DVD Players Buying Guide: What You Need to Know
Image and sound quality
The maximum image quality of DVDs is 720p or, what is the same HD ready. However, today, it is quite common to find DVD players that support 1080p or Full HD image resolutions. Of course, they are an interesting bet. After all, you will not only play content from DVD discs.
Types of the disc that can read
Current DVD players can read different types of disc formats, either DVD or CD. That without having Blu-Ray players, which in addition to the previous ones, can also read discs in this format. The most common are the following.
- DVD-R: They are recordable DVDs. Its storage capacity is 4.7 GB.
- DVD-RW: That allows both recording and deleting and re-recording information.
- DVD + R: They are similar to DVD-R, but created by other manufacturers. They can only be recorded once.
- CD-R: It is a type of recordable CD. It supports recording in several sessions, although the copied information cannot be deleted or overwritten.
- CD-RW: This type of CD does allow you to erase information and overwrite it.
File formats with which it is compatible
When choosing a DVD player, it is also necessary to take into account the different audio and video file formats with which it is compatible. Then you can check which are the most popular.
AVI (Audio Video Interleave): It is a video and audio format developed by Microsoft. It does not stand out for ensuring the best image quality, although it is one of the most used.
WMV / WMA (Windows Media Video / Audio): Also developed by Microsoft. It guarantees a good image quality. It is ideal for Blu-Ray and HD DVD.
MOV: Developed by Apple, it offers better image quality than the AVI format.
FLV: It is the Adobe audio and video file format. They can offer a high definition image quality.
MKV: One of its main advantages is that it allows the encoding of files of almost any type.
MPG: It can be MPG-1, MPG-2, MPG-3, and MPG-4. The first is already obsolete. The MPG-2 format offers 720 × 486 resolutions and is the one used in DVD video.
The MPG-3 is also known as MP3. The MPG-4 or MP4 is very common in mobile devices and can store audio, image, video, and subtitles in the same file. It allows video in high definition.
DivX: Record a movie with image quality similar to that of the DVD on a CD.
Xvid: An evolution of the previous one that stands out for offering better image quality and for being compatible with most DVD players.
Connectivity
Nowadays, it is essential that you choose a DVD player that has an HDMI port since it allows you to stream video and audio in digital format. In this way, you can enjoy a better image and sound quality. In the very hypothetical case that it had no HDMI output, then it should have an S-Video output and an RCA audio output.
Nor should a USB port be missing. They are tremendously useful since through them you can connect USB sticks, external hard drives and other types of similar devices. And, of course, much better if it is compatible with the 3.0 protocol, which allows much higher transfer speeds.