Intro:

    The initial idea for this mod started to form earlier this year while I was at a friend's LAN party. After drinking plenty of Bawls and playing games all night, we talked a little bit about mods (my Lian-Li is lightly modded, but everyone else's cases were stock). I briefly brought up the idea of a music server PC in a stereo or VCR, but it was more a passing thought at the time. A few days later, however, I put some more thought to the idea, and noticed all of the expensive HTPC cases that were starting to float around. Most of these cases attempted to fit into the general home theater look so that the HTPC wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb. "What could fit more into an entertainment setup," I said to myself, "than a regular DVD player?" Following the mantra of stealth but cool, the DVD Player Mod was born.


Initial purchase:

    The first step was to find a suitable DVD player that could be used for the mod. From the start I knew that only a miniITX board would fit in a normal DVD player, so armed with some basic dimensions, I set out to find a case. I found a Memorex DVD player for $5; it did not read DVDs anymore, but the front and case were mint, so I snatched it up. Let's see...$5 for a DVD player case, or $100 for a larger case that wants to be like the DVD player case? Not only would my mod be cool-looking, but it would be economical as well. The first order of business when I set up for a mod is to get a good feel for the case I am working with. I'll take everything apart as far as possible, see how things are connected, get ideas for using the available space, etc. After all, I planned on having all of the front controls work as labeled; no non-functioning buttons or LCD's in this mod. Here is a set of pictures after the DVD player arrived.

(1) Overall	(2) Corner	(3) Power and logos

(4) Back	(5) Basic information	(6) Ports
(7) Underside	(8) Cover removed; lots of room!	(9) Different angle

(10) Keep in mind	(11) Other angle	(12) Power button
(13) Front removed	(14) Pay attention to buttons	(15) Original VFD
(16) Circuit board	(17) Bottom of case	(18) Configurations

(19) Broke this tab off somehow. Oops!

First steps:

     The number one thing you want to make sure you do for your mod project is have all the hardware components together from the beginning. If you don't, you could find out that your CPU fan is flush to your hard drive, or a heatsink doesn't clear the sides of the case. I broke that rule with this project because at the start I had not secured any sponsorships, and I couldn't afford to buy all of the parts on my budget. The first thing that I started with was a microATX power supply that I salvaged from an old Acer case. I took the PSU from its casing, and got set to make cutouts on the back panel of the case for the switches and outlet.

**Disclaimer** Neither I, nor anyone at ExtensionTech can take responsibility if you decide to mess with the insides of your PSU as a result of this, or any other mod. Later in the mod I zapped myself pretty good while the power supply was open and actually plugged in and on. It isn't fun.

  Editors note: Yes, be very careful when working around a PSU. Especially when it is plugged in, and operating. Yes, a PSU does hold some charge, but the easiest way to get zapped is what Jon just stated above.
 
     I traced the cutouts from the PSU casing onto a piece of paper to use as a template.

(20) First tracing	(21) Preparing to cut template	(22) Template cut
(23) Lining up with DVD case	(24) Template transferred	(25) First holes drilled

     I drilled the first two screw holes, turned it around, and saw that my template wasn't straight (picture 25). Crap! I went into AutoCAD and drafted a new template that was accurate to 1mm. I transferred this onto the back of the DVD player case, and precisely made the cuts with my Dremel.

(26) 2nd template	(27) Transferred

    Did it work?

(28) Outlet and switches look great	(29) Wires reattached

     Head on to the next page where the fabrication gets intensive.



 

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