Sony has always been an innovative company.
For more than 20 years, they have been leaders in the console industry.
By the time, the PlayStation launched in the USA, in 1996.
It had already sold a one million units in Japan.
And as we know, the PlayStation 2 is still the highest-selling console of all-time.
But things haven't always gone their way.
They've also had some spectacular failures over the years.
Remember the Aibo Dog or the Evilla?
My older viewers probably even remember Betamax.
More recently, witnessed the non-starter that was the PlayStation TV.
Back in 2003, Sony released the PSX in Japan.
What now?
"The... the Sony PSX isn't that just a PlayStation 1?", I hear you ask.
The answer is no.
The PSX is a hybrid digital video recorder, or DVR, combined with a PlayStation 2.
Released just before the holiday season in 2003.
It was to be used as a general-purpose consumer device meant for the living room,
rather than a dedicated game system.
It was even rumoured that the PlayStation 2 hardware was added at the last minute right before launch.
This rumour is backed up by the fact that Sony Corporation marketed the machine,
and not Sony Computer Entertainment.
And it was a total flop,
being discontinued in Japan in early 2005.
And that's, precisely, the reason why I have one in my possession.
Because I'm a big fan of Japanese retro consoles and computers.
So let's go ahead and take a closer look at the Sony PSX DVR.
So this is the Sony PSX DVR, a hybrid video game system and digital video recorder.
My model, the DESR-5100, comes standard with a 160 GB hard drive installed.
There were eight configurations of the device, all the way up to the DESR-7700,
which had a 250 GB hard drive
and was compatible with PSP games.
The DVD drive will read and write CDs and DVDs,
and will support PS1 and PS2 games,
but only Japanese-region games are supported.
All models come with digital video recording capabilities,
from analog TV signals, as well as composite and S-Video inputs.
The system is very heavy-weighing at 13 pounds.
It also has a vertical configuration.
And while that looks really cool, isn't very practical in terms of desk space.
Opening the front flap reveals two memory card slots for standard 8 MB PS2 memory cards,
controls for the DVD, a USB 1.0 port and a proprietary Sony Memory Card Stick slot.
Turning the system around reveals a myriad of connectors.
From right to left, we have two standard PlayStation 2 DualShock connector ports,
two 75 ohm BNC connectors for TV and pass-through,
an S-Video input and output.
Next to that, a composite input and output.
This next connector is the Japanese-style D-Terminal which can provide an RGB signal out of the PSX DVR.
To the left of that, we have the optical digital audio output,
a standard Ethernet port, and then the power connector which requires 100V of AC out of the wall.
When you power up the unit, you'll be greeted with a unique PSX boot screen in blue,
and you will notice a very familiar dashboard.
The XrossMediaBar is a user interface that was used in both the Sony PlayStation 3 and PSP.
This is the very first iteration of the interface. And Sony had continued to use the XMB for many years later,
not until the Sony PS Vita and PlayStation 4, when the XMB, or XrossMediaBar, was phased out.
As mentioned only the Japanese-region PS1 and PS2 games are supported.
The front loading DVD drive is a slick mechanism, but it's a little noisy at times.
Simply pop the disc in the drive, as you normally would,
and either reboot the system to autoboot the disc or launch it from the XMB menu,
just in the same way you would launch a PS3 or PSP game.
Given the fact that this system has dedicated PlayStation 2 hardware.
Games run exactly, as you would expect.
This is running composite video output going into my trusty Commodore 1702 color monitor.
I've always preferred CRTs for PlayStation 2.
Even though its composite signal only, it still produces a very nice-looking image.
So let's take a closer look at the DVR functionality.
In this demonstration, I've hooked up a cheap clone Super Nintendo console to the composite inputs in the back of the unit.
As you can see, I can now capture video footage and record and save it to the internal hard disk.
The DVR functionality works very well, and I couldn't notice any stutter or drop frames at all in my tests.
Back when audio TV signals were around, you could use this device as a DVR to capture TV shows, like you normally would.
The system comes complete with a TV Guide listings page where you can schedule recordings to.
But obviously none of this works anymore. And because the system comes complete with a DVD burner.
You can easily burn any captures you've made to a DVD.
So, the Sony PSX was certainly innovative and a really nice-looking machine,
especially something that you would put into your entertainment center in your TV room.
But unfortunately, it was plagued with so many problems.
The hard drive in this unit is encrypted to the console, and the encryption has not been defeated as of 2017.
So, if your hard drive does fail, you have no way of recovering the unit.
You've effectively bricked your console. So, there's nothing you can do about it.
Now, the second biggest problem is heat. Now, heat is a big issue with this unit.
Now, there is some very subtle ventilation on both sides of the case.
But this thing is essentially like throwing a towel on an Xbox 360.
It gets extremely hot inside. And when you've got the DVR working, or the DVD burner working,
or the hard drives working, you're generating extra heat.
And eventually, like the hard drive, something is going to fail.
And more often than not, I've seen issues where these units don't even start anymore, because of some power supply issue,
or some harddrive issue, or some heat related issue, that's caused a problem.
Now remember, the DVD drive has a combination: DVD burner and reader.
Now, there are two lasers on the DVD drive.
There is the DVD burning laser which also reads DVDs.
And then, there's the CD reader laser which reads CDs, but it also reads DVDs.
Now, out of the box configuration, if you turn on the Sony PSX DVR and insert a DVD into the drive
It's going to use the DVD writer laser.
Don't forget that writer laser also can read DVDs.
So, it defaults to the writer laser. Now unfortunately, the writer laser is prone to failure.
Many times when you see Sony PSX DVRs for sale,
a lot of the times you'll see the ad will say: "It reads CDs, but it doesn't read DVDs."
And this is because the DVD writer laser has burned out.
So the question now becomes: "Why would you even consider owning a Sony PSX DVR, considering all the issues that they have?"
Well, the answer is: "You can extend the life of one of these, significantly."
Now, the laser issue can be resolved with softmodding the console with FreeMCBoot,
and the harddrive issue can also be resolved by plugging in an external hard drive into the USB port.
Essentially, what you're doing is never using the internal hard drive at all.
And with an external hard drive, you're minimizing wear and tear on the laser on the CD and DVD drive.
So, let's go ahead and take a look at how we can softmod a Sony PSX DVR.
Now I'm assuming you have some familiarity with FreeMCBoot on a PlayStation 2.
To softmod a Sony PSX, you will need a spare PlayStation 2 with FreeMCBoot already installed on it,
or a way to launch the free mcboot Installer on a regular PS2.
You'll also need an 8MB memory card and a USB key.
First, download the FreeMCBoot installer files. I'll leave a link in the description below on where to locate this.
Extract these files onto a USB key. It takes around 20 seconds or so to do this.
Once you've done that, insert your USB key into your PS2,
along with your spare memory card, and launch the FreeMCBoot installer from the USB key.
After a second or so, you will be in the installer. Now the trick here is to press R1 on your controller,
and you will see a dedicated FreeMCBoot PSX installer option.
This is specifically for Sony PSX DVRs.
Go ahead and install this on your memory card and follow the on-screen instructions.
Once complete, insert your memory card into the PSX, and when you power the system on, holding down Start, will launch into the FreeMCBoot configurator.
From here, we can assign buttons on the controller to launch different things when we power on the unit.
For example, I've assigned circle to load the Open PS2 Loader, or OPL for short.
I'm also using 128GB SanDisk flash drive for my backups that I will be using.
Please note, however, if you are using an external hard drive in the USB port, sometimes cutscenes in games will stutter,
as USB 1.0 isn't fast enough to stream data to the PSX's internal memory.
And that completes the softmod. Now it can launch and play original games on the DVD drive,
as well as backups on the external hard drive via the USB key.
So, in conclusion, isn't worth picking up a Sony PSX DVR?
The answer is... probably not, maybe...
If you're a collector and you don't plan to use it then, probably,
but, if you're looking for a console to use as your main PlayStation 2 machine,
I would say: "No." I would probably just pick up a regular PlayStation.
And unfortunately, it's a very difficult machine to repair, if not impossible,
considering the hard drive encryption has still yet to be defeated in 2017.
Now, I will also say: "If you are looking to pick up one of these systems,
make sure they're in fully-working order." If you see an ad for one that says: "Doesn't power on.",
I wouldn't even consider attempting to repair it,
because there is no way in hell you're going to get this thing to boot up.
If you see one that says: "The hard drive has failed.",
don't even bother picking one up, because there's no way you'll be able to repair it.
Now, if you see one that says: "The DVD doesn't work, but the CD works." or, if you see one that says:
"PlayStation 2 discs won't boot, but PS1 or PS2 CDs will work.",
then that's something you can salvage by softmodding the machine, as you saw in this video.
I wouldn't pay more than $50-$80 for a unit like that.
Ideally what you're looking for is one that's in perfect-working order. Eventually, this system will break down
and, unfortunately, it's a very difficult machine to repair, if not impossible.
Alright, guys, I hope you enjoyed this video.
Let me know what you thought about in the comments below.
As always, don't forget to Like and subscribe, and I'll catch you guys in the next video. Bye for now.
I had a couple announcements that I didn't want to make at the end of this video, before we wrap up the first one, is
this will be my last video of the year,
as far as the technical, and reviews, and the teardowns, and all that's where the stuff goes.
But I will have one more video coming up before Christmas. So, stay tuned for that, if you're interested.
It's going to be a all access where I'm going to show you my office setup, how I film,
what equipment I use, and then we're gonna go into the game room and give you a quick tour of my game room.
I know people have asked me about it. What does your game room look like these days?
I know there was some videos that I made back in like
2014, 2013, many, many years ago, but I will show you what that looks like
But we'll be back early next year to continue where we left off. And before I go, I do want to say:
"Thank you so much, guys, for 20,000 subscribers! Oh my god! I can't even believe this!"
I mean, this is absolutely amazing.
I had a goal, um, probably about middle of this year that I wanted to hit 10,000, and in the last six months,
I've had some serious growth on this channel, and we're over 20,000 subscribers.
You, guys, are the ones that keep me inspired and working every week.
So, please, let me know what you want to see. Alright, guys, well, I've rambled on enough
I know this has been a little longer than normal, but thank you so much for watching this video.
Let me know what you thought about these Sony PSX DVR in the comments below.
As always, don't forget to Like and subscribe and I'll catch you guys in the next video. Bye for now.
