I notice that many people complain about layer changes. I have a Toshiba SD-1600 and have seen at least 30 movies on it since I got it in December (granted, not all were dual-layered). I can not remember ever noticing a layer change, but when I watch movies on my friends Panasonic (an older model BTW) I see a slight pause I never noticed in the movie before. Does anyone else own this player and agree/disagree?

I have a Toshiba 2109 which I believe is the same model and I've only experienced layer changes during The Matrix and Gladiator. Other than those two it's been smooth sailing.

Some layer changes are very hard to spot in some movies.....if you are not looking very closely at that exact moment(blink of an eye type of thing)you could very well miss it!!! :)

What really pisses me off about layer changes is the placement. Half the time they put a change about 2 seconds AFTER a spot in the film where it wouldn't have been noticed. Sadistic bastards.

-Gonnosuke

I use a Toshiba 2008 and I can tell you where the layer change is in just about every movie I've ever watched.

I don't mind it too much for the most part, but in some movies it is timed VERY poorly and annoys me.

I may be getting close to upgrading my player.
Does someone have a list of good/bad models for layer changes. The only one I have experience with is this old Toshiba, which does a pretty poor job with the layer change.

I have the 2109 which I believe is the older version of your player seeyouauntie. I notice the layer change on almost all of the movies where there is one. I even noticed the layer change on Pitch Black, in which they placed it after they had faded to black. I don't know if it would make it any more noticable but I am viewing my dvd's on 50" big screen.

I remember a little over a year ago when I went shopping for my tv set I looked at both the Mitsubishi and Toshiba lines. The Toshiba's picture was outstanding. IMHO maybe just a bit better than the Mitsubishi. The asthetic appearance of the Toshiba left a little to be desired. The performance issues of the Mit. cannot be questioned. If you check throughout this site and others like audioreview.com you will see few problem posts about performance. The Toshiba has had some, few, but some quality issues and customer service problems. I like the appearance of the Mit. better but I'm a sucker for asthetics. The irony of it all was I ended up with a 50 gold series, which is not HD, for $1900 and a year of no payments-no interest. I figured in about five years I'll upgrade to a widescreen HD for about the same money and the performance might be a bit better. In the end I think you need to take a look at both and decide which one you ultimatley like better.

As it's been said before, DVD-ROM drives don't have the layer change pausing problem because of system memory (or read-ahead caching) or something like that.

The upcoming Denon 2800 standalone DVD player will have 4MB of memory to address the layer change problem. I don't understand why all DVD players haven't had this feature already. Do the people manufacturing these drives not watch DVDs themselves?

Sounds like you're thinking of the people who make the DVDs (see layer change complaints above...)