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?

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 www.parts-link.com , posting it as a wanted part.



"root" wrote in message
...
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?

circuit wrote:
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 www.parts-link.com , 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:

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?

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.

Franc Zabkar wrote:

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

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:

Franc Zabkar wrote:

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

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?

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:

http://www.prime-electronics.com.au/...0MECHANISM.jpg

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

Franc Zabkar wrote:
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:

http://www.prime-electronics.com.au/...0MECHANISM.jpg

- Franc Zabkar

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.