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DVD Players

A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD Video and DVD Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. more...

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Most hardware DVD players have to be connected to a television set; there are also some small portable devices which have an LCD screen attached.

A DVD player has to complete these tasks:

Read a DVD disc in ISO – UDF version 1.2 format; optionally decrypt the data with either CSS and/or Macrovision; read and obey the DVD's Regional lockout codes and display a warning if the player is not authorised to play the DVD; decode the MPEG-2 video stream with a maximum of 10 Mbit/s (peak) or 8 Mbit/s (continuous); decode sound in MP2, PCM or AC-3 format and output (with optional AC-3 to stereo downsampling) on stereo connector, optical or electric digital connector; output a video signal, either an analog one (in NTSC, PAL or SECAM format) on the composite, S-Video, SCART, or component video connectors, or a digital one on the DVI or HDMI connectors;

Most DVD players also allow users to play audio CDs (CDDA, MP3, etc.) and Video CDs (VCD) and include a home cinema decoder (i.e. Dolby Digital, Digital Theater Systems (DTS)). Some newer devices also play videos in the MPEG-4 ASP video compression format (such as DivX) popular on the Internet.

As of 2005, retail prices for such a device, depending on its optional features (such as digital sound or video output), start between 30 and 80 USD/Euro. They are usually cheaper than VCRs.

As of 2002 the largest producer of DVD players is China; in 2002 they produced 30 million players, more than 70% of the world output. These producers have to pay about US$20 per player in license fees, to the patent holders of the DVD technology (Sony, Philips, Toshiba and AOL Time Warner) as well as for MPEG-2 licenses. To avoid these fees, China has developed the Enhanced Versatile Disc standard as an intended successor of DVD; as of 2004, EVD players were only being sold in China.

Software DVD players are programs that allow users to view DVD videos on a computer with a DVD-ROM drive. Some examples are the VLC media player and MPlayer (both free software), as well as WinDVD, PowerDVD and DVD Player. .

Portable DVD Player

Portable DVD players that are capable of playing DVDs. Most have an LCD screen and stereo speakers and are usually powered by lithium ion batteries. Portable DVD players are often used for long road trips and travel.

Successors

There are two successors to the DVD player: the HD DVD player and the Blu-ray Disc player. Blu-ray has contracts with most major studios as of Januray 2008, and appears to be the successor to DVD for the home movie industry.