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Choose a DVD Player
Unlike VCR's, you may have seen DVD players used in many other places than at homes. These other places include cars, boats, while waiting for a bus, and so on. You can choose from players that are lightweight and portable to heavy all-in-one players that incorporate VCR's as well. Because there's a great demand for many different kinds of uses for these devices, the manufacturers are constantly inventing new ways to use the DVD player. The most popular categories of players, described here (and in more detail in other articles), are * Standard DVD players * Multiple DVD players * Region free DVD players * Car DVD players * Portable DVD players * DVD and VCR players * PC DVD players * Recordable DVD players Standard DVD Players The standard players are designed for home entertainment use. As such, they may be part of a larger whole, including a total home theatre system, with surround speakers and wide-screen TV's. These standard packages deliver all the basic benefits of DVD discs: higher quality of the picture and sound, access to film bonus materials (such as director interviews), commentaries, and subtitles for foreign films. Not all of the basic player packages are equal, however. By paying more for the upper-end models, you'll get features such as the digital cinema progressive, which provides clearer pictures from 24 frames per second discs on high definition TVs. Furthermore, if you're thinking of buying a whole home cinema set (many are), you might want to opt for a set from one manufacturer. The benefit of this approach is that you'll get increased interoperability between the devices in the home cinema set. Not all manufacturers provide complete home cinema sets. Variations from Standard DVD Players From the basic external DVD set, there are many variations, most important of which may be the recordable DVD player, which adds a whole new dimension to the experience with the ability to record onto a DVD disc. Multiple DVD players offer an added convenience of you being able to switch watching another disc without getting up from the sofa. Region free DVD players, meanwhile, also add another dimension of convenience, as you can watch discs made in another DVD regions than the Northern American Region 1 (there are six regions in total). Watching movies is a great way to pass time on long voyages, which is why there is a growing demand for car DVD players, usually meant for car’s back seat passengers. Similarly, a portable DVD player allows enjoying DVD entertainment regardless of the setting. Portability is also added if you have a DVD player in a laptop. However, most DVD players in operation are integrated into desktop PCs. Finally, as most have large inventories of recorded VCR tapes, VCR/DVD player combinations offer an easy way to make the transition to the DVD era. These combinations are unlikely to remain in market in the long-term, as DVD recorders become cheaper and more available.
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