As the fastest-growing consumer-electronics product in history, with over thirteen million sold in just the past three years, DVD players offer picture quality that clearly surpasses the VCR. DVD’s are CD-sized discs that can contain a complete three-hour movie, as opposed to the VHS multi-tape arrangement, with a six-channel Dolby Digital or DTS Soundtrack, plus extra material such as multiple languages, interviews, adjustable camera angles for certain scenes, behind-the-scenes documentaries with the cast, and even entire replays of the movie with added commentary by the director.

DVD players are undergoing rapid evolution as manufacturers seek to differentiate their products and come up with a wider combination of features. DVD players can come as either a console, or a portable device. Some consoles may even offer built in karaoke features, MP3 playback capabilities, and even the ability to play video games.

There are some main classifications for DVD players. The first of these is called a "single-disc console." Console models can be used with just a TV or in combinations with an entire home-entertainment system. More and more low-end models include all of the video-output jacks that a consumer may need or want in order to hook up his/her entertainment system. The price range for a single-disc console DVD player can range anywhere from $150 to $800 dollars or more, depending on the brand, style, and amount of features that are desired.

The second of the three types of DVD players is called the "multi-disc console", which like CD changers can accommodate from two to five DVDs at any one time, allowing the viewer to enjoy consecutive movies without leaving the warmth and comfort of the couch. These models can range anywhere from $250 to $2,000.

The third type of DVD player on the market today, comes in a portable, lightweight style. These DVD players generally come with small, but crisp wide-screen format LCD screens and batteries which are claimed to provide three hours or more of playback. Some low-priced models don’t come with screens; they are intended for users who plan to connect them only to TVs. However; portability comes with its own price tag, ranging anywhere from $500 to $1,500.

With so many different brands of DVD players in the world today, the largest of these brands being Panasonic, RCA, Sony, and Toshiba, a consumer may have a hard enough time just choosing one particular make and model DVD player, possibly asking the question if they even really need to replace their old VCR technology or not. With knowing all of the added features and advantages of a DVD player compared to a VCR, the decision should not be a hard one. Through tests and consumer reports, DVD players have been shown to deliver excellent picture quality, far superior to that of a VCR, all but eliminating noise, jitter, and other typical glitches with VCRs and VHS tapes. They also offer CD-quality sound with multi-channel capability.

Many reviews have found that at this point in time, DVD players are an addition to, not a substitute for a VCR. DVD players provide better picture quality for movies and better sound as well. For most users, even a low-end DVD player will provide them with the needed excellent picture and sound. A multi-disc console makes the most sense to purchase if it is used in part of a combination audio/video entertainment system in which you may also play music CDs. Even low-end DVD players, in combinations with a DTS audio receiver, can deliver six-channel surround sound.

With the ability to play standard audio CDs, price reductions on multi-disc models mean that it is possible and even practical to have just a DVD player for both the playback of both videos and music. While many DVD players can accommodate the standard CD-Audio and DVD-Video formats, advancing technology even allows some DVD players to read and play CD-R and CD-RW discs that the consumer records his/herself, no matter which type of device is used to actually record the discs.

DVD players, depending on the make and model, have a wide variety or special features. With a DVD player, the viewer has all sorts of control over the picture - control one may never have known was needed. Functions like "zoom" let you zoom in on a chosen frame. "Reverse frame-by-frame" gives you backward incremental movement in addition to the "forward frame-by-frame" and "slow motion" that most players provide.

Features such as black-level adjustment, which brings out the detail in dark parts of the screen image, and multi-angle capability, which allows certain action sequences to be seen from different angles, for example, are only a few of the amazing features offered on a DVD player that any ordinary VCR could not possibly have. Another example would be the navigation throughout any favorite DVD movie. Unlike a standard VCR VHS tape, DVDs are sectioned off for easy navigation. The "Chapter Review" feature lets you scan the opening seconds of each section, or chapter, until you find what is wanted. "Go-to by time" lets the viewer enter exactly how many hours and minutes into the disc he/she would like to skip to, and stops right there, eliminating all the fast-forwarding and rewinding with VCRs. These features are possible through the added "markers" on every DVD, allowing easy indexing of special sections of the movie. DVD players also offer an "S-Video" connection, which improves the picture quality by keeping the black and white signals separated from the color signals producing more picture detail and fewer color defects than a standard VCR composite connection. And last, but not least, DVD players also provide already familiar television features, such as multilingual support, which allows the choice between dialogue or subtitles in different languages for the given movie, and parental controls, allowing parents to "lock out" specific functions of the entire player or certain DVDs according to their rating code.

All of these features, and sometimes many more, come standard on most DVD players. These features can not possibly be found in any VCR, no matter how much money is willing to be spent. Yet for the same amount of money that would be spent on a brand-new VCR, the buyer can purchase a brand-new DVD player and get all of these added features.

One of the last, and commonly one of the most important, features of a DVD movie and the DVD player is that you can watch DVDs as many times as you want. When compared to a VCR, the advantage is even greater. Unlike a tape playing on a VCR player, the DVD disc is never touched by any mechanical part. Just a beam of laser light touches the disc. So even after thousands of plays, the DVD disc will have no wear characteristics and the picture quality will remain the same for many years.

Many people enjoy recording their favorite TV shows and programs to watch at a later date, as well as family outings and special occasions. For these purposes, the DVD player has not yet surpassed the ability of the VCR and the recording capability of a VHS tape. While DVD recorders are being produced, the price tag is one that would scare any smart shopper away, with Panasonic selling a DVD recorder and Pioneer expecting to offer one in the second half of 2002, selling for around $2,000 a piece. So for now, hang on to old VHS collections and the old, or new, VCR.

While DVD players cannot offer the recording function of a VCR, it still provides the theater-quality picture and sound. In the past few years since the invention of the DVD player, the price tag has been almost cut in half, and a DVD player is now an affordable addition to any household, as well as a practical one. Since the arrival of the DVD player, watching movies with the family has never been so fun and enjoyable. The feeling of sitting in a movie theatre and watching a crystal-clear screen has now been brought right into the living room of millions of households (with 28 million players sold world-wide in 2001).

When comparing the amount of features a video console has to its price tag, the DVD player comes out on top, and rightly so. Twenty-eight million families cannot be wrong with the choice to purchase this new and innovative technology, and with figures as such to back it up, the DVD player is paving the way for advancing technology in the field of home-video.