Replacing a transport in an Arcam DVD player


I have an Arcam DV79 player and the transport has become unreliable enough that the player is very frustrating to use. The transport, a DSL-710A, is no longer in production and the used ones I can find online cost more than the player is worth.

On the back of the transport are a standard ATAPI connector and a standard four-pin power connector with 12v, 5v and two ground pins.

Since DVD mechanisms are so common, is it possible to substitute a different DVD mechanism, assuming it could be physically fitted and alighned to the plastic bracket that holds the transport mechanism?

Obviously only the playback functionality of a DVD burner would be used but are the controls for that standardized among mechanisms so that plugging it into the Arcam connector would work?

Thanks in advance
128x128sfar

Showing 2 responses by sfar

Thanks, Dan. Yes, I've done what I think is an exhaustive search. It is listed at partstore.com but the notation there is that it is no longer available. There are a few on ebay but all are used and are so expensive they don't make sense.

I've even investigated units that have similar part numbers but the configuration of them is different enough that I'm not sure they would work. Some of them are inexpensive enough that I may give it a try, anyway. It's such a great sounding player I hate to put it in the dumpster so I'll keep looking.
Raymonda - appreciate your good wishes.

I agree with you, probably 90% of my playing time is from a hard drive, 9% from mog.com (now beatsmusic.com) and only rarely from a CD. And this is essentially just a backup to another player so I don't really need it, just don't want to dump it if someone can use it. It was a fine player and its stereo analog output is probably better than what you'd get from a modest standalone DAC.