My cd player is broke so I need to buy a new one.

Now I thought that I could just as well buy a DVD player. It has about the
same price and it can play both cds and cdroms with mp3's. And as a bonus I
would have a dvd player if I ever need one.

Now my question is about those cdroms with mp3s. It would be nice if the
player had features like shuffle. But when I look at the documentation I see
only lots of text about video qualities.

So my question is: what are your experiences with using a DVD player for
mp3's? What should I watch for?

Thanks,
Wim

On Sat, 11 Oct 2003 20:51:07 +0200, "Wim Roffal"
<wimroffelplease@nospamm-planet.nl> wrote:

Though it's not the best unit in the world, it's hard to beat an APEX
from Wal-Mart for the functionality/price ratio. I bought one when
they first came out for $180 as they would do MP3s and VCD/SVCDs (had
little use for DVD then and now).

Then when the three disc changers came out for less than $90, I picked
one up. This unit would also do MPGs & JPGs as well as MP3s; this is
handy if you group music videos and pictures in to the same directory
as songs. I then bought two single-disc units for my parents and son
respectively, for about $50 each. As I understand it, you can now get
these same units for less than $40 from Wal-Mart. Hard to go wrong at
that price.

Complaints:

This one, which isn't much of one, is that to navigate the directory
structure on a CDR you must have a TV hooked up, or a decent
recollection of what's on the disc. If you're the type that just wants
to throw an MP3 disc in and hit shuffle play, it would be best for you
to burn all of your MP3s in the root directory. However, if you know
the structure of a given disc, you can always "direct entry" the
number of a specific track, and listen to it without a TV turned on.
Hitting the "0" button always takes you up one directory, so
sufficiently hitting the 0 key to go to the root, then selecting the
appropriate number keys to navigate through the folders will
eventually get you to the track/album/artist of your choice. Be
advised that some Apex drives do not have an LED/LCD display, so if
you intend to use the unit without a TV attached pay heed before you
purchase.

No ability to do play lists. This can be circumvented by burning a CDR
multi-session, and then creating new folders in subsequent sessions
that have the files from the prior session renamed in the order you
wish.

Doesn't play DVD-RW, in spite of the claims on DVDRHelp.com; the main
reason I got a DVD burner was so that I could create huge MP3
collections to "live" in the entertainment center, and yet still be
semi-portable. I haven't tried the units I have access to with DVD-R
media, nor have I tried newer Apex units to see if they work with
DVD-RWs.

"David W. Poole, Jr." <spammersshouldbekilled.50.dwpj65@spamgourmet.com>
wrote in message news:bcmoovsgrc9qtibdptgu03n3a4ina82ocg@4ax.com...
I have one of these (AD5131, IIRC). Main reason I got it was because it is
easily hacked to get rid of macrovision (unfortunately, later models aren't
so easy to hack). This way, I could run it through my VCR, then to my TV,
and wouldn't need any additional splitters or RF modulators, etc. It plays
mp3 CDs, VCDs, DVDs, and burned DVD-R movies, although I've not tried mp3
DVDs yet, nor have I tried R/W.

I've made mp3 CDs that have all songs in the root directory (no additional
folders). Each CD is its own genre of music - for example, I might have a
CD of 80's party hits, and another of 80's romance songs, etc. I just use
whatever CD I want that fits the occasion. Ten hours of play time (thirty
hours with 3-disc changer) is usually enough, which is why I haven't messed
with mp3 DVDs yet.

On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 21:15:44 GMT, "mrdancer" <mrdancer@athotmail.com>
wrote:

Yeah, a buddy of mine replaced the ROM in one of mine to hack the
macrovision. Paid for the chip and left the chip on the shelf for a
year or so before it was finally installed. The machine got hacked
after it was taken out of service to be replaced by one of the three
disc changer models.

The main reason I'm interested in MP3 DVDs, as opposed to MP3 CDs, is
because it would then be more practical to have an entire artist's
catalog on one piece of easily removable media.

Would also be nice, when friends were over, who had a preference for a
particular artist or genre, to load up a MP3 DVD and hand them the
remote to a $30-$100 piece of equipment, without worrying about them
munging up the files. :-D

I've got a friend who plays his MP3s over the network through his
entertainment system using his TiVo. It's impressive, but given that I
spend almost *no time* in front of the boob tube I can't justify
purchasing a TiVo for playing MP3s.

Biggest complaint about the Apex changer: it doesn't *automatically*
skip from disc to disc. Unattended, it may as well be a single disc
unit.