VCR question and DVD question

[Nobody]

I figured that these questions were similar enough that I should put them in the same thread instead of creating two of them.

Question 1. I noticed back when I use to use VCRs to record TV shows that for a lot of them (I went through a few), after setting the timer you had to turn the VCR off for the timer to work. Why was that?

Question 2. Modern DVD players seem to load the disk first before playing. I don’t remember older DVD players loading the disk. Is it only upconverting DVD players that load, or did DVD players always load the disk first, but for some reason are slower now?

Thanks.

[beowulff]

1. The assumption was: If you are using the VCR’s tuner to watch a program, you don’t want your viewing interrupted by a scheduled recording. So, you need to give the VCR explicit permission to be able to change channels by itself, by turning it to standby.

2. All players “load” a disc first. Newer players use a computer to determine what type of disc was inserted, and what media is on the disc, so it takes a while to read the table of contents on the disc.

[Nobody]

OK, those were pretty simple answers. Thanks.

[newme]

@Nobody

I figured that these questions were similar enough that I should put them in the same thread instead of creating two of them.

Question 1. I noticed back when I use to use VCRs to record TV shows that for a lot of them (I went through a few), after setting the timer you had to turn the VCR off for the timer to work. Why was that?

.

You wouldn’t want to accidentally overwrite something you were hoping to save. You only turned off the VCR when you had in a tape you didn’t mind being overwritten.

[BigT]

Some VCRs even had an explicit timer mode that was different than the regular power off mode.

[Mangetout]

It used to be the norm for VCRs to only have one tuner - so when you switched it to ‘timer’ mode, you were also committing the tuner to the recording apparatus - if you wanted to watch something else while recording (or in fact when the machine was set in timer mode), you had to watch it on the TV’s own tuner.

[Hail_Ants]

@Nobody

Question 2. Modern DVD players seem to load the disk first before playing. I don’t remember older DVD players loading the disk. Is it only upconverting DVD players that load, or did DVD players always load the disk first, but for some reason are slower now?

Thanks.

DVD players all have to jump thru several digital ‘hoops’ before playing a disc. First the disc has to be verified as legitimate (DVD burners do this when you finalize recordable discs), the region code has to be verified, then the initial menu data has to be loaded which will often include those annoying, unskippable copyright notices and/or preview trailers depending on how the disc was authored.

DVD±R discs that have been burned at high speed are often more difficult (and occasionally impossible) for DVD players to verify and can take even longer to load. I’ve found that many older, first generation DVD players won’t play burned discs at all.

[Nobody]

I was just asking because in older DVD players, you put in the disk, pushed play, and it started playing almost instantly. With the upconverting DVD player I have now (and my Blu-ray player) you put in a DVD and wait a minute or two while the DVD loads.

[RearEchelon]

@Nobody

I was just asking because in older DVD players, you put in the disk, pushed play, and it started playing almost instantly. With the upconverting DVD player I have now (and my Blu-ray player) you put in a DVD and wait a minute or two while the DVD loads.

This is nothing more than a WAG, but I would venture to say that it is because of the “upconverting.” This is a process that the player must undertake, and I would imagine it takes a minute or two to begin playing the disc so it can have enough converted data in memory so as to prevent freezing while you’re waiting on the player to convert more data.

[beowulff]

@RearEchelon

This is nothing more than a WAG, but I would venture to say that it is because of the “upconverting.” This is a process that the player must undertake, and I would imagine it takes a minute or two to begin playing the disc so it can have enough converted data in memory so as to prevent freezing while you’re waiting on the player to convert more data.

Doubtful.
How would the play know what chapter you wanted to play, before you selected it?

[RearEchelon]

@beowulff

Doubtful.
How would the play know what chapter you wanted to play, before you selected it?

Good point. I didn’t think about if one wanted to begin the disc from a point other than the beginning.

[Blakeyrat]

@RearEchelon

This is nothing more than a WAG, but I would venture to say that it is because of the “upconverting.” This is a process that the player must undertake, and I would imagine it takes a minute or two to begin playing the disc so it can have enough converted data in memory so as to prevent freezing while you’re waiting on the player to convert more data.

No, it’s only buffering like maybe 1/3rd of a second at a time. Nothing that would account for a long wait when the disk was inserted.

It could just be that your new DVD player has crummy software, while your older one had higher-quality software. Just because a device is newer doesn’t mean it’s superior.