Don't throw away your old DVD player yet--Blu-Ray & HD DVD Players Still Having Compatibility Issues

Don't throw away your old DVD player yet! 

Ok, you have HD (high-def) programming on your new 50-inch plasma tv, and the picture is terrific.  You love being able to watch Bill O'Reilly in 1080p resolution as well your March Madness basketball games. Great!!! Now what about your DVD movies? 

The good news is that the big electronic companies, namely Sony, have developed a format for watching movies in HD. That format is called Blu-Ray (HD-DVD was killed last year in a highly publicized HD format war). The bad news #1 is that your current collection of DVD movies is not Blu-Ray. 

Does this mean that you cannot watch those movies anymore? No, it doesn't. You should still be able to watch those standard-definition movies (SD) on those players (check with your player first). They won't be in HD, but the picture will still look fantastic (the promise of ''upconverting" does not mean your SD picture is now HD) and you will be very happy. So you do not have to go out and repurchase all your favorite movies in Blu-Ray, unless you want to (I'm still waiting for Star Wars and Lord of the Rings to be released on Blu-Ray and will repurchase when they are). 

Now for the bad news #2 (and to me the most significant problem)--these new players still have compatibility issues with "burned" DVD's. 

For everything that these new players do, they won't correctly play your home movies, film transfers, DVD slideshows, and just about everything else that is burned onto a DVD (DVD-R, DVD+R, etc.).  The most common problem that I hear is while one can see the video, they can't hear the audio. This is a common symptom of non-compliant units. Last time I heard, only about 40% of the units on the market today are compliant with all standards. 

But I bought this new player to watch my home movies in HD, you say. Well, given the fact that most of your content is recorded SD (if even that) and not HD, playing them on a Blu-Ray and HD-DVD player won't make them HD.  You can't take a #3 pencil and make it a #2 by using a different pencil sharpener--it just doesn't happen. Likewise, you can't take a VHS tape that was originally recorded in 240 lines of resolution and make it 1080 or 720 by putting it in a new player. 

So, if you don't have a Blu-Ray player yet and playing your burned discs on them is important to you (i.e., not having 2 players in your cabinet), wait on that purchase until a few more "electronic generations" have passed. Otherwise, go stimulate the economy and purchase that new player and blu-ray discs and enjoy your new picture quality. 

Blessings to you, 

Chris. 

www.mckennavideo.com 

Time to upgrade your DVD player?

DVD’s are unlike videotape. Not just in appearance, but also in how the information is written to them. Videotape is made up of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a magnetic layer (containing all the oxides), and a back layer consisting of lubricants to ensure durability and such. The magnetic layer contains or will contain all the information written on that tape, which is mechanically pulled through the heads. Information (content) is written and read by heads contained within that recorder/player. Pretty straight forward-I think. The upside to a mechanical device like this is universality-what is written/recorded on 1 device can easily be played on just about any other device (not withstanding the PAL/NTSC/Secam compatibility issues). The obvious downside to tape is quality and deterioration.

Not to get too technical, a DVD, on the other hand, is a digital storage device that contains “pits” of information stamped or burned into the disc. The information is read by a laser in the player which interprets the information and sends the signal to your television. The disc is not worn out by playing it since there is nothing mechanical about it (except the motor used to spin the disc). Deterioration comes from fingerprints and scratches (see a recent blog on that topic).

Since a DVD player is a digital device it is controlled by “software”. Not the kind of software that you’d buy in the store or download from the internet, but software built into the circuitry of the device. This software cannot be updated in your current player. Only through the purchase of a new player can software be updated.

Why is this worth noting? A couple of reasons. First, like just about every other consumer device, there are standards issued for DVD players. Like an automobile meeting standards for fuel efficiency and environmental regulations, DVD players should be compliant with current standards if they are to play the most current formats of DVD and digital media.

One such standard was that of a players ability to read and play replicated DVD’s (these DVD’s are usually the Hollywood movie type that you buy in the store). Have you every purchased a movie that didn’t play right? I have and guess what? My player at the time was not compliant with the standard that the DVD was encoded under.

Another standard is that of general media DVD’s (i.e. DVD-R’s, DVD+R’s). DVD-R’s are the type of DVD that just about every home user and video studio, such as McKenna Video Services, is using to transfer your home movies and burn produced video’s. Information written on DVD-R’s are burned in using lasers, rather than replicated in a manufacturing process (more on this later). The benefit is that studios like McKenna Video can easily and affordably burn a disc for you, but the downside is if your player is not compliant, you may run into issues playing that disc. (Having a disc replicated rather than “burned” or duplicated disc is very expensive and disc replication houses won’t even look at you unless you need a minimum of 1000 discs).

The second reason worth noting is that you will have to update your DVD player every once in a while to keep up with standards. DVD players are not a 1-time purchase. Sorry to say. But the good news is players have come down significantly in price since the early days (I think that I paid $500 for my first DVD player, my latest one cost me just $50) and they usually come with more features.

When you purchase a player, make sure that they are compliant with latest DVD Forum standards http://www.dvdforum.com/. Ask the sales clerk for a compliance reports on that unit. Or check the box to make sure that they have logos for DVD, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW, VCD, CD, and MP3 just to name a few. Usually, name brand DVD players do not have an issue, but be wary of cheap knockoffs from companies you’ve never heard of or those that are being “cleared out.”

For more information on DVD’s, you can find answers to most questions at http://www.dvdforum.com/ or DVD Demystified website http://www.dvddemystified.com/ .

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Footnoot: McKenna Video uses brand name DVD-R’s which has been shown to be the most compatible general use media. Our discs have been found to be compatible with over 95% of home DVD players made in the past three years. We also print your title directly on to the disc rather than using stickers (a big no-no).

Gods blessings,

Chris