Sony PSX PS2 / HDD combo

[skipper]

Does anyone own one of these. I picked one up via the NZ online auction site. It is a DESR-7000. I have found .pdf instructions in Japanese, but have had no luck in tracking down an English translation (a couple of forums had dead links).
So far I have managed to play my copy of Wip3out (NTSC-J version on it), and a CD of mp3s (it has been upgraded to firmware 1.31 which added mp3 support).
It will not play US NTSC games or PAL games as it is region locked.
It also has problems with PAL TV broadcasts, and with PAL Playstation signal via the Line in.
I have a step-down transformer to run the 110v unit on our 240v power.
The unit did not come with the remote (RMT-P001).
Any further advice or experience would be appreciated.

[Medusa]

I don't have the HDD, but I do have the manual for the HDD (SCPH 20401 version) and for the PS2 (PAL SCPH-50003SS version) in english - if that sounds like the right manuals let me know and I can email them to you. I don't think I've seen the model number of DESR-.... is that a different type of model classification or something? I thought all the sony stuff was SCPH-....
These are in pdf form by the way.

[Lion]

for those that don't know what he's referring to. look at this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSX_(DVR))
it's not just a PS2 with a harddrive :)

[skipper]

Thanks for clearing that up Lion.

[Rapier Racer]

Yeah look at that American people, a PS1 is not a PSX :P Unless PS1 was marketed as such in the states I never understood why you all seemingly incorrectly called it that.

[Sausehuhn]

PSX = PlayStation (the original)
PS1 = PSOne (the redesign)

PSX is no official name AFAIK, but if you're talking about PSX everyone knows you're referring to the original PlayStation. Because most of the people out there probably don't even know about Sony's PS2-PSX.

[Rapier Racer]

I'd never heard the term PSX being widely used in the UK, it was simply PS then PSOne, where does the X come from.

[Lance]

I think 'PSX' was the name it had while under development, like experimental aircraft and such were called X something. I've 'always' heard the original production version referred to as PSX.

[mdhay]

In the old maths x is unknown, so I always assume that it is nothing?

[Lance]

Why? Neither X nor Y would necessarily be zero, and probably would nOt be zero.

[mdhay]

Like I said, I assume it is nothing because I don't like complicated things.

[Lion]

PSX was the development name while the playstation was originally going to be built as a cdrom addon for the Super Nintendo.
the name became known to the public, so when Nintendo backed out of the playstation project, and sony carried on to turn it into their own console, it got reapplied.

I don't understand why gamers/magazines found it so necessary to give the consoles 3 letter shorthand names, rather than just the most obvious abbreviation. but I think that might have something to do with it too.
another example is GCN for the gamecube

[Lance]

I usually just call it the GameCube on the rare occasions when I think about it. It's actually a nice piece of hardware internally, but I always disliked the outer physical form of the console.

Too bad it didn't have proper racing games of the sort that appeal to me; I might have actually bought the console for those.