Warning for Momitsu 899 and 799 and clones owners

[jman98]

HKFlix actually stopped selling the Momitsu players some time ago, maybe more than 1 year ago. The business was sold and the new owners wanted to get out of the hardware business and only sell DVDs/BluRays. I have no idea why. Momitsu's players at the time of this decision could still be bought by other sellers in the USA. So as far as I know HKFlix's decision to stop selling it was their own.

I suppose there's nothing stopping you from opening up the player and looking at what brand of DVD player they used and trying (if you can) to get a replacement. I know that some players use specially manufactured players that have weird connectors, making off the shelf replacement with normal drives impossible.

[arglebargle]

HKFlix actually stopped selling the Momitsu players some time ago, maybe more than 1 year ago. The business was sold and the new owners wanted to get out of the hardware business and only sell DVDs/BluRays. I have no idea why. Momitsu's players at the time of this decision could still be bought by other sellers in the USA. So as far as I know HKFlix's decision to stop selling it was their own.

I suppose there's nothing stopping you from opening up the player and looking at what brand of DVD player they used and trying (if you can) to get a replacement. I know that some players use specially manufactured players that have weird connectors, making off the shelf replacement with normal drives impossible.

Interesting regaarding HKFlix's motivations... regardless, they would have stopped carrying Momitsu anyway, because Momitsu made the decision to exit the North American market entirely, less than a year ago.

You're right, I could open up the player, and see if I can see who they're OEM'ing the drive from...I should probably do that soon before the drive itself is discontinued!

The use of weird connectors, though, shouldn't defeat us... it's always possible to clip off the connectors and connect the wires directly, with a little soldering, or sometimes even just electrical tape...

[Brad]

These players seem to be build around a BroadCom BCM97601 reference design (http://www.broadcom.com/products/Consumer-Electronics/Blu-ray-High-Definition-DVD-Solutions/BCM7601), running a 2.6.24 linux kernel and userspace.

I've contacted the GPL Violations organisation to report that the sourcode and its modification are not freely available, so these manufactures are in violation with the GPL License.

I have an Insignia NS-BRDVD4 which says you can call their support line to request source code, and there may be a charge for processing. A recent firmware update also added a "Legal" section to the menus, which goes into detail about the OSS they are using.



I tried emailing them to request the code and got a response fairly quickly to say that these requests need to made over the phone.

Now, my question: is there any point in going to the trouble? Or is the code just going be the same source that is freely available online?

The firmware files imply that this Insignia Blu-ray player is a rebrand of a Desay model using a Broadcom BCM7630 SoC, though I haven't opened the player to try to confirm. I also see that Best Buy/Desay's Blu-ray players with Broadcom chips are mentioned in the BusyBox injunction documents.

DSY7630_OFE_412_B0_63W.bin.signed.cksum
DSY7630_OFE_460_B0_A9V.bin.signed.cksum
cfe-2.1.21-7630-b0-v10-cfe-le-secure-signed-DESAY.elf
squashfs-7630b0.img
ucfe-2.1.21-7630-b0-v10-ucfe-le-secure-BK1-MFC-signed-DESAY.bin
vmlinuz-2628.9_669-7630-DESAY

[newgen2005]

My player is playing up, blu ray discs skip all over the place!!! took it apart this afternoon, looks like a normal SATA drive will go in, but the power cable has a different style connector!! has anybody managed to use a normal SATA BD drive in these players?

[newgen2005]

Update:

I managed to connect the Maidston SATA cable to a internal Pioneer BD rom drive and power the Pioneer BD drive from my PC. The Maidston booted fine and eject button worked, I inserted a BDR disc and that played without any, I could even pause, skip chapters!! When I inserted and original retail Blu Ray disc the player would not play the disc! I tested a few retail BD's and none of them would play, they seem to spin up OK but not play!! I tested a retail R3 DVD and that played fine too!! Very strange why retail Blu Ray's don't play!! Any idea's guys?

[newgen2005]

Any ideas why the connected Pioneer drive won't play commercial Blu-ray discs?

As said before DVDs and backed up Blu-ray films play perfectly!

[newgen2005]

Bump

[Steve(MS)]

Why are you posting your question here? Does this have anything to do with OP?
I assume you are referring to a pio burner?
If so, if you run anydvd in background, commercial blu-ray should play.
If you have a licensed blu-ray software prog., such as windvd or powerdvd, it will play.

I don't see that your question has anything to do with this thread.

Later edit:
Ah, I think I see now, this is a frankenstein experiment...

[jman98]

Any ideas why the connected Pioneer drive won't play commercial Blu-ray discs?

As said before DVDs and backed up Blu-ray films play perfectly!

Probably some kind of firmware issue but I doubt there is any kind of consumer fix for it. The Momitsus are getting pretty long in the tooth. Mine croaked after lasting maybe 2 years.