FREE BluRay Player

So I'm at my favorite electronics store in Fairbanks, the waste transfer station. And what do I find? A BluRay Player. Awesome! Its a SHARP BD-HP21 to be eaxct.

So far my opinion of BluRay has been "Its nice, a solid Hi-Def format with codec issues that Ill buy when the average price is equal to that of DVD. (I really see no reason to buy BluRays when I can get 2 DVDs for the same price.) However, at this store, the price is all ways right, they had the right power cord and I even like the color! It will look great with my FREE Dolby Surround receiver. ; D

After getting it home there was a something ratteling around in the case. so I popped the top off the thing, to have a look. Aside from some dust there were no foreign objects. So the rattling must be coming from the drive unit it self. And it sounded like pocket change. NOOoo Not again I have heard this sound before, Its the sound of a toddler that puts pocket change into a CD rom drive.

The Drive unit is a 5 1/4 just like you would find in a computer. It even uses Molex for power and a SATA connection for data. After carefully prying the case off the drive, I found exactly what I thought it sounded like, a nickel and a quarter. In the drive was a Netflix Play station instant streaming disc. I have no idea why this would be in the drive. And on the disc and tray are residue of grape jelly, Yummy!


After cleaning off the jelly, removing the nickel and quarter, the drive tray opens and closes with ease. I connected the device to my A/V switcher and fired it up! It was very exciting to watch the BluRay post and the splash screen come up. I popped one of my least favorite movies, the new Jounery to the center of the earth. (Wow, Ill talk about things that kill me a little inside later. And if you havent seen this movie please don't)

Well the drive spun up with a grown and message popped up on the screen saying "Reading Disc". Then it just sits there trying to read for several minutes, ejects the disc and says Read Error. So thats where I am with my first BluRay experience. And Im not overly disappointed. If you have any advice on what steps I could take next, I would be very happy to hear from you. Im planning on redismanteling the drive and cleaning the laser lense and other troubleshooting. Ill keep you all informed as I go along.

The Blu-Ray player is working please see the next post here!