Get Smart: DVD Player Buyer’s Guide

by Roger Wyatt
Winter 2001

As the DVD format broadens, DVD players are offering new "smart" features and cross-pollinating with other consumer electronics devices.

DVD players have been penetrating the market faster than any other consumer electronics products in history. By now, the enhanced-sound-and-picture viewing experience has graced a preponderance of family rooms and dens all across the nation.

Now, it's time to take the next step into the realm of the smart DVD player. So what exactly is a smart DVD Player? Perhaps it is one that enables greater user participation, such as the abilities to choose from among a number of possible plot developments, camera angles or languages. It could be a player that supplements or enhances the movie you're watching with related current information it retrieves from the Internet, or allows you to surf the Web while viewing a DVD. It could be a player that records video CDs or DVDs. Maybe it has the ability to play MP3s or enables the playing of DVD-based games. There are also players that play video CDs and home-brew their own DVD-R or DVD-RW discs. Now that's smart.

Taken as a whole, smart DVD players represent the next generation of DVD. They are value-added, high-end DVD players that enhance viewing possibilities and extend the player with new capabilities. To deepen our understanding, let's look in detail at some of these features.

The Internet Surf it Your Way
The i2DVD from iDVDBox has a built-in 56k modem for dial-up Web access and connections for high-speed broadband Internet access. Besides the Web access, the iDVDBox's patent-pending BoxEngine technology allows users to access Web content related to the DVD or music CD that is being played. Shop on related Web sites or participate in a chat or forum simultaneously while watching a DVD or listening to a CD.

You can also enable Internet access by integrating DVD video with HTML stored either on the disc or on the Web. That way, the Web connection can be based on either user-initiated events or content-initiated events. Software apps, such as InterActual Player 2.0, seamlessly interconnect content on DVD and the Web. Currently, the DVD Forum is in the process of readying Web DVD standards. The Forum estimates that approximately 500 new Web-enabled DVD titles are in the pipeline.

The boffins over at NUON have come up with Net connectivity for your NUON-enhanced DVD player. Surf the Web with a NUON Internet Connectivity Kit.

Games Have Fun Your Way
Why watch movies on your DVD when you can play games like Monopoly, Tempest 3000, Next Tetris and Freefall 3050AD on it instead? This is possible with the NUON-enhanced DVD players. With games like these, be sure to stock up on NUON game peripherals including controllers, joysticks, steering wheels, keyboards and more. For an example of a DVD game-box, consider Samsung's DVD-N501 player. With NUON inside, the DVD-N501 acts like it's a powerful PC instead of a DVD player. It multitasks, has a graphics engine for 16 million colors, multi-functioning and interactive.

Video CDs Play it Back Your Way
Virtually all DVD players play audio CDs. But what other playback formats are supported? Video CD is one. It's a format based on MPEG-1 encoding rather than DVD's MPEG-2. As a result, the picture isn't nearly as sharp as a DVD's. However, with CD-R and CD-RW formats practically becoming standard-issue drives on PCs these days, it's very easy to burn a CD-R in Video CD format. We want smart DVD players to play all of our stuff.

A lot of companies' DVD players, (but not all models) support Video CD.

DVD-R or DVD-RW Play it Back a New Way
DVD-R and DVD-RW are theoretically compatible with almost all DVD players. This could make them the perfect solution for high-quality distribution of home video. With capacities for each of them weighing in at 4.7 billion bytes, they should offer more than enough space for this year's vacation videos. However, the truth today is that the DVD-RW you burn on your new computer will likely not play on all players.

These formats have a lot going for them. DVD-RW can be rewritten about 1,000 times while DVD-R discs are touted to last anywhere between 50 to 250 years. Kodak, Hitachi, Maxell, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Pioneer, Ricoh, Ritek, TDK, Verbatim and Victor are making blank media. One player that claims to support the DVD-R format, consider Toshiba's SD2300.

Recording DVDs Make it Your Way
Now you can burn your own DVDsDVD-Rs, that iswithout a computer. Pioneer's new DVR-7000 reads and writes DVD-RW and DVD-R discs. Blank DVD-R discs are a tad expensive today; they can be had for around $11 each. But, as with everything digital, the prices will soon drop.

MP3 Discs Hear it Your Way
Many of the new breed of smart DVD players have built-in MP3 decoders. These play music, encoded in the MP3 (MPEG-1 layer 3) format, and recorded on CD-R and CD-RW discs. For two examples of DVD players with MP3 smarts check out the Denon DVM-4800 and the Marantz DV4200 models.

New Features Play It Your Way
NUON chips, circuitry, and software routines, all from VM Labs, sure put the smarts into DVD. NUON transforms them into feature-rich interactive video entertainment systems. NUON-enhanced DVD players offer interactive viewing, music with light shows, Internet access and games. As an example of what a DVD player packing NUON is capable of, consider Samsung's DVD-N501 or Toshiba's SD2300. These players use NUON technology for ultra-smooth playback of video, in forward and reverse, at many speeds. Audio-disc playback now comes with NUON-created light shows vividly displayed on your TV screen.

A moving zoom feature is included for magnification of video images. Jaggies and distortion? No way. The NUON processor should eliminate just about all of it. NUON-enabled machines can select the picture from multiple angles displayed as a series of different thumbnail shots.

Multiple Angles See it Your Way
DVD-Video discs can include up to nine different camera angles, seamlessly allowing you to see the action from more than one viewpoint. Different angles reside on the disc with routines to allow rapid switching between them. By selecting the angle viewer, you can simultaneously display thumbnail views of all camera angles available during a scene and make your choice with the remote. It's like being able to see exactly the camera position you want at the Super Bowl rather than the one the program producer chooses. Sony's DVP-NC600 is a notable example of this feature's implementation.

Multiple Languages Hear it Your Way
The DVD specification has room for at least three surround-sound channels. DVD titles sometimes offer multiple language options to the viewer. A smart DVD player can play back any of these and can present its own on-screen menus in any of several languages.

Non-DVD Players Any Way is Your Way
DVD players aren't the only things that play DVDs. It's possible to play DVD discs in all sorts of devices that have playback built in. Check out game consoles, for instance. If DVD players can play games why not the other way around? Sony's PS/2 and Microsoft's upcoming Xbox can play DVDs in addition to playing games. It makes sense. Chugging along with a 300-MHz processor, crunching data at 128-bits, the PlayStation 2 is more like a decent computer than an entertainment system. It's no surprise that it doubles as a CD/DVD player. In the market for a satellite tuner? Then try the one from DishNetworks, with a DVD player built in. Don't forget that even TV sets come these days with built-in DVD players. Panasonic's PV-DF2700 (MSRP $1,300) is one model that comes to mind, with a 27-inch, flat-screen TV and built-in DVD and VHS components.

On the Way
This overview of smart DVD players covered a lot of territory. But this is only the beginning. Not only are manufacturers constantly developing new additions to the category, but in order to really understand the power of smart DVD players you must interact directly with the equipment itself. The buyer's guide that follows is designed to help you easily identify the manufacturers with the models that have the combination of features that interest you the most. Enjoy and happy hunting.