In car CD players VS home CD players?

[babkin]

Why can the CD player in my car be turned off, in the middle of a track when the car is turned off, but when the car is turned on again at a later date it picks up from where the track left off. Yet my home CD player, modern portable CD machine can only start from the beginning?

Does any body know of any makes that have this ability as I regularly listen to audio books on CD and hate having to either wait till the next chapter or turn off and have to start from the beginning.

[trevHCS]

The car CD player does it by holding the position of the CD in memory which only works as long as a little bit of power is fed from the cars battery into the electronics.

I just tried the same thing with my Sony Walkman CD player and 20 minutes after stopping, it still remembered where it left off (even after auto shut off) so I assume it uses a little bit of the batteries to do the same.

Why yours doesn't do that - erm, yes. I guess it might be using the "stop" button in a more traditional manner whereby stop meant quit the track and pause meant just hang on and wait. A bit of a pain with a portable CD player however I must admit.

As for models - mine is a Sony Walkman D-NE518CK although if you're thinking of replacing it, I'd seriously think about going down the MP3 player route such as the excellent Apple iPod Nano. They are massively lighter, much smaller and can hold about 25 CDs even on the 2MB one. It can usually remember where it left off also.

Trev

[babkin]

I was not thinking so much of portable walkman cd players but the carrying boom box kind that plug in the wall, my portable cd player is brand new and plays mp3's and my Hi fi. Both of these are fed power from the wall so if it takes a charge to hold the cd position why don't they do it.

[wideboy]

You'd have to ask the manufacturers why not! It can be annoying - my car player remembers the position as does my Samsung iPod 'clone'. But none of my home players do - such is life!!

[WoWo]

It's nothing to do with memory. CD players have a laser mounted on a track which moves in and out to read the CD (much like a record player arm). In a car when you turn the power off the laser stays where it is, your home player obviously resets itself when switched off.

Try just unplugging the CD player from the wall that will have the same effect. not the best idea but would illustrate the point.