Dual Format High Def DVD Players Allow Consumers To Enjoy Benefits Of Technology

!±8± Dual Format High Def DVD Players Allow Consumers To Enjoy Benefits Of Technology

There's a revolutionary new development in the format war between the HD-DVD and Blu-ray high definition DVD formats! Samsung is releasing a high definition DVD player that can play discs in both of these warring formats. But that's not really what's revolutionary because, after all, LG has had a device capable of doing the same thing on the market for several months now. The revolutionary part of all of this is that the model from Samsung only costs about six hundred dollars while LG's model costs over eleven hundred dollars.

For some background, the idea of a dual format high def DVD player is extremely attractive because Blu-ray players and HD-DVD players can't play each other's discs. This, combined with the rabid competition between the two formats to displace each other, has lead to a widespread fear among consumers of investing in either format lest they be left with the useless lump of electronics that a player in the losing format will inevitably become.

The attraction of a dual format high def DVD player is that it allows a consumer to invest in high definition DVD technology and start to enjoy it before the format war is over, while remaining content that his or her purchase will still be usable no matter how the format war turns out. Of course buying two separate players- one for each format- would also allow home entertainment enthusiasts to enjoy this technology without risk, but that's not a very good solution in two different ways. First of all, buying both players would be extremely expensive. Second, and perhaps more importantly given the amounts of money that people are willing to throw into electronics these days, even if one buys players for both formats one is still buying the player of the losing format, which means that one is still making the wrong choice. In many ways choosing the right format is more important to people than hedging their bets. A dual format high def DVD player allows people to buy a single player and for it to be the right choice no matter how the format war turns out.

In addition to the benefit of costing far less than LG's dual format High Def DVD player, the Samsung model is also superior in at least one technical way. While the LG model doesn't provide access to some bonus features on HD-DVD's, the Samsung model is capable of accessing the bonus features on both Blu-ray discs as well as HD-DVD discs. That takes away one major excuse for not getting a dual format player in general.

One thing that's extremely interesting about this device is that while it won't end the format war, it and devices like it could make the format war a moot point in the eyes of consumers. That's because if dual format high def DVD players become the norm, then people won't care as much which type of disc they purchase. This indiscriminate consumption of discs of both formats could create a kind of equilibrium where even though the two sides of the war will still be battling for supremacy, consumers will be free to ignore all of the antics and simply enjoy the benefits of the technology.

Dual Format High Def DVD Players Allow Consumers To Enjoy Benefits Of Technology

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DVD Players For Your HDTV - The Four Options

!±8± DVD Players For Your HDTV - The Four Options

Technology is supposed to make your life easier, right? Sure it is- that's why we pay top dollar for the latest, most powerful, most user-friendly gadget every time a new one appears on the horizon. But one of the downsides to technology is the greater number of choices we are confronted with when trying to decide exactly which new gadget we want.

The HDTV world has become "cursed" with this problem too. It's not just different brands of gadget, or different levels of quality, but gadgets that all really serve the same purpose, but in a distinctly different way. Buying a DVD player used to be a simple task: there was one kind of player, and you just bought the best one you could afford. In a way, it's still like that, but there are now four different types of DVD player that you can hook up to your HDTV for satisfactory results. The different types are standard, upscaling, progressive, and high definition DVD players.

Standard DVD players

The cheap DVD player you have been using for the past ten years with your old black and white TV will also work with the latest 00 plasma HDTV. Even though regular DVDs are recorded with 480 horizontal lines of resolution and HDTVs display either 720 or 1080 lines, it's not a problem, since the HDTV is designed to expand, or "upscale" whatever input it gets to fill the whole screen. Just because it works, though, doesn't mean it works well. If the player is of low quality or the HDTV doesn't have a great upscaler, you may not notice any improvement over your old set.

Upscaling DVD players

These will do the job of upscaling inside the player, and help a lot when the HDTV is an older model or happens to have a poor built-in upscaler. You can choose the resolution to output, so if the player performs upscaling you can either make it happen inside the player or the HDTV, whichever one does a better job.

Progressive DVD players

The other operation that needs to be done on DVD output is called de-interlacing. In a nutshell, a DVD or a regular TV show comes in an interlaced format, where half the picture is shown, then the other half, thirty times a second. An HDTV, however, has a progressive format and likes to display a whole picture sixty times a second. Changing an interlaced video to a progressive one is a little harder than upscaling, and a lot of HDTVs don't do it well. A good progressive DVD player is not much more costly than a regular one and can make a huge difference, especially with a bargain HDTV. For the non-nutshell explanation of interlaced and progressive displays, check here: HDTV Basics.

High definition DVD players

The ultimate solution to the problem of too many choices is simply to buy the ultimate player, as long as you can afford it. Right now the ultimate technology is called Blu-Ray, and is simply a normal-looking DVD that can carry much more information than you would think. One of these discs can store up to 30 gigabytes of data, enough for two or three full-length high definition movies. Playing a Blu-Ray disc on a Blu-Ray DVD player will give you the ultimate high definition viewing experience. And the really good news is that you can also play standard DVDs on a Blu-Ray player, so your voluminous DVD library won't go to waste.

If you don't feel comfortable diving into the Blu-Ray world just yet, and you can't find a steady source of Blu-Ray movies anyway, one of the other types of player can still work wonders. Just do a little research on the HDTV you own or plan to buy, and find out if using a progressive or upscaling player will make a big difference. Looking through HDTV reviews is a good way to get this information.

DVD Players For Your HDTV - The Four Options

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