Official Sony BD Mega-Changer Thread: BDP-CX7000ES & BDP-CX960 - Page 107

VAHA: The obvious 1st thing to try is to disconnect the 7000 from the Control4 cable. Then try to run with the original remote, or just the buttons in the front. Any cryptic message on the front panel?
Then try to insert a know good DVD into slot 1 and see if that works.

As soon as I posted this the thought occurred to me why not disconnect the control4 from the DVD player and that is what it was. The program in control4 was telling the dvd player to power off when the satellite receiver powered off. Thanks for the reply.

What version of control4 firmware do you own? The latest is 2.2.4, but I have it working with 2.2.1. Also control4 released a new updated driver for Sony 7000es. That is dated January 2012. iPad cover art should be fine. Now if you have like (5) Sony 7000es changers, and HC-300. Then you have issues. The HC-300 is limited with memory, so you need to upgrade to HC-800.

UPDATE: I sent the old disc set back in and got a replacement from Amazon. Very smooth process, by the way. I only had to pay for packaging: Amazon covered all shipping charges. The new one arrived the next day.

Unfortunately the new one refuses to load at all, both the movie and the features disc.

Which makes me seriously think that it needs a firmware update to keep up with the latest copy protection techniques. And, unfortunately, I don't see that happening. Are we going to see more and more cases of new releases not being playable on the 7000?

This is a pretty recently released BD, perhaps you should send an email to Sony to make them aware of the problem. I'm assuming you attempted to play this BD on another BD player? I wonder if anyone else has this BD and has had a similar experience?

http://www.prometheus-movie.com/community/forums/topic/10778

Apparently this disc is causing issues with the PS3 and Pioneer BD players also, see above link. Maybe when Sony fixes for the PS3 they will do a sweep of all their BD players.

There are known playback issues with Prometheus. I had issues playing back the disc in both my Sony BDP-CX7000ES and PS3. In my changer the chapter menu would pop up at the start of each new chapter and in several places there was macro blocking. Others reported the same exact moments in the film where the macro blocking was occurring. On my PS3 the disc wouldn't even play. It studdered horribly after a chapter or two getting progressively worse. I've personally had it with the Blu-ray format and all the jacked up crap they place on these discs. I wash my hands of it. Ripped a movie only copy of Prometheus (no compression with chapters maintained and primary audio track) using the Blu-ray folder structure to a BD-RDL which plays back perfectly in my changer, PS3 and every other Blu-ray capable playback device that I own. Sony can release all the firmware updates they want. I'm not downloading another firmware update for the life of this format or allowing any of my hardware/software based Blu-ray players to access the Internet. The fact that I'm purchasing a legal copy of a given Blu-ray is going to have to be enough. If I encounter an issue with a given disc for whatever reason I plan to just rip a movie only copy and be done with it, placing the original disc back on the shelf at that point for safe keeping and to prove that I own an original copy.
Edited by Low Profile - 11/13/12 at 11:00pm

Just wanted to see if any of you guys were interested in purchasing a 7000 or a 960? I'm selling both of them. I would rather sell to someone on avs than to have to list on eBay I've had the 960 for a little over a year now and I bought the 7000 I believe in April of this year. I can provide receipts for both of them. I only used the 960 for about 5 months prior to picking up the 7000.

I'm in the market for both. Please let me know what you would sell them for. I live in the Orlando area and there is a BDP-CX960 for sell locally that I'm considering but will wait on your response. I currently have a 960 but would like to expend. The 7000 would be for a neighbor that has an automation system and is fascinated with my changer setup. In my case everything is manual but that's fine with me!

Thanks!


Peter Lego
2592 Clay Whaley Road
Saint Cloud FL 34772

Looking around at the going prices online which I feel are overinflated I feel that 700.00 for the 960 and 1500.00 for the 7000 seems fair plus shipping. Let me know if you feel that is a good price.

I sent my 7000 in for repair last week, and unlike Rob here, they were apparently able to repair mine for the Invalid Disc error - optical lens or something like that - I think I've read others have had this done with sporadic long term success, so we'll see. Should have it back in hand Friday.

Thanks but I can get the 960 locally here in Orlando a bit cheaper than that. I'll ping my neighbor on the 7000 and see if he is interested.

Regards,
Peter Lego

Great to hear. Please let us know how it goes once getting your changer back. I experience the "invalid disc" issue occassionally with my 7000. Probably once or twice a month. Generally a simple power cycle resolves the issue and I'm then able to successfully load the given disc. In my case I'm always selecting a given disc by sending the appropriate RS-232 command. I've never used Sony's XMB for disc selection.

I hope the repair resolves the issue for you. At least you have your HTPC if it doesn't ...

So thrang, did you receive your 7000 back and are you up and running?

I received my buyout check from Sony yesterday so I am "officially" an ex-owner. Despite all the problems, I was sorry to see it go ...

Yes I did - I loaded everything back in all at once - no Invalid Disc but about 25 No Name, which I have to check what that's about - I know some would not be found (calibration discs, demo disc etc.) but without checking the quantity seems high....

I have two 7000's and they are extremely unreliable. I have had them into Sony twice for repair. They work for a while and then just when I ready to watch a movie I get the invalid disc error. I also have a 960 that ddi the same thing. I have had it with these players. I wanted to get a local repairman (who is very reliable - he fixed a 777ES for me and that one works perfectly) but he is not authorized to work on them. My questions are:

1) What is the procedure to request a refund for these players?
2) Will anyone make a reliable Blu-ray changer? Probably not in these days of streaming video. But I still like blu-rays for the extra features. I have over 900 blu-rays so I hope someone comes out with one!

Anyway, I appreciate the opportunity to vent. I am very disappointed in Sony - I could always count on their quality but it has really gone down hill. I am not sure I will ever by a Sony product again:mad:

That's what mine did the last time only the number of unrecognized disks was 9 or 10. It stopped working soon thereafter... Keep the box and receipt handy.

So far, most of the no name ones make sense and are GraceNote issues (demo and calibration discs) - a number of titles are also identified but have no genre, and these generally are Special Feature discs - it did not recognize a Peter Gabriel concert blu ray, and assigned a few generic "box set" titles instead of the actual disc title for a Harry Potter disc and MI: 3... still have about 20 discs to go through...

Thanks for this. I currently own an Onkyo TX-SR800 THX Select 7.1-Channel Digital Home Theater Receiver which does not support HDMI. That being said, I had been sending audio from my 7000 via an optical cable. This does not allow for HD audio of course. As such, I recently just started using the multi-channel outputs of the 7000 as my receiver offers multi-channel inputs. Was finding that the 7000 was still only sending DTS 5.1 and not DTS-HD MA 5.1/7.1. Thanks to this thread I found that my 7000's BD Audio setting was set to "Mix" instead of "Direct". Changed the setting to "Direct" and am now getting DTS-HD MA out to my receiver. Love it! Could care less about secondary audio as I only ever listen to the primary audio track and from time to time the regular commentary tracks if present.
Edited by Low Profile - 11/25/12 at 9:31am

The mini would not require an apple TV, but would be able to support one easily. If you want to play the discs directly from the mini you would need player software, then connect video and audio up to your system. VLC runs on Macs, for example.

Yes it would. Hard to tell from the specs but it might be able to play the m2ts files off of a blu-ray once you've extracted them, but probably wont play ISOs directly. Looks like you need to use CIFS to access content from another machine. A Roku will also stream content (via HTTP) if you add the appropriate channel. But that may require H264 content. That's what I'm starting to ramp up now: Roku with the roksbox channel and playing H264. The result is perfectly adequate for a 50" TV. For serious watching in the home theater I still want something as close to the source as possible. For now that's the 7000.

Another choice for the Mac is Plex. Very nice setup and can transcode on the fly for a variety of devices, including the Roku, GoogleTV, LG and Samsumg Smart TVs. Also available for Windows.

Nitro: I'm going to look up your specs as I am getting ready to build out an HTPC.

Here is the thread.
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1171332/official-sony-bd-mega-changer-thread-bdp-cx7000es-bdp-cx960/3030

post #3033

I have built the HTPC using Asus motherboard, which is fine. If you use J river media center, then don't install Realtek drivers. I think you was going USB audio, so it might not apply to you. I use ASUS Xonar Essence ST sound cards, and I bought them with the H6 option. (Future plans is a USB dac from Exasound E18, but has the Mac OSX drivers as well)

J river just has put this option in media center 18, USB-UIRT http://www.usbuirt.com/ (Automation with are other equipment)

In the future, J river will have a MAC OSX version with Video, but the first release is going to be audio only. The latest report from J river on Mac OSX version is that it is a few weeks away.

If you are really picky on video, then plan for Nvidia video card. The onboard video is fine for most people, but I do see that I have to upgrade to better video card in the future. (There is 2 options here, running long hdmi cable from server to receiver or a new video card in htpc.) Video cards do make noise, so probably Nvidia GTX 650. Why Nvidia? The only option to make it Mac OSX compatible. HTPC is quiet now, but I do see need in the future for Blurays. I am picky though, but some might not see those issues.

Nitro

Does anyone know where I can find one of these units for a reasonable price?
Edited by Franci728 - 12/4/12 at 10:30am

I'm looking for a 960, even for parts!
I sent mine in...they made me an offer of $215 to keep it and no parts available anywhere.
I asked for it back, but I'm probably going to wish I'd taken the cheap offer.

Wow - this "offer" is a scary show of support (lack of) from Sony.
This is the 2nd time I have heard of them buying back what they cannot support.
I hold my breath, cross my fingers, and "knock on wood" every time I add a disc to my 960 collection, feel like I am on borrowed time....

Yeah...spent 2 days searching the planet for the main board for this player. None to be found. If your main board, part A1737428A goes....toss it in the trash.

...in other news, I'm looking for a CX960 that's been "crunched" or otherwise mechanically damaged to scavenge for parts, if you have one, please contact me. Thanks! - Stoney

Since the "Head Librarian" has declared backups illegal, you would sure think there was a bigger market for megadisc changers, especially since companies can charge a serious premium for these over the rapidly dropping prices of single disc blu-ray players.

I have a perfectly working ES 7000 changer I would like to sell. Anyone interested. Only had about 8-10 hours of use. Can't stand the load times otherwise would keep it. Still have original box, manual and in mint condition


Sent from my iPhone

I spent the last couple months creating movie only copies (no compression with primary audio track and commentary tracks to BD-R/DL using the Blu-ray folder structure) of my entire Blu-ray collection with the exception of any titles which were TV/Mini-series. There are no actual disc loading times now as a result per my Sony BDP-CX7000ES. Playback is instantaneous once the changer actually mounts the particular disc and spins it up which takes 35-45 seconds on average, but never more than 45 seconds. Absolutely loving it! Another plus is that I no longer have to check to ensure the HD audio track is selected by default when playback begins. I'm also enjoying the fact that I can now resume playback from where I left off with any of my Blu-ray's just as has always been the case with the DVD format. So long as I haven't loaded a different disc it takes all of 10 seconds for playback to resume. With an original Blu-ray the ability to resume playback is dependent on how the disc was authored and in most cases the ability to resume playback still requires that you sit through all the loading crap, then selecting the bookmark you saved and in some cases you can't even view and select the bookmark until you've started playing something. So basically I now have a 20Tb Blu-ray server which requires zero maintenance, but with that added 35-45 second load time built in. Sounds like a fair trade-off to me! Keep in mind as well that I don't use Sony's XMB for disc selection, so the ability for Gracenote to be able to identify a given disc doesn't even come into play, and with the IP/RS-232 control I'm still able to enjoy many of the same frontends those going the hard drive route are able to take advantage of. In my case I browse my entire DVD/Blu-ray collection which spans across several changers using the activity I created for my Pronto remote or via My Movies for WMC7 which also offers an iPhone and iPad app. Once selecting a given disc the activity for my remote or the My Movies solution loads the given disc from the particular changer for me. Staying away from Sony's XMB with these Blu-ray changers is the best advice I can give. I'm convinced that using Sony's XMB for disc selection and "everything that entails" only increases the likelihood that you will encounter issues with loading and playing discs. The Sony BDP-CX7000ES loves it some BD-R's let me tell you. Loading a given disc and starting playback is nothing short of perfection each and every time now. I never thought I'd say this, but I love the Blu-ray format now. Well, once I tailored it to my own needs anyway.
Edited by Low Profile - 12/13/12 at 8:35pm

Hello in response to poster Guju69. Sent you an AVS_"P.M." on December 16, 2012 regarding your Sony ES Blu Ray changer for sale.