CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

gharagozloo · Joined: 21 Nov 2007 Posts: 14 Location: maryland

My PD100 which is an upconverting computer based DVD player from PSI has just stopped working. They are out of business. Anyone know what to do or who can fix it? Thanks

Moose · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 788 Location: Minnesota

Exactly how has it stopped working?

gharagozloo · Joined: 21 Nov 2007 Posts: 14 Location: maryland

Sometrhing about windows operating system comes on the screen. It must have to do with the programing of the unit. Otherwise it has been perfect. Thanks.

**kal** · Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2007 2:32 am Post subject:

What do you use it for? In other words, what do you feed through it to scale up?

Reason I ask is that it's old enough that a lot of on-board scalers these days are better and you may already have a better one without knowing it.

Kal

Moose · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 788 Location: Minnesota

gharagozloo · Joined: 21 Nov 2007 Posts: 14 Location: maryland

I use it to play DVD's connected by RGB to a Barco 808.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2007 1:29 pm Post subject:

Considering it's what, 6 years old?, I'd probably replace it with a hi def DVD player and a transcoder. Since this is a computer, a 6 year old computer, even if it's a DVD player, isn't really worth repairing. I'd think that a competent computer tech would be able to assis though.

**kal** · Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2007 3:32 pm Post subject:

That was my point too. I replaced my 4-5 year old HTPC with a PS3 and the scaling is better and the PS3 is not known to be a great scaler of SD-DVD's to begin with. Toshiba's HD-DVD players are known to have very good scalers built in for SD-DVD. Given how CHEAP they are, it really doesn't make sense to fix something like a PD1000 or MOVI M2000.

Kal

ecrabb · Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2007 4:23 pm Post subject:

Exactly. Curt and Kal are right on. You could probably sell the PD-1100 "as-is for parts" on fleabay to somebody that thinks they just have to have one and are just sure they can fix it. You might event get a decent price. The case alone is probably worth some coin to an HTPC-er.

Then, if you wanted to go dirt cheap, you can get used Toshiba HD-A1's or HD-D1's for close to $100, now. New in box for close to $150 on fleabay. SD DVD scaling is most excellent...And they'll play HD-DVD's! Quieter, less heat, power consumption, etc. If you wanted to spend a little more, you could get a nice Toshiba HD-A35 (full 1080p - nice if you upgrade your projector) for about $350.

Or, if you wanted to go Blu-ray, for about $400 (or less) you could get a base PS3. If a game machine isn't your thing, for a little less, you could pick up the BDPS300.

The only thing you'd need is an HD Fury for HDMI to RGB.

So, for between $300 and $600, you could get newer/better SD scaling and upgrade your system to handle one of the new HD formats - and add an HDMI input to your 808 - all at the same time. I'd say it's a no-brainer!

SC