How to buy your new DVD player (Buyers Guide: DVD Players)

Member Name: bigdoug

Product:	Buyers Guide: DVD Players
Date:	16/02/09 (100 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Avoid paying for features you don't need

Disadvantages: That new model they bring out just as yours is delivered!

What to look when buying your new DVD player - always try find those features you need for least price you can secure one.

Do you have a television?

Sounds like a daft question but unless you opt for a portable offering that has its own screen for watching on the move or from screens in the headrests of your Hummer, you will need a television to use the DVD player of your choice.

Do you need to play Foreign DVDs?

If your television supports either NTSC and/or SECAM playback the video standards of North America and mainland Europe respectively then you may choose to by a "Multi-regional" facility for you DVD player allowing you to play DVDs purchased around the world. DVDs are recorded with a local audience in mind to suit the local standards of DVD player available around the World. To this end the globe is divided into regions for DVDs. They are:

Region 0 - No Region Coding
Region 1 - United States of America, Canada
Region 2 - Europe, including France, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Arabia, Japan and South Africa
Region 3 - Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo and Indonesia
Region 4 - Australia and New Zealand, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America
Region 5 - India, Africa, Russia and former USSR countries
Region 6 - Peoples Republic of China
Region 7 - Not Unused
Region 8 - Airlines/Cruise Ships
Region 9 - Expansion (often used as region free)

Do you backup computer files onto DVDs?

If you back up you computer files you may want the ability to review, pictures, sounds and video on your TV without your computer. As far as archiving video material onto DVD. If you keep them in either DivX or AVI format rather than transcoding them into DVD-compatible VOB files. This saves both space on the DVD that your video takes up as well as dramatically-reducing the processing time needed to create the larger VOB files before they are saved onto the DVD.

What television do you have intend to use with your DVD player?

DVD players do not allow you to connect to your television with an RF ariel-style cable, as is the case with VCR recorders, so you must have a matching connectors on both the television and the DVD player.

For CRT televisions: These may connect your DVD player with a SCART video connector.

For LCD televisions, you may have either a HD-Ready (720p/1080i) or Full HD (1080p) resolution screen. So you should look for an "Upscaling" DVD player, that can make the most of all you legacy DVDs on your new television, but you should only choose a DVD player that upscales to either the 720p or 1080p standard to match your LCD television and connect it to the DVD player with an HDMI cable, as by the time you upgrade your television the cost of both will be reduced when you need to purchase them.

Summary: Buy cheaply to meet your immediate needs only - as the cost of technology falls