disapointed with a limitation on my dvd player... any sugges

[upshot]

So I've been making DVDs filled with music using dvd-audio-creator which is really nice since you can get around 50 cd's on one dvd with AC3 quality (44100-196). It also displays the track name and album cover (I had to scan or find them on the web) while it's playing, very cool when your music collection gets so big you have a hard time telling guests where the hell that track came from... This is the good part, now my problem:

I want to just pop in one of these DVDs and have it suffle the all the tracks BUT my sony player is limited to 96 chapters in dvd shuffle mode. I was wondering why on earth it would only play the first 8 or so albums in shuffle mode untill I found the fine print in the manual... DOH.

So... any ideas out there? Does your DVD player have this limitation? How about software dvd players? I'm not having much sucess finding the right thing because this is the sort of thing you have to read the super fine print to determine if it will work... After all I purchased this player not knowing that I'd be limited to 96!!

[mats.hogberg]

Well, as far as I know, my player doesn't have a shuffle mode at all, when it comes to Video DVD (which is what we're talking about here). mp3/regular audio CD, yes, but that's it when it comes to random play.

/Mats

[upshot]

well... my current model -dvp nc-665 does 96 chapters (as stated above.)
the "newer" model dvp nc-875 does 200 chapters.

I'd like to find one that aproches 500 if I have to buy a new one... again anyone know of a player that will satisfy my overly techy needs??

[upshot]

After digging some more I'm starting to realize that my player is probably as good as it gets... The newer sony 5 disc changers will only do random with ONE DISC (200 chapters) whereas my ol' dvpnc-665 is limited to 96 chapters but WILL do 5 discs in shuffle mode...

Unless someone knows better I guess 'its as good as it gets'

[JRW5941]

Upshot...........

I am trying to find a player that REALLY works in shuffle-mode from a DVD as well... Were you able to find anything that works better in shuffle mode?

What is it that "counts" toward the 96 character limit?
If I put ALL of the MP3 files in the root would it shuffle correctly?

thanks for any help!
Jim

[upshot]

wow! thread back from the dead!

Unfortunately I did not find anything superior to the sony.. Although I did not do a lot more research. The tough thing is that the actual amount of tracks that a player will shuffle is usually hidden deep in the manual (if it's revealed at all!!)

I emailed audiodvdcreator and suggested they incorporate a shuffle option in the software (so that you could choose a shuffle option at the root menu). They responded enthusiastically that it was a great idea but I've yet to see an update that incorporates that...

[JRW5941]

UpShot and others:

Well today I spend about an hour at the local "Tweeter" store which carries a wide variety of DVD players.
I tried EVERY unit in the store ranging from $100 to $1400 players to see if they could read and play IN SHUFFLE MODE a DVD I constructed that had about 750 MP3 files in the "root" directory of the DVD (it was a Memorex DVD +RW - rewritable).

The ONLY player that could read all 750 files from the +RW and then play them in shuffle mode was the Toshiba SD-4980 which is a nice looking low profile unit that sells for about $100.

So, I bought it and came home! Mission complete.

Jim


Notes:

Some units MIGHT have been able to read a non-RW disk, but I didn't go there... there may have been issues there preventing the reading of the RW that would not have affected a write-once DVD.

I have not tried shuffling within folders, to me that is a nice plus but not required...

[mats.hogberg]

I think we're discussing 2 different things here - almost all players have random MP3 playback (obviously with limitations on # of files) - but not many with random chapter DVD Video playback.

/Mats