make the customer decide it is too expensive to fix and thus throw it away and buy a new one, or provide an excuse to charge $75-100 in labor (+parts) should the customer decide to go through with it anyway. Rest assured Sony would not sell you that replacement part optical drive for $12.99 either, no chance.
The hardest part of the job is getting the damn chassis opened, after removing the screws it's a matter of freeing up the cover by releasing 6 different bendable plastic tabs simultaneously. Unless you have 6 hands, the process requires little spatula-like pry tools be placed under each tab to free it, and left in place so that the tab doesn't snap right back into a locked position. Fortunately I have many of these tools (both metal and plastic versions), I freed the lid up without too much messing around, and without breaking any of the tabs.
That difficult to remove lid is another blatant attempt by Sony to dissuade people from fixing these machines. Most folks won't even figure out how to get the lid off, and that's by design, the screws are perfectly good fasteners by themselves, there is no reason for the 6 different plastic clip retainers other than to stymie beginner-level efforts to repair the unit right at the get-go.
You also have to remove a cover piece on the front of the disc tray itself before you can remove the old optical drive (more on that later).
Once that stubborn plastic chassis cover/lid is removed, there is also a sub-chassis sheet metal cover affixed with screws that needs to come off too, which exposes the unit's innards:
Thats the original BPX-7 optical drive above, and I am amazed at the absolute lack of any dust or animal hair. Even though the outside of this unit is pretty beat up, it was obviously used in a very clean smoke-free environment. In fact I'd say the internals were cleaned previously, except I could tell by the lack of marks on the plastic retaining clips that this unit had never been taken apart before, and if someone had previously taken this unit apart surely they would have dropped $12.99 on a replacement optical drive in order to then sell it for far more than the $9.99 it actually fetched.
I popped open the plastic cover on the power supply to inspect it, as that too can cause the laser to stop working, there is one particular electrolytic capacitor that can fail which causes the laser to stop functioning even though the unit still powers on, however no bad caps or other failed parts here, this power supply looks to be in good shape:
The optical drive is held in place by 4 mounting screws, and connects to the logic board with 3 ribbon cables:
So I cut to the chase and pulled the bad optical drive, the 4 screws and 3 ribbon cables take all of about 10-15 seconds to remove. After connecting the BPX-10 replacement part, the time had come to test my theory that Sony's service manual is full of shit. I powered up the unit and loaded a disc. The bad optical drive would sound as if it were reading the disc, but eventually the display would indicate "No disc", failing to even read the TOC let alone play anything. The BPX-10 replacement part had no such problem, quickly reading the TOC and displaying the total playing time of the disc:
Then I turned on a monitor connected via HDMI and pressed play:
F-U Sony! Looks like a $12.99 part along with removing and replacing 4 screws and 3 ribbon cables is the real process, and not this:
From Pg. 1 of the S7200 service manual:
1-2. Work when optical device are replaced
Note: Please do the following work when you replace the optical device.
1. Install it in PC after downloading two set of software from following URL.
(Refer to “1-4-8. BU Data Decode Jig” on page 1-19)
STEP 1
Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package (x86)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5
STEP 2
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 (x86)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=79bc3b77-e02c-4ad3-aacf-a7633f706ba5
2. Take a photograph of the bar code on the optical device. The valid bar code photo as shown in Fig.2
Fig.2-
3. Drag-and-drop the bar code photograph to the icon of decode software (BDPRdec).
* The decode software is a complete set of “BDPRdec”, “Tasman.Bars.dll”, and “SavePath”.
* Because decode software cannot be attached, it separately distributes it.
4. Input the password when you start decode software.
* Inquire of each service headquarters because the password cannot be disclosed.
5. Write the decode data to the set.
(Refer to “1-4-4. BU (Optical Block) Repair Guide” on page 1-16 and “1-4-5. BU Adjustment Flow [yy]” on page 1-17)
None of the above elaborate jumping through hoops with unobtainium service software was necessary at all with this $9.99 eBay treasure S7200, rather, just 4 screws and 3 ribbon cables, a $12.99 replacement optical drive part, and getting over the initial hurdle of cracking the unit open.
Turns out the service manual rigmarole involving about an hour of labor and use of special Sony service software (that no one has) to supposedly "authenticate" the new optical drive is a complete crock of BS.
Absolutely completely unnecessary, and dare I say fraudulent/purposely wrong information in that Sony service manual designed to do one of two things: make the customer decide it is too expensive to fix and thus throw it away and buy a new one, or provide an excuse to charge $75-100 in labor (+parts) should the customer decide to go through with it anyway. Rest assured Sony would not sell you that replacement part optical drive for $12.99 either, no chance.
The hardest part of the job is getting the damn chassis opened, after removing the screws it's a matter of freeing up the cover by releasing 6 different bendable plastic tabs simultaneously. Unless you have 6 hands, the process requires little spatula-like pry tools be placed under each tab to free it, and left in place so that the tab doesn't snap right back into a locked position. Fortunately I have many of these tools (both metal and plastic versions), I freed the lid up without too much messing around, and without breaking any of the tabs.
That difficult to remove lid is another blatant attempt by Sony to dissuade people from fixing these machines. Most folks won't even figure out how to get the lid off, and that's by design, the screws are perfectly good fasteners by themselves, there is no reason for the 6 different plastic clip retainers other than to stymie beginner-level efforts to repair the unit right at the get-go.
You also have to remove a cover piece on the front of the disc tray itself before you can remove the old optical drive (more on that later).
Once that stubborn plastic chassis cover/lid is removed, there is also a sub-chassis sheet metal cover affixed with screws that needs to come off too, which exposes the unit's innards:
Thats the original BPX-7 optical drive above, and I am amazed at the absolute lack of any dust or animal hair. Even though the outside of this unit is pretty beat up, it was obviously used in a very clean smoke-free environment. In fact I'd say the internals were cleaned previously, except I could tell by the lack of marks on the plastic retaining clips that this unit had never been taken apart before, and if someone had previously taken this unit apart surely they would have dropped $12.99 on a replacement optical drive in order to then sell it for far more than the $9.99 it actually fetched.
I popped open the plastic cover on the power supply to inspect it, as that too can cause the laser to stop working, there is one particular electrolytic capacitor that can fail which causes the laser to stop functioning even though the unit still powers on, however no bad caps or other failed parts here, this power supply looks to be in good shape:
The optical drive is held in place by 4 mounting screws, and connects to the logic board with 3 ribbon cables:
So I cut to the chase and pulled the bad optical drive, the 4 screws and 3 ribbon cables take all of about 10-15 seconds to remove. After connecting the BPX-10 replacement part, the time had come to test my theory that Sony's service manual is full of shit. I powered up the unit and loaded a disc. The bad optical drive would sound as if it were reading the disc, but eventually the display would indicate "No disc", failing to even read the TOC let alone play anything. The BPX-10 replacement part had no such problem, quickly reading the TOC and displaying the total playing time of the disc:
Then I turned on a monitor connected via HDMI and pressed play:
F-U Sony! Looks like a $12.99 part along with removing and replacing 4 screws and 3 ribbon cables is the real process, and not this:
From Pg. 1 of the S7200 service manual:
1-2. Work when optical device are replaced
Note: Please do the following work when you replace the optical device.
1. Install it in PC after downloading two set of software from following URL.
(Refer to “1-4-8. BU Data Decode Jig” on page 1-19)
STEP 1
Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package (x86)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5
STEP 2
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 (x86)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=79bc3b77-e02c-4ad3-aacf-a7633f706ba5
2. Take a photograph of the bar code on the optical device. The valid bar code photo as shown in Fig.2
Fig.2-
3. Drag-and-drop the bar code photograph to the icon of decode software (BDPRdec).
* The decode software is a complete set of “BDPRdec”, “Tasman.Bars.dll”, and “SavePath”.
* Because decode software cannot be attached, it separately distributes it.
4. Input the password when you start decode software.
* Inquire of each service headquarters because the password cannot be disclosed.
5. Write the decode data to the set.
(Refer to “1-4-4. BU (Optical Block) Repair Guide” on page 1-16 and “1-4-5. BU Adjustment Flow [yy]” on page 1-17)
None of the above elaborate jumping through hoops with unobtainium service software was necessary at all with this $9.99 eBay treasure S7200, rather, just 4 screws and 3 ribbon cables, a $12.99 replacement optical drive part, and getting over the initial hurdle of cracking the unit open.
Yes I did, and that same seller/listing still exists. If you scroll down in the listing description, the full set of compatible player models is there, and the S5100 is included.
NSBulk
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I wonder how the guy behind GeerFab Audio gained approval for this device.
On one hand, this would seem to be a clear admission by both the record labels and hardware manufacturers such as Sony that ripping SACD is a thing, and has been since 2011.
If the resulting DSD now liberated from it's optical disc media is playable via many (most?) USB DACs, then why would it be necessary or required to prohibit DSD output over SPDIF?
Further, in stifling DSD over anything but the actual SACD optical disc media, didn't that stunt overall market acceptance and limit sales of DSD downloads unnecessarily, simply to satisfy the stupid accountants and lawyers at the major record labels who were hanging on to an ideal and business model that had long since passed when viewed from the lens of reality?
This D.BOB box allows yet another way for music enthusiasts to enjoy DSD, which would benefit both the artists and the record labels as well.
The "universal" disc players that have been able to output DSD over the copy protected (HDCP) HDMI interface for years now are sonically inferior in that regard, and very few high quality DACs even have HDMI inputs. This new break out box allows one to use such a disc player with a DSD compatible DAC over an SPDIF interface.
Somewhat of a miracle at this late date in my opinion, I applaud the dude behind GeerFab Audio for jumping through the no doubt myriad hoops required to make this a reality.
Thank you for posting. That's pretty darn cool. 😎
Hello, many many thanks for this very informative thread. I just bought a BDP-S4100 from ebay, works and rips fine.
Is it possible to know which Sony drive model to buy for this machine, to replace when actual drive will fail ? BPX-10 or BPX-7 or another one ? Thank you
Best regards
.
Is it possible to know which Sony drive model to buy for this machine, to replace when actual drive will fail ? BPX-10 or BPX-7 or another one ? Thank you
Best regards
.
Last edited:
Either will work to the best of my knowledge, though it was unclear to me when I repaired the S7200 except for the assurance from the seller of the BPX-10 replacement part that it was the most current production and completely interchangeable/compatible with a variety of Sony models, including the most recent S6500 and S6700 too if memory serves.Hello, many many thanks for this very informative thread. I just bought a BDP-S4100 from ebay, works and rips fine.
Is it possible to know which Sony drive model to buy for this machine, to replace when actual drive will fail ? BDX-10 or BDX-7 or another one ? Thank you
Best regards
.
Though the seller's listing omits the S4100, that doesn't mean anything, all of these Sony players use the same optical drives, and an S4100 is merely an S5100 with no WiFi, other than that they are the same.
Get a BPX-10 with a fresh looking date of manufacture on it, that's likely your best bet, they are cheap.
It very likely is not, I'm pretty sure it was tested and found to be incompatible, however you can confirm that yourself if you like by putting the ARMinfo script onto a USB flash drive and just insert it into your Blu-ray player.
If the disc tray opens and closes, then 2 small text files will be written to the drive, and those will yield clues as to whether or not it might be compatible.
If the disc tray fails to open, then the AutoScript is being refused, which would confirm incompatibility.
We know the X800 is incompatible, I'm pretty sure that means the X700 is too. You can check the SACD ripping thread for a list of known compatible models and brands.
