Re: Pausing CD Player for Long Period -- Harmful?

[Mark D. Zacharias]

Not a big problem. Essentially normal wear and tear. A couple hours added to
the total usage of the machine.

Mark Z.


"RockinghorseWinner" > wrote in message
...
>
>
>
> Is it harmful to leave my CD player on pause for a couple of hours or
more?
> I like to start the album where I left off, and not have to guess, but I
> won't do it if it is too stressful for the player.
>
> "All people think of is opening new restaurants." C. Chaplin
>
> NTReader v0.36w(O)/Beta (UNREGISTERED) in conjunction with Net-Tamer.
>
>

[Harv]

"Mark D. Zacharias" > wrote in message
thlink.net...
> Not a big problem. Essentially normal wear and tear. A couple hours added
to
> the total usage of the machine.
>
> Mark Z.

The question is, does a "normal" CD player spin down the CD when in pause
mode for some amount of time, or does it keep spinning it continuously if
you pause it for seconds/minutes/hours??..

I've never seen an answer to this anywhere. I'd ask the same about DVD home
decks. If you pause a DVD deck such that it is displaying one frame of video
from the movie on your teevee, is the DVD disc still spinning, or is that
single frame coming from a stored buffer and the disc itself has spun down
so the motor isn't still turning??.. On drawer loading decks, which most
home component players are, there's typically now window where you can see
the actual disc, so you can't tell what's going on.

On the other hand, I use Rio Volt portable audio/.mp3 CD players (a
wonderful device if ever there was one) and these things buffer various
amounts of .mp3 data when playing, the buffering depending on what bitrate
encoding was used on the .mp3 files. Being portables, they have a flip up
clamshell style lid with a little window in it, and you can actually be
listening to high bitrate encoded music or low bitrate encoded OTR or Audio
books, and watch it spin up the CD, take a mouthful of data, then spin down
and stop the CD entirely until it needs more data.. lather, rinse, repeat.
In this way, since they can be used on AA battery power alone, they get
10-12 hours out of a pair of fully charged AA batteries, whereas an old
style Sony "Discman" which played ONLY regular Audio CDs, not .mp3 data CDs,
would spin the motor constantly and get maybe 1-2 hours out of a pair of
fully charged AAs and that was it..

Further, Rio Volts, along with some competing brands of portable disc based
players, have a feature called "resume" in which you can not only stop the
player entirely and when you start it again, it remembers the exact
track/minute/second where it was last playing on that CD and goes right
there to start playing when you fire it up again, but it remembers the
track/minute/second for the last TEN discs you had in it. What a wondeful
feature that is. Especially if one listens to a lot of OTR or Audio Books in
which an individual show can be many hours long..

The point I'm trying perhaps badly to make is that on a portable with a
window, or even one without a window that you can hold up to your ear to
hear what the motor is doing, putting it into pause, in the case of the Rio
Volt, or during its normal course of operation, it will spin up the CD to
get buffered audio, spin it down, then spin it back up when it needs more,
making the motor last longer (I assume) and the batteries much longer. With
a home component CD audio or DVD deck with a slide out drawer, and thus no
window, or a slot loading car deck, I don't have a clue what the deck is
doing with the disc when it's in pause mode.. whether it's still spinning
it, or whether it behaves like the Rio Volt and spins it down and stops it..

Naturally, the manuals that come with these home decks, at least the ones
I've owned, never make any mention about whether or not it's okay to leave
them in pause mode for hours on end or not..

Harv

[Mark D. Zacharias]

Well, this is a bit more than the original question.
No "regular" cd player that I'm aware of spins down at any point while in
PAUSE mode. Just sits there and spins indefinitely. Same for home DVD
players I've seen.
My computer DVD drive does seem to spin down after about 60 seconds or so.
As to your portables, I've no real experience with those, but spinning down
and restarting the motor frequently might use MORE battery power under some
circumstances, since the braking and acceleration require MUCH more current
from the batteries. Up to 100% duty cycle from the drive IC, vs. about 50%
duty cycle just maintaining a constant speed.

Mark Z.


"Harv" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Mark D. Zacharias" > wrote in message
> thlink.net...
> > Not a big problem. Essentially normal wear and tear. A couple hours
added
> to
> > the total usage of the machine.
> >
> > Mark Z.
>
> The question is, does a "normal" CD player spin down the CD when in pause
> mode for some amount of time, or does it keep spinning it continuously if
> you pause it for seconds/minutes/hours??..
>
> I've never seen an answer to this anywhere. I'd ask the same about DVD
home
> decks. If you pause a DVD deck such that it is displaying one frame of
video
> from the movie on your teevee, is the DVD disc still spinning, or is that
> single frame coming from a stored buffer and the disc itself has spun down
> so the motor isn't still turning??.. On drawer loading decks, which most
> home component players are, there's typically now window where you can see
> the actual disc, so you can't tell what's going on.
>
> On the other hand, I use Rio Volt portable audio/.mp3 CD players (a
> wonderful device if ever there was one) and these things buffer various
> amounts of .mp3 data when playing, the buffering depending on what bitrate
> encoding was used on the .mp3 files. Being portables, they have a flip up
> clamshell style lid with a little window in it, and you can actually be
> listening to high bitrate encoded music or low bitrate encoded OTR or
Audio
> books, and watch it spin up the CD, take a mouthful of data, then spin
down
> and stop the CD entirely until it needs more data.. lather, rinse, repeat.
> In this way, since they can be used on AA battery power alone, they get
> 10-12 hours out of a pair of fully charged AA batteries, whereas an old
> style Sony "Discman" which played ONLY regular Audio CDs, not .mp3 data
CDs,
> would spin the motor constantly and get maybe 1-2 hours out of a pair of
> fully charged AAs and that was it..
>
> Further, Rio Volts, along with some competing brands of portable disc
based
> players, have a feature called "resume" in which you can not only stop the
> player entirely and when you start it again, it remembers the exact
> track/minute/second where it was last playing on that CD and goes right
> there to start playing when you fire it up again, but it remembers the
> track/minute/second for the last TEN discs you had in it. What a wondeful
> feature that is. Especially if one listens to a lot of OTR or Audio Books
in
> which an individual show can be many hours long..
>
> The point I'm trying perhaps badly to make is that on a portable with a
> window, or even one without a window that you can hold up to your ear to
> hear what the motor is doing, putting it into pause, in the case of the
Rio
> Volt, or during its normal course of operation, it will spin up the CD to
> get buffered audio, spin it down, then spin it back up when it needs more,
> making the motor last longer (I assume) and the batteries much longer.
With
> a home component CD audio or DVD deck with a slide out drawer, and thus no
> window, or a slot loading car deck, I don't have a clue what the deck is
> doing with the disc when it's in pause mode.. whether it's still spinning
> it, or whether it behaves like the Rio Volt and spins it down and stops
it..
>
> Naturally, the manuals that come with these home decks, at least the ones
> I've owned, never make any mention about whether or not it's okay to leave
> them in pause mode for hours on end or not..
>
> Harv
>
>

[Harv]

"Mark D. Zacharias" > wrote in message
link.net...
> Well, this is a bit more than the original question.
> No "regular" cd player that I'm aware of spins down at any point while in
> PAUSE mode. Just sits there and spins indefinitely. Same for home DVD
> players I've seen.
> My computer DVD drive does seem to spin down after about 60 seconds or so.
> As to your portables, I've no real experience with those, but spinning
down
> and restarting the motor frequently might use MORE battery power under
some
> circumstances, since the braking and acceleration require MUCH more
current
> from the batteries. Up to 100% duty cycle from the drive IC, vs. about 50%
> duty cycle just maintaining a constant speed.
>
> Mark Z.

Yeah, I know, I strayed far afield in my reply last night.. but I can tell
you for a fact that the old style Sony Discman that plays only audio CDs
will burn through a pair of AAs in an hour or two continuously playing audio
CDs while I can get 10-12 hours out of a pair of AAs in the Rio Volt as it
spins the disc up and down as needed, and it even has a backlit LCD screen
on top along with a few minutes of anti-shock (buffering) while the old
Discman has a much smaller, unlit one, and no anti-shock buffering at all.
Even though the Discman still works fine, I use it as a paperweight now.
MP3s didn't even exist back when I bought it

Technology marches on..

Harv

[Mark D. Zacharias]

Yeah, but maybe just more efficient generally, so an "apples - to - apples"
comparison might not be possible.

Mark Z.

>old style Sony Discman that plays only audio CDs
> will burn through a pair of AAs in an hour or two continuously playing
audio
> CDs while I can get 10-12 hours out of a pair of AAs in the Rio Volt as it
> spins the disc up and down as needed, and it even has a backlit LCD screen
"Harv" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Mark D. Zacharias" > wrote in message
> link.net...
> > Well, this is a bit more than the original question.
> > No "regular" cd player that I'm aware of spins down at any point while
in
> > PAUSE mode. Just sits there and spins indefinitely. Same for home DVD
> > players I've seen.
> > My computer DVD drive does seem to spin down after about 60 seconds or
so.
> > As to your portables, I've no real experience with those, but spinning
> down
> > and restarting the motor frequently might use MORE battery power under
> some
> > circumstances, since the braking and acceleration require MUCH more
> current
> > from the batteries. Up to 100% duty cycle from the drive IC, vs. about
50%
> > duty cycle just maintaining a constant speed.
> >
> > Mark Z.
>
> Yeah, I know, I strayed far afield in my reply last night.. but I can tell
> you for a fact that the old style Sony Discman that plays only audio CDs
> will burn through a pair of AAs in an hour or two continuously playing
audio
> CDs while I can get 10-12 hours out of a pair of AAs in the Rio Volt as it
> spins the disc up and down as needed, and it even has a backlit LCD screen
> on top along with a few minutes of anti-shock (buffering) while the old
> Discman has a much smaller, unlit one, and no anti-shock buffering at all.
> Even though the Discman still works fine, I use it as a paperweight now.
> MP3s didn't even exist back when I bought it
>
> Technology marches on..
>
> Harv
>
>
>