I have a Panasonice DMR-EZ28 recorder whose optical drive failed. You can buy one new for about $225. I called Panasonic to check on the price for the drive: $135+$15 shipping=$150. So I went online to find an alternate source: I found two places. Parts something or other had one at $340 and MCM had one at $450. I used to buy from MCM when VCRs were worth repairing. Now?
Replacement parts?
Jun 05, 2010
6 Replies
Pretty common problem...manufacturers leave stuff on the shelf and never reduce costs of spare parts even if you can purchase a new unit with more features for less cost of the spare part. The only company I ever saw who did differently was SONY on a 27 Inch trinitron CRT (Circa 1982) - which they reduced the cost down to $40.00 Retail plus shipping. I dont know if that was an experiment they discontinued, or if they knew those CRT's were problematic with a short lifespan. If you have a part number, post it here. You can also try
formatting link
, posting it as a wanted part.
The optical drive is Panasonic VXY2010.
On Sat, 5 Jun 2010 19:29:25 +0000 (UTC), root put finger to keyboard and composed:
Some manufacturers will do evil things to prevent you from replacing your HD or optical drive with a generic unit. I believe Panasonic may be one of these.
FWIW, I've replaced the optical drive in an LG recorder with a PC IDE type. The replacement was also an LG, though. I don't know if non-LG drives would have worked because I didn't have any other brands to experiment with.
One hiccup for LG drives may be the interface. Some designs use a mini-flex version of the standard 40-pin IDE. In this case you can use a small adapter PCB (supplied with some LG drives) to handle the connector conversion.
- Franc Zabkar
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.
The Panasonic drive is connected with a flex cable. It never occurred to me that the cable may simply be a version of the standard ide interface. How can I tell?
On Sun, 6 Jun 2010 02:24:55 +0000 (UTC), root put finger to keyboard and composed:
I believe that if the unit has an IDE hard drive, then the optical drive will most likely be an IDE type as well.
Otherwise I'd look for a pinout in the service manual. The datasheet for the decoder IC may also specify the interface type.
You say that your drive is connected with *a* flex cable. However, the drive in the following exploded view appears to have 4 cables:
formatting link
- Franc Zabkar
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.
formatting link
Damn, you may be right. It has been a few weeks since I opened the case. I am pretty sure there was no standard IDE type power plug on the unit.
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