DVD Player that eliminates dual layer pause?

I'm wondering if any of you know if there is a DVD player that exists that eliminates the dual layer pause when switching from one layer to the next on DVDs. I'm looking for a DVD player that has superior picture, sound, and can play DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, MP3s, and images. I also need for it to have an optical out for sound, and component outs as well.

The pause during a layer change on my Sony player is really jarring. I love all the other qualities of the player accept the stupid pause. It lasts for about a second or two. I've noticed that DVD-ROMs tend to not suffer from this problem. Perhaps a player with a higher speed would work?

I think you're out of luck, Sithlard. I've used about five different DVD players of different brands in my home and three more at work, and they all pause at the layer change. They have to pause momentarily because they're physically moving the point of the laser beam to a new layer. This will happen to varying degrees playing any dual-layered disc.

What you might do if you're really serious about this business is to take a disc where you know exactly the timing of the layer change to a big video store like "Good Guys," "Circuit City,," or "Fry's Electronics" and ask the sales clerk to let you play the layer change in various top-end players. Then see for yourself what you like.

John

Does anyone know of a DVD Player that has a very minimal pause then? I've tried out a Samsung once, and that virtually eliminated the pause. However, the picture quality wasn't that great. I'm look for a DVD player that at least reduces the pause so that it's a half second or less, and yet still retains great picture and sound (DTS capability), has component and opitical outputs, can play any kind of burned DVDs, and can play MP3s.

Any suggestions?

My Samsung player, the HD841 model, has a minimal pause but you're never going to get a player that completely eliminates the layer change pause because of the nature of the technology.

"Add a memory cache and read from that when the layer changes. It would be like the anti-skip technology in portable CD players." --mra

Well, it does sound easy in theory, but in practice it may not be quite that simple or at least one company out there would have done it.

When a CD player skips over a scratch, its auto-correction circuitry only has to deal with a fraction of a fraction of a second of audio; in a DVD player the laser beam actually has to change position to a new layer, quite a lot longer a pause. To fill that in with audio AND video (cached presumably from the first second or two of a disc's second layer) is apparently quite a lot more difficult. And if the timing for the layer change is a split second different from one disc to another, there might be a less-than-seamless transition, anyway.

But it's a thought, mra. We'll see what the HD players do.

John

You would think it would be easy. Add a memory cache and read from that when the layer changes. It would be like the anti-skip technology in portable CD players.

I believe part of the reason we do not see a layer change skip protection feature in DVD players is that it is cost prohibitive. When dealing with DVD audio and video you are talking about large amounts of storage, to store even a few seconds of that would mean a huge amount of cache memory. And while memory prices have come down a lot in the past few years, they are still high enough that it would not be worth it on the consumer end of things to put into a DVD player to avoid something that is not that big of a deal to begin with.

I barely notice it with my DVD player, which is an old (5-6 years) Sony. When I do notice the layer change it is generally between a scene so it's just an extra second added to a transition or such.. they've done a good job at hiding it.

Good point about the memory Krin. I would beg to differ on the issue of layer change points however. While some distributers have hidden the layer change quite well, and are barely if noticeable at all, others are as noticeable as someone falling flat on their face in front of you! I think it may have to do with how long the movie is, or how much space it takes up on the disc. If at the layer change, the laser only has to move to a slightly different position, then it's probably a negligible time delay. However, if for what ever reason the laster has to move from say the outside of the disc, to the inside, it's going to be quite noticible!

- Josh

I used to work as an Audio/Visual specialist and there are a few very high end DVD players that have memory buffers that scan ahead and eliminate the layer pause. Denon makes arguably the best of these but you are going to be looking at $1000 minimum for one of these. In case you were wondering, this is not the only feature that justifies the higher asking price, they have specialy designed DAC's for both picture and sound and they are isolated for specific DVD playback and CD playback. Their construction is also top notch with Denon's flagship DVD player weighing in at 18 lbs! I do not think that they are capable of Jpeg playback, but it has been a few years since I was in the business.

The laser doesn't move it just focuses differently. When you put a dual layer dvd into your player it reads from the inside out, when its finished the bottom layer it changes focus to the top layer then reads from the outside to the inside. Better quality laser's take less time to do this. Its not a fact that the most expensive dvd player will do this the best, in actual fact i have found that the cheaper ones actually handle it better. The dvd player i have at the moment has, as far as i can tell, no lag whatsoever. I have put in a dvd with a scratch on it that has made it jump but when changing layers there is no lag. The quality of the dual layer dvd's nowadays helps to prevent this also. You will notice that your older dvd's will lag a lot more than newer ones. If the company making the dvd has done it properly the layer change should be between scenes therefor the screen is black for a fraction of a second anyway meaning less information has to be dealt with by the dvd player.

My advice? Buy a cheap sony. Mine cost £130 uk. Its multi-regional and has all the surround sound connectivity you will ever need.

Scotster :p