DarthMarino

My Denon DVD 2200 is slowly dying on me. Audio drop outs are more and more frequent plus plenty of other inexplicable glitches. I've cleaned the lens as well as the inside of the drive. I've only had this player for a little over 3 years and I paid $500 for it so I feel a little ripped off and would prefer not shell out too much again. I know a lot of cheap players have seamless layer changes as well but the problem is that only Denon seems to advertise this. If someone has a suggestion I would appreciate it.

Mr. Salty

Oppo players have seamless layer changes. Picture and sound quality is fantastic, they play SACD and DVD Audio discs, and are multi-region to boot. I love mine.

Chew

Oppo

Brian Shannon

If you don't want another Denon then get an Oppo but I have to be honest, my Denon 2900 is every bit as good as my Oppo, maybe better on some discs.

Spiky

Really? When did that start?

Chew

All three of their players show SACD on the main page: http://www.oppodigital.com/

I have the 970 and that's certainly been out for quite a while now.

DarthMarino

Thanks for the suggestion. I just ordered the Oppo 980.

Mr. Salty

Well, yeah, and it's $1,000.

DarthMarino

My Oppo 980 came today and I'm a bit disappointed since the layer changes aren't quite seamless. I tried a few titles and one of them was seamless but the other two were there. Given, it was very fast but not perfect like my Denon 2200 was. Oh, well. I guess I'll live with it but it bothers me that DVD's have been out for more than 10 years and this is still a problem (well to me, anyway).

DarthMarino

The more I've tested this player, the more disappointed I am with it. It seems like a great player besides this but unfortunately this is more important to me than anything else a player can offer. I'm definitely considering returning it as they have a return policy. My cousin paid about $10 for his player and he said on a few bad ones he tested like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, it was seamless (which it definitely isn't on the Oppo). Maybe I'll just buy a piece of crap like that and hope for the best.

Mr. Salty

I'm sorry to hear the 980 is less than seamless. The 981 is completely seamless, and the best upconverting player I have seen.

Spiky

Not anymore since it's been discontinued for years. I think it has sold used for as little as $400. The few times people would actually sell them.

Or you could try to pry mine out of my hands. It'll probably cost you some body parts.

DarthMarino

I returned the Oppo and the Playstation 3 is my new layer change free DVD player. I did some tests on my friends and it passed them all. I freaked out when I popped a disc in my new system and saw a layer change. Then we did the firmware update and it fixed the problem. Weird, but I'm happy. Plus it's a Blu Ray player and plays games.

FinkPish

I'm curious about this obsession with having a seamless layer change. What's the reasoning behind it?

sniper308

I don't really get it either. All other things being equal including price, I could see going after that feature, but for $500 the damn thing could insert an intermission in the middle of every disc and I wouldn't buy one.

Patman

Well, when I first got into DVD, I have a HTPC, so I never saw layer changes. Then I got a standalone DVD player, and saw a bunch of layer changes, and it always jars me when I encountered the layer change, but it's been 8-9 years later, and I've gotten over the jarring from the layer change, but I don't like them, either.

Nick Martin

Isn't this also related to specific DVDs as well?

Spiky

Specific DVDs may have longer pauses, but a good player will show nothing for any manufactured DVD. Burned discs are a completely different story and don't count.

I almost forgot. I believe the Pioneers do not show layer changes, either. Mine is a couple years old and has none, IIRC. $80.

DarthMarino

Because it's an annoying glitch that isn't supposed to be there. It's not part of the movie. Sure some are well placed, but I've seen a bunch that aren't. If you woke up one morning and found that every song you owned by your favorite band had a skip in the middle of it would you get used to it or would you want to seek out proper replacements? I don't see this as being any different.