DVD PLAYER
Learn all you need to know about dvd player and how to connect them to your TV and home theater system
They come down in price very rapidly (VCRs took many years to reach affordable prices), so now you can find major brands (Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, etc.) with excellent picture and sound quality for $100 or less. And because the video and audio information on them is stored in digital form, differences in picture and sound quality between different brands have become very small.
In the sound department, stereo hi-fi sound from a VCR is good, but again it’s no match for five channels of Dolby Digital surround sound that virtually every modern movie release has on its soundtrack.
Almost all players will pass these multi-channel audio signals via a coaxial cable or a " Toslink ” optical cable to your A/V surround sound receiver.
If you're shopping around for an HD (High Definition) TV, be sure and get a it with "progressive-scan wide-band" component-video outputs. You must have a Hi-Def, HDTV-capable TV display with the same "wide-band component-video inputs" in order to utilize these progressive-scan images, which have no horizontal scanning lines and present a more film-like image. If you're interested in playing high-resolution multi-channel SACD or Audio discs, look for a Universal DVD player that will play these formats as well as most video formats. Some new "up-sampling" DVD players have special digital video outputs called DVI and HDMI that may deliver improved picture clarity with some high definition TV sets.
That’s about it. All players will do some kind of slow motion, fast scanning, and cueing to a particular "chapter" or scene in a 
movie, but it’s the aforementioned type of video outputs and connectors that have the biggest influence on picture quality and affect the player’s price. Still, you should check the remote control to see if the buttons are easily readable, especially in dim lighting, and well laid out for easy operation. Some remote's buttons are back-lighted, but those will be on more costly players. And when you rent your first movie, don’t forget to watch all the DVD "extras" you get these days-commentaries by the director and actors on the making of the movie; cast biographies, deleted scenes. It’s fascinating stuff, and will provide you with no end of entertainment and diversion.
