DVD Megachangers
Why waste your precious relaxation time manually changing discs when a machine can do it for you? Buy a DVD megachanger that can hold 300 or more discs, and you can sort through your entire collection without ever touching a single disc. And since DVD players can also play CDs, you can use your changer to hold your CD collection as well. Deposit your discs in the machine, program in the title and track information, and you can throw your jewel boxes and space-hogging storage racks away. And like CD changers, DVD changer mechanisms don’t degrade A/V performance one bit.

Designs differ, but most megachangers use a circular rack that holds discs vertically and spins around to bring your selection to the playing position. Access time is important. You don’t want a changer that takes so long to switch from one disc to another you could have done it faster by hand. Also, make sure it displays all of the information necessary to identify which disc is which and that you can easily enter title and track info in its memory. Many changers let you create your own playlists and group discs by musical genre and other categories.

Progressive-Scan Video Output
DVD movies offer impressive video quality — especially compared with videotape. All DVD-Video players have composite- and S-video outputs, and many include a regular component-video output, which delivers the signal via three cables. Going from composite- to S-video can bring a dramatic improvement in picture quality, while moving up to component video usually offers more subtle improvements. But if you want the ultimate that the DVD format can provide, look for a player with a progressive-scan component-video output. (To learn how progressive scanning works, see “Improving Your Image,” May 2001.)