| Product: |
Buyers Guide: DVD Players |
| Date: |
27/07/02 (2867 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: better quality than videos
Disadvantages: none
I have spent weeks researching dvd players and managed to get the perfect one for me. Hopefully this opinion will find your perfect player too!!
Things to consider:
***How are you going to link your player to your television?***
Video lead (coaxial) - probably the worst way to link up your player but it works.
Scart lead - gets you a better picture.
Now you need to check the back of your television to see how many scart sockets you have, if you only have one and you want your video going into that then your dvd player will have to go through your video player which causes problems (see later section on vcr mode). If you have two scart sockets, brilliant, one for your video and one for your dvd player.
Now the sound. If you have an Amp you will want to link your dvd player to that. To get the best sound out of your system you should link it with a Digital Audio lead, these can be a bit more pricy but worth it if you are an avid fan of movies. Other ways are with an analogue audio lead or a phono lead.
***What sort of discs do you want to play on your dvd player***
If you want to be able to play American Discs and UK discs as well as ones from other countries you will need to buy a multiregion player. Each region in the world has a different region code for their discs, UK discs are region 2, USA discs are region 1. Region 1 discs tend to be cheaper and are released sooner. If you are planning on having a DTS surround sound system you will want to play USA discs because these support DTS sound, which is better! Some UK discs now are starting to have DTS as well as Dolby 5.1.
Now you need to check that your television is compatiable for USA discs (complicated isn't it!). In your TV manual it should tell you if your television is NTSC compatable. American Discs output in NTSC and UK discs output in PAL. If your television is NTSC compatable then it doesn't matter which multiregion pl
ayer you get.
If your television is not NTSC compatable then you need to make sure that the dvd player you buy outputs NTSC in PAL50 or PAL60.
***Putting your DVD Player through a video***
If you only have one scart socket on your television you will need to either put the dvd player into the video then to the tv (if the video player has 2 scarts) or put the video into the dvd player to the tv (if the dvd player has 2 scarts).
If you are putting your dvd player through your video you will need to have vcr mode enabled (macrovision disabled). Macrovision is a code put into the player to stop you from copying films, very good idea but not if it stops you watching them as well!!! Haveing vcr mode enabled will solve this problem. The dvd player will need to be chipped for this, you can buy chips to fit yourself but it's easier to buy a player already chipped.
***Prices***
Set a maximum price before you start looking for a player. You can get dvd players for as little as £100 delivered now but you can also buy them up to £1000 plus!
***Extra Warranty***
Unless extra warranty is VERY cheap (£20) don't bother with it. You will get a 1 year manufacturers warranty anyway and after a year there will be something else better and more modern out anyway and you won't want it repaired, you may as well buy a new one!
***Where to buy from***
Shop around, shops can be just as good as the internet. Have a good look around before you buy your player. If you need advice before you buy it (if none of the above makes sense!) then go to a shop where they will know about dvd players. This doesn't include dixons!! Richer Sounds are very good and you can look at the player before you buy it then. On the internet techtronics are brilliant and glad to help with any questions you have. Just because you go here to decide what player to buy doesn't mean you have to buy it from them, although their
prices are very good.
Hopefully all of this won't be complete drivel!!!!
Summary:
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Last comments:
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- 27/07/02 Som nice suggestions ~ thanks :O) |
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- 27/07/02 Some good advice. One thing to remember is that there are two ways of making players region-free: some are chipped (i.e. a chip is inserted into the guts of the player, bypassing the region encoding), and on others you can enter a sequence into the remote to change region.
It's better to go for the latter in my opinion if you want a multiregion player. While a chipped player is more easy to use - it just plays anything you throw at it - they are also more prone to being rendered obsolete by future encoding methods. Re-chipping players is usually about as expensive as just buying a new one...
The one I bought recently (LG DVD-4950) is multi-region encoded by typing in different sequences into the remote. There is a region-free setting, however you can also just set the player to which-ever region you want. I will never have any problems with being able to play foreign discs, as I can just set my player to whatever region the disc comes from! No protection methods will ever beat me!!! |
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- 27/07/02 Very good opinion. Unfortunately I'm stuck with a budget R1 player. |
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