DVD Players

The first dvd player came on the market in ’97, we’ve come a long way since then. The word DVD means Digital Video Disc also known as Digital Versatile Disc and it was invented by Sony, Toshiba, Philips and Time Warner in 1995. It is a storage system for data and video and can store a lot of data on it.

A DVD player plays discs, such as DVD-Video and DVD-Audio. With a DVD player you can also play audio and video CD’s on it. Some DVD players also have a home cinema decoder which can allow the viewer to see and experience the movie as if they are in a theater. Some terms such as DVD-ROM (read only memory) can read only, DVD-R (recordable) can record things on it only once and DVD-RW (re-writable) is a DVD that can have things written on it more than once.

DVD’s with video content on it are known as DVD Data discs.

Some DVD player devices that are newer will also play a movie video that is in a compressed format such as the MPEG-4 ASP (Moving Picture Experts Group) and the RMVB (Real Media Variable Bitrate) which are both also quite popular on the Internet and produce better videos with greater quality picture and sound.

DVD players are also compatible with an audio CD, and since they come in wide-screen and standard size screens for any TV to which it can connect, now the viewer can choose the type of screen they want to watch the movie on.

As for the soundtrack of a DVD movie, there may be several selections to choose from on the DVD. There is a function on the actual disc when it is played that shows that choice. Foreign movies many DVD’s have a dubbed version in English or a version with sub-titles in English. So the movie can be sold in various markets and there is no need for different language DVD’s.

DVD’s are just as thick as CD’s and are made the same way as a CD. The CD is created in the same manner as a DVD, by injection molding onto a plastic disc which is about 1.2 millimeters in thickness. CD’s can be played on any DVD player that is compatible. An additional item that comes included with most DVD players is a USB (Universal Serial Bus) video recorder.

Many of the DVD players are cheaper than a VCR and need to be connected to a TV, although there are also portable DVD players that people use when they are traveling. These players have an LCD screen that can be attached to it, as well as speakers, including stereo speakers. Those traveling by car or plane can take these portable DVD players with them and keep in touch with the latest information they need on their trip.

DVD players also work on a computer which has a DVD-ROM, and so the DVD can also be viewed on the computer, as well as any monitor or screen.

China is the largest producer of DVD players, although they need to pay a license fee to the patent holders such as Sony, Time Warner, Philips and Toshiba for each DVD Player they manufacture.

Today, the Blu-Ray Disc player, which is more expensive type of DVD Player, uses high definition quality images and is now supposedly the new successor to the DVD Player although it can play DVD’s too.