Several unique terms and phrases describe the features of software we review on this site, some easier to grasp than others. This list briefly defines terms relevant to DVD Player Software.

Ratings

Feature Set

Does the software offer a variety of features to accommodate different types of DVD movies? Are there features that, as a parent, will allow you to control what movies your kids or their friends watch on your screen? Can you play movies from your hard drive?

Ease of Use

Is the user control screen easy to see, understand and use? Can you quickly make changes to audio and video, select subtitles, or select chapters from the movie?

Ease of Installation

How basic is installation? Does the software conflict with other software on your computer-such as filters-causing the software to crash?

Video Quality

Is the quality of the video crisp and full of color or is the quality of the video dark, soft or blurry? Does the software provide picture controls to allow you to adjust the video to match the atmosphere of the room?

Audio Quality

Does the software support popular sound formats such as Dolby Digital, TruSurroundXT, Virtual Surround, and Direct Sound decoding? Can you select and customize your sound output from two, four, six or more speakers? Are there custom settings available for headphones? Does the software allow you to adjust for your environment-such as altering the sound output to meet the needs of a quiet or noisy room?

Help/Support

Is there a help document available? How useful is it? Is the help loaded with technical jargon or written for everyone to grasp easily? Is the help well indexed so that you find the answers you want quickly?

Available Upgrades

Blu-ray Hi-Def Version

Indicates whether there are versions or upgrades for the product that can play hi-def Blu-ray format DVDs.

Features

Parental Controls

This feature allows one or more users in the household to control access to mature movies; you can set a rating limit and restrict access to the DVD player by setting a password. We have found that most, if not all, Warner Brothers titles will not be detected and so these films will be unaffected by parental controls. This means that parents will need to be cautious with mature WB films.

Skin Technology

With this feature, you can change the appearance of the control panel with a pre-set customized look-such as a sport or animal theme-or create a custom appearance of your own (if the player skin feature includes a skin editor).

Image Capture

Have you ever wanted a picture of your favorite movie scene as wallpaper on your computer, or wanted to send a movie snapshot to a friend? The image capture feature will allow you take a screen image from a movie scene and save it on your hard drive. Some players will allow you select where and in what format you would like to save the image (bmp or jpeg), or allow you to email the image directly to a friend.

Auto-Resume Playback

This will allow you to resume play on a movie that you stopped in the middle; DVD players with this feature will offer you a choice to either resume where you left off or restart from the beginning.

AB Repeat

This setting will allow the viewer to program the DVD player to repeat a specific movie scene continuously.

Karaoke

This option allows you to play special Karaoke DVDs and sing along with soundtracks. Karaoke DVDs (and CDs) allow you the option of turning down or completely silencing the vocal track so that you can use a mike to voice over. You can turn down the music track in order to hear the vocals alone.

Plug-ins Available

Plug-ins will allow you to select additional audio features to enhance your audio choices. Some may require an additional fee.

Video Support

HD Video Playback

The player software has the ability to play the DVD movie in high definition, resulting in a sharper picture.

MPEG 2/MPEG 1 Decoding

DVD players with this feature have the ability to decode MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 discs. MPEG-1 code is found on Video CDs that play on PCs, and MPEG-2 coding is found on commercially produced DVD movies and some home recorded DVDs. The decoding supports full resolution 720 x 480 video playback for NTSC and 720 x 576 for PAL systems.

Subtitle Display

A subtitle is the text translation of the movie for non-native speakers. This text-usually at the bottom of the screen-allows viewers who do not understand the movie language the opportunity to read the text in a language they do understand.

Video Always on Top

This feature will always display the movie on top of other open Windows applications so that you don't have to go digging for the movie screen.

Closed Caption

Closed Caption is text for the hearing impaired; this text also appears on the bottom of the screen but includes additional auditory clues for those who cannot hear. For example, when someone laughs during the movie, the word [LAUGHTER] will appear in brackets within the dialogue.

Video Desktop

When you set the movie as a video desktop, the movie becomes your wallpaper allowing you to watch the movie in the background while you work or check your email.

Digital Zooming

A digital zoom will allow you to magnify a scene to see greater than normal video size.

Pan & Scan

This feature allows you to watch a movie in its original aspect ratio; wider than the 43 view (as on standard television sets) but without the black bars you get in a widescreen view. You will not be able to see the entire viewing area at once, instead you can "pan and scan" the portion you want to view.

Audio Support

Dolby Pro Logic II

DVDs featuring this Dolby Pro Logic II have been optimized for movies and music that contain Dolby Surround soundtracks, giving a full-bandwidth stereo surround output.

DTS Digital Surround

DTS Digital Surround is the utilization of 5.1 signal channels from the center, right, left, left rear and right rear with a low frequency (sub-woofer) channel.

SRS TruSurround XT

This feature has the ability to turn your simple two speaker system into a "virtual surround sound." This feature is similar to Dolby Digital or DTS but it also gives you TruBass, which brings the feel of a subwoofer to just two speakers.

SRS Circle Surround

SRS Circle Surround is a 6.1 channel high performance matrix of surround sound. This technology is considered the next generation of sound technology, improving the audio clarity and quality of the voice in noisy environments, providing strong bass to the front speakers and subwoofer.

Headphone Support

This means the DVD player software supports virtual surround sound playback with any standard pair of headphones.

Multi-Channel Support

This feature will allow you to select several different speaker setups beyond the basic two speaker system.

Output Formats

DVD-Video

Digital Video Disc Video requires a DVD drive with an MPEG-2 decoder. A DVD-Video contains around 133 minutes of video on a single layer disc, CD quality sound, multiple languages and subtitles. Some DVD videos include extras that cannot be included on VHS tapes.

There are several different formats of DVD-Video.

DVD-5 is a single-sided disc, playing time 133 minutes.

DVD-9 is a dual layer disc, playing time 240 minutes.

DVD-10 is a double-sided disc, playing time 133 minutes per side.

DVD-18 is a dual layer, double sided disc, playing time 240 minutes per side.

DivX Decoder

The player has the ability to playback DivX video files from your hard drive or from a disc without an additional decoder.

DirectX Support

This gives the player the ability to translate generic hardware commands. The player takes advantage of the hardware acceleration features on the graphics card.

MP3 Support

MP3 files are sound sequences compressed into a small file.

Windows Media Video

Windows Media Video is streaming video with a .wmv extension.

DVD-VCD

DVD-VCD is a Video Compact Disc created on a DVD media instead of CD media. This format has a screen resolution of 352x240 and the compression is MPEG-1. The video quality is good and has low CPU usage.

DVD-SVCD

DVD-SVCD also is created on a DVD instead of a VD and has a screen resolution of 480x480. The compression is MPEG-2 and the video quality is great, but the CPU usage is high.

DVD-ISO

This is the MPEG or VOB (Video Object Files) burned onto a DVD or onto your hard drive. The VOB files contain the movie, audio files, menus and subtitles. The following is a breakdown of the folders in VOB files.

VIDEO_TS Folder

• VTS_01_0.VOB This contains the menu for the movie.
• VTS_01_1.VOB This contains the video for the movie.
• VTS_01_2.VOB If larger than 1 GB the movie is split into several VOB files.
• VTS_01_3.VOB
• VTS_01_4.VOB There can be up to 10 VOB files.
• VTS_02_0.VOB These files are usually the extra parts of the movie.
• VTS_02_1.VOB
• VTS_02_3.VOB

Region Support

NTSC

National Television Standards Committee (525 lines scanned) has frame rate is higher then PAL, at 60 Hz.

PAL

Phase Alternation Lines (625 lines scanned) allows for more picture detail and wider luminance bandwidth. Almost all the 50 Hz countries in the world use PAL television display standards.

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