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  1. Is the laser dead? Does it have picture processing capabilities such as Panasonic ES recorders to be used a passthru?
    Last edited by digicube; 22nd Jul 2019 at 18:09.
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  2. Member
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    is the DVD a store bought movie disc or one that
    you've recorded yourself ??
    is the player new or used.
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  3. I tried commercial DVDs, home-made DVDs, blank DVD-R, DVD+R, double layer DVD+R, none will read. Player is used from goodwill. Will keep it if it can be as a passthru like Panasonic recorders.
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    try running a laser lens cleaner in the player and see if that helps.
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  5. I did. It did not.
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  6. Member
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    will it read music CDs ??
    did you try taking the top cover off & gently clean the laser with a cotton swab moisten with alcohol ??
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  7. I'm a Super Moderator johns0's Avatar
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    If manually cleaning it doesn't help then you have a dead dvd laser.
    I think,therefore i am a hamster.
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    CD and DVD functions use two different wavelengths of light. The recorder has two different Laser LEDS for producing that light. The DVD Laser is higher power and tends to burn out first.

    Either light source can have dust obscuring the lens, you can try a cleaning, however its possible the DVD function depends on the DVD Laser and has died.

    Some reserve the recorder for recording only

    Then use a separate playback device for playing recorded discs.

    Also the longer the recordings the higher the heat on the DVD Laser and the shorter its life.

    When these were still being made it was possible to get the DVD Laser assembly replaced. Since they are no longer made and the parts are often no longer available it is getting difficult to do that.
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  9. Can you use the laser assembly from a DVD-rom drive? I assume not because it needs calibration?
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    Calibration implies a feedback mechanism for measuring what needs to be set, so while yes it is important.. its not quite as simple as that. The diode is on a carrier and has to mechanically "fit" on to the same board and location as the original. These aren't wheels on an automobile. There is no standard.

    So its kind of like asking would a Euro plug work in the UK ? Well.. sort of .. in theory.. with enough jury rigging and duct tape.

    But the level of effort would be a lot and not very practical in the end.

    The lens and optic assembly must be properly aligned and the power output regulated as well as the cooling.

    By the time you get it all just right, you might be better off designing and building your own assembly.

    The Panasonics that were discovered to be usable as pass-thru devices were not universally good for that function. In fact people with a lot of experience say only the ES10 or ES15 were ever worth the effort and the later editions introduced unacceptable artifacts and color offsets into the picture that could not be removed later after capture.

    To my knowledge not a lot is really known or has been pursued about the LG recorders. They had a lot of them, notably the Microsoft LRM-519 partnership in North America.. mostly the US.. but just aren't discussed much.

    I get the sense they are low-end and shared a hardware development kit that was more common in Eastern Europe perhaps with Thomson in the same time period. It tended to be based on the early LSI Domino FX chipset family and used a proprietary filesystem that C-Ware bundeled in their C Libraries as part of their consultancy package. Almost all of the people who worked for LSI or Magnum (the last gasp company that came after when LSI was sold) are retired or gone.. certainly no one from LSI or Magnum has ever posted about the TFS2 filesystem to my knowledge. Its wickedly odd and puzzling.. I would love to understand why they designed it like they did.. but its ancient history at this point.
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  11. Lol opened it up and found it's using regular IDE DVD drives, I replaced it with a working SONY DVD drive and it plays DVDs. Problem is the original DVD drive has custom housing that screws it down in place. It's also smaller than my SONY DVD drive. Maybe I should look for a LG DVD drive so I can transfer the housing. The exact replacement drive is like $160 after some googling, I definitely won't get it at that price.

    I'm using double sided tape to hold the drive in place and I had to remove the drive door of DR1F9H.

    Bummer, it'll only record to a select few DVD+R like SONY D21, Verbatim MKM 003, doesn't work on CMC D03. Doesn't work on ANY DVD-R media. I know the SONY drive works with any DVD format, so I assume there is a faulty chip on LG DR1F9H.

    Connected the LG drive to my PC, it's LG GDA-4164L. It still won't read any DVDs. Found a tutorial on how to replace the laser assembly. https://docuri.com/download/how-to-repair-the-original-gda-komplet_59c1e8f6f581710b286ced81_pdf
    Last edited by digicube; 25th Jul 2019 at 15:01.
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  12. Bummer looks like that tutorial is not for LG DR1F9H because GSA-H55N can read DVDs but won't burn any DVDs, it works fine on a pc though. Someone said SONY DRU-120C works perfectly with LG DR1F9H. I just bought it, we'll see.
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  13. I used the Sony DRU 120 to replace dead drives in my Liteon and Ilo dvd recorders and they work flawlessly in them to this date. Hopefully it will be the same in your LG, wishing you luck.
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  14. Bummer same problem with SONY DRU-120C, says TY, Verbatim DVD-R as defective disc but works with Verbatim DVD+R DL and Memorex DVD-RW. Is the board missing some chips?
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  15. Member
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    Originally Posted by digicube View Post
    Bummer same problem with SONY DRU-120C, says TY, Verbatim DVD-R as defective disc but works with Verbatim DVD+R DL and Memorex DVD-RW. Is the board missing some chips?
    the board may have to have what we call "married to the drive" it has the key/firmware to make the drive work properly.
    see this thread - https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/383000-Can-I-replace-a-TV-DVD-with-a-DVD-drive-from-PC
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  16. Thanks for the link. Now it's confirmed the only suitable replacement is an actual GDA-4164L.
    I tried using the GDA-4164L main board on the laser assembly of GSA-H55N, it actually ruin the laser and it won't read any disc after, even when I revert back to GSA-H55N board.
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