Magnavox 537, 535, 533, 515, 513, 2160A, 2160, 2080 & Philips 3576, 3575 - Page 626

FYI
I called a Walmart store today to ask if they had any 515 or 513 in stock. The guy said that they replaced that machine with a Magnavox MW8B which is a recorder with no tuner. So I ordered a 513 from the walmart web site. The price went up $20.00 since yesterday when it was $198.00. I should be able to FW the machine to make it act like a 515.

Just received a REFURBISHED Magnavox 515 from J&R.com. Managed to grab one (of the small batch of 10-15? that they had around February 1st) for $199.99 (free shipping).
Unit came in brown refurb box (wrapped in a fitted grey plastic mailing "envelope"). Sticker on back of unit says it was originally manufactured in September 2011. The sticker on the bottom says it was refurbished at Funai's Groveport, OH facility on 2012/01/17 (Jan 17th). I purchased it from J&R.com on February 2nd. I was not surprised to see that these babies don't sit in J&R's warehouse for very long.

This refurbished Magnavox 515 already had the most recent "Super Firmware 10/05/2011" version 727V loaded. All other Firmware numbers/versions match wajo's Firmware post for an Orig. 515 OEM FW. HDD 206h54m available. There were no titles left over from the previous owner. It was refurbished well.

SKIP 123 Info
Model: E2S02UD; DTV-S: 0x2B; FE: R60_001_000; BE: HD6A269727V1E; TT: T5011RDU@5

SKIP 321 Info
DVD-WR = 2:40; DVD-RD = 16:31; CD = 0:00

SKIP 079 Info
HDD Power On Hours = 136 (less than 6 days)

If anyone is interested, try checking J&R daily. That's what I did for a couple of weeks. Please note that when they don't have it in stock, the link to the refurbished 515's on J&R may forward you to their "Home DVD Recorders" page. I have a feeling (no evidence though) that J&R will continue receiving more small shipments of refurbished 515's. Or you can pick up a new Magnavox 513 (now $209.98) at walmart.com and upgrade to the 727V Firmware. Better hurry, Wal-Mart only has 2340 units left (as of 02/07/2012).
dfw515

Sorry it was a mag h2160mw9a. Every thing else works fine no problems except there is no front display.

I have a question, that in a way has been answered before but I would like an answer from someone who's knowledgeable. I bought a 2160A a few years ago and I love it, and have used it regularly. And have passed on the upgrades. But recently I've been interested on getting a newer one, to use along with what I have, and also as a back up. The 515 would be great with the 500GB hard drive, but they are getting hard to find, and if I had known then what I know now I would have gotten one sooner. I just missed the last availability of it on Walmart.com which didn't last long, and I didn't have the money at the time. Now I do, but the only one available is the 513 which doesn't have as large a hard drive as I want, so I considered waiting to see if the 515 comes back in stock and immediately put an order in. But if I read everyone correctly, both the 513 and 515 are selling fast, and may not be around much longer. I'm only asking because I don't want to buy the 513 and then have the 515 come back in stock. I've even kept tabs on eBay and amazon and with the prices on those sites, it's better to just take my chances with Walmart. In a post some pages back someone mentioned the recorders would be in production through Q1 2012. I'm not sure when quarters begin and end, but I don't want to waste time waiting and pay through the nose later. Anyone out there privy to how many 513 and 515's Walmart.com gets in stock and when? Just a few posts up dfw515 mentioned that there are 2340 513's left in stock as of yesterday. Once those are gone, what happens? Will there be another shipment down the road or is that it? I'm sorry for the long post and all the questions, but I would really appreciate an answer. If anyone can help it would be great. Thanks.

Ron,

My correspondence with 234 yielded the following:

Regarding PCB and Burner issue,
actualy his explanation was correct.

Burner contains only burner.
Main PCB (green PCB) controls burner laser power and other.
And every burner has perticular calacter, we let main PCB memorize and adjust for each burner.
It means nobody can replace single burner or single PCB.
It must be pair always.

FW is in main PCB.

Please remind :
I think Main PCB is not included in burner.
Please confirm to a seller before you place an order.

It looks like a definite maybe with some ambiguity. Surely someone on this thread has replaced the drive and the companion PCB . Did the FW change after installing the companion PCB? For those who replaced ONLY the drive, did it work well in concert with the old PCB?

[quote=dfw515;21613952]Just received a REFURBISHED Magnavox 515 from J&R.com. Managed to grab one (of the small batch of 10-15? that they had around February 1st) for $199.99 (free shipping).
Unit came in brown refurb box (wrapped in a fitted grey plastic mailing "envelope"). Sticker on back of unit says it was originally manufactured in September 2011. The sticker on the bottom says it was refurbished at Funai's Groveport, OH facility on 2012/01/17 (Jan 17th). I purchased it from J&R.com on February 2nd. I was not surprised to see that these babies don't sit in J&R's warehouse for very long.[quote]

I bought mine from J&R months ago and works fine but i didn't know the unit came with stickers telling when it was first made and refurbished on the bottom.

If its still under warranty I would get it replaced.
If no warranty I would pop the cover & look for loose connections.

$199 is a pretty good price seeing that the Brick and Mortar Wallmart I was in this morning is selling the tunerless Mag DVD recorders for $100.00

Ron,

Thank you but I've decided to pull the drive from my 515 and try it in the
2160A.

Did you read 234's response to the PCB and FW question which I posted early this morning? Having read and re-read it I'm still not sure whether the FW is resident.

Did you get the PCB when you bought the replacement drive? Is it the green main board?

Regards,

Jim

hello jimlely

ok....

1 - Regarding PCB and Burner issue, actualy his explanation was correct.
( this means ( translation ) the FW is located in the main PCB )

2 - Burner contains only burner. Main PCB (green PCB) controls burner laser power and other.
( other = FW is there and most functionality is also there in addition to burner and HDD control )

3 - And every burner has perticular calacter, we let main PCB memorize and adjust for each burner.
( correct - the main PCB adjusts to specific burner requirements ( see SKIP Codes to do this manually with an ' un-matched 'set. the SKIP test reaches out to an inserted DVD and performs read/write tests in the disc's test region in order to calibrate appropriate power required by the drive unit to successfully burn a disc)

4 - It means nobody can replace single burner or single PCB. It must be pair always.
( not quite correct - they ship this way to ensure that the Main PCB has been calibrated to the shipping companion drive unit... a new drive unit CAN be calibrated by an EXISTING main PCB, assuming the burn power requirement is not beyond the ' range capability ' programmed and designed into the main PCB... in our case, this should not be an issue. if the main PCB were mated to some VERY different drive, such as a different manufacturer's drive unit, there could be issues. the ability to calibrate to a given drive makes the main PCB able to be more universal, essentially ).

One caveat, here. I do not know how similar a 2160 drive unit is to a 513 drive unit. of course, my sense is that they are indeed similar in characteristics, and that the 513 drive unit will indeed, mate up to the 2160 main PCB without issue.

5 - FW is in main PCB.
( correct - your double fix will work )

6 - Please remind : I think Main PCB is not included in burner.
( raw translation - the Main PCB is a separate board )
( actual translation - when ordered from Funai - you get a box with a drive unit and a main PCB and, of course, they recommend that you install them as a set )

==========

It looks like a definite maybe with some ambiguity.
( not really ambiguous - just need to translate a bit for language barrier )

Surely someone on this thread has replaced the drive and the companion PCB.
( i have NOT done this. The 513 Main PCB that came with my 513 Drive Unit is still ( mostly ) virgin. i did some 'carving' on one of the connectors to try to test the thing in my 3576 - the connector may have poor connectivity, now, with its associated ribbon, but i will soon test the shipped 513 Main PCB in my existing 513 to check Firmware revs and confirm that i did not mess the board up... i might need to epoxy one side of the carved connector to ensure ribbon connectivity )

Did the FW change after installing the companion PCB?
( i'll advise as soon as i finish the 513 ' clock accuracy adjustment ' process )

For those who replaced ONLY the drive, did it work well in concert with the old PCB?
( i did this. installed 513 drive unit ( as shipped from Funai ) into my Philips DVDR-3576H machine and it worked flawlessly with the original 3576 Main PCB )


rgds,
ron g

hi jim

i read it and made comments in last post...

yes, when i ordered the ' part ' from Funai, i recceived a single box with both drive unit and main pcb. yes, it's the green Main PCB that is mounted ON TOP of the motherboard. it is secured to the rear chassis by a single screw for its onboard HDMI socket, as well as a 2nd mounting screw further forward on one side. on the other side, it is secured by 2 plastic standoffs.

rgds,
ron g

Is this an experiment? A process described somewhere accessible to us? I'd like to reduce the clock error of all my Funais. I'd also like get their internal digital tuners to output a lower contrast ratio and/or brighten them considerably. Virtually every prime time major network ATSC or QAM program is much too dark on all four of my Funais.

"when i ordered the ' part ' from Funai, i recceived a single box with both drive unit and main pcb. yes, it's the green Main PCB that is mounted ON TOP of the motherboard"

Is the ribbon cable or connector and Hard Drive controller card a separate board that plugs into the green Main PCB board?

Just curious as this upword/Downword compatibility with the 513/513 makes me wonder if my Mag DVD recorder with Analog/Digital Tuner and DVD recorder but no HD could be upgraded by ordering the Hard drive controller and FIrmware

Well, I did the install of the 515 drive (though the part numbers of the 2 drives do NOT match), and now the 2160A works flawlessly, burning DVD+rs without issue, despite the fact that the main PCB is NOT matched to the burner,

N.B. The drive part numbers of the 513 (unlike the 515) and the 2160A are identical.

Regards,

Jim

Now I'm not sure how it works when if one model sells out the other one is stocked. That just seemed to be from checking Walmart.com regularly. Do you know if this how it works?

more 515s on the way? OMG...


Well done, that's a proof that our Magnavoxes are full DYS compatible, not like all the other so called "Hi Grade" Audio Video equipment.

Great job, Jim! Thanks for the info. For my main DVDR is the 2160A.

hi mrmazda...

well, it was an experiment. the clocks in all of my Funai machines ( philips and mag ) free run waaaaay fast... ( cheap crystals, for the most part, as Funai figures everyone will do the auto-set stuff )... since the philips machines can't sync on digital channels, i needed to correct the poor accuracy in free run mode...

for me, the gain was about a minute or more per week, with one of the machines even worse. might be nit-picky, but this is no good when one is trying to use timed record back to back on different channels, unless i wanted to be doomed to resetting the clock twice per week.

anyhow, the clock can be slowed down to almost perfect ( depends on your point of view ) by padding the crystal that drives the clock with some capacitance.

the crystal is located on the machine's motherboard close to the front at about mid-point left to right. from the top of the motherboard, you can carefully tack-solder a cap between 1 pin of the crystal and an available ground jumper nearby.

i've done 1 3576 and am finishing up my mag 513. they're all different, of course, but my 3576 took a 110pF cap, and the Mag took 100pF.

for each test, i ran the clocks for a week or so to guage the result...
extrapolating the result in each case, the 2 machines' clocks are now free-run accurate to within +/- 1 minute per year.

i'll snap a pic and try to post it here.


i also have trouble with the tuners in these machines... there ARE some darker channels with my cableco ( usually the analogs, but also a couple of the digital network feeds, as well )... the QAM quality from my provider is not that great, be it digital or analog material. the tuners in these machines are also not to good when it comes to black and near-black... they lose definition in the dark to black range. the tuners seem a bit better with an OTA signal, but not much.

in any case, there are a couple of adjustments in the tuner module that i have yet to sit down and play with, but i intend to see if any improvement can be made there. the balance of the video path is pretty much monolithic with no adjustments, so without a service manual, i'd be grasping at straws in terms of fiddling with passive components.

rg

the main pcb that comes with the DVD burner unit has the HDD controller on-board as well. ribbon cables for HDD interconnect do NOT come with the main pcb. the DVD drive unit arrives with its ribbons attached, so you just need to plug these into the main PCB for connectivity.

for the HDD, the ribbon interconnect is from the main pcb, to an adapter board ( for PATA drives ) that plugs into the HDD itself. for the 513 ( SATA ), the ribbon interconnect is also from the main PCB, to a SATA adapter board that plugs into the back of the SATA drive. one of my next experiments is to try to convert my 3576 ( PATA ) into SATA by utilizing a 513 SATA adapter board in place of the PATA adapter that currently is installed. this may or may not work, but it's worth a try. my sense is that Funai di not do much in the way of changes to disk support, and just opted to implement a PATA to SATA adapter on the other end of the ribbon. i'm hoping that this is the case.

for your purposes, i think it might be a longshot trying to implement the main pcb into your DVD machine, but if i had one of those, i would probably be driven to experiment, myself.



rg

good deal, jim.. i'm glad it worked... you might want to try out those SKIP codes for calibrating the PCB to the drive ultimately, just to make sure that the correct write power is being applied to the new drive.

next step is your double fix ...

rgds,
ron g

Super Good stuff here. I'm looking forward to the tuner info.
Thanks,
Bob

You just joined my hero list. I look foreward to the pics and I wonder if a variable cap from an old PC motherboard might work. I'll have to give that a shot. Nothing to lose (except time).

ok, here's ( i think.. if i attached it right ) a pic of the mod to the motherboard crystal to slow the system clock down.

there is no reason a variable cap could NOT work, beyond the fact that you'll need a cap that will have the range that you will need... for my mods, the required capacitance was between 100pF and 110pF... i'm not too sure an old PC would have a ariable cap with that range, but i suppose it's possible...

i opted for a fixed value and did trial and error until i got the clock to free run accurately. also, there IS a point that too much capacitance will stop the clock from running entirely. no damage done here, but your clue will be that the clock never increments...

my sense is that most of the machines will need around that 100pF range in order to get them in line...

sorry if the pic is a bit small... if you open it up in a pic editor, you'll see sufficient definition to pick out the stuff...

the crystal is identified on the motherboard as X1502...

the jumper located just above the crystal in the pic is marked ' GND ' and is the convenient ground connection for the other end of the cap.

i'll try to post a larger pic that's focused in on the crystal and cap.

here's a closer shot of just the crystal and the installed cap...

Why couldn't you put a variable trimmer cap on that or tie it in with a fixed cap so you could fine tune to almost perfect without guessing?
I used to open the cheap LCD watches I'd buy and fine tune the tiny trimmer cap built into the board on the watches. I'd get them within a second a month or better and keep them set to WWV time to double check.

I've got a watch that sets the time using WWV.

1. Quote:

   Originally Posted by rkg22 ...2 - Burner contains only burner. Main PCB (green PCB) controls burner laser power and other. ( other = FW is there and most functionality is also there in addition to burner and HDD control )...

   We used to call them 'Daughter Boards', back in the days of the Xerox 820 CP/M PC.
   .
   
   Quote:

   Originally Posted by mrmazda Quote: Originally Posted by rkg22 ...( i'll advise as soon as i finish the 513 ' clock accuracy adjustment ' process )... Is this an experiment? A process described somewhere accessible to us? I'd like to reduce the clock error of all my Funais. I'd also like get their internal digital tuners to output a lower contrast ratio and/or brighten them considerably...

   

   .
2. Quote:

   Originally Posted by rkg22 ...when i ordered the ' part ' from Funai, i recceived a single box with both drive unit and main pcb. yes, it's the green Main PCB that is mounted ON TOP of the motherboard...

   Yep, 'Daughter Board'.
   .
3. Quote:

   Originally Posted by rkg22 ...anyhow, the clock can be slowed down to almost perfect ( depends on your point of view ) by padding the crystal that drives the clock with some capacitance the crystal is located on the machine's motherboard close to the front at about mid-point left to right. from the top of the motherboard, you can carefully tack-solder a cap between 1 pin of the crystal and an available ground jumper nearby. i've done 1 3576 and am finishing up my mag 513. they're all different, of course, but my 3576 took a 110pF cap, and the Mag took 100pF... ...i also have trouble with the tuners in these machines... there ARE some darker channels with my cableco ( usually the analogs, but also a couple of the digital network feeds, as well )... the QAM quality from my provider is not that great, be it digital or analog material. the tuners in these machines are also not to good when it comes to black and near-black... they lose definition in the dark to black range... ...in any case, there are a couple of adjustments in the tuner module that i have yet to sit down and play with, but i intend to see if any improvement can be made there...

   .
4. Quote:

   Originally Posted by rkg22 the main pcb that comes with the DVD burner unit has the HDD controller on-board as well...

Excellent 'Archive' information! Another 'Print-to-PDF' coming right up.

Thanks!

EDIT: I just attached the PDF and the two photos so that everything's in one place for interested folks to download.

 

20120208 AVS Forum - rkg22's Excellent 'Magnavox Technical Details' Posts.Pdf 49.4130859375k . file