sony builds shitty optical drives!....?

well IMHO sony's the worst, not just in gaming systems
here are some of my experiences

I have 2 Minidisc recorders with completly wasted drives, one of them went to sony for repair about 3 times and came back even worse.
One portable MD recorder starting to malfunction due to battery issues (doesnt recognize fully charged AA batteries)

2 video8 cameras, one doesnt even power on, the other broke off the composite out so I cant plug it on the tv and also the tape head just stopped working suddenly.

also one "table" cd player which hardly open the cd drawer and needed lots of adjustments to the laser gain ir order to even recognize discs.

as for Sony consoles, I have about 8 busted PSX units, ranging from 1002 to 750x models. All of them with busted drives also with all sorts of other malfunctions like busted controller ports, exploding PSU's, loose a/v ports,and even one with a defective finish on the casing which prevented the lid from opening.

My current PSX is a frankenstein PSX from all these busted units.
A 1002x model, power supply with a regulator from a 7xxx model, and a hacked (literally) cd-assembly from a 5xxx model with a custom drive assembly suspension. The drive worked ok at first but started to skip after some months and currently also needs to be flipped upside down/sideways for better performance.

as for non-sony stuff, I think the winner would be the megadrive/genesis, I never had any problems or any busted units, not even cart slot issues due to dirt.

I have a busted SNES which only powers on and a yellowed SNES with a faulty cart slot, never encontered issues with N64 systems,same with NES as they werent very popular in Portugal apart from a blown PSU.

Caught a model 1 saturn with a weak laser once, easy fix, some busted model 2 saturns with dead PCB's, none with CD drive problems.
Lots of Dreamcast's with busted controller ports and/or faulty GDRom units.


and last but not least the PS2
everyone I know who has a PS2 (either hardcore gamers as well as some casual ones) are all in their 2nd or 3rd unit, mostly due do DVD drive malfunction.

My current PS2 (fat model) was given by a friend who picked it up at a local junkyard (no kidding) and it was all scratched, filled with white dust, and the outer shell was broken along with some chassis deformation, probably was run onver by a junkyard truck or something heavy like a refrigerator.
No chance in hell it would ever work... right?
WRONG! It powered right up, controler ports worked, ventilation worked, perfect picture and sound, the cd caddy was stuck but I fixed it in 5m and to my surprise the dvd drive worked flawlessly!!
This unit has worked flawlessly ever since, It will read any DVD/CD/+R/-R I throw at it perfectly, no FMV skipping, no glitches, simply flawless!

I never spoke badly of the PS2 again O_O

 

I have a PS1, a fat model PS2 and a PS3, and not a single problem with them. I know of about 5 other PS2s of friends and relatives (all but one fat models), without any noticeable problems either (all of them modded). I suppose I tend to have good luck with consoles, as I still have my 2006 xbox 360 working flawlessly.

 

x

 

*knock knock*

Who's there?

Oh, it's RRoD visiting you tonight in a bitter slice of irony :thumbsup:


Hmm, hope Karma hasn't messed with my 360... :noooo:

 

Had one faulty ps1 out of a batch 25
All my ps2 been fine about 6
Dreamcasts been fine bar one iffy port out of 10
Mega cds all ok
Ps3 been fine
360 meh given up on it 5 times sent away
Pany Gamecube one blow led on one unit other been fine.

 

Hardly a fair comparison! Had Sega, Nintendo or Microsoft produced Minidisc units, Video Camcorders and CD players then fair enough, but they didn't! Not really sure what you are comparing Sony against? Plus, if you thought they produced rubbish, why did you keep going back to them?

I remember Kenwood minidisc units were gawd awful, Sony out performed them, but minidisc was a terrible format - end of!

Video8 was also a pretty fragile recording format and prone to failure and issues irrespective of the manufacturer, however it was drum (cassette) and not laser.

Sony CD players were actually really pretty reliable, especially compared to other brands.

You should try Alba, Amstrad, Schneider or any variety of other cheap manufacturers for rubbish products and compare them against Sony lol.

You appear to have been unlucky in your Sony purchasing and in the rush to own formats that frankly sucked, like minidisc!

No fanboy, btw, and I am not blindly defending Sony, they've made some utter rubbish in the past, but be fair, Sony are NOT the worst! You should try French manufacturers Segam for poor products! Boy do they suck! :lol:

I also tend to avoid anything produced by Philips, which is sad because they used to be excellent.

 

I have had horrible luck with any optical drive made by Sony. I had 6 PSX units that the laser's went bad, and I have 2 PS2's that the laser has gone out on. I had them fixed, however they both went dead about 6 months later. My laptop has a sony drive, and it has gone out once already. ( It is the first HP I have owned, after several Toshiba's and lets say the laptop isn't that sturdy). Nintendo, microsoft, and Sega have all been very good to me.

 

the only systems I have ever had problems with are The sony ps1 and the xbox360.

every other system for me has ran fine even today.

 

ditto Parris, Sagem is shit.

 

The pads were the shitter there.

 

Oh yes, I had a Kenwood mini hi-fi that had MD faults time after time. Also had a Sony MD Walkman that was shite but my sharp MD recorder walkman thing is still going strong even now after being bashed everywhere. In fact it's falling apart it's been bashed that much but still soldiers on.

I think in general Sony's build quality is poor. It's just that they sell so much stuff their image doest get tarnished as much as it should. Panasonic, Sharp and Toshiba all make higher quality products in the AV department if you ask me. Never had a problem with any of those companies. And let's not forget who AIWA actually are. For those who don't know, Aiwa is Sony's low end brand name. Yep, Sony own Aiwa just like Mitsubishi own Japan's biggest beverage company although you'd never know.

Yakumo

 

so..the AIWA mega drive can be considered a Sony MegaDrive? sounds wrong

 

Er no Aiwa were a seperate company until 2002 when Sony bought them and made them a wholely owned subsidary company, however Sony have been whittling down Aiwa to the extent that there are very few things now released by Aiwa.

 

The thread is about sony's shitty optical drives, not limited to gaming systems, I just wanted to share my experiences with sony hardware over the years.

It took quite a few years for MD players/recorders of different brands to reach the stores. I think it was an awesome and versatile system for home digital audio recording for the time, the alternatives were expensive DAT tapes/recorder or plain audio tapes...
I took a few years to realize about their lousy build quality and realizing it wasn't just bad luck, and the more I learned about electronics the more I learned how Sony builds them so prone to failure.

Like the Minidisc the only alternative at the time was the clumsy VHS-C
Also I loved Sony's Zero-lux function!
However fragile the Video8 format was, it 's no excuse for bad soldering.

I do have other brands of video cameras and cd players and they still work flawless and never gave me any trouble.

And on a final note my JPN grey Saturn broke down mysteriously one day...
The cause was the SONY CXAxxxx video encoder which shorted and ended up damaging the VDP

 

Yeah I used DAT recorders for several months, then for some stupid reason the radio station swapped formats to Minidisc. The high end equipment was amazing, yet still it's achillies heel was the bloody minidisc itself. The drives were so fragile, the majority of people using the studio equipment so damned clumsy! When you have something that is going to take a pretty routine battering, you want something pretty reliable... like DAT!

Granted, it was more expensive and most people looked at DAT in the same way they looked at Betamax (proving once again that customers know shit about good quality formats and will just buy the newest, smallest thing and jump on that bandwagon only to discover the format if rubbish). Sony DO that a LOT! They are still looking for a winning format that'll make them loads. Instead of just giving us stuff that functions flawlessly.

The worst thing about minidisc was that even with the best recorders, you could wipe the minidisc clean, then re-use it, which is when you discovered (as you paused and edited it for radio) that you never actually fully formatted the minidisc and you could hear snippets of whatever was previously on the disc. In the end we stated that you couldn't reuse discs for broadcast. So much for a reusable recording format eh!

Sony just seems to be getting at you in particular lol - I'd be paranoid! Ryoji Chubachi is out to get you! :110:

 

MD and hi-MD are still great hardware IMHO, and are a must for high quality field recording at low prices.

maybe you guys are referring to the first MD players only?

 

Obligatory Gulf War Gameboy image:



Got bombed back in 1990. Still working!

 

Bah, I see a line across the middle of that screen, don't tell me it's not damaged lol

I've got 3 original Gameboy units. Not had a single unit fail on me.

The worst that has ever happened is the glue holding the LCD screen surround turned to powder and I just slapped some glue on and put a new one on.

 

:lol::lol::lol:

lol, i don't think the debate is over whether it is damaged or not. it's still working and it still plays Tetris after being bombed.