CompuServe Messages

Quite right Art, they do all read/play CAV and CLV. BUT, playing a CLV disk is a long way from controling a CLV disk. In other words unless you have a very high end Laser Disk Player you wont be able to seek individual frames of video or pause on a give frame. In general, that functionality is the domain of the CAV format disk. Both industrial and home laser disk players, when a CAV disk is present offer a full range of features, like freeze frame, variable speed play and bidirectional playing (not all players have all features however). The CAV supports these features because a significant amount of the disk space is devoted to information that allows random access of all frames. I don't know if that information is in the form of time code, SMPTE or some other digital information. This is why a movie that is in CLV format might be distributed on one disk, while the same movie in CAV format might take 2 disks (using 3-4 sides). A CLV disk holds about 50 minutes of film (with audio), while a CLV disk only about 30 minutes. -Lou