johan's Journal

This is another posterity-type post, about my (luckily) successful attempts to fix my Rotel DVD player. Maybe someone will find it googling and get some use out of it. Other than that, it's entertainment value is pretty meager.

So my way-too-expensive, two-year old Rotel RDV-985 DVD started doing something unpleasant about a week ago. Every DVD i tried failed to play and the DVD player put up "REGION CODE ERROR" on the TV before appearing to sort of reset. The first DVD it did this with was _Wings of Desire_ (region 1). Every other DVD i tried (all region 1) also did this. These were all DVDs it had previously played.

techsupport@rotel.com was mostly useless, they just suggested i contact the store i purchased it at. I did so, and they (Audio Video Solutions in Laurel, MD), had no suggestions. After poking around on the 'net for awhile, i ran across some reviews claiming that the Rotel 985 is the same unit as the much cheaper JVC XV511 (There are quite a few reviews at that site discussing this, so if you are curious keep reading through the reviews...) Left with not much of an option, i tried dorking around with the Rotel. As it happened, techniques for getting a JVC into test mode worked with my Rotel. Along these lines:

1. unplug the DVD player

2. Hold down the "eject" and "play" buttons

3. Plug in the unit. (it should turn "on" because buttons are being pressed)

4. Press the "DVD Menu" button once or twice on the remote.

At this point, it was all experimentation. the "5" key seemed to switch the on-screen menus to English. A lot of the menus seemed to be catalogs of icons. I dorked around with it for quite sometime, and eventually seem to have done something that fixed the player. It's playing DVDs again.

I'm fairly sure that it was not just putting the player in test mode. It was something i did while in the menus.

I had a great time playing futball in the rain Wednesday evening with Hangover United. Even more so because no one was struck by lightening.
I really like this weather, and it makes we wonder if perhaps i'd prefer the weather of somewhere like the Pacific Northwest. But i can't help but think the Endless days of Gray and high latitudes would not (again) wonkify my happiness levels. Wednesday evening rain and 21C (70F) was wonderful in its contrast to last Wednesday's 42C (108F) high and the last 5 months of blazing (Texas) Sun. But after 6 months of drizzle and grayness in Seattle, i worry i might just open a (major) vein.
Perhaps it's just not possible to de-program the latitude of where one grew up.