Magnavox 537, 535, 533, 515, 513, 2160A, 2160, 2080 & Philips 3576, 3575 - Page 486

Our engineer tests and aligns few media while the model is in development stage.

Verbatim is one of the disc mentioned as that they do for alignment of unit.

Please refer to Page 41 (MDR513H, MDR515H), Page 40 (H2160MW9A)

Most major electronics manufacturers (Sony, Samsung, etc.) have standard DVD players selling for $39 or less. WalMart sells a Magnavox (Funai) BluRay player for $69.

If you watch a new DVD movie every week and that standard DVD player only lasted 1 year, your total cost per year would run less than $100. Compare that to what you'd pay going once a week to the local movie theatre and paying $10-$15 per person (not including popcorn and soda).

Assuming you have one of the Magnavox HDD/DVR units discussed in this forum and you know how to use a screwdriver, should replacement becomes necessary, a new DVD player/burner from Funai currently costs less than $75.

Since acquiring my first 2160A about a year ago, I have watched over 50 dvd movies, burned another 40-50 disks and she's still going strong.

1. I haven't seen a Blu-Ray player for $69. Is that available in stores, or only at walmart.com? The cheapest I have seen in stores is the Vizio one just recently rollbacked to $89 from $99. $69 would be even better. I have no need for internet connectivity for a Blu-Ray player.

3. I do not know how to replace a DVD burner. I am not mechanically proficient.

4. Only 50 movies watched and 50 discs recorded? That doesn't sound like a lot. Much more than 100 hours of life is surely to be expected, isn't it?

Please refer to my post (below URL)

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...7#post20301657

(1) The Magnavox Blu-Ray for $69 was in my local WalMart store. They have been available at that price for many months. (As I recall, it did not have any special features such as WiFi.)

(3) As to replacing a DVD drive, check the pictures and instructions here http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...=39#DVDReplace. (It's an example of help members of this forum offer each other.)

(4) The point I was trying to make was not about the life expectancy of your Magnavox MDR513 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...4#post20446494), but rather the money saved in 1 year by watching DVD movies at home vs. in a movie theatre. The savings would be more than enough to cover the cost of a new DVD player, several times over. To put your mind at rest, if you check some of the earlier posts in this forum, you'll see many members are still using HDD/DVD recorders they acquired more than 5 years ago.
___________
UPDATE: A quick Google brought up this link http://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-pla...-wal-mart.html which apparently shows the model I saw was a Magnavox MBP5120F . (Actual price is $68, not $69. )

This is all relative, those of us who are paranoid about using our recorders as players base that fear on previous experience with various brands of very expensive (at the time) recorder. You would be astounded, for example, by how many owners of the pricey and unique Toshiba XS series of DVD/HDD recorder reported they did in fact die after burning and watching less than 100 DVDs. This also happened with many a Sony, some Pioneers, and quite a few of the earlier Philips models. Even Panasonic, the most popular recorder on AVS by far, suffers from a maddening sensitivity to dust and finger oils on DVDs migrating into the mechanism, causing premature and frequent failure. (At least the Panasonics can be repeatedly cured by disassembly and cleaning, and will last forever if maintained that way, but it shouldn't be necessary and most owners have no clue regarding this grime issue.) Overall, the burners mfrs installed in DVD recorders historically have been absolute crap, whether the model cost $99 or $699. Adding insult to injury, replacement cost for these crappy proprietary burners was/is in the realm of $250-429 if you could even get the thing fixed.

The Magnavox H2160, 513 and 515 put a different spin on many of these factors. The retail cost of a new one was half that of previous models, so your $$$ investment is much less to begin with. Over the last several years, failure reports on the Magnavox burners have been very very few, amazingly few compared to earlier Philips models and vanishingly few compared to Sony, Toshiba, Pioneer and even Panasonic. Best of all, in the unlikely event your Magnavox burner fails out of warranty, Funai is the only mfr ever to cooperate with DIY repair: they will sell a replacement burner direct to end users at the very reasonable price of $68 (Panasonic wants $429, Pioneer $275, classic Toshibas and Sonys are now impossible to get parts for at any price.)

So I would say its probably safe to use a Magnavox DVD/HDD recorder as primary DVD player as well as recorder: poor quality blank media you record on is more likely to wear out the machine than playback usage. Stick to the premium 8x Verbatim DataLifePlus, TY/JVC 8x DVD-R, or Verbatim AZO 16x and your Magnavox should prove very durable. My biggest concern is the continued viability and availability of the Magnavox, period. In six months or two years, slowing demand may cause Funai to discontinue it (the European versions have already been pulled). If recorders were wildly popular, and we could reasonably expect the Magnavox to still be at Wa*Mart for $198 in 2015, I would say use it to hammer nails or mix drinks: who cares how you treat it, if it can be replaced tomorrow cheap. But recorders in North America are not popular, and long-term availability not expected: in this environment, it seems wise to reduce any chance of additional laser wear by using a separate player. Of course, each Magnavox owner will make that choice based on their usage pattern and shelf space.

Very good points CitiBear. The PAL playback is especially important to me.
I added a few more reasons why “I” use a separate player for playback.

-- My player loads discs much faster than my recorder.

-- My player will remember last position played (Resume Play) for something like the last 30 discs played.

-- My player will let me display title elapsed time, title remaining time, and chapter elapsed time, chapter remaining time.

--My player has zoom steps to get rid of black bars of letterboxed or postage stamped video.

--When I’m recording something I intend to archive, I don’t like using the recorder to do anything else, especially playing back discs, as I don’t want to introduce any unnecessary glitches to my archive.

There are probably many other reasons that I don’t remember at the moment. But preserving my recorder as long as I can is reason enough for me. I don’t even use my recorder to make extra copies – I use my PC for that. Mind you I still use 16x media in my recorder but it is Verb azo media.

MBP5120F contains WiFi and Vudu, but no Netflix.

I stand corrected.

It's strange. Wireless LAN is not mentioned in the MBP5120F specifications published on the Magnavox website at: http://magnavox.com/p/spec_player.php?id=63
However, on WalMart's website at http://www.walmart.com/ip/Magnavox-M...layer/15080510 they show a Magnavox MBP5120F/F7 which does have built-in wireless LAN.

234, are both units the same, or is the /F7 a different model?

I am surprised that they missed to mention such important feature on website!
I will tell it to web master to add the feature on the web page.

We have released only one model of "MBP5120F" to the market.
In fact, the official model name is "MBP5120F/F7" registered to BDA (Blu-Ray association).

I am sure all MBP5120F model (whichever mentioned by retailer as "MBP5120F" or "MBP5120F/F7") contains WiFi feature. (USB WiFi dongle is included)

As you might know, MDR515H's official name is "MDR515H/F7".
Suffix (/17, /37 or /F7) is a market code defined by Philips.
You can see these 3 codes in US market.

mdr515h/cable box channel switching solution,

(If this msg is in the wrong place feel free to move it.)


This note concerns using your hdd dvr to record shows from
your cable box. In my case, it particularly concerns the following
equipment:

1) MDR515H hdd dvr
2) comcast cable box model DCT700US (US? - paperback book size)
3 rca jacks: 1 composite video output and 2 stereo audio jacks
3) Sony GX257 with IR blaster


Upfront i might as well say that i really don't like the cable companies
and being forced to buy there equipment because of the way they
decide to organize their cable setup. I'm really cheap that way.
I hate paying unnecessary monthly fees(like for an HD cable box etc)
and having to adapt to their nasty way of doing things.


Unfortunately i have not been able to find an hdd dvr that has an IR blaster.


Basically I use the IR blaster functionality of the GX257 to change channels on the cable box. Of course it had to be able to control the cable box
and there is a whole setup procedure for that in the gx257 manual.
I can't remember the exact selections i made, but i beleive the cable
box is made by motorola...but don't quote me on that.
I really only use the gx257 for its IR blaster functionality. But it does
have an upconverting dvd recorder/player.

This means that i need to setup the scheduler on the GX257 to match the
scheduler on the MDR515H so that they are in sync. Not a big problem.

The cable box rca outputs are connected to the L1 inputs on the back of the
MDR515H. The scheduler in the MDR515H is setup to record from the L1
inputs (L1 inputs are the composite video and stereo audio rca jacks).


This allows me to record shows and not have to worry about mucking with the cable box channel. It does require and extra piece of equipment(GX257), but its worth it for me. I managed to get the gx257 on ebay for less than $50.

Believe it or not, i have all of this equipment hanging on a modified shelf
below my lcd tv wall mount arm.


---------
I suppose if you have a cable box with no video/audio output that you 'might'
be able to use an 'rf' converter of some type. With todays digital/analog
cable mumbo jumbo who knows if they still make them.


--------
BORING BACKGROUND:
I originally used this setup with a philips 3455H dvr, but the hard drive bit the dust last week and i haven't managed to fix that yet. I'll add it to the list of things to fix. I fully expect to fix the 3455h and use it elsewhere.
It lasted 5+ years so i guess i can't complain. I expected to tank long before that.

Buying the mdr515h ASAP provided the most immediate resolution to my problem of not being able to record shows since the 3455h crapped out. Especially since i got it from Amazon.com at a reasonable price and cheap next day shipping with there 'prime' program that i signed up for and will cancel after the trial is over.
I didn't have a reason to look for it until the 3455h crapped out. I was looking for a fix for the bad hard drive and stumbled upon
the avs forum as an information source and tracked
down the mdr515h that way. If any local walmarts would have had it in stock, they would have gotten the business, but they don't do
a very good job in that respect, so they lost the business(the amazon cost was less than $10 more).

I'm sure other have been through this. Comcast is always prodding/forcing their customers to do thing the way comcast wants it. stripping
channels off of analog and moving them to digital etc. Once i was forced to use their cable box i didn't really have any choice. I hate monthly fees and wasn't about to buck up and pay for their monster dvr or hd box.

Previous i was able to record directly from cable onto the 3455H, then
comcast decide that they wanted to force everyone to use
cable boxes.


take it easy,
drevh - evh @ dr.com

Interesting. I bought a Sony RM-AV3100 Integrated Remote Commander several years ago which could send out timed commands, and I'm sure there must be other such units these days (from Harmony, etc). That might be another way to accomplish what you're doing.

Also I think some older TiVos (Series 2) may have had IR blasters (but read up on that before buying). If you could find one with lifetime service, that might be another option.

Drevh,

" I was looking for a fix for the bad hard drive and stumbled upon
the avs forum as an information source and tracked
down the mdr515h that way. If any local walmarts would have had it in stock, they would have gotten the business, but they don't do
a very good job in that respect, so they lost the business(the amazon cost was less than $10 more)."

I stumbled into the 513 515 family about the same way you did even though I previously owned Mags that did not have HD's.

I just wish the Brick Walmart could post a sign in their A/V department over their meager choices of DVD recorders that the 515 is available at the on line Walmart site and either show a picture of it and features or have a non working model for folks to look at.

Of course this is a moot point since Walmart is slowly bringing the 515 into Brick and Mortar stores.

I suppose the reason is some legal reason. I know I have harped about this in the past but it is very frustrating especially when a lot of the buyers are probably more VCR savvy than Internet search savvy.(And I am speaking for myself here )

That looks like a pretty sweet remote at a great price.

My Sony AV2100 is going out which was the forerunner to the 3100. Also some of the buttons on my Sony RMAX 4000 are sticking. It replaced the 3100. Since I didn't want to dump a bunch of money in the Harmony series, I picked up a Sony RMVL-Z620 off of Amazon for around $18 and it will do all the same things with macros etc as my 4100 and Harmony One for a lot less money. The only difference is their is no LCD screen and the keys do not light up, but for the price it will do it all. It is not RF capable though, but there are three IR outputs on it that go out pretty far. I have it programmed for the Mag 2160, with macros and it will do all the switching and run everything with one push of the DVR button. I also have it programmed for all my other equipment. You can use codes or program it by using the learn function. It's a bit of a learning curve to set up but once you do you will love it!

I'm trying to understand the function or intended use for hiding chapters. I'm assuming that the "make visible" command is only available on an unfinalized disc. I also notice that any hidden chapter is immediately visible when you play the title in Edit mode -- which to me sounds like it's not hidden at all. Perhaps it gets really hidden when you finalize the disc. If so, isn't the chapter really deleted for all practical purposes, since it can no longer be made visible -- or can it?
Thanks!

I pondered over this, "kept the clock active for over 60 hour". I couldn't keep the clock and/or timer reference active for more than two hours tops.

Then I came across the "1175" test, and realized what is going on. The unit only has a clock lifespan of 2~ hours. Its when you supply AC AND have an antenna plugged in that the clock will get updated.

I tested this theory by unplugging the AC and antenna for over 2 hours. When I plugged the unit back in and in standby, no clock. I then simply plugged the antenna cable back in and presto, the clock got updated! Of course my timer programs were erased, but having the ability to have the clock updated automatically is a real plus.

It was the "1157" test - setting the clock to manual, selecting DTV and a FOX channel, that was the answer for me.

There is a bug in the newest version of MakeMKV (1.6.10) so it won't work with DVDs made in the Mag HDD/DVDRs. This version of MakeMKV will work with DVD-VIDEO -R/RW discs made in my Pioneer recorder so I've been unloading titles from my Mag recorders' HDDs by doing realtime dubs via the composite outs to the Pioneer recorder. It works but the process is very time consuming.

Does anyone know of another free program that will convert Mag DVD titles to MKV?

Hide Chapter would probably be better labeled Hide Commercials.

MkvToonix

http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/

It's much better. If you have a whole bunch of DVD folders, you can add to the jobs queue and convert them in batch.

I use version 4.0 (this avoids MKV header compression, which some media players can not play correctly).

Thanks.
The first time I tried it I put all the .VOB files from the VIDEO_TS folder in for muxing. I played the .MKV file and got the Mag DVD Info menu page to play in the VLC main program window while a Direct3D output window played the movie. Then I started over and only added the VTS_01_1.VOB file for muxing. That worked much better.

I hope this is not considered posting to the wrong forum, but I was wondering if there are any features to look for in purchasing a new AV receiver that are helpful to heavy users of the 2160A, etc. I guess I'm thinking mainly of connectivity, but who knows, since this would be my first AV receiver purchase.
Thanks.

Hello all, I hope your summer goes well.
My DOWN ARROW button (6 o'clock below "OK") is getting sluggish (needs multiple presses to work) and sometimes not at all. Anyone have another trick than the usual cleaning?

I took it apart and cleaned the flex buttons and PCB w/ alcohol. I got some black residue (to be expected) and observe some oil like substance on both the contact and button surface of the buttons.

I did let it dry a while after a light tissue drying.

This is a frequently used button for sure.

No obvious flaws in the PCB itself.

Any other hints or techniques?

I did buy a backup remote years ago, sounds like time for them to swap places.

Thanks, Mike.

soap bath seems to have brought it back to almost complete function.
I will save the sticky aluminum tape for the next round.

Thanks both.

Years ago, when I used to have trouble with the buttons on Sony TV remotes, I used aluminum foil tape to fix them. Using an X-ACTO knife, I would cut out a piece of the foil tape which would fit over the underside of the button with which I was having trouble, then I would stick the tape to the bottom of the button (not to the PCB). This worked great.

If you decide to try that, don't push the buttons with great force or you may cause the tape to slip. However, the buttons should be very responsive, so it shouldn't take much force to operate them. And of course, thoroughly clean the surface to which you're applying the tape before you apply it.

What is the model name of TV?