CD Player

[evildragon]

I just noticed, that on my Model 1 Sega CD, when a CD is on pause long enough to make the READY light blink, when unpaused, it plays that track from the begining.

Anyone else have that happen?

[Joe Redifer]

I imagine that might depend on the game.

[evildragon]

Talking about the CD Player, music CDs, you know, the Sega CD's BIOS.

[Joe Redifer]

If I actually owned any CDs I'd try it. Oh wait, I have some CD-Rs.

[evildragon]

CD-R's work.. That was what I was playing (a mix CD).

[Myrkwood]

It looked really weird the CD player... it just amused me because it tried to look really modern (and probably was for the time) but looking at it now it just looks a bit odd.

[evildragon]

You must be thinking of the Model 2 Sega CD.

I use the Model 1, it resembles a real CD player deck.
http://blackevilweredragon.spymac.com/scd.mov

Though, my question hasn't been answered yet. XD

[Joe Redifer]

Yeah, mine does that too. The BIOS seems to be programmed that way. It only takes about 30 seconds or so for the disc to even spin down in the first place.

[Blades]

I wonder why this was done.

After all, that pause time-limit was originally implemented on VCRs because if you pause the tape for long enough, it eventually starts degrading the actual tape. But this makes on sense in a CD application, why would Sega possibly do that?

[evildragon]

Well, to prevent wear on the spindle motor..

But to start over on the track? That makes no sense.

[Blades]

Oh, Right lol.

Yeah, maybe they were just too lazy to make it store the time signature somewhere? Or there was only space to store the track # and not the actual time although this seems unlikely. I need to see if my CDX does this...

[evildragon]

It shows the time I paused on, on screen. When I hit play, it just restarts the track, it KNEW where it was though.

[Blades]

Oh,

This gets more puzzling by the post lol.

Maybe...it just cant seek to that close a time? But this seems so unlikely since it should if it's used for Data CDS like sega cd games.

It seems to be just a sega programming boo-boo though.

[0x15e]

One thing to keep in mind is that the Sega CD came out before it was common to have drives that handled audio CDs like data CDs (as in, each sector on the disc was individually addressable). Digital audio extraction wasn't common on cd-rom drives until a few years later and even then those drives carried a price premium.

It could be that the drive they used just couldn't seek to the specific sector where it was when it left off and there was no point in trying to fix it in software.

Of course this is all purely speculation.

[Joe Redifer]

It could be that the drive they used just couldn't seek to the specific sector where it was when it left off and there was no point in trying to fix it in software.
If that's the case, then the TurboGrafx CD player (which is much older) is far more advanced.

[Blades]

Well, maybe your TurboGrafx (gotta have that G capitalized) just doesnt spin down the spindle as fast as the sega cd does and therefore keeps the position you paused at longer.

[evildragon]

I just checked, when the spindle spins down on the Sega CD, the laser remains in the SAME spot.. When I unpause it, it moves back to the beginning of the track.

No excuse, poor programming on SEGA's part.

[Blades]

I wonder, does the model 2 do this?

[Joe Redifer]

No excuse, poor programming on SEGA's part.
Agreed. I wonder if the Japanese Mega-CD did this, or if Sega of America had it put in to the US BIOS because Sega of America has always had a habit of ruining things as much as possible for American gamers. ;)

[evildragon]

I have the BIOS to all Sega CDs, tomorrow I'll check this.