Chances are you already have a DVD player. But is it up to date? A little research and a few extra bucks is all it takes to get a killer player that does a lot more than movies. And burning your own DVDs is now easier — and cheaper! — than ever before.
Understanding the TechnologyWhat’s progressive-scan video? Which recordable-DVD format is the best? We answer the most commonly asked technical questions.
Changers
Progressive-Scan and Upconversion
Sound
Recording Formats
DVD Recorders with Built-in VCRs or Hard-Disk Recorders
Photo Display
Music Playback
Understanding Our Lab Data
Shopping Tips
Before heading for the stores with your wish list in hand, here are some fundamentals to keep in mind.
Setup
What you need to know to hook up your new player or recorder.
Check out S&V's Best, our recommendations on the best gear to buy right now.
Shopping Tips
Before heading for the stores with your wish list in hand, here are some fundamentals to keep in mind:
Stick with Reputable Brands and Retailers
Be wary of deals that seem too good to be true — especially online. While megastores can offer a big selection and big discounts, specialty retailers may have dedicated home theater demo rooms and can offer much more personal service.
Bring Demo Discs You Know and Love
There can be big differences in the video quality of DVDs, so it’s a good idea to bring some favorites of your own to the store. The Sound & Vision Home Theater Tune-Up DVD is excellent for evaluating a system’s video (and audio) performance.
Take Your Time
Don’t let anyone rush you. Sure, you’ll probably want to buy something right now, but resist those impulses. There’s no way you can make a good decision in a few minutes.
Check Out the Remote
You’re going to be spending a lot of time with the remote control, so consider how easy it is to use. Backlighting or glow-in-the-dark keys can be handy when you’re watching in a darkened room. And make time while you’re in the store to navigate the onscreen menus and operate basic player functions from the remote. If the remote feels awkward or seems too difficult to learn, you might want to consider a different player.
Don’t Neglect the Boring Details
Make sure the player will fit into your equipment cabinet or rack. Sounds obvious, but...
And make sure you have the types of connecting cables you need, in the right lengths. Once you get your gear home and are ready to set it up, you’re not going to want to go back to the store because you need a longer component-video cable or a Toslink fiber-optic cable for a digital audio connection.
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Understanding the TechnologyChangers
Single-disc DVD players are the norm and fit most folks’ needs, but changers abound, too. Most DVD/CD changers come in one of two basic formats: five-disc “carousel” changers and 100- to 400-disc “megachangers,” most of which feature substantial disc- and title-sorting, display, and retrieval abilities. Clearly, the allure of changers comes mostly from the audio side: who wants to shuffle-play chapters from among several hundred movies the way you would CD tracks? But the convenience of having your whole movie library sortable and quickly available can be mighty attractive just the same.
Progressive-Scan and Upconversion
If you have an HDTV, you’ll get the best possible picture from DVDs by choosing a player with a progressive-scan output, which will provide a cleaner and smoother-looking picture. Most progressive-scan players cost only a bit more than standard ones, so there’s no good excuse not to at least consider them. To reap the benefits of this technology, you’ll need to use the player’s component-video jacks. Most players don’t come with component-video cables, so you’ll have to buy them separately.
Because of the different frame rates used for film (24 frames per second, or fps) and video (30 or 60 fps), movies and other film-originated programs are transferred to video by a process known as 2:3 pulldown, which converts film’s lower frame rate to the higher one used for video. For optimal picture quality, a progressive-scan DVD player must detect film-based material and handle 2:3 pulldown properly in the deinterlacing process. Nearly all of today’s progressive-scan players do this, but some do it noticeably better than others. A critical eye on demanding material — like clear, slow pans across static images with sharp diagonal lines — can reveal the difference between the best 2:3 pulldown processing and bad or even merely adequate performance. On a player that does a poor job, diagonal lines will look jagged.
If your HDTV has either a DVI or HDMI input, another upgrade that’s worth the extra money is a DVI or HDMI output. You’ll generally get a more pristine picture with these connections because they keep the video signal digital all the way from the DVD to the TV, eliminating a whole stage of digital-to-analog-to-digital conversion.
Players with these connectors go even further by upconverting the standard video on a DVD to an HDTV format, either 720p or 1080i. What you’re seeing isn’t true high-definition — the player can’t actually add detail to the picture — but you’d be surprised how close it looks to the real thing.
Sound
DVDs can carry a range of audio options, from mono (classic films) to stereo to Dolby Digital or DTS multichannel surround sound. Then there are the high-resolution, usually six-channel, DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD (SACD) options (see Music Playback) . All DVD players deliver audio in at least two formats: two-channel analog audio (via stereo line-level RCA jacks) and digital audio via an optical or coaxial (RCA) jack. Some players provide both types of digital audio outputs for hookup convenience.
Connect the digital output to a corresponding input on a digital surround receiver, preamp, or processor, and you can enjoy the movie-theaterlike multichannel soundtrack included on the vast majority of DVDs. Almost all DVDs have Dolby Digital, and some include DTS as well, but the digital connection can be set to deliver CD audio in stereo instead if you don’t have a multispeaker surround sound setup. In either case, when you use the digital connection, the ultimate audio quality depends on the performance of your receiver or surround processor, not the DVD player.
The DVD player’s analog audio outputs provide stereo (or two-channel mono from discs of old movies), which on most movies is Dolby Surround-encoded. That means it can be decoded by good old analog Dolby Pro Logic (or Dolby Pro Logic II or IIx) if you lack a Dolby Digital/DTS-capable component. But there’s more. Many DVD players also include multichannel analog outputs (left, center, right, left and right surround, and subwoofer) for their built-in Dolby Digital/DTS decoding. Generally, there’s no advantage to using these unless you have an older receiver or preamp that has multichannel analog inputs but can’t do digital multichannel decoding on its own. In fact, in most cases you get more flexible bass-management options by making the digital connection and using the A/V receiver or preamp’s decoding. Besides, a single digital interconnect cable is a lot less cumbersome than six analog ones.
See Surround Sound for more information.
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Recording Formats
The big question when it comes to DVD recorders is, which disc format should you buy into — DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, or DVD-RAM? Which format “family” is best? All of these formats offer the same video and audio quality, so which ones you settle on will depend on more practical concerns — like who you plan to share your discs with (few players handle every recordable format) or which format your computer’s DVD drive uses.
DVD-R (“dash R”) and DVD+R (“plus R”) are both write-once formats. Whatever you record on these discs is final — no editing or “recording over.” DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM discs, on the other hand, are erasable, so you can edit them and record on them over and over again. Most decks record and play discs in either the “dash” or the “plus” camp. A few so-called “universal” recorders can record and play both DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW discs, and most DVD-RAM decks also record and play either DVD-R or both DVD-R and DVD-RW discs, but not DVD+R/RW.
If you regularly record TV shows and also like to send your friends recordings of programs they’ve missed, go with a “plus R” or “dash R” deck. You might want to look for a machine that will let you manually insert chapter markers while recording, something many recorders don’t allow. This will let you easily skip commercials during playback — a time- and brain cell-saver your pals will appreciate, too. And if you’re looking to make the most of your prime-time TV viewing, DVD-RAM decks let you watch a program you previously recorded — say, last week’s episode of The Apprentice — at the same time you’re recording a new episode on the same disc.
DVD Recorders with Built-in VCRs or Hard-Disk Recorders
If you still have a sprawling collection of VHS tapes, a more useful spin on DVD than a basic player might be a DVD/VHS combo that puts a DVD player or recorder in the same chassis as a VHS Hi-Fi VCR, saving valuable shelf space. In inexpensive combos, the DVD and VHS sections usually share the same composite/S-video output, which can simplify setup. Combos that record on both discs and tape tend to be a little more expensive than bare-bones DVD recorders and will have a separate progressive-scan component-video output for the DVD side.
Unless you’ve been in a monastery for the past five years, you’ve probably heard of the revolutionary TiVo and ReplayTV video recorders. Hard-disk recorders like these let you watch TV programs at your leisure, scan them in forward or reverse — even while they’re still being recorded! — and either save or erase them and record others in their place. A number of new DVD recorders have built-in hard drives, giving you the option of recording loads of programs and transferring only the “keepers” to DVD.
The hard-drive capacity in DVD/hard-disk combo recorders varies from 80 to 160 gigabytes (GB), with the average being 120 GB — enough for about 30 hours of TV at the highest-quality record setting, or more if you’re willing to settle for a lower-quality picture. A few DVD/hard-disk recorders, including models from Toshiba and Pioneer, come with TiVo’s electronic program guide (EPG) interface, a fee-based service with many cool features — like Season Pass, which automatically finds and records every episode of your favorite TV shows. But many other combos simply provide TV Guide On Screen, a free, less elaborate EPG that’s continuously updated and lets you record a program by selecting its listing in the guide.
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Photo Display
While the result might not be as thrilling as watching slideshows of your parents’ vacations when you were a kid, some DVD players let you use your TV to view digital snapshots stored on disc in JPEG format. A few can also handle Kodak Picture CDs — a CD-ROM you can get instead of prints when Kodak processes a roll of film. Another photo-friendly option on some DVD players is a flash-media slot for your camera’s memory card.
Music Playback
DVD players do more than just play movies. They’re fine CD players, too, and most new models can play MP3 music files that you’ve burned onto CD. But if you’re really into downloading music, why not get a player that can also handle WMA files so you can listen to homemade discs of tunes you’ve bought online?
When shopping around for a DVD player, you’ll run across models that feature DVD-Audio or Super Audio CD (SACD) playback. If you’re wondering what the bleep those are, they’re “high-resolution,” surround sound music formats aimed mostly at audiophiles. They provide a music-listening experience that draws you in like a first-rate movie soundtrack. The catalog of SACD and DVD-Audio titles is minuscule, but there are some great recordings.
Players designed to handle SACDs are usually incompatible with DVD-Audio discs, and vice versa, though universal players can handle both formats — and much more. To experience the studio-quality sound that DVD-Audio and SACD can produce, you’ll need to connect the player’s six multichannel analog audio output jacks to corresponding input jacks on your receiver (assuming it has them — most recent models do). Usually, these jacks are the only way to get the high-res signals into your receiver, but a handful of (expensive) players and receivers now feature digital SACD/DVD-Audio connections via a one-cable IEEE 1394 (a.k.a. FireWire or i.Link) or proprietary interface.
Understanding Our Lab Data
How to read our lab tests for DVD players.
Setup
Hooking up your new player or recorder can be easy if you follow these simple steps.
Perplexed by mysterious jacks on your A/V gear? Our comprehensive guide will help you hook it all up.
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