Zen Xtra - disk reading and play

Quick question..... just wondering.....
I have the 60GB version of the Zen Xtra.
When the player is playing back a track, is it reading directly from the HDD and playing it on "the fly"; or is it like CD/MP3 players that have anti-skip protection where the data is being read 30 or 45 seconds into the future?
Curious?
-Stripe
NOMAD II MG
60 GB ZenXtra 66% full

The player doesn't have any specific skip protection for reasons outlined here in the Zen FAQ at Nomadness.net.
The player *does* cache data but this is for battery life reasons, and of course dependent on the type of track.

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