DVD Players

DVD players make the whole DVD experience possible. In the early days, as in the early days of CD players, prices were high and the availability of DVDs to rent or purchase was limited.

But more recently, sales of DVD players have exceeded sales of VCRs for the first time, even though the vast majority of them won't record DVD discs. It's just now that you can find DVD recorders that function like a DVD equivalent of VCRs (see Figure 18.1).

Figure 18.1. A typical DVD player from Pioneer.

In the present generation of DVD players and recorders, they all offer the same compatibility with DVD features. DVD manufacturers got together and agreed on what the players would support so that you could take any DVD and play it on any brand of DVD player in your region. (The world is divided into regions , so a DVD from one region will not play in another.)