Re: Sony DVPC-X850D - Jury what is the verdict ?

From what I have deduced after a little playing around, it appears that the 850 does not have a control-A1 port so it only does control s in. It does not operate today if plugged into a slinke slink port with todays software. I am currently driving it via IR but not through a slinke. IMHO the IR/user interface is poor.

There is no reason why the slink-e could not drive it as a device through the slink or IR port using a standard device file. I have all of the codes if any one needs them, but I have not built a .cde file. It uses two suffixes to handle normal operations vs those things you only need to do when setting up the system and adding new disks to the "Disk Explorer"

Sony screwed this one up big time from an automation standpoint. Selecting a specific disk through the IR interface (or s-link port) is very cumbersome and slow. You have to simulate the use of their "Disk Explorer" (i.e. invoke the explorer and go through their screens which are slow and poorly designed). There are some timing issues so to play it safe you go slowly (no feedback).