Playing CDs on a DVD Player: Classic or Dud?

I forget to say 'thanks in advance' before. I'm losing my touch.

All depends. I've got a reasonable enough model that has a hard time playing CDs with a thick amount of artwork on the disc itself (say the Manics' Holy Bible, for instance. Why this has never affected any similarly treated DVDs is a mystery. I'm going to be getting a new player anyway to satisfy my 'play anything released anywhere' jones...

That said, it works brilliantly as a CD player - the Resume functionality alone, as well as having Jog/Shuttle controls, being able to programme it on a TV screen, and it appears to be totally shock proof.

:-(

:-O

Should you want to.

And also, since sound is not the only priority on a DVD player -
to get the quality of a $500 CD player you would have to pay maybe three times as much.

Shouldn't greater sensitivity make it less likely to get stuck, etc, because it was making such a precise reading that any glitches could be chewed up and spat out, making everything sound perfect?

Older machines can't manage CD-Rs at all, but do manage CDs (Graham: Orange Book part II media uses a dye invisible to the 650nm DVD laser wavelength [it's absorbed in both burned and unburned regions] - hence the problem with CD-Rs and the need for a separate beam/optics. CD-RWs [Orange Book III] use an alloy whose reflectivity is much lower than the data layer in CDs or CD-Rs, but which is *not* wavelength-dependent. In order to deal with retrieval of data from double-layer DVDs, even first-gen DVD machines were equipped with the automatic gain control circuitry you now find in the newest CD players, so they generally *can* read CD-RW. Phew!)

While PJM's Panasonic does have 650nm and 780nm lasers, it might not have a dual-focusing system, so it might struggle to read the data layer on a CD (1.2mm into the surface of disc, compared to 0.6mm for DVDs) if there's lots of nasty scratches in the way. There is some disclaimer on the Panasonic website about this model reading CD-R and CD-RW only if the disc is in good nick. I guess it doesn't quite conform to the MultiRead standard, but just makes a vague gesture in that direction. A bit like when people ask me the way to Selhurst Park on a Saturday afternoon.

In the meantime, thank you all very much.

The reason this stuff is floating round my head is I'm thinking of buying a cheap-ish DVD machine (though maybe not a supermarket dubious-brand special), with a view to maybe trading it in for a DVD-recorder when the formats sort themselves out next year. Any recommendations/warnings welcomed. Leaning towards a (massively reduced) Sony from Richer Sounds at the mo' - do they still buy back your stuff at 50% of the retail price on the Supercare plan? Needs to play DVD-R(Authoring) discs, have digital outputs, do the whole NTSC to 60Hz PAL thing; don't need progressive scan or RGB outs.

Yes

Next on ILE:

"I've just bought a new toaster. How likely is it that it will brown the tops of the slices of bread properly? I suppose I could go and try it for myself but I thought it would be easier to ask on the internet."

Graham: Coax is OK - will link with MD and HD just fine. Maplins coax-optical (or vice versa) convertor on shopping list also, to save dragging bits of gear around. Curious to see what comes out of the digital output - whether it's true 24/96k PCM or not.

There is dicking about to be done.

My amp only ever says PCM 44.1, but the only time it's been set to mix DD to PCM was when I first got it, so I'll hva e another fiddle.

I guess there are music-only DVD-'video' discs (i.e. *not* DVD-A), which maybe make use of the PCM tracks and don't contain DD or MPEG-2 audio, and these might push hi-res pure PCM out of the digital output. Right now, I can't think of any examples. (Bjork, Autechre?)

I wouldn't know where to look on the web to find out this kind of thing, I don't even know what I want to know before I find out. I did a quick search for 'Panasonic DVD blah blah problems', which apparently works very well for prospective car buyers, but all I could find were glowing reports.

Mooro, is Babylon's Burning your nickname from the Ruts list?

MP3 ability seems to be quite common, apparently this kind of thing is important to young people these days.

Just trying to make pun on 'burning' ...

... and obv failing

What about those CD repair kits? They look about like a Ronco/K-Tel Remington Fluff-Away, you stick your scratchoXOR CD in and turn a plaggy handle and hey presto! it comes out as good as new. Or not. I suppose they work on the same principle as T-Cut.

Graham: thanks for clearing that up. The cheap-ish Sony I've been eyeing up saucily is the DVP-NS700, now replaced by the 705, and allegedly 60% off at Richer Sounds. Gawd knows if they'll have any in stock. I'm sure it does everything I want. The 305 I've been using at work and that seems nice enough, but lacks certain pushing-imaginary-specs-up-bridge-of-nose twattery. That I like.

Is the multi-region thing still under-the-counter, don't-say-anything-to-the-wife type shadiness, or do some machines (from the major manufacturers) just come with kosher RCE-busting? I note the multi-region Sony at RS is 40 quid more.

Now begins the rather pathetic quest for DVDs with PCM tracks on them.

(Sorry for the swearing).

Ooh, I found one: the film version of Tommy!

PJM needs to report back on his replacement machine.

The new machine coped admirably with the first of the offending CDs (Disc 2 of Nigeria 70) so my hopes were pretty high that the problem had been solved. Sadly, the second CD (Disc 2 of Harlem World - The Sound of the Big Apple Rappin') didn't quite make it. But I tried it on another CD player and it didn't work on that either, although the skipping was of the more traditional variety that we all love so much. So I think we can put it down to being a knackered CD. Good job it's crap anyway. The track that won't work is 'Party People' by Rappermatical 5.

You can always rely on 'Tommy'.

According to the box, Jimi Hendrix's 'Blue Wild Angel' features the option of watching multi-angled shots of the same thing at the same time. It's not all porn, porn, porn.