DVD Players

DVD players are the device used to play DVDs. There are many different kinds of DVD players, and this site describes the history and evolution of DVD players and provides information that you can use to make a purchase.

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DVD Players - Basics
A DVD player is a device for playing video DVDs. Most hardware DVD players have to be connected to a television set; there are also some small portable devices which have an LCD screen attached. Here are the typical contents of a DVD movie:

Up to 133 minutes of high-resolution video, in letterbox or pan-and-scan format, with 720 dots of horizontal resolution (The video compression ratio is typically 40:1 using MPEG-2 compression.)

Soundtrack presented in up to eight languages using 5.1 channel Dolby digital surround sound

Subtitles in up to 32 languages

DVD can also be used to store almost eight hours of CD-quality music per side.

The format offers many advantages over VHS tapes:

DVD picture quality is better, and many of DVDs have Dolby Digital or DTS sound, which is much closer to the sound you experience in a movie theater.

Many DVD movies have an on-screen index, where the creator of the DVD has labeled many of the significant parts of the movie, sometimes with a picture. With your remote, if you select the part of the movie you want to view, the DVD player will take you right to that part, with no need to rewind or fast-forward.

DVD players are compatible with audio CDs.

Some DVD movies have both the letterbox format, which fits wide-screen TVs, and the standard TV size format, so you can choose which way you want to watch the movie.

DVD movies may have several soundtracks on them, and they may provide subtitles in different languages. Foreign movies may give you the choice between the version dubbed into your language, or the original soundtrack with subtitles in your language.

Window to the Past
It wasn't really that long ago that VHS tapes dominated the home video market, but now, DVDs have all but wiped them out completely. Going from tape to disc gave the home theater experience a major upgrade, and ushered in an era of feature-packed special edition home video.

Evolution
By far the largest producer of DVD players is China; in 2002 they produced 30 million players, more than 70% of the world output. These producers have to pay about US$20 per player in license fees, to the patent holders of the DVD technology (Sony, Philips, Pioneer and LG Electronics) as well as for MPEG-2 licenses. To avoid these fees, China has developed the EVD standard as an intended successor of DVD; as of 2004, EVD players were only being sold in China.

Places to Go
DVD Players can be purchased at all major consumer electronics retailers.

How it works
A DVD player has to complete these tasks:

Read a DVD disk in UDF version 2 format

Optionally decrypt the data with either CSS and/or Macrovision

Decode the MPEG-2 video stream with a maximum of 10 Mbit/s (peak) or 8 Mbit/s (continuous)

Decode sound in MP2, PCM or AC-3 format and output (with optional AC-3 to stereo down sampling) on stereo connector, optical or electric digital connector

Output a video signal, either an analog one (in PAL, SECAM or NTSC format) on the color video signal connector, or a digital one on the DVI output connector

Most DVD players also allow users to play audio CDs (CDDA, MP3, etc.) and Video CDs (VCD) and include a home cinema decoder (i.e. Dolby Digital, Digital Theatre System (DTS)). Some newer devices also play videos in the DivX video compression format popular on the internet.

The Techniques
DVD Formats:

Non-recordable formats

DVD-ROM - These are pressed similarly to CDs. The reflective surface is silver or gold colored. They can be single-sided/single-layered, single-sided/double-layered, double-sided/single-layered, or double-sided/double-layered. As of 2004, new double-sided discs have become increasingly rare.

DVD-D - a new self-destructing disposable DVD format. Like the EZ-D, it is sold in an airtight package, and begins to destroy itself by oxidation after several hours.

DVD Plus - combines both DVD and CD technologies by providing the CD layer and a DVD layer. Not to be confused with the DVD+ formats below.

Recordable formats, supported by the DVD Forum

DVD-R for Authoring - a special-purpose DVD-R used to record DVD masters, which can then be duplicated to pressed DVDs by a duplication plant. They require a special DVD-R recorder, and are not often used nowadays since many duplicators can now accept ordinary DVD-R masters.

DVD-R (strictly DVD-R for General) - can record up to 4.7 GB in a similar fashion to a CD-R disc. Once recorded and finalized it can be played by most DVD-ROM players.

DVD-RW - can record up to 4.7 GB in a similar fashion to a CD-RW drive.

DVD-R DL - a derivate of DVD-R that uses double-layer recordable discs to store up to 8.5 GB of data.

DVD-RAM (current specification is version 2.1) - requires a special unit to play 4.7GB or 9.4GB recorded discs (DVD-RAM disc are typically housed in a cartridge). 2.6GB discs can be removed from their caddy and used in DVD-ROM drives. Top capacity is 9.4GB (4.7GB/side). Recordable formats, supported by the DVD+RW Alliance.

DVD+R - can record up to 4.7 GB single-layered/single-sided DVD+R disc, at up to 16x speed. Like DVD-R you can record only once.

DVD+RW - can record up to 4.7 GB at up to 16x speed. Since it is rewritable it can be overwritten several times. It does not need special "pre-pits" or finalization to be played in a DVD player.

DVD+R DL - a derivate of DVD+R that uses double-layer recordable discs to store up to 8.5 GB of data.

Control
As of 2006 the situation is reversed; DVDs make up the bulk and VHS is a slim minority. The price of a DVD player has dropped to below the level of a typical VCR (although DVD recorders are still significantly more expensive than VCRs); a low-end player with reasonable quality can be purchased for under $50 US in many retail stores and many modern computers are sold with DVD-ROM drives. Most, but not all, movie "sets" or series have been released in box sets, as have some entire seasons or selected episode volumes of older and newer television programs.

Latest Technologies
It wasn't really that long ago that VHS tapes dominated the home video market, but now, DVDs have all but wiped them out completely. Going from tape to disc gave the home theater experience a major upgrade, and ushered in an era of feature-packed special edition home video

Possible successors to DVDs

Digital Multilayer Disk (DMD) is an optical disc format developed by D Data Inc. It is based on the Fluorescent Multilayer Disc, which was created by the now-defunct company Constellation 3D. These disks have a 21 GB approximate capacity for a single side.

Blu-ray Disc (BD) is a next-generation optical disc format meant for storage of high-definition video and high-density data. The Blu-ray standard was jointly developed by a group of consumer electronics and PC companies called the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). As compared to the HD DVD format, its main competitor, Blu-ray has more information capacity per layer, 25 instead of 15 gigabytes, but may initially be more expensive to produce.

HD DVD (High Definition DVD) is a digital optical media format which is being developed as one standard for high-definition DVD. HD DVD is similar to the competing Blu-ray Disc, which also uses the same CD sized (120 mm diameter) optical data storage media and 405 nm wavelength blue laser. HD DVD is promoted by Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, and, most recently, Microsoft, HP[1], and Intel, and may be non-exclusively backed by three major studios: Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. Toshiba announced the first sales of HD DVD players set for this March with models priced at $499 and $799. Also at CES 2006, Microsoft announced that there will be an external add-on HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360 game console, due sometime this year.
At the Las Vegas CES 2006, "companies backing HD DVD said that nearly 200 titles would be available for the format by the end of the year.

DVD Regions
DVDs have the ability to encode an option which specifies which regions in the world the discs can be played. The movie studios have collectively divided the planet earth into zones which corresponds to their distribution system.

For those out there that will only play DVDs from your own region don't worry about the information on this point of the Snap. This really only affects people that collect DVDs from other parts of the world. For most DVD users you will want to play locally produced discs. When considering playing DVDs from other regions remember that the video output format is important.

So to conclude, a DVD bought in the UK won’t necessarily play in the US. Having said that, today DVD’s can be bought to play all regions.


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