Philips DVDR3455H/37 - Page 25

Help.

Please.

My 3455 is still usable as a DVR, but it's running into problems where the DVD drive (or more precisely, the DVD drawer) is concerned.

For a good while now the machine has been refusing to open the drawer, either to accept or allow removal of a DVD. Been getting it to cooperate by giving it a knock just above the door and that's done the trick. Maybe two days ago, tho', it started not CLOSING the door. A little push seemed to get it moving, but then that quickly stopped working. Even if I can get the door to close by manually pushing it, it doesn't catch and the readout still says "blocked".

Now no way to play DVDs or record on them.

I have plenty of stuff on the hard drive (which is working fine), some of which I'd like to still eventually put on DVD. It works fine with analog cable and also with a digital OTA converter box, so if this problem with the door can be fixed, that's all it'd need.

Has anyone had any experience with getting these machines fixed? (Maybe a new DVD drive put in place of the old one?)

Additional clarifications and a caution are found in this post:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...7#post16491347

The attached images show portions of five pages found in Sylvania and Magnavox Service Manuals, circa. 2005-2007.

The first image depicts the manual eject procedure for a DVD Drive manufactured in 2007.

The second and third images depict manual eject methods for a DVD Drive manufactured in late 2005/early 2006.

The fourth and fifth images are cut-away views of the Drive Mechanism Assembly for newer and older models, respectively.

gastrof,


What happens when you unplug the unit and plug it back in? Does the tray make any effort in movement? On mine if the tray is open, when powering off it moves slightly and then after the reboot will close and "latch".

There is a two inch opening on the bottom of the player that you can insert a small screwdriver into - starting from the middle of the player and sliding it towards the outside that will release/open the tray.

If the feed/release mechanism for the tray is not binding any where, then you may have a power issue. With the DVD player itself, the power supply, or the unit is not getting enough power itself.

Timtofly,

That's good to know.

Gastrof updated his situation in a PM. He mentioned that the rubber belt in his DVD Drive was broken.

I had checked the bottom of the Sylvania ZV450SL8 case. There was no access slot for manually releasing the disc tray on that model's case.

Earlier I had posted the following clarifications in the 3575/3576 thread:

After comparing the above DVD Drive illustrations and the attached photo showing the DVD Drive in a Sylvania ZV450SL8, it appears that the gear to be rotated may be found behind a panel seen toward the left between two "posts" in the photo. Perhaps that panel may be be popped out or slid up to gain access to the gear.

If the panel or "posts" are difficult to identify in the photo notice that the metal strap running across the top at the left is screwed to the right of the two "posts." The panel is to the left of that post. The panel may also be located by looking well above the left-most cut-out in the metal side rail of the ZV450 case.

Guys...

As I've told a couple of you already, the 3455 seems to be fixed.

I'll know for sure tomorrow when I reconnect it to the wiring in the TV stand.

Opened it all up, including removing the top of the DVD drive, and found (as mentioned above) that a drive belt had snapped. Didn't know at the time exactly what the drive wheels were connected to, but had some ideas.

Earlier tonight I went to Staples office supply store and bought a $1.79 bag of rubber bands.

At home, found one about the same size as the broken belt, and fitted it over the drive wheels in what seemd to be the right configuration. (No big thing...there only appeared to be two wheels involved.)

Got the DVD drawer back in place and closed up the drive, replaced all removed screws except for those holding the main lid on, and plugged the box in.

The DVD drawer opens and closes like all get out, and the hard drive appears to still be working fine. (Hooked it up to another old monitor in the room where I was doing the repair. Menu comes up for the drive, stored videos play, seems fine.)

Thanks for the help. (You know who you are.)

As a side point, since the drawer is now opening and closing freely with no obstruction, I wonder if maybe it wasn't a matter of weak magnets, but likely the belt beginning to break.

This might be food for thought for anyone else whose DVD drawer is giving them problems.

I'll add here that once the repair had been made, the drawer was opening and closing easily WITHOUT a DVD in it to add weight.

Hmm...

I'll have to check on what happens WITH a DVD in place, to see if the belt's strong enough to carry the weight. (From the look of things, tho', I'm not worried.)

I know using an ordinary rubber band might mean this is only a temporary fix, but as I mentioned in PM, I've still got the rest of the package for any future replacements, and I know where to get more.

On Cloning Hard Drives from original (160) to something larger:

Seems Philips uses a proprietary format of either linux or Windows CE. Gparted just declares it as unallocated space. If you make the source disk the slave and the larger disk the master, cloning software will clone the drive fine and the 3455 recogonizes it ok. It even shows all of the recordings in the HD menu. It seems though that all of the links in the (MBR) are lost. Upgrading the firmware during the process has no effect. Still searching for anything that would recognize the MBR and repair it.

When doing a firmware upgrade it stays with the Hard Drive. If you put a hard drive that has been in a 3455 without the upgrade into a 3455 that has had the upgrade it is as if an upgrade had never been done. If you put an upgraded hard drive into a non-upgraded 3455 it seems to Gain the features of the upgrade (longer titles).

It does not solve the MBR problem though when you do an upgrade.

I wanted to post a reply which I sent to gastrof only to share my experience with the DVD drawer not opening. I wrote:

"...No, I didn't get it [my DVD drive] fixed, but I have been keeping a dummy blank in it when not in use (i.e. never close it empty) and it works just fine. If yours is stuck shut, you'll need to open the case, (several screws) and force it open, then replace the case. Just remember to ALWAYS keep a disc in it - I put a paper label on a blank DVD+R and labeled it DUMMY! to remind me.

The problem with the DVD drive is this: it has a clutch which closes on and grabs the disc when you close the drawer and the clutch is magnetic. The lower portion with the motor is a magnetic circle about the size of a quarter. The upper, moveable portion of the clutch, which clamps down on the DVD when the drawer closes, contains two thin metal washers, which are attracted to the magnetic lower half and hold the DVD+R in position so it can spin. Is that clear? The problem is that the magnetic force is too powerful for the opening drawer to break and you get the BLOCKED message on the display. If you try to open the drawer with no DVD in it with the cover off, you can see the top of the drive, the spinning top of the clutch, sink down into the drive as the drawer attempts to break the magnetic hold. With a flat blade screwdriver you can sort of lift the clutch and break the grab, then the drawer will open. Try it, you'll see. It's a design defect. I tried disassembling the drive and removing one of the metal discs in the clutch, but then the magnetic grab wasn't enough to keep the clutch closed, and the DVD never went "ready". It's simply a design problem and Philips is never going to fix it. I found the Taiwan manufacturer of the drive, but they don't answer my (English) email. I also logged a call with Philips for a replacement, but they said they have no more drives and closed the ticket.

Anyway, that's been a long explanation and I hope it helps. The solution, if you love your 3455 like I do, the solution is to always have disc in the drive and you'll always be able to get it open. I use mine everyday, I have hundreds of TCM movies saved on DVD for the day they go commercial".

I hope this helps someone else who is frustrated with the stuck drawer. Mine is back in service now and I have recorded and burned at least 150 TCM movies since I wrote the note.

A little update-

The machine is recording fine to the hard drive, so I didn't wreck anything there by opening the box up, and the DVD drawer is opening and closing with and without discs.

The machine plays and records DVDs.

This, for the price of a $1.79 bag of rubber bands.

Guys, if you have problems with the drawer and feel confident about opening the thing, replace the belt with a rubber band and see what happens. It may be worth it.

Now if only my Magnavox 2160 would only finalize DVDs without my needing to delete the programmed events in the timer... (Supposedly they're working on that. )

I replaced my drive belt also, but went the more expensive route.

Ordered a pair of belts from Studio Sound Electronics, Part number SBM3.2
They have a minimum order of 5 dollars and each belt was about 1.05 dollars US.

Nothing against the rubber bands, I know they work, I am just fussy and want the right part if I can get it.
Either way try not to get finger oils on the drive belt, it leads to slippage.

Does any one have access to a service manual, or where I can get parts for my 3455?

Thanks

anyone had this problem??? my unit will not initialize, it just stalls and goes no where. I unplugged from power socket and after a while i plugged unit into power wall socket and the hard drive starts with the normal hard drive sound but doesn't finish initializing and just a blank screen, any ideas on this problem would be grateful..

Someone in the setup thread for the Philips 3576 posted info on replacement remotes...

They had them for the 3455 too.

http://www.remotes.com/remotes/servl...=0&m=DVDR3455H

When you say the hard drive starts, do you have the cover off and can you "feel" the motor spinning. In my shuffling of drives this weekend I lost the power from the "hard drive" power connection. Everything else seems to work just fine, but I had to figure out an external power source. I had an open computer nearby. So with the computer supplying power to the hard drive I was able to record to the drive. I have yet to figure out if something is shorting out on the board that the drive plugs into, or the power supply itself.

I am trying to refurbish a unit that needed a power supply do to one of the prongs was broken where the cord plugs into it and the DVD player was taken apart with a hammer. That is why I was looking for parts in my last post. It looks like the dvd is gone. I swapped motors since the motor was the object of the hammer, but it seems the laser is out of alignment still. If any one has found a substitute DVD recorder unit that works, the make and model # would be appreciated.

i have the cover off and can feel and hear the hard drive on start up, also the dvd tray will not open, so frustrating, maybe i should just take it to the shop and see if its worth spending money on it or not.

Since you've got the cover off, check each end of the cable connecting the HDD and the DVD to the motherboard... carefully press each end in to see if you can detect a loose connection?

Touch case first to discharge all static.

Yikes!

If you can find and post the DVD Drive's model number, usually found on the top cover, it may help identify a compatible DVD Drive.

The photos show DVD Drives found in a July 2007 Magnavox H2080MW8 and an August 2008 Magnavox ZV450MW8A. With the ZV450 it was necessary to tip up the CBA to photograph the DVD Drive indicia.

Peter,

Do you have a copy of the firmware?

There is a slot on the under side of the unit that allows you to open the DVD drawer. If you can open it and put the firmware in, and if you have access to another hard drive, the firmware "should" initialize the new drive. You could then rule out a failed hard drive.

My hard drive will make a clone ok, but it has developed the same problem as yours. Just sits there at start up rebooting over and over again. When I put another Hard Dirve in the player worked just fine. However when I plugged in the Coax from the cable company with the unit opened, now I do not have power to any hard drive. I have yet to see if the first hard drive will work in another player. Will post later if it works fine in another player. My drive had started to create bad recordings, so it may be on its way out. You may be able to reformat it on a PC and see if that can get it working again. If you wanted to keep any of the recordings, you can also try to clone it to another 160 GB hard drive and see if the new one works. I have not tried that yet, but hope to in a couple of weeks. I have cloned it to a larger drive and my recordings "were" there, but that is my other problem with cloning to a larger drive. I do not have another 160 right now, to test my solution.

BTW with a power source to the known working drive everything else seems to be working just fine.

Paladen,

How is your LITE-ON working?

FYI

I have had 2 brand new May 2009 Western Digital Caviar Blue 160 Gig drives that are not "recognized" by the DVDR. One would just sit there and continually reboot. The other one would initialize, but then when you turned off the DVDR, on power up you would have to re-initialize it again.

On the Flip side when hooked up to a computer, as a slave they behaved ok, as a master they "acted" like they were not even there. Sounds like there may be some logic/controller issues.

So on my original drive, either it cannot be seen as a master, or the sectors storing the file system have gone bad and the DVDR cannot read them to finish the "boot" sequence. When the drive is being "accessed" it makes a different sound than normal spinning. Sorta like small "scratching" over and over again. Not loud clicking though like crashed heads.

My Magnavox 2080 uses the Cable Select (CS) jumper setting for the hard drive.

The "CS" hard drive setting is also reported for other Philips or Magnavox HDD/DVD recorders.

The CS setting is entirely logical as there is but a single IDE/PATA device connection on these data cables.

The third hard drive (excelstor) 160Gig has worked as a clone of my failed drive, allowing me to recover my recordings.

I am trying a HP internal (computer) dvd burner (20 speed) and it works most of the time. It has trouble finalizing. It does great for half a disk full of shows, and then gets content from another 3455 and finalized there.- After putting it on an external power supply, I can do the second half of a DVD and finalize it OK now. It "seems" to burn a lot faster, but have not actually timed it.

It is a power hog though. When the tray is opened the fan at the rear of the DVR stops and resumes after the tray closes. I am thinking about running cables and setting up an external power source for the burner and a swappable hard drive enclosure.- I just need to find an old fashioned power supply that does not need a motherboard to power it up with.

Its basic use is to get off the old recordings as I transition to larger drives. - I have tried it on an external power source and it seems more stable. The fan still keeps turning off, and IMHO it may be to keep dust from being sucked into the DVD aperture when the DVD drawer is opened.

Please help me with my Philips 3455 H DVDR. I would like to transfer directly my video files stored in the HDD160GB of the recorder to an external HDD or to my PC. ¿How couls I do it?
ggha

I would try to backup the hard drive onto another HDD in order to avoid loosing the videos you have already recorded and cannot get onto DVDs
Unfortunately I do not know how to do such backups amd I desesperatedly ask for help

ggha:

The only reasons to "make a copy" of your current drive would be to put it into another 3455, or your current drive is starting to fail and you want to transfer the titles before it becomes useless. You cannot "view" any of the contents outside of a 3455. If it's because you are running out of room, then you could just get another larger drive and swap back and forth between the two drives when needed. If you add a new drive, you will probably need a copy of the firmware to "initialize" the drive.

If you are trying to save your current titles onto a bigger hard drive, it "has not" been done, or if it has, no one has posted their success. I have tried it several times with no success. If you have a video capture card in your PC you could record in "real" time what is on your drive and then do whatever you want with them on your computer.

You can follow Auskck's example in the: Philips 3575/3576 and Magnavox 2080/2160 Features, Setup and Operation Link # 4815 on page 161. He has an EIDE to SATA converter, which allows him to swap out SATA drives within minutes from the outside of the machine. Although no one has done it with a 3455 that I am aware of. You would probably need the firmware disk to initialize any new drives.

If you want a back up copy, you can "clone" the current drive to another 160 Gig drive using a computer and cloning software. However it should be done independently of any operating systems, with a bootable DVD and the two 160 drives. You have to have the basic knowledge of upgrading a computer. If you do it under windows you could mess up the data from the original 160 drive and/or your current computer setup. I have been successful in "cloning" a hard drive that was no longer recognized by the 3455 and was able to get back my titles. I have yet to see if reformatting the drive will bring it back, since it is my original "back up" I will probably do that after using the current clone for a year to make sure I have the titles I do not want to loose.

Other than hooking it up to another DVDR with a hard drive and "copying" it in real time, you do not have many choices. If you cannot get a copy of the firmware, you may be able to make a "clone" of your original on to a larger drive and the 3455 will recognize the drive, however you will not be able keep your titles; they are useless. You will have to use the delete hard drive in the setup for it to properly recognize the larger size drive.

If you have any questions, I will try to answer them.

Timtofly or helpers,

You are the one with more experiences, please be patient if my questions were posted already before..
For my Philips 3455H/37 (Canada, Montreal), I just bought the WD 250GB (my 160GB doesnot work anymore...I dont khow why), and used the update firmware from Philips site. It didnot work???
My questions are:
- I didnot format the new WD drive, I just installed the new drive from the bag and tried updating with the update CD..is it the reason? Do I have to format the drive before updating?
- If so, what format I have to do?
- The method from Philips is the must to make it work because my Sonic from Sony doesnot have the option of recording speed at 2X (min. is 4X) so what is the burning software you know that it works?

Thank you in advance.

Will the old drive boot up the 3455 enough to see TV? If it does try putting the firmware cd in. If the option comes up to upgrade the firmware, then your cd burned ok.

If using the old hard drive will not work, if the firmware is burned correctly, you should at least see "LOAD" on the LCD panel when you have the new hard drive in. It took an older version of Nero before I had a good Firmware DVD.

I am not sure if you need the firmware or not. I have tried two different "returned" WD 160's and both failed to do anything, and when I put them in a PC, even though they showed up in the bios, OS's would not recognize them as masters, but only as slaves. They have to be jumpered as a master in order for them to work in a 3455. 3455 does not recognize cable select or slave. With WD it should have no jumpers at all in the correct "master" configuration.

Having said all that, you could have a bad hard drive or your firmware cd is bad. I would rule out the hard drive first. If you get one that works as a master without jumpers try installing it. If the 3455 does not boot to TV, then you will need the firmware. You do not need to format the drive, unless when you go into the setup menu and do a "show" hard drive info and it does not show 250,000 available. The only way to "format" it is under the setup menu select "erase disk".

If you have a way to clone the old hard drive, you can try this: Jumper the old 160 as slave, Jumper the New Drive as Master with Slave present, boot your PC with clone software, clone the drive, and then if WD take off the jumpers to make it just master and try it in the 3455. If it boots to TV, then all you have to do is go into the menu and erase the hard drive so it will recognize all 250 gigs. You will not be able to save your titles unless you clone to another 160. Cloning will rule out a bad hard drive, since the "new" drive has to be the master. Cloning will also show you to what extent your old drive is damaged. If you can clone it, then you can get the titles off of it, as long as you do the same size drive. If the cloning fails, then your old drive is toast. The 3455 is very particular when it comes to the area of the drive that contains the Master Boot Record. If that is damaged, then that drive will not work in the 3455.

Thanks.
I would do the same thing as your suggestion. So the hard drive should be format (with winXPis OK?) in order to be reconize from PC?

Thank you again.

Formatting the drive outside the 3455 will not work. If the drive is not recognized by the 3455, then there is something wrong with the drive.

When cloning the drive, you bypass WinXP and "boot" with the cloning software. XP may add files to the drive and confuse the 3455. Under Linux it may be different, you may be able to clone the drive that does not confuse it.

Will the old drive boot up the 3455 enough to see TV? If it does try putting the firmware cd in. If the option comes up to upgrade the firmware, then your cd burned ok.

**No.

If using the old hard drive will not work, if the firmware is burned correctly, you should at least see "LOAD" on the LCD panel when you have the new hard drive in. It took an older version of Nero before I had a good Firmware DVD.

** Ya, with the new drive, I see "LOAD" then "BOOT" on the LCD but after that it went back to the same cycle of "LOAD" and "BOOT"...nothing else!!


Having said all that, you could have a bad hard drive or your firmware cd is bad. I would rule out the hard drive first. If you get one that works as a master without jumpers try installing it. If the 3455 does not boot to TV, then you will need the firmware.

**My drive is brand new so I assume it is OK...what I double most is the firmware. Do you think the sw SONIC from Sony won't work in this case?
I think I should look for the Nero and try it again.

You do not need to format the drive, unless when you go into the setup menu and do a "show" hard drive info and it does not show 250,000 available. The only way to "format" it is under the setup menu select "erase disk".


** YA.
One more thing, my old drive just sounds few click...click...click..then it stops (I don't feel anything when touching it). During that time, the LCD keeps showing "LOAD" and " BOOT" ..and repeats the same cycle again.....!!!
My new drive, by touching I still feel the motor is turning, but as I mention above, nothing is working.

Any idea always is the light for me.

Thanks

For what it is worth, I burned my Firmware Upgrade Disc to a CD-R, not a DVD. I used an older version of NERO and
followed the instructions found in the Philips Firmware Upgrade PDF file. It went perfectly for me doing it that way.


pica304, did you remember to REMOVE the firmware disc before powering down the 3455? This is a must.

Did you Power Down by Pressing the Power Off button on the front of the unit instead of using the remote? IIRC this method was specified in the Firmware Installation Instructions in the PDF from Philips. I will try to find a copy of that PDF to make sure.