Still a few hiccups when powering on the player, which also powers on the original d/a converter box, and the new hdmi-rca converter (the little white thingy in the pic), which currently draws usb power from the player. It starts up with color bars on the tv and is unresponsive to the clicker except for the tray.
When working properly, it shows a big, ugly fullscreen menu on the tv, though it's probably less ugly on a modern widescreen digital display (strangely, 1080p doesn't look great on 4:3 NTSC), and responds to play pause etc. buttons on the remote.
Loading a dvd, then powering it off, then powering it back on usually works, but sometimes it takes a couple of cycles to catch. I'm thinking there's a power up delay in the new converter, so I may hook it up to a usb charger so it's always powered on, to see if that makes a difference. Right now it's actually more of a hassle than our old player with its sticky tray (which we still have). :-S
Could be a power up delay or it may not initially give enough power over the USB. A lot of USB ports can't provide more than 500mA, your adapters may require more.