Did anyone invent a player that can select between multiple discs?

[Uptight]

The 75-disc tower! KDS PC Controlled CD Organizer from 2001 - YouTube

I watched this video the other day about this organizer (which I never heard of until now) and was thinking:

- First, about a software that can create such catalog, for PC users, the best is WinCatalog, no question about it. I use for my BD-R collection.

- I own an external Blu-ray drive (ASUS SBW-06D5H-U), but hate its tray, it's difficult to remove and insert any disc. Internal drives were better. I know we can buy internal models with some external enclosure (for USB using), at least.

- I don't know about any player (for PC or not) that can select between multiple discs. I was told this organizer (from LGR) doesn't even have an optical drive built in. It's just a robotic library machine.

Would it be possible to create a player that can store 2 or more discs, and allow us to select which one we want?

I saw a similar idea, for vinyl. After 23s, in the movie Ghost (1990):

Ghost (1990) | Pottery Scene Unchained Melody | Silverfish TV - YouTube

[LexInHD]

Sony had long offered a line of CD/DVD/Blu-Ray jukebox players, for wealthy enthusiasts. They were wonderful looking, but had issues and were phased out in the 2010's. Other brands had offered multi-disc DVD players, to go with their racked/cabinet offerings, but few consumers bought into those and they went unnoticed, in favor of the HTIB DVD players and stand-alone single disc players. Some HITB DVD packages had multi-disc players, though they were still quite rare.

[RFK]

What you saw in Ghost was called a Jukebox. It held several dozen small vinyl discs called 45's. These were limited to one song per side which allowed them the room needed to operate smoothly. Regular 12 inch vinyl discs wouldn't work in Jukeboxes but many turntables had an auto feature allowing 4 or 5 records to be stacked on each other. Each record played to the end of side and then another would drop down and start. These automatic turntables were very popular but the process of dropping a record on top of another would gradually scratch and damage the disc.

[Stanis]

I had a 5 disc multi DVD player from Sony, it was my first DVD device. It was kind of overkill, but you could put 5 cds in it and it would shuffle tracks on all of them, which was pretty neat at the time (before mp3s). Only played DVDs singularly tho

It was large, and sturdy, but got rid of it when moving to blus

[benricci]

I mean, we've had jukeboxes for many, many decades. But I can't imagine there's really any demand or market for this when it comes to blu-ray or DVD right now. Even the big old mega-CD changers that held like 200 or 400 discs are long gone due to lack of public interest (and need).

They were (moderately) cool back in the day to store and shuffle large selections of music on disc (although many of the machines proved finicky over the years), but would you really need such a device for blu-ray in 2024? It's not like you're shuffling movie-based discs in the player for any real reason.

I just can't imagine any real demand in the marketplace...

[clamcakes]

The problem is if you ever smash one in a fit of rage it's a bit of a process to get all the discs out.

[Anthony P]

for DVD there where a few and differnt sizes. For BD there were some early on but a lot less.

e.g.
https://hometheaterreview.com/sony-b...nger-reviewed/



the issue is/was that if people rent (back in the day most people watching dvd/BD rented) a changer was not that useful. Even if someone collects films, eventually you outgrow the capacity. And unlike music where you might want to play song 4 form CD1 them song 1 from CD2.... getting up and switching disks after watching a 2h movie to watch the next one is not that big of a chore for most people and worth the cost of having several daisy chained players.

[AmishParadise]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

for DVD there where a few and differnt sizes. For BD there were some early on but a lot less.

e.g.
https://hometheaterreview.com/sony-b...nger-reviewed/

The issue is/was that if people rent (back in the day most people watching dvd/BD rented) a changer was not that useful. Even if someone collects films, eventually you outgrow the capacity. And unlike music where you might want to play song 4 form CD1 them song 1 from CD2.... getting up and switching disks after watching a 2h movie to watch the next one is not that big of a chore for most people and worth the cost of having several daisy chained players.

Sony's Blu-ray changers offer a "Rental Slot" feature. There's a "Rental Slot" hard button on the face of the unit which is tied to Slot 1. When pressed the carousel un-mounts the current disc, spins Slot 1 around to the front and the door opens. A friend of mine has a small collection, just north of 300 Blu-ray's. They leave Slot 1 of their Sony BDP-CX7000ES empty using it exclusively for rentals. I house my DVD and Blu-ray collection in Sony BDP-CX7000ES Blu-ray changers as well. I don't use any of them for rentals though. Instead I use a Sony BDP-S5000ES for rentals. The Sony BDP-S5000ES is the single disc version of the Sony BDP-CX7000ES. The hardware is identical. It just doesn't include the carousel.

[Anthony P]

my point wasn't that you can't use rented physical copies with a changer. But if every movie is rented then a changer adds no value, even if someone has a handful of films and the rest where rented (i.e. guy watches a f rented film almost every day but once a month watches one of his 12 films) it adds no value. For someone in the small hundreds it does (even if some are rented) but when you get into the thousands like myself then it loses its value again.

For the vast majority it is hard to get them to see value in a changer.

[AmishParadise]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

my point wasn't that you can't use rented physical copies with a changer. But if every movie is rented then a changer adds no value, even if someone has a handful of films and the rest where rented (i.e. guy watches a f rented film almost every day but once a month watches one of his 12 films) it adds no value. For someone in the small hundreds it does (even if some are rented) but when you get into the thousands like myself then it loses its value again.

For the vast majority it is hard to get them to see value in a changer.

I wasn't attempting to speak to the point you were trying to make. I was just making it known that Sony changers include a "Rental Slot" feature for those that choose to use the changer for rentals as well. Of course, if all someone does is rent discs a high capacity changer wouldn't be of much use. That goes without saying. A 5-disc changer might very well hold value for those that only rent discs though. They were very popular back in the glory days of DVD, both for DVD and CD playback. Everyone offered one.

As to what value Sony's high capacity DVD and Blu-ray changers hold, that depends on the individual. I take the opposite view. If I had a small collection south of 400 discs I wouldn't even bother. For me the higher my disc count the more value I find in Sony's high capacity changers. At present my DVD and Blu-ray library weighs in at just under 6,000 discs, all of which are stored for playback in Sony DVD and Blu-ray changers. I wouldn't have it any other way. To each his own naturally.

[stonesfan129]

My dad had one for CDs. They weren't cheap back in the day, but they lasted awhile as long as you replaced those rubber belts in it and lubricated it now and then.