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Adding a Hard Drive... To Your DVD Player?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the why-the-hell-not dept.

El Puerco Loco writes "Area 450 has several guides to adding hardware to the Sampo DVE631CF DVD player. Even if you don't own this model, the firmware for it has been ported to many, many other models (with annoyances like macrovision and region locking removed). This player had built in support for an IDE device (a flash card reader) so a standard IDE drive can be slaved to the dvd drive and the player can read from a FAT32 formatted disk. The player decodes mp3s and VCD files, so it's possible to turn it into a cheap mp3 jukebox, or store movies in vcd format. I hope that when DiVX support becomes more common in DVD players one of them will be able to support a hack like this. It would be really cool to have 100+ movies built in to my dvd player."

19 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. Annoyances? by OpenSourced · · Score: 5, Funny
    (with annoyances like macrovision and region locking removed)


    Annoyances? I thought they were bugs.

    --
    Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
    1. Re:Annoyances? by Dizzo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Annoyances? I thought they were bugs.

      Bugs? I thought they were features.

  2. How about XviD support? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Xvid is taking over from divx in the release scene. Hopefully a dvd player will come out that will support xvid, vobsub, ac3, etc.

    BTW your XBoX can be modified to play divx already, and you can hack it to upgrade the hard drive or it can play off your computer's hard drive too.

  3. I can see it now... by swordboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Columbia House will be selling these things with a hundred movies pre-installed for a penny. All that one needs to do is buy another six over the course of three years (*).

    (*) Movie-of-the-month will automatically be downloaded unless you send back this reader service card indicating that you do not want to receive it. Tax, shipping and handling extra.

    --

    Life is the leading cause of death in America.
  4. Makes you wonder ... by JSkills · · Score: 4, Interesting
    If this is so easy to do, why haven't the various consumer electronics manufacturers shipped DVD players with a hard drive on board?

    It would certainly be an advantage to be one of the first to market with something like this, not to mention the hordes of geeks (like myself) who would be compelled to go out and get one immediately.

    1. Re:Makes you wonder ... by dabadab · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "If this is so easy to do, why haven't the various consumer electronics manufacturers shipped DVD players with a hard drive on board?"
      It might be easy to connect a hard drive as a piece of hardware but it may be troublesome to get it integrated into the system - and embedded systems are more costly to develop than applications because of the higher expectations of quality (releasing patches is not an option) and the limitations of the hardware.
      The HDD itself is also expensive - I see DVD players that cost just as much as a 80GB HDD so adding a HDD would dramatically increase the player's price.
      And in the end it is hard to justify these costs - average consumers just could not make any use of the HDD and the geeky kind (e.g. myself :) rather builds his own HTPC.

      --
      Real life is overrated.
  5. DivX Player by Gaggme · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The real question is though, by the time Divx player become common, as in afforable enough for a majority of /.'rs, will blue ray dvd be the next big rave?

    With "potential" *couph vaporware couph* to contain some 15+hours of video, why not just have 10 movie ondemand on one disk. The entire series of Star Trek Movies that you can switch with a single press of a button.

    It is my beleif that we will see less and less of these players that have the capabilites of manipulation as DRM locks down in a deathgrip to hold onto its business model. Sad but true.

    --
    My ignorance is a perfect shield against your logic.
  6. What kind of business could come of this? by Anonymous+Custard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ok, so the RIAA/MPAA doesn't like when new technology takes away from their business, but over the decades most recording technologies actually turn out to be profitable for the music/movie industry.

    What kind of business models might be derived from DVD+LargeHardDisk players? And not just for the geeks --- this has to be useful to your average joe-can't-set-his-vcr-clock. How can we utilize this technology, so customers get cooler services, the industry still makes money, and we all get a better movie experience?

    --
    $8.95/mo web hosting
    1. Re:What kind of business could come of this? by Apreche · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The business model that comes is this. First you connect the dvd player to the internet. Then you sell movies for a resonable price. Cable TV's Pay-Per-View seems to be reasonable enough that people use it. The only difference is that when someone pays to view they save the movie and can watch it as many times as they want. DivX format would probably be optimal for this kind of service. It uses the least bandwith to transfer the file and more of them can be stored on the drive. And since it is lower quality than an actual DVD people will still go out and buy their favorite movies on optical media.

      This would be especially awesome if they have a large database of old movies that are relatively cheaper to download and if they also provide newer movies that were just in theatres, even at a slightly higher price, so you don't have to wait for DVDs to come out (even though the waiting time has greatly decreased).

      I see many people spending a dollar a day watching all the movies they always wanted to see and never did.

      --
      The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
  7. Proud owner by greatsasuke · · Score: 4, Informative

    I own this DVD player (the 631CF) and it was the smartest electronics purchase I've ever made. I think it cost something like $130 total from Amazon and it looks like they're running a rebate special now. The player plays everything I've thrown at it, SVCD/VCD/MP3/DVD/CD, with no problems. The hard drive mod is as easy as described on area450, and it's totally worth it once you download a movie, play it, and delete it quickly and painlessly. The other major hacks, region-free and de-macrovision, are easily applied via a simple firmware patch and are also very worthwhile. I'd highly recommend this DVD player to just about anyone. Also, I'm completely unaffiliated, just a happy user.

  8. macrovision by dizco · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Or is this just for the pirated movies? The fact that it blocks macrovision suggests this may be the case.

    I'm glad you have all modern components. My TV has only a coax input. my dvd player has only composite and svideo out. If it weren't for the fact that i can disable macrovision in my dvd player, i would need to buy a new tv. instead, i disable macrovision and use my vcr to convert from composite to coax. why should i have to buy a new tv because the industry doesn't trust me?

  9. nice, but where's my media server? by splateagle · · Score: 5, Interesting

    much like the various TiVo mods and hacks out there this seems like another step toward tape/disc-less video archiving - hurrah say I!

    Music's already gone this way, and since digital media came to video (DVD) later than to music (Audio CD) it makes sense that video is lagging somewhat in this next evoloutionary step.

    Of course the really neat thing will be when these puppies start being able to be plugged into a home network enabling centralised mhome media archives...

    incidentally I think those posters asserting that these devices can only be intended for pirates are forgetting the phenomenal amount of physical space that a decent movie collection currently occupies, not to mention the headache of keeping track of them! - my housemate's a movie buff and her room is piled to the rafters with (legit) cassettes and discs - the selection is great but it takes almost as long to find the film you want to see as it does to watch! digitising the collection when it's possible will solve both the storage and retreval headaches in one!

    personally I can't wait.

  10. IDE. by 13Echo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A lot of these inexpensive DVD players have standard IDE drives inside. I could pull the drive from my Apex AD-660 for instance, and pop it right into my PC if I desired to.

    These are some of the most flexible and hackable DVD players on the market, and their price point is pretty low. I love my region-free AD-660.

  11. DIY by rekulator · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why wait for DVD-player's to get features you need? We're building a DVD player with my friend which can do DVD, VCD, DIVX, OGG, MP3.. actually everything xine can. And it has 132X64 graphical lcd, custom joystick for buttons, remote control, hard drive, possibly net access for cddb and streaming video and audio. Most of you probably say "nay, this bloke's just another troll or something", well go check out pics

  12. Google Cache by pro-mpd · · Score: 4, Informative

    Google cache links for various pages:
    Article link:
    http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:xTNcBn kYSi0C: www.area450.com/thesampozone/articles/connectindex .htm+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

    Add-a-HDD page:
    http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:EwQdBO Dch-8C: www.area450.com/thesampozone/articles/harddrive.ht m+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

    Hard Drive Preparation:
    http://www.google.com/search?q=cache :eIK7PXDIR3wC: www.area450.com/thesampozone/articles/harddrivepre p.htm+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

    Hard Drive Power:
    http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:yVisV CJbkysC: www.area450.com/thesampozone/articles/harddrivepow er.htm+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

    Lots more articles on the page linked in the article, but those are the ones of interest... hmmm... I think maybe the Google cache just got Slashdotted (!!??!!) cause its loading reeeaaal slow here...

  13. dvd player that plays divx encoded cd's by ozzy_cow · · Score: 5, Insightful

    what about my collection of divx CD-Rs?

    check this out: http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/021022/047810.html

    i think ill be getting one of those :-)

  14. Re:Cool project! Anyone with a source? by El+Puerco+Loco · · Score: 4, Informative

    i think they've withdrawn this particular model but the firmware runs on a ton of other players, and the support for an extra ide device is built into the firmware. it runs on the ubiquitous apex ad-660, which can be had for under $100. just make sure you get one with a flash rom that's flashable with a cdr.

  15. Qcast Qcast Qcast..don't bother with DVD HD by droopus · · Score: 5, Informative

    At the risk of sounding like a broken record (I've posted on this software a few times and even tried to post it to /. as a story but ...oh well.)

    Qcast is the media server people are wishing they had in a few dozen posts here. You don't need to add a hard drive to a DVD player...all you need is a PS2.

    Qcast is a two-disk installation. Install Disk 1 on your PC, loaded up with movies and tunes (mpeg1,2,4, xvid, divx, svcd, vcd, mp3.) Then load Disk 2 on networked PS2 (cheaper than Sampo DVE631CF and hard drive) and bingo! You have a spiffy Flash interface on the PS2 for all your PC-based content, which then streams over your network on demand.

    No taking apart DVD players..if you need more space, add an IDE or Firewire drive to your PC in about five minutes.

    And even better...you can use multiple PS2s to stream different content from the same PC all over the house. Not only that but you can point the PS2 to multiple drives. This blows away a HD-equipped DVD player, since the PS2 plays DVDs natively anyway.

    Disclaimer: I neither work for, nor have any financial interest in Qcast. I just think it's cool as shit and no one knows about it. Well you do now.

    --
    "The pie shall be cut in half and each man shall receive.....death. I'll eat the pie."
  16. Re:What he really means... by MyHair · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "It would be really cool to have 100+ movies built in to my dvd player."

    Translates to:

    "I am cheap, and I would really like to borrow my friends movies and rip permanent copies without actually compensating the people who made the movie."

    Do you use your remote control, or do you always go to the TV to adjust the channel and volume?

    Do you own a CD changer? Isn't it nice to have your favorite CDs at the ready?

    Have you used a DirectTV-style schedule/menu to watch TV?

    Well, now with hard drives we can have even better convenience and menu selection with our movies and music. Plus it's cool to do it this way. Why do you assume this is about piracy?