Your DVD player
at the Heart of your Home Theater

HD-DVD and Blu-ray High Definition disc-wars
The latest battle on the high-tech front is centered on HD DVD playback formats and resembles the Beta vs. VHS wars from years ago. There are two competing formats for HD DVD playback - Toshiba is firmly behind HD-DVD and Sony is touting the Blu-ray technology it has developed. The battle is sure to heat up before there is a clear winner declared - if there ever is indeed a winner. Stay tuned for more info as it will indeed be an interesting battle. Meanwhile - unless you are among the legion of "early-adopters" you will be safe and satisfied with your conventional DVD player of choice. Listed below are features to look for when shopping for a DVD player.

Progressive Scan is a DVD player MUST
If you visited the page on DVD players, Satellite receivers and cable TV you know the first feature you'll want is PROGRESSIVE SCAN.
Progressive scan means the image is drawn progressively from top to bottom - one line of pixels at a time. Progressive scan technology allows for a much smoother image than its forerunner - the NTSC interlaced standard that had been in place since the dawn of television. Interlaced formats draw every other line (or even numbered lines) of an image and then retrace and draw the remaining every other (or odd numbered)lines. Interlaced standard images tend to have "jaggies" on the edges of images in motion. On the other hand progressive scanned images are smooth and film-like. Therefore - for the theater experience to remain true you will need a P-Scan DVD player.

Next "must-have" feature - COMPONENT VIDEO
The component requirement aspect comes is important because for two basic reasons. The first reason is that component video is WAAAAY better than composite (or one-cable for video) and much better than S-Video ( the little multi-pin type cable). Oh - and light years better than RF coax cable (your basic cable TV type screw on cable) = no comparison. Component video divides the signal into individual RGB signals - or individual signal for the Red, Green and Blue information for the image. That seperation allows for more accurate signal interpretation, less interference and more accrate color mapping of the pixels. Some high-end DVD players come with HDMI outputs which can directly connect to your Hi-Def monitor or television display.

Lastly but not leastly - Digital Audio Outputs
Audio-wise you'll want either coaxial or fiber optic tos-link digital audio outputs because that's how you'll get the audio signal to the digital surround sound system you will need to complete the HT experience. You may want to refer to the Audio Systems section of HTSA for more information on HTiBs and component sound systems rather than repeating the specifics of digital audio systems here.

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