That's what I was trying to remember!
Heres yall another one...
- Thread starter walkin jack
- Start date
OP
Well, I meant to say DVDs, not CDs. Anyway I have cleaned the lens of the player...no help there. I find the comment above about the different recording formats for DVDs interesting...and surprising. Sounds like a bad idea guaranteeing problems. I have never heard of this. Do we now have two DVD players to be able to play both formats, I hope not. Our Sony blue ray player was not made recently but we only got it new a few months ago. It plays all our other DVDs just fine. Might have to buy a new player.....
DWalt
Member
I suppose new music CDs are still sold. I haven't looked for a long time. CD has nearly achieved old technology status today, about like vinyl records, 8-track, and cassettes. Seems that everyone streams music now, through Apple, Amazon, YouTube, etc. I think few, if any, newer cars even come with CD players. I recently needed to replace my truck radio and found that most aftermarket radios did not even have CD drives. I bought one that had only a USB slot which is fine by me as I already have all of my favorites loaded on USB thumb drives, mainly in MP3 format.
No big deal to rip the contents of a music CD, convert to MP3, and load them on a thumb drive. I think I have close to 300 songs on my main driving music thumb drive.
There are cheap converters that you can plug into the cigarette lighter receptacle which will accept music on a thumb drive and will broadcast to an unused FM channel. That works very well, that's what I did in my truck before I got my new radio.
No big deal to rip the contents of a music CD, convert to MP3, and load them on a thumb drive. I think I have close to 300 songs on my main driving music thumb drive.
There are cheap converters that you can plug into the cigarette lighter receptacle which will accept music on a thumb drive and will broadcast to an unused FM channel. That works very well, that's what I did in my truck before I got my new radio.
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DWalt
Member
There used to be players that would play multiple different region DVD discs and also VHS cassettes. No idea whether they still exist. I think BluRay DVDs do not have region codes.
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Different regions are based on the TV standards in various parts of the world. North America uses one standard, Europe another, Asia a third, and so on. DVDs produced for one region won't work on equipment made for a different region.
If you look on Amazon or Ebay for DVDs, then you will likely note that they might be produced for a specific region. North America is Region 1.
Here is a more detailed explanation,
Broadcast television systems - Wikipedia
BTW, we have several Goodwill stores in our area and I check them out several times a month to see if any DVDs of movies I'd like are for sale there. It seems that when the kids of older people clear out their parents houses the DVDs they don't want go to Goodwill. That's mostly what I and many others here would consider classic movies. Lots of John Wayne movies on DVD. Locally Goodwill charges $1.99 for DVDs or Blu Ray.
Last week I picked up "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "Santa Fe Trail." This afternoon I picked up "MASH."
If you look on Amazon or Ebay for DVDs, then you will likely note that they might be produced for a specific region. North America is Region 1.
Here is a more detailed explanation,
Broadcast television systems - Wikipedia
BTW, we have several Goodwill stores in our area and I check them out several times a month to see if any DVDs of movies I'd like are for sale there. It seems that when the kids of older people clear out their parents houses the DVDs they don't want go to Goodwill. That's mostly what I and many others here would consider classic movies. Lots of John Wayne movies on DVD. Locally Goodwill charges $1.99 for DVDs or Blu Ray.
Last week I picked up "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "Santa Fe Trail." This afternoon I picked up "MASH."
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I remember wanting to get a well-reviewed history series by the English historian Mary Beard, only to find that the version released for N. America had been "edited" to conform to some silly "sensibility" issue. I wanted the UK original but it was only available in PAL format and I couldn't be bothered trying to source a DVD player for PAL.
Unfortunately they do.
Most BlueRay players in Kiwiland will not play US DVD's or BlueRay discs. There used to be a brand (Sony????) that you could get a "master chip" installed in to play anything.
I have just bought a "Universal" BlueRay player so I can play the DVD's etc that I bought online or while in the US.
venomballistics
Member
Pirated CDs
To simplify...
North America uses the NTSC system, pretty much the rest of the world uses the PAL system. Kinda' like SAE vs the Metric system
The reason for the two formats is even more fundamental. Our TV signals are broadcast in NTSC format because our electrical system runs at 60Hz and that is what the format is designed around.
The rest of the world the TV broadcasting is PAL - which is based on an electrical system running at 50Hz. Because that is what the frequency of their power grid is based on.
ANY video content on a disk is going to be in one format or the other and they are not generally cross compatible. Though there are DVD players that are capable of decoding both, that isn't the norm. Your average DVD player in North America is going to read NTSC format only - unless you want to spring for a much more expensive unit that reads both.
Generally speaking, the people who look for and buy the DVD players that read both formats are the cinema buffs who are REALLY into movies, and want to be able to play foreign films recorded in PAL format.
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DWalt
Member
Probably not everywhere, but the Half Price Bookstores chain has a huge used DVD selection, nicely kept alphabetically arranged. Prices are usually $2.99 to $4.99, but there are frequent sales.
My same thoughts....Betcha days be made across de pond.
DWalt
Member
Music CDs are the same all over the world.
As a retired audio engineer, I'd say the CD's were not finished (index, track list, and last track marked on the CD). Cheap, or pirated item, with the software not set up correctly.
Agreed. Pretty much what I was thinking too, and what I said in post 18 of this thread...
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hemiram
Member
I have quite a few CDs I burned for my first car CD player that still play fine, most of the time, in most players. They always play on a PC, which makes sense, they were burned on a PC in 1994. In my last car, a 2010 Challenger R/T, a couple were "cranky" and would play until the end, where they would stay. To get them to play again, I had to either back them up with the << button, or reload them. Some wouldn't play at all, the drive would grind away, and ERROR would come up on the display in a weird font. And then there are the real oddballs, ones that would sometimes play, most of the time, but not always.
The fact that those old CDs have survived 30 years in my vehicles with all the temperature changes is kind of amazing to me, as I remember reading something about a 10 year expended lifespan on burned CDs. If you are still buying CDs/DVDs/BRs to burn, and you want them to last pretty much forever, don't buy anything else than FUJI. All but a couple of my survivors are Fuji, and the others are TDK and Maxell. This went for VHS tapes too. My Fuji tapes are all playable, but the other brands all have some problems and some are unwatchable at 45 years old. Sadly, I lost a ton, literally of VHS stuff back about 7 years ago, and many that weren't lost in the basement flood have just deteriorated to being useless. Not too many Fuji VHS tapes in my Gulf War containers, and none of the Korean tapes can be watched. I had some crazy stuff that never made the news, at least here in the US.
The fact that those old CDs have survived 30 years in my vehicles with all the temperature changes is kind of amazing to me, as I remember reading something about a 10 year expended lifespan on burned CDs. If you are still buying CDs/DVDs/BRs to burn, and you want them to last pretty much forever, don't buy anything else than FUJI. All but a couple of my survivors are Fuji, and the others are TDK and Maxell. This went for VHS tapes too. My Fuji tapes are all playable, but the other brands all have some problems and some are unwatchable at 45 years old. Sadly, I lost a ton, literally of VHS stuff back about 7 years ago, and many that weren't lost in the basement flood have just deteriorated to being useless. Not too many Fuji VHS tapes in my Gulf War containers, and none of the Korean tapes can be watched. I had some crazy stuff that never made the news, at least here in the US.
Cheap CDs...
I've found that if the CDs are 'bulk' type, they get a lot of errors especially when playing music. When I was doing an important music project for other people I ordered CDs that were rated as being best for music. I can't remember what they were, but they made stuff for Sony, I think. Most CDs will store data just fine, but music is a little tricky. Staples used to have big stacks of their own brand of CD in a big stack about 8" tall, but they didn't work well for everything. I also suspect that the only CD burner I have working right now is a bit off, as I wrote music on a Verbatim disc from wave files the other day and the second track was 'skippy' and got stuck in places lke an old record.
I've found that if the CDs are 'bulk' type, they get a lot of errors especially when playing music. When I was doing an important music project for other people I ordered CDs that were rated as being best for music. I can't remember what they were, but they made stuff for Sony, I think. Most CDs will store data just fine, but music is a little tricky. Staples used to have big stacks of their own brand of CD in a big stack about 8" tall, but they didn't work well for everything. I also suspect that the only CD burner I have working right now is a bit off, as I wrote music on a Verbatim disc from wave files the other day and the second track was 'skippy' and got stuck in places lke an old record.
