There are many good players available. Video and audio performance in all modern DVD players is excellent. Personal preferences, your budget, and your existing home theater setup all play a large role in what player is best for you. Unless you have a high-end home theater setup, a player that costs under Rs 11, 000 (grey market) should be completely adequate. Make a list of things that are important to you (such as ability to play CD-Rs, ability to play Video CDs, 96 kHz/24-bit audio decoding, DTS Digital Out, internal 6-channel Dolby Digital decoder) to help you come up with a set of players. Then try out a few of the players in your price range, focusing on ease of use (remote control design, user interface, front-panel controls). Since there is not a big variation in picture quality and sound quality within a given price range, convenience features play a big part. The remote control, which you’ll use all the time, can drive you crazy if it doesn’t suit your style.
Some players, especially cheaper models, don’t properly play all discs. Before buying a player, you may want to test it with a few complex discs such as The Matrix, The Abyss, Independence Day etc.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself.
Do I want selectable sound tracks and subtitles, multiangle viewing, aspect ratio control, parental/multirating features, fast and slow playback, great digital video, multichannel digital audio, compatibility with Dolby Pro Logic receivers, on-screen menus, dual-layer playback, and ability to play audio CDs? If so, this is the wrong question to ask yourself, since all DVD players have all of these features. Hehe ...
Do I want DTS audio? If so, look for a player with the ’’DTS Digital Out’’ logo. DTS is what u get in multiplex like PVR in Delhi.
Do I want to play Video CDs or MP3? If so, check the specs for Video CD or MP3 compatibility.
Do I need a headphone jack?
Do I want player setup menus in languages other than English? (incase you are learning Chinese etc ... hehe !) If so, look for multilanguage setup feature. (Note: the multilanguage menus on certain discs are supported by all players.)
Do I want to play homemade CD-R audio discs? If so look for the ’’dual laser’’ feature. This is very important, perhaps the most important feature. If u have a CDR at home or u are fond of watching pirated movies from the local VCD rental the don’t buy a DVD player with out this feature.
Do I want to replace my CD player? If so, you might want a changer that can hold 3, 5, or even hundreds of discs.
Do I want to control all my entertainment devices with one remote control? If so, look for a player with a programmable universal remote, or make sure your existing universal remote is compatible with the DVD player.
Do I want to zoom in to check details of the picture? If so, look for players with picture zoom. hmmm ... luxury !
Do I want to play SVCDs? If so, check for the SVCD logo. If you are not aware of these its a new format VCDs format is DIVx.
Does my receiver have only optical or only coax digital audio inputs? If so, make sure the player has outputs to match. Digital are there in most mordern music system that support DTS.
Do I care about black-level adjustment?
BUT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO GO IN FOR A CODE FREE DVDs. Now what is this ??
What is a Code free DVD player?
A Code free DVD player is a DVD player that is capable of playing DVD discs from around the world. DVD discs are encoded into 6 different regions.
Why are there different regions?
Motion picture studios in the USA wanted to control the release of movies around the world using DVD region codes.. Movies are released on DVD at different times around the world, typically America and Canada first, Australia and Japan 6 months later, and Europe 12 months after US release. In some instances, DVD movies are available for purchase in America and Canada before they are released in European cinemas. Due to the high quality of DVD and the movie release system used by Hollywood, 6 regions were establish to prevent people from watching Region 1 movies before they were released on Regions 2-6.
DVD Region Locking is a system used to control which DVD movies play on which DVD Players. The regions are broken down as follow:
Region 1 - The U.S., U.S. territories and Canada
Region 2 - Europe, Japan, the Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Greenland
Region 3 - Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong
Region 4 - Mexico, South America, Central America, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Caribbean
Region 5 - Russia (okay, former Russia), Eastern Europe, India, most of Africa, North Korea, Mongolia
Region 6 - China
What does this mean to the end consumer?
This means that movies from Region 1 (USA & Canada) WILL NOT play on a DVD player regions 2-6. Effectively Region 1 discs play only on Region 1 DVD players, Region 2 discs play only on Region 2 DVD players and so on.
How do I know whether a DVD Player is Code Free or not ?
Well you can look on the net. But most of the companies do not advertize it as this want to discourage it. WFor eg in my Panasonic DVD player its written its Zone 3 but still it plays all zone CDs. But still you can lok for a zone number at the back of the DVD player. If you fid ’’ALL’’ written at the back then its a zone free (although u may not find one!). Similarly the DVDs also have a zone number at the back of the DVD cover.
And the there is macrovision copy protection
Macrovision is a form of copyguard protection encoded into DVD discs that prevents people from making illegal copies. A standard DVD player contains a special Macrovision-enabled digital-analog conver chip that is activated when a DVD is played. The activated chip applies copy protection to the analog output and causes copies made on most VCRs to be substantially degraded.
Most of the Code free DVD players do not process copyguard protection. As a result, you can safely make backup copies of yor DVDs without worrying about a distorted recording. Please check the dvd player specification to see if the player is macrovision free if you are looking for that feature.