I've been lurking in this forum for some time, and as this is my first post, I wanted to mention that I think the level of expertise, knowledge, patience and professionalism here is exceptional! Qualities not often seen on internet forums!

Now for my question, and I have tried searching the forums, but I haven't found what I'm looking for, and much of what I found that was helpful is almost six months old.

I am looking for a mega changer (~300 discs) that can handle DVD-Video (interlaced and progressive), DVD-Audio, CD-Audio, CD-Video, CD-R(W) and MP3-encoded discs.

I have found such an animal in the Kenwood DV-5900M, which does pretty much everythig except CD-Video and SACD. (Which I think I can live with--my sony DVPS-9000ES does these.)

Do you guys know of any other products similar to this Kenwood? My primary problem is that I have a friend that works at the local hi-fi shop who can get me GREAT deals, but they don't carry Kenwood! Sony, Pioneer, Onkyo, Yamaha, even Krell, Sunfire and Martin-Logan...but no Kenwood! Go figure...

Any ideas...? Thanks in advance for your help.

-Mike

Mike,

If y CD-Video you mean VCD, the 5900M does play it. I haven't tried it yet, but the manual does say it plays vcds.

Slocko,

Ah! Thanks. I was just going off what I saw on the Kenwood web site, and they didn't mention VCD.

Perhaps you know: Does this thing have dual-laser pickup, or is it single laser? The web site calls it "twin focus laser pickup." To me that sounds like single laser, but I'm not sure.

-Mike

Mike,

Not sure but if you go to their support page there is an 800 number. Call them up and choose technical support.

Does it have to do with playing both sides of a dvd? The 5900 can do that, but I think it actually flips the disc.

By the way, on the main 5900 thread I have posted some flaws I have found with the unit. Most of these flaws disappear if you buy the expensive Entre hub.

Mountain, the twin-focus pickup sounds like a single laser that can focus at two different beam widths, because different formats have different pitches (distance between tracks) and pit sizes.

Larry

Twin focus is a single laser, as Larry says.

Bummer about the single laser pick up. I understand (and perhaps it's hype) that twin- or multi-laser pickups are better than single, multi-focus lasers. Guess I need to go searching the forums again...

Nuts, this Kenwood box was starting to sound pretty good, notwithstanding the peculiar operation noted by Slocko in the "other" post. Thanks for the reference, and the FYIs, Slocko! I think I can live with most of the oddities you observed if I can just get over the single-laser pickup and the disc-swapping method of playing two-sided disks...

Well, any other mega changers out there that do DVD-V, DVD-A, CD, CD-R(W), and MP3? Y'know what I really want is a reference-quality mega changer that does DVD-V, DVD-A, CD, VCD, CD-R(W), MP3, SACD and HDCD with twin-laser, and no mechanical flip-o-matic. Wouldn't that be nifty...and expensive?

Thanks again, all. Any more ideas?

-Mike

Mountain,

Just for argument sake, how many dual sided discs do you own? It seems to me most DVDs that are dual layer have wide screen format on one side and pan-and-scan on the other, and you wouldn't really watch both sides. Also issues that have enough content to fill up more than one side of a disc come in multi-disc sets. In all the movies I have rented or bought, I can honestly only remember having to flip a disc once. But I know how it is, once you get your mind set on one thing like that you feel like you are "settling" for something lesser if you don't get it.

Don

Don, I am right with you, but I do have a few concert dvd's that require switching sides so that feature could be nice. For the most part its a bonus though. Now that I think of it, it would be great to have... Ok, I need to stop before I feel an upgrade urge coming on.