Assuming that the content is on the disc, basic DVD Players offer language choice, special effects, parental lock, programmability, digital audio output, support for multi-angle movies and the playing of audio CDs. The feature set increases with more expensive players. Simply put, the more you spend on a player, the more formats you will be able to play and the picture and sound quality will be better.
Multi-region players: Film studios, keen to protect release dates, price differentials and the amount of information given in certain markets, originally imposed a constraint on DVD Players by restricting which countries DVDs play in. All pre-recorded DVDs have one of six regional codes and region-locked DVD Players can only play DVDs from the same region. So, for example, a Region 1 player (USA and Canada) can only play Region 1 films. Multi-regional players can play DVDs from any region allowing for the widest choice of DVDs.
Zone Countries
Zone 1 USA, Canada
Zone 2 Europe, South Africa, Japan, Middle East (including Egypt)
Zone 3 South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan
Zone 4 Australia, New Zealand, Latin America
Zone 5 Africa, India, Asia
Zone 6 China
DVD types: In addition to regional format variation, DVD formats can vary in other ways. Common formats are DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD Ram. Not all DVD players can handle all the formats - so it is worth checking before you buy which format it is that you will most likely use.
Multi-disc players: If you’re going to use your DVD player and associated sound system to play your CDs think about a multi-disc player. Sometimes referred to as DVD Jukeboxes they can store multiple DVDs or CDs. 30 discs is a reasonably common limit.
DVD audio: Any DVD player will play CDs but some will play newer types of audio disc (DVD-Audio or SA-CD) which offer better sound quality than a standard CD. Only more expensive DVD players and hi-fi equipment are compatible with these discs.
Digital surround sound: Utilises the information on the DVD to provide sound quality almost equal to cinema sound. This is accomplished by converting the audio track into signals for each individual speaker - usually five speakers and one sub-woofer used for low frequency effect. Dolby Digital and DTS are two popular surround sound formats.
MP3 playback: Some DVD players, especially portable ones, can play MP3 digital music files and other audio files from inserted media.
VCD playback: A popular movie format in Asia, Video CDs or VCDs are cheaper and lower quality than DVDs. They are stored on standard CDs, which means they do not have room for extra features. Many DVD players also play VCD Playback movies.
Display photos: Certain DVD players can also display digital photographs on your TV. These must be stored on a compatible disc.
CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R and DVD-RW discs: Some DVD Players can play audio and video content created on your computer. This can be played from recordable CDs or DVDs on CD-R, CD+RW, DVD-R and DVD-RW discs. Not all DVD Players can perform this function.
Bookmarking: Bookmarks allow you to store favourite scenes or places in a disc. More expensive players allow you to store bookmarks for several discs and remember them even if the disc is removed.
Resume: If you are going to view your discs repeatedly, the ability to resume where you left off can save a lot of searching. Multi-disc resume means that the player will remember where to start on up to 30 discs.