DVD player

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]

Players slowly trickled into other regions around the world. Prices for the first players in 1997 started at $600 and could top out at prices over $1000. By the end of 2000, players were available for under $100 at discount retailers. In 2003 players became available for under $50. Six years after the initial launch, close to one thousand models of DVD players were available from over a hundred consumer electronics manufacturers.

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. DVD-Audio players are now also made by Aiwa, Denon, JVC, Kenwood, Madrigal, Marantz, Nakamichi, Onkyo, Toshiba, Yamaha, and others. 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. SACD players are now also made by Accuphase, Aiwa, Denon, Kenwood, Marantz, Philips, Sharp, and others.

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 DVDs Regional lockout 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]

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.

A portable DVD player

Most hardware DVD players must be connected to a television; there are portable devices which have an attached LCD screen and stereo speakers. Portable DVD players are often used for long road trips and travel. They often have a plug for the 12 volt power jack in cars. Some models have two screens, so that two people in the back seat can both watch the movie. Other portable DVD players have a single screen that opens up like a laptop computer screen.

Output connectors of a DVD player (2016): The single HDMI connector on the left is employed to replace the older connection options for audio and video signals, which require at least two, depending on the use case even up to five, individual cable connections with RCA connectors (see middle section, colored). An exception was the technically outdated SCART type A/V connector most right.

Due to multiple audio (and video) output devices, there are many outputs on a DVD player, such as an RCA jack, component outputs, and an HDMI output. Consumers may become confused with how to connect a player to a TV or amplifier. Most systems include an optional digital audio connector for this task, which is then paired with a similar input on the amplifier. The physical connection is typically RCA connectors or TOSLINK, which transmits a S/PDIF stream carrying either uncompressed digital audio (PCM) or the original compressed audio data (Dolby Digital, DTS, MPEG audio) to be decoded by the audio equipment.

As of 2014, 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 US$15–$20 per player in license fees, to the patent holders of the DVD technology (Sony, Philips, Toshiba and Time Warner) as well as for MPEG-2 licenses.[5] 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, 5KPlayer and MPlayer (all free software), as well as WinDVD, TotalMedia Theatre, PowerDVD and DVD Player.[6]

Among others, there are variants & huge kinds of software DVD players as well as multimedia player software which has DVD video playback capability, whether its proprietary-type (as commercial software), freeware, shareware or just a free software are available in the market.

In the battle to succeed and to improve upon the role of the DVD player as the mainstream medium for stored audiovisual content on optical disc, there were two major contestants: the HD DVD player and the Blu-ray Disc player, utilizing two incompatible technologies that reproduced higher resolution video images and more complete audio information than was possible with DVD. On February 19, 2008, Toshiba, creator of the former technology, announced it would cease production on all HD DVD products, leaving Blu-ray as the high definition successor to DVD players.

As technology improved, various players were sold, some of which were also Blu-ray players, that could upscale and up-convert DVD content, increasing the overall perceived picture quality.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to DVD players.

• CD-ROM
• Digital video recorder
• DVD-Audio
• HD media player
• Recorder
• VCR
• Video scaler
• Comparison of portable media players
• Compact Disc and DVD copy protection

• The Inner Workings of CD/DVD Drives WeCanFigureThisOut.org