Sony DVR repair

There was another service named Johns DVR Repair that I contacted a few years back. My email discussion with him established costs as follows:

I do not stock drives. First I make sure I can repair the tuner (almost always), then I upgrade the drive. Repair $50 plus parts (less then $5 per tuner) and shipping both ways (you pay for all shipping). Drives are $125 for a 80G (aprox. 70 hours) or $150 for a 160G (aprox. 110 hours). Turn around time is aprox. 2 weeks. He did this in his spare time back in 2009. You might see if he'd be willing to look at it. His email was john at johnsdvdrrepair dot com. I sent him a contact email as well.

Check the Repairs for RCA UTVs thread.

Sony might still offer a Flat Rate Repair for $93

Well, John's email bounced back as undeliverable. I sent an email to IESS at http://www.iessolutions.net/index.html, I notice they are in Harrisburg, PA.

Curious, do we have any remaining repair sources for RCA branded boxes?

If IESS doesn't offer repairs... maybe they'd put in a good word for companies that might...

Which reminds me. Doesn't RCA "technically" offer repairs? But at crazy high prices (back in the day)? Unlike Sony's Flat Rate.

Going old school... there were some DIYers that did this after getting the tuner chips... Course for those of us missing the mad soldering skills... there where other UTVers that supposedly took the parts to their friendly neighborhood electronics repair shop. (Think VCR/TV/Radio/Appliance repair shop) So if you could scare up the required parts and a manual (which I know Sony's UTV manual was floating around here on the forums... and a copy should be taking up space on one of my hard drives somewhere.) then maybe for good measure printout/read one of the good threads that discussed the Tuner Repair procedure... a willing Tech at your local repair shop might be willing to do the job.

Crossing my fingers IESS will have offer some options/thoughts on this front.

They have a phone number too. If you want to try contacting a Human Being directly. Might be faster/easier. Although in 2011... you'd think somebody would be checking the e-mail everyday.

I think the surface mount nature of the chip proves to be the difficult part of the task. I have done the more "standup type" pin connections with and iron and vaccum extractor, but I think the UTV were all machine soldered. Is there even still a source on the chips? I have a good local guy who might be willing - Stanley's Electronics in Peoria, IL off of Hale and Pioneer Parkway. He's worked on my 52" RCA CRT and laserdisc player; even makes house calls.

I've sent some of my coworkers his way and they've all been tickled to death by his work (plasma TV and blu-ray player). He does warranty work for the local box stores and appliance dealers. Tracking done old parts is not his forte though.

Never got into LaserDisc but would love to pick an LD user's brain sometime. I've heard some of the cheaper models one might find on eBay might need repairs/TLC and wouldn't mind some Do's and Don't for a Beginner that has been tempted to buy Laser Discs from the local Half Price Books... but doesn't have a LD player and doesn't want to pay too much or buying a LD player that isn't worth being repaired (no parts).

While its probably a completely different beast from the UTV... finding a "Friendly local electronics shop" willing/able to do the work is probably key.

As far as UTV parts... (Tuner Chips) I'd suspect some old-timer fellow UTV forum readers might have a few on a shelf. Otherwise, maybe somebody on good terms with previous UTV Repair shops... might have a connection to a Vendor(s). Who knows... if any of them got any good at it as a DIYer. Maybe they'd be willing to do this as a little Hobby Business.

The autoreverse units and some of the multidisc players need to have the transport screw inserted; the internal track can break with the head bouncing around during transit.

Most units were made by Pioneer and rebadged for other brands. You can actually still get parts for many of these units from Pioneer. I'm not fully verse in all of the units, but yes there better ones than others. You can check on some of the LD sites for a run down. I think pretty close to top end units are trading for $300'ish. I picked up a low end RCA / Pioneer multiplayer for $30 that the rails broke during shipment. Another $25 for new rails and I'm in business.

With the advent of blu-ray you can now get uncompressed audio but the LDs have provided PCM stereo since the late 80s. I've picked up several of the old MTV Unplugged discs and found they have more songs on them then their released CD counterparts. My 9yr old son thinks those 12" discs are the coolest thing going, he just hates that we have to flip them after 60 minutes. I'll try and upgrade one of these days to a dualside unit.

Jiyu,

Stanley's is:

7916 N Hale Ave
Peoria, IL 61615
(309) 265-0846