Official Sony BD Mega-Changer Thread: BDP-CX7000ES & BDP-CX960 - Page 87

Yes, I called Escient support again a few days ago and they told me the same thing. Very annoying...

But I might buy a BDP-CX7000ES and use it as stand-alone player just for BDs, and use the Vision with my 777s.

With my PS3, the cover art and title appear in the PS3 menu for most BDs. I'm guessing that this is stored on the disc, rather than coming from Gracenote, because the PS3 never shows this information for DVDs.

If my PS3 displays the cover art and title in its menu for a particular BD, would the same information also appear automatically in the 7000ES's menu?

I've had the 7000 for a few months now, and was recently reminded of one of it's serious shortcomings. There is no way to automatically bypass the scaler for DVD content while still getting full 1080p for Blu-rays. If the output is set to Auto, then the 7000 will scale up to the highest capability of the display. You can manually set the output to 1080p for Blu-Ray and 480i for DVD, but it is not possible to get the unit to automatically make that change for you. And doing it by hand is extremly cumbersome. As a result the player will always use its scaler for DVDs, so the Reon in my Integra receiver becomes superfluous.

I tried turning on dual output, with the intent of using HDMI (at 1080p) for Blu-Ray and component for DVD. The 7000 will do this, but then the changer will only send 2 channel PCM on its digital (non-HDMI) outputs and I would lose 5.1 audio. Too bad I can't get the Integra to use component video and HDMI audio on the same input.

I'm pretty sure I can use a Lumagen video processor to work around this problem, but that's a rather expensive way to go. I found a used VisionHDQ for not too much money and I think it would do everything I need (in addition to solving a few unrelated problems with my CIH setup), but I can't be certain.

Has anyone else found a clever workaround?

If there ws a descrete IR code for each resolution output type, you could simply build a maco on the remote to switch on the fly, but I am not sure if one exist, but you do do have the 7000. The 7000 may have an RS232 command you can send to change the resolution on the fly. If you can find one you could always setup a PC with girder and a USB uirt and have it receive the IR command and on reception of the IR command execute the necessary RS232 command. ofcourse, that is dependent on the 7000 having an RS232 command to output specific resolutions.

Let me know if you can find one.

I have a thread over at Remote Central where I document the RS-232 protocol for the Sony BDP-CX7000ES. In that thread I provide a link to the documentation which outlines all of the RS-232 commands available. Unfortuantely the RS-232 commands you are looking for are not among them. The second post of that same thread I provide a download link to an excel sheet which contains all of the RS-232 codes (Product Code: 0x80 BD1) I created for the changer based on the RS-232 commands available. Included are the RS-232 codes for loading each of the 400 changer slots. If interested feel free to hit up my thread over at RC which can be found here.

Low Profile: Thanks for the spreadsheet. That's very useful.

proudx: My automation system, Cinemar, has a driver specifically for the 7000. Fortunately I've never had to worry about the exact RS232 codes: I just used the commands that the driver provides. I looked through the documentation for the driver to see if there was something like you suggested. But I didn't see one. Unfortunately, as Low Profile confirmed, the changer doesn't provide a code for that.

If the Integra allowed me to set EDID information on the HDMI connectors, I could use that to trick the 7000 in to using the right resolution. It does allow me to set the HDMI output resolution via RS232, but that's not very helpful.

If you've never changed resolution on the 7000, it is a non-trivial process. Ince you find the right menu and choose your new resolution, the changer asks you to confirm twice (once at the new resolution and once at the old resolution) before committing the change to ensure that you didn't choose one incompatible with your display. As a consequence, trying to get an automation system to go through that process is out of the question.

My latest blog post has some musings on this topic, along with other improvements I want to make to the theater.

Well,it really didn't take that long,I've just about filled up my 960. Anybody seen the 960's cheap anywhere? Or any great deals on the 7000? I gotta buy another and figure out where the hell I'm gonna put it.

Compsource.com has the 7000 for $577.

http://www.compsource.com/ttechnote....&vid=416&src=F

I recently bought a used DVDM100 off of eBay for about $100. You could do this for your 777s (up to 3) and use the vision for the 7000es.

You're welcome per the spreadsheet. :-)

Regarding the Cinemar solution...
I take it DVD Lobby provides for controlling the changer once queueing up a given changer slot, presumably via a tablet of some sort? I'm guessing the A/V switching is taken care of as well, so long as you have equipment that is supported?

Yes on both counts. DVDLobby uses Disc Direct to load the appropriate disc. The "plug-in" for the 7000 provides controls for most of the rs232 commands. Certainly enough to emulate the remote control. For supported tablets there's a Main Lobby application you run. For everything else there's a web interface. I control my theater from an iPod using the pages they provided with a few tweaks of my own.

There are plug-ins for some A/V equipment. For everything else there is a generic serial plug-in. My Integra didn't have a plug-in so I used the generic one and wrote my own commands. Same for the projector (a Panasonic AE3000).

After some work on my part, I've got "one button" play capability. I select a movie and touch "play". The system turns everything on, selects the right input on the receiver, sets the projector appropriately for the film's aspect ratio, loads and plays the disc. It's awesome!

For everyone who's had an issue with 'invalid disc" errors, how full are your units? I had the first 300 disc DVD megachanger years ago that had those issues if the player was mostly full. The carousel would spin and and have issues lining up the slot and then produce an error about 50% of the time. When I bought the 400 disc version and began transferring discs over, the problem went away and the play worked flawlessly.

Seems to me that maybe the weight of the platter when near full may have flexed it enough to become misaligned with the sensors that would tell it that its lined up properly with the loading slot. This didn't happen with the 400 disc version which I filled up completely.

Not sure how the 960 will behave but I have 200 and no problems so far.

-J

I don't equate the "invalid disc" issue to anything inherent to the design which may have been carried over from prior changers short of flaws being introduced that were not present with earlier models. At least in my case I've found the "invalid disc" issue to be specific to the Blu-ray changers and not the DVD changers. I own the 6 Sony DVP-CX985V DVD Changers shown below and have never had a single issue with any of them over the years that I've owned them.



As long as there was not truly a physical issue with the given disc these changers have always been able to load the given disc successfully and play it without issue, irrespective of the number of discs in the changer at that time. Initially I had purchased 3 changers as my collection consisted of only 885 discs, the 3rd changer at that point only having discs in slots 1-85. Over the years as I purchased new DVD's I'd always use the next slot, never skipping a slot. Again, I've yet to have a single playback issue with these changers that wasn't a direct result of the disc itself and in those cases though rare I was able to replicate the issue with the given disc using any of the other DVD drives that I owned at the time. That being said, the Blu-ray changers have been a different story entirely. When purchasing the 960 initially the last thing I was expecting was to encounter issues with the changer being able to actually load a given disc. I was greatly disappointed as I was constantly dealing with the "invalid disc" issue which had absolutely nothing to do with the discs themselves, but with the changer failing to validate the disc in a given slot. For me this issue would always present itself when powering on the changer. At complete random when powering on the changer one or more discs within the XMB would be showing as invalid and could not then be played as a result. Once I tried to play one showing as invalid I then found that the next disc which wasn't showing as invalid wouldn't play either. To correct the issue I'd have to take the given disc out of the changer, close the door, reopen the door, then place the disc back in the changer and hope this time the changer validated that the disc was present. Sometimes this took several attempts and involved power cycling the changer. I also found at times that the XMB would fail to show one of the discs I had in the changer. Again, to correct the issue I'd have to remove the disc, close the door, reopen the door, then reinsert the disc before the XMB would see it. Needless to say, I got tired of dealing with the issue and purchased a 7000 instead. Fortunately with the 7000 I've only encountered the "invalid disc" issue once and that was due to the changer actually having trouble reading the disc. Taking the disc in and out of the changer several times eventually allowed for the changer to read the disc and play it without issue. Should note that with my 7000 I'm not using the XMB for disc selection and have never used the "load" feature of the changer to bring down Gracenote data. I contribute this fact in large part to why I've not seen the "invalid disc" issue with the 7000 aside from the one time here recently where it was simply having trouble reading the disc. All I've ever used the XMB for with my 7000 is to adjust player settings. For disc selection I'm sending the changer the appropriate RS-232 command to load a given changer slot which has worked perfectly to date.

Sorry for not going through all 87 pages in this thread, but I was hoping to find some system/software that would make 6 of the 7000 ES changers look like 1 big device that could then be fed into a Gefen HDMI Matrix switch, and then be controlled as if it's one device (ie., a really big movie server).

It would need to be relatively inexpensive (i.e., less than $2000), and be easy to use.

Does anything exist or am I a hopeful dreamer ???

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...171332&page=44

Go to post #1312

I also use the Cinemar products to control 3 changers, an HDMI matrix, and my AVR. You could get started for a little bit more than your price listed if you already have the changers. A lot less if you just need the software.

thanks!

I purchased this movie in June 2011 and it played fine. It played fine in July 2011. I tried playing it last week and the carousel just hangs. I tried the disk in different slots but have the same result. I tried the disk in my Sony BDP-S300 and it works fine.

My CX7000-ES software version was 15.1.010 so I updated it and I have no change in the symptoms. I even rented another copy of the movie from Blockbuster and it has the same symptoms.

My symptoms are:
- start the movie (either from it storage slot or the rental slot)
- in a short period of time the Disney castle appears for about 10 sec. then the screen blanks.
- later the fireworks appear over the Disney castle for about 25 sec. then the screen blanks.
- a short time later the screen that has Tangled appears for about 10 sec., then the screen goes blank and it hangs forever.

- if you attempt to bring up the main DVD menu, the warning about the appropriate firmware level comes up for about 10 sec, then the screen blanks and it hangs.

When I say "hangs" I really mean nothing ever happens until you choose another disk to play.

Does anybody else have a Blu-ray version of Secretariat? What does it do on your carousel?

TIA
George

Has anyone bought this unit through compusource and have comments? All is well? They claim to be authorized...

Thanks!

Ordered Thursday,it shipped Friday,just got my tracking. Being shipped Fedex,will arrive Wednesday. I'm off all week so that will give me time to figure out where I'm going to put this bad boy.

Hey guys,

I wanted to bounce this off you for ideas.

I'm one of the poor folks who bought a brand new 960, shipped it overseas, had it work beautifully for 6-8 hours, and then I started getting "Invalid Disc" everywhere. That was 6 months ago.

Not wanting to ruin my warranty, I didn't pop the hood open. Now that I've read bmerk's post about the Amazon review, I'm wishing I did.

In any case, I took these photos a few months back, but they are the Error Log output from the service menu. It shows a repeating error code of x0804 and one instance of x0801. From the service manual that someone here provided, these don't match a particular issue (they have x09 and x07, but not x0804). It passes all the mechanical tests just fine.

Does anybody have a clue what this error code represents?

Has anybody recently solved the "Invalid Disc" issue by tilting the player? I don't know if this is going to help me because it's on the floor.

Thanks,

Turbo

I'm having a big problem with my CX7000. The menu system seems to have lost the ability to display text. I have the ribbon structure, but there is no data underneath any of the subsections. I also have no data on my Discs. If I power down and restart, the display returns, but if I scroll away from the currently displayed discs, first the text disappears (though cover art remains) but if I scroll even more, the cover art vanishes and I'm left with nothing other than a column of blank disc images. Has anyone seen this before? Is there a fix? If it makes a difference, my changer has only one free slot.

I have a 960 that I purchased 3 months after initial release and all of a sudden, I am getting the same issue that I loose titles. Power off and Power back on and they "magically" appear again. Anybody else have this and found a fix?

I emailed the dealer I bought my CX7000 from to ask about my problem playing Secretariat and he responded that Sony had discontinued this model. I looked on the Sony store and it says "No longer available for purchase at Sony Store Online".

Amazon has this unit now selling for $605.

I wonder how much support Sony will give to this discontinued model.
Oh, well.

There better be 5 years worth of support. I bought a model with a 5 year extended warranty! If I need it repaired and they refuse to honor the warranty I will be demanding a refund.

It doesn't matter if the item is discontinued. Sony must honor it's warranty.

It has not been available from the online Sony store for quite awhile now. As for them being available on Amazon. From all that are available there now, that is actually not Amazon that is selling them, it's outside vendors that also sell through Amazon.

The only trouble is, with some of their prior non Blu-ray megachangers, they also ran out of some of the needed spare parts to do certain types of repairs. So it's also going to depend upon how well they are setup for spare parts availability for the next 5 years or so.

And I thought it was just me I have two CX960's that exhibited the same problem. And it was not limited to just the inventory listings, it was across all menu functions Since I was not running the latest version (020) of the software, I installed that version, once it could read the Set Up menus . So far so good

Carl

658 out of 799 disc slots assigned

I recently got a DVD copy of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides from Netflix. Anyone else try to play this DVD title in the 7000? All it does for me is say "Loading...." for a very long time. It won't respond to any of the buttons including "power off". It continues to say "Loading" until I literally pull the power cord. The disc works fine in an older Sony DVD player and I am not having issues with any other title in the 7000.

Yes I'm sure (well, pretty sure) that it was loaded correctly, logo side on the right.

Right after One Stranger Tides was issued I bought it off of Ebay and the extras disk. I have had no problem playing either disk. The movie disk was a Blu-ray and the extras disk was a regular disk.

Some of the Blu-ray disks I get from Netflix are special disks that only have the movie and no extras. So the Netflix may not be the same as what I have bought.

George

From the thread it looks like I'm not the only one getting this bogus "Invalid Disc" error from Sony CX 7000 ES. It's very frustrating because the disc loads and plays fine in the PS 3. Anyone know what is causing this issue? Only succes I've had getting an Invalid Disc to load is inserting a DVD version of the same movie in the Invalid Disc slot. The changer has been able to load these DVD discs and play them. When I eject the DVD and replace it with the Blu Ray version it seems to be able to go out to Gracenote and load the BR disc. This fix worked with new Transformers and Clash of the Titans disc. Changer still won't recognize Pirates of the Carribbean on Stranger Tides or Salt. should not have to try and find ways to trick a player to load discs that work fine in other players.