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DVD player

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the electronic device. For the Microsoft Windows Software, see DVD Player (Windows). For the Apple software, see DVD Player (Mac OS).

A Nuon DVD player manufactured by Toshiba, which offered enhanced playback and 3D gaming

A DVD player is a machine that plays DVDs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. Many DVD players will also play audio CDs. DVD players are connected to a television to watch the DVD content, which could be a movie, a recorded TV show, or other content.

History

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The first DVD player is claimed to have been created by the Japanese electronics vendor Toshiba in November 1996,[1] and the first to be released to US customers is claimed to have been by Sony in April 1997.[2]

Some manufacturers originally announced that DVD players would be available as early as the middle of 1996. These predictions were too optimistic. Delivery was initially held up for "political" reasons of copy protection demanded by movie studios, but was later delayed by lack of movie titles. The first players appeared in Japan on November 1, 1996, followed by the United States on March 31, 1997, with distribution limited to only seven major cities for the first six months.[3]

Fujitsu released the first DVD-ROM-equipped computer on November 6 in Great Britain. Toshiba released a DVD-ROM-equipped computer and a DVD-ROM drive in Japan in early 1997 (moved back from December which was moved back from November). DVD-ROM drives from Toshiba, Pioneer, Panasonic, Hitachi, and Sony began appearing in sample quantities as early as January 1997, but none were available before May. The first PC upgrade kits (a combination of DVD-ROM drive and hardware decoder card) became available from Creative Labs, Hi-Val, and Diamond Multimedia in April and May 1997. In 2014, every major PC manufacturer had models that include DVD-ROM drives.

The first DVD-Audio players were released in Japan by Pioneer in late 1999, but they did not play copy-protected discs. Matsushita (under the Panasonic and Technics labels) first released full-fledged players in July 2000 for $700 to $1,200. Sony released the first SACD players in May 1999 for $5,000. Pioneer's first DVD-Audio players released in late 1999 also played SACD.

Technical details

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The interior of a DVD player

A DVD player has to be able to read a DVD in ISO – UDF version 1.02 format, and needs to read and obey the DVD region codes and display a warning if the player is not authorized to play the DVD.

To play a DVD smoothly, it needs to be able to decode the MPEG-2 video stream with a maximum bit rate of 10 Mbit/s at peak and 8 Mbit/s continuously.

A DVD player may be able to:

  • Optionally decrypt the data with either CSS and/or Macrovision
  • Decode sound in MP2, PCM or AC-3 format and output (with optional AC-3 to stereo downmixing) on stereo connector, optical or electric digital connector
  • Output a video signal, either an analog one (in NTSC or PAL format) on the composite, S-Video, SCART, or component video connectors, or a digital one on the DVI or HDMI connectors.
  • Jump to manually entered titles, chapters, and time stamps.

DVD players cannot play Blu-ray discs due to using different wavelength lasers (Blu-ray discs use a blue-violet laser, hence their name, rather than a red laser). However, Blu-ray players are typically backwards compatible, meaning they will play DVDs. Some are compatible with CD and other disc formats. The short-lived HD DVD format is also incompatible with DVD for the same reason, however, HD DVD players do play standard DVDs and CDs.

DVD players are largely controlled through a remote control. Built-in controls on the main unit's panel such as a four-directional buttons vary depending on model. Some models may lack advanced built-in controls, making operation more dependent on the remote control.[4]

CD/DVD/AVI/MP4 playback

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Additionally, most DVD players allow users to play audio CDs (CD-DA, MP3, etc.) and Video CDs (VCD). A few 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 in the Internet.

Progressive scan DVD player

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A progressive scan DVD player is a DVD player that can produce video in a progressive scan format such as 480p (NTSC) or 576p (PAL). Players which can output resolutions higher than 480p or 576p are often called upconverting DVD players.

Before HDTVs became common, players were sold which could produce 480p or 576p. TVs with this feature were often in the upper price range of a manufacturer's line. To utilize this feature, a TV or other display with a progressive scan input was needed. HDTVs usually have a progressive scan input; progressive scan inputs are less common on standard definition TVs (often called SDTVs.)

Some players have a feature called "3:2 pulldown detection" or "inverse telecine" which attempts to better handle the artifacts which result from differing film and video rates in conjunction with interlaced scanning of the film. However most line doublers used in these players are not able to achieve the anticipated inverse telecine functionality. (See Line doubler for details.)

Progressive scan output cannot use connections intended for interlaced video, such as composite video (single RCA terminated cable) and S-Video (Mini-DIN terminated cable). The following connection methods are common for using progressive scan:

Portable players