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DVD was first used for movies, there is more storage room than other media storage types like cds. They are also able to record movies on them that are over 3 hours long on one side. DVDs are now available in most of your rental video stores, and can be bought at most of your local stores like, Tesco and Blockbuster video rental stores. Now is the time to change from a video player to a dvd player. It looks like the video player is dying like beta did. You can also pick up DVD players for under £40 from top shops such as Comet, Currys and Tesco.

Recommended Resources

• Comet - Comet supply a wide range of DVD Players and DVD's.
• Dixons - Dixons also stock a wide range of electrical brands.
• DVD Players UK - Online store offering the very latest in brand name multiregion dvd.
• DVD Talk - no-nonsense movie news and information about DVDs including.
• DVD Forum - Click here to see the resolutions.
• DVD Demystified - the best-selling book about DVD technology.

Dvd essentially has these properties,

• bigger, faster than CD.
• hold cinema-like video.
• better-than-CD audio.
• canstore still photos, and computer data.

Dvd players also usually support,

• language choice
  
• playback: such as pause, step, slow, fast, and scan.
• random play and repeat play.
  
• parental lock
• playback of audio CDs.
  
• playback of selected sections in a desired sequence.
  
• recognition of DTS Digital Surround audio

Region 2 is the European dvd movie release number. Dvd movies are broken down into regions. Region 1 dvd are for the USA & Canada and will not play on a DVD player regions 2 - 6. Effectively Region 1 discs play only on Region 1 DVD players, Region 2 discs play only on Region 2 DVD players and so on. The reason for the different regions is that movies are released worldwide at different times, and therefore movie companies don't want people in Europe watching a dvd from America which was released 12 months before the european release. Movies are usually released as America and Canada first, Australia and Japan 6 months later, and Europe 12 months after US release. Basically the regions were created to prevent people from watching Region 1 movies before they were released on Regions 2-6.

Dvds are broken down into worldwide regions for when they are relased,

1 USA & Canada
2 Europe & Japan
3 South East Asia
4 Latin America & Australia
5 Russia, Rest of Asia and Africa
6 China

Therefore a mult-region dvd player will play dvds from any region.

Digital Theater Systems is a high quality surround sound system, which is used in many cinemas. The data rate is much higher in comparison to Dolby Digital or MPEG2, thus providing the highest sound quality in your home cinema. Dedicated to delivering the “Ultimate Entertainment Experience,” DTS has created a media-delivery format that makes audio tracks sound more dynamic, more realistic and more closely matching the original than other digitally encoded soundtracks and consumer media. More good quality dvd players now come with dts.

An integrated Dolby Digital decoder for a dvd player provides the analogue signals for front, centre, and rear speakers as well as the subwoofer. Just connect your amplifier with 5.1 input to obtain digital surround sound. There is no need for an external decoder. Plenty of dvd players are now also coming with 6.1 dolby digital sound. Many DVD-Video releases display icons that show the channel configuration and the number of audio channels (the sound mode) in each soundtrack.

Since video signals are recorded as digital components in DVD Video, a better playback quality will be experienced when using the S-Video connection from the DVD player to the TV. S-video output is currently quite an expensive feature to have on a dvd player, plus you need your dvd video componants to be up to a similar standard. S-video is people wanting a premium dvd player experience.

User Rating -
Sony DVPNS30

The first time I tested this player was with my Sony 42" rear projection screen. I used the component video output to connect the DVD player to the screen. For such a long cost player the quality of picture was outstanding, this may have been helped by my quality brand component video cable which cost more than the player at £70.00, LOL. I've had no problems using my copied DVD's on it. Getting back to the picture quality, for the price it shows the depth of the picture in an enhanced manner by removing the background noise. I this price bracket you can buy some very poor quality DVD players, so this is a bargain.....off to the shops quick!

User - Tom Davies

Popularity
Value for money
Ability to find on the Net
Better value than high street

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A DVD holds so much more data than a video, and the prices keep coming down on the uk versions of DVD players. I think VHS has its days numbered to, the DVD movie quality is so much better than any VHS tape. You can get DVD-ROM recorders now, so as soon as the home DVD player recorders are out, VHS looks like it will go the way BETA did, dead.