This is topic DVD player with latching power button needed in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-19-2004, 12:42 PM:
 
Anyone know of an inexpensive DVD player with a good ol' fashioned latching power button? I need to do an interface at a theater with the projector automation to initialize "play", and by far the easiest way to accomplish it without wasting tons of money on AMX-type systems is to utilize a player that when power is applied, it is already "powered on" and doesn't have to have it's power button pushed.

(In other words, if you have a DVD in your player and you pull the power cord out of the outlet, wait several seconds and plug it back in...does it start playing the disc, or do you have to hit the power button? Looking for a unit that will just start playing the disc.)

Must be able to play DVD-R discs. AC3 decoding and other features not needed. Play upon seeing power, composite video output and 2 channel audio is all that is needed.
 

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Posted by Jeremy Fuentes (Member # 2135) on 10-19-2004, 01:55 PM:
 
Am I lost?
 

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Posted by Paul Cassidy (Member # 951) on 10-19-2004, 01:55 PM:
 
I have a Cheap The Mizuda 2023X and this has the old power button that stays in , if powered from the wall ....which do have set up so when powered from the wall it will start by itself .. I'm sure you will have something similar in the US

http://www.aardvark.co.nz/daily/2002/mizuda.shtml
 

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Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 10-19-2004, 02:56 PM:
 
And hopefully the DVD placed therein is authored to directly play and not go to a menu page.

[ 10-20-2004, 09:19 PM: Message edited by: Paul Mayer ]
 

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Posted by Joe Beres (Member # 678) on 10-19-2004, 03:24 PM:
 
Brad, I haven't looked at many of the newest models, but most of the incredibly cheap Apex players have a power button like the one you are looking for.
 

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Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 10-19-2004, 06:03 PM:
 
Brad there is the venerable Pioneer V7400 that is used in just about every kiosk around the planet.

I'm betting it has a play disc upon power up feature.

Pioneer V7400

My personal favorite industrial DVD player, the MarantzPro PMD-930 has the conventional power switch and the "auto play" feature as well (and can be controlled via RS-232 and so forth). It will output S-Video, Composite and Component simultaneously.

MarantzPro PMD-930

It also plays any region DVD too.

Steve
 

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Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 10-19-2004, 06:19 PM:
 
Steve's on the right track. We use that Pioneer DVD player for our preshow program. When you hit power, it loads the disc. It should serve thy master well... except for the excruciating depth on that mother.
 

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-19-2004, 06:23 PM:
 
No, no guys. There will be no one there to press the power button. It must turn on all by itself and start playing when a switched AC power outlet feeds it juice. (The DVDs will not have a menu.) There is no AMX or computer system, and as such there is no need for it. Simple is better.

$650 for a player is also way out of the ballpark for what this is going to be used for. I found a $250 solution, but will also check out the Apex players.
 

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Posted by Ron Yost (Member # 1850) on 10-19-2004, 10:47 PM:
 
Brad,

I just returned from Wal*Mart and can confirm that the $38.76 Apex AD-11101 does have a good ole' latching mechanical on/off switch and it does 'power up' when plugged in with the switch 'on'. I tried it myself.

Don't know anything else about its functions, since it wasn't hooked up to a tv. They had a -big- stack of them, for Christmas sales, I suppose. They -weren't- located with the other DVD players, and had apparently just arrived .. they were on a rack out it the aisle in 'front' of the electronics/photo area, along with other Christmas electronics stuff, like cheap keyboards, TV's and such. (I know layout varies from store to store.)

Ron Yost
 

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Posted by Bill Carter (Member # 156) on 10-20-2004, 07:43 AM:
 
Yep, the WalMart Apex will do what you're talking about. I bought one for my booth as well, for just $38.
 

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Posted by Phil Blake (Member # 2012) on 10-20-2004, 08:46 AM:
 
We have just installed 2 Toshiba sd-2810sy DVD's to play sound for talkie slides.
They were modified to power on and off with panalogic automation via serial connection.

They work well , they are always off until automation trigger powers them up , plays , stops and then powers them off.

I assume you would be able to modify a similar model over there.
 

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-20-2004, 02:21 PM:
 
Ron or Bill, can you confirm if the Apex player can play a DVD-R disc?

I think too many people here are missing the point and looking for overly complicated (read: prone to fail) solutions for a simple issue. How many times has that good ol' automation-switched slide outlet failed to provide power to the slide projector between shows? 99.999999999999999999999999999999999% of the time it works perfectly. I am doing the same thing, but with a DVD player. I just need the thing to start playing the disc when it sees power from the switched outlet. It is for a "welcome" intro snipe, that's all. The outlet is cued to start 30ish seconds before the first trailer hits the screen. (Video input switching on the video projector is being handled another way.) It's simple, it works, it's mega-cheap and most importantly, it won't fail.
 

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Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 10-20-2004, 03:59 PM:
 
The specs for my old Apex AD-600 listed DVD-R. Same with the late model Apex my school's anime club uses for screening R2 DVDs. A quick check here of the specs for all Apex models indicates 43 out of 43 can play DVD-Rs. They might be a bit picky about the choice of DVD-R blanks though. There's a "don't play" list sorted by blank media brand name. Looks like the machines might puke on some of the no-name brands.

[Edit to check for DVD-R instead of CD-R. Still trippy from all the NyQuil. ]
 

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-20-2004, 04:04 PM:
 
Did you mean DVD-Rs?
 

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Posted by Joe Beres (Member # 678) on 10-20-2004, 04:05 PM:
 
I do not have the latest model, but have used dvd-r media in other Apex machines without any problems.
 

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Posted by Ron Yost (Member # 1850) on 10-20-2004, 06:10 PM:
 
Nope, can't confirm anything about it, Brad .. except the power up.

I have a DVD+R recorder so it wouldn't do any good for me to try one of mine for you, I guess. Sorry.

It's a real bare-bones unit, as could be expected for the price .. tho it does have the Dolby-Digital and DTS logos on the front, which kinda' surprised me.

No component outs ... S-Video and composite-video only, as I recall. No progressive scan either, of course.

I think it might be a model made especially for WalMart, since I looked on the Apex website and can't find the exact model number. The narrow-case model on their site, with a very close model number (the last digit is different), looks exactly like it.

Ron Yost
 

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Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 10-20-2004, 06:12 PM:
 
I would also be concerned if it automatically started to PLAY as well as power up....

>>> Phil
 

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Posted by John Hegel (Member # 628) on 10-20-2004, 07:43 PM:
 
I know you want to keep it simple, but I like to make things interesting.

What about modifying an old zipper (or other change-over) to physically push the power button?

That way you could use whatever dvd player you wanted.
 

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Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 10-20-2004, 07:49 PM:
 
Right, because that would never fail (to not work).

You'd be far better off just wiring the play button across a momentary relay if your found yourself stuck with a bunch of DVD players that wouldn't start playing by themselves. Even the CA21 can manage that!
 

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Posted by John Hegel (Member # 628) on 10-20-2004, 08:03 PM:
 
Good point

boaring, but it would work
 

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Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 10-20-2004, 08:06 PM:
 
There have been several Pioneer 7400's on ebay recently in the $100-$200 range.
 

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-20-2004, 09:54 PM:
 
Problem solved, and a big thank you to Ron and Bill. I just returned from Wal-Mart with one of their $38 specials and it works flawlessly for what I need. With a properly authored burned DVD-R in the tray, plugging it into AC power booted the machine and it commenced the first second of picture/audio at an amazing 11 seconds too.
 

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Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 10-21-2004, 12:14 AM:
 
That sort of thing pisses me off!
Bought a version of the Pioneer (looks similar to the website) but my $50.00 Mizuda beats it flat. Plays anything flawlessly for 2% of the price, I kid you not. Also 5.1 straight out of DVD to non-sync 2.
 

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Posted by Ron Yost (Member # 1850) on 10-21-2004, 12:46 AM:
 
Cool! Happy it worked for ya' Brad.

Ron Yost
 

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 10-25-2004, 07:41 AM:
 
Brad, at that price, by a few of them. Obviously they can't be as robust as higher priced units and the one you buy might fail sooner than later so a few years from now when this one dies, newer models, even on the cheapest units, may have eliminated the latching power switch in favor of the logic controlled switches. Then, instead of busting your hump trying to find another one that still has the manual switch you need, all you'll have to do is break open a new box.

I WISH I had done this with a cheap, under $100, playback-only VCR that we use for promos in the lobby. It was EXACTLY what we needed -- it had a switch that let it automatically rewind at the end of the tape and start again from the top. Of course it eventually crapped out and now trying to find another that has this function (especially the playback only with no record function and no tv tuner) is nearly impossible.

Sometimes physically holding holding down the button on some equipment will do the trick. We have a camera that aims at the stage to display on a monitor in the lobby (so late comers can see the live performance because we won't seat them once the show starts). We it to function exactly the same as you do with your DVD player -- it must turn on and "work" without human intervention. Problem is, the camera will go on, but so will the display menus plus the date. I found that holding down the menu button and the date display button, even though they are intended for momentary activation, they will still perform if held down continuously. I rigged straps around the camera body with plastic knots to hold down the appropriate buttons. Crude, but successful. The alternative would be to research dozens of brands and models to find one that works the way you want, which is nearly impossible -- no manufacture gives that detailed information.
 

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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 10-25-2004, 08:05 AM:
 
Frank--if you just want a simple camera that turns on and works, I'd suggest getting a run-of-the-mill security camera. These are very cheap (far cheaper than consumer video cameras) and the better ones provide very good picture quality. Check Ebay for cameras and C-mount lenses.
 

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Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 10-25-2004, 06:25 PM:
 

quote: Frank Angel

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the one you buy might fail sooner than later

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