Tips for Buying a DVD Player

DVD players are broken down into two areas: homeDVD players and portable ones. The first part of this article will deal with portable ones. While there are a plethora of companies out there producing portable DVD players, the technologyis very similar, so one is left with only a few real choices to make.

Perhaps the most important thing to look for when purchasing a portable DVD player is the formats that it supports. Most players will support all types of recordable DVDs, like the kind made on your PC. They can also playDVDs that contain media downloaded from the Internet(VCD and SVCD) as well as MP3, photodiscs and standard musicCDs. Some of the newer and better players can even support things like MPEG-4 and DivX, which are two forms of videocompression technology. Look for a player that can support as much technologyas possible. This will enable you to access the widest range of DVD media. If you plan on traveling really far, like overseas, you might consider purchasing a player that will support both NTSC and PAL systems.

Coming in a close second in terms of importance is the screen. A great player with a poor screen is just a waste of money. The catch with portable players and screen is that you want the smallest and lightest device possible, but you also want the largest screen available. Often, consumers must choose which asset they covet the most. The standard size screen is 7" but they can range from a puny 4" up to a massive 12 inches of viewing area. For the best picture, look for a screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio because it will provide the best viewing without chopping off the edges of the film. Lastly, you'll want a screen with the widest viewing angle possible so more than one person can watch at a time. There are some models that come without a screen and attach to a separate monitor but I would avoid these.