This short article is written for those non-geeks who are on the verge of purchasing a DVD player. Readers carrying an above average knowledge of music systems/dvd players will find my article a bit elementary so please give this a skip. Others read on….
Today ( Dec 30th 2007) if you are going to purchase a DVD player then it MUST have the following features:
a)DIVX/Xvid capability
b)MP4 capability
c)USB Port
d) 6 Channel sound output option
Preferable Features
1) Inbuilt Amplifier
2) HDMI Output
3) Card Reader
Before going into the details of the above mentioned points let me give you a short idea of the things inside the box. Here, I am referring as box, to the normal slim dvd players that are available in the market in the price range Rs. 1500 to Rs. 4000.
The hardware of DVD player consists of three distinct black-boxes.
1) The mechanical Part: which manages the disc loading/unloading, lens movements , lens etc
2) The electronic part: the circuitry which is responsible for retrieving the sounds from the disc and presenting it to us in an audible form
3) The power supply : transformers and voltage regulators responsible for providing the power to the different components.
No matter which make you go for, the mechanical assembly is the same in all the models. Not only that, there are only about 10 manufacturers in China(source:Alibaba.com) which make more than 80 percent of the worlds DVD and CD assemblies. All the reputed brands selling in India get their disc loading mechanisms from them. So whichever make model you go for, there is a very high chance that the assembly is from one of the big ten. There is so little differentiation technology wise that these assemblies are a commodity now. The only difference is in the lens.
There is a common perception in the industry that the Korean lens/lasers are better compared to Japanese/Chinese ones. I am yet to notice a difference in the new ones but I can say with confidence that once the systems gets older and the lens collects a fair amount of dust even then LG and Samsung players continue reading the discs with ease whereas other makes have to strain..and at times will give disc read errors. Having said that, I would like to put on record, that if the lens is cleaned regularly then there is absolutely no performance difference between the cheapest and the costliest systems available. You can use a commonly available lens cleaner DVD every week or so. It is also a good idea to keep the system covered when not in use and at night, because during the night the dust collects due to lack of movement inside homes.
If the sales persons tries to push a particular brand based on their mechanical or lens parts then take it with a pinch of salt.
Rest of this article continued on the comments below..please check them to read the complete article....