DVD features

[silvy]

Not quite ballet, but related to

I am planning to purchase a DVD player, because I see that more and more new ballet works are issued on DVD only. I am fairly confused as to the features this player should have, and I would like you to advise me on what to look for, taking into account that I will get most of my DVDs from U.S.A or European web sites (very little available in Uruguay!!! ), and I want it to be able to play all formats.

Thanks so much

silvy

[MakarovaFan]

Hi Silvy,

I recently bought a Daewoo multi-region dvd player and it's great. It cost $115 including tax and features a slow motion function that doesn't distort the picture at all. Good luck in finding a machine.

[carbro]

Silvy, I'm waiting for the cost of the recording DVD players to drop a little further. Then, I can put all my videocassettes onto DVD and double the usable space in my apartment. But it'll likely be a lifelong undertaking.

[Helene]

Silvy,

I would suggest that you check the disks you want to buy. The original reason for having multiple regions for DVD is for Hollywood movie distribution -- i.e., to restrict Europe from buying the DVD's before the film reaches the theaters. However, many disks I have for ballet and foreign movies are "multi-region" and can be played on most DVD players, because there's no marketing reason to restrict them. All of my ballet, opera, and classical DVD's play on my standard Samsung DVD player, as well as region 1 restricted disks.

If you're planning to get DVD's from all regions and some of them are restricted, you can either:

a. Get a region-free DVD player or region-free DVD software to play disks from your PC. The downside to region-free DVD players is that the manufacturers keep coming up with new ways to restrict regions, so at a certain point, the player may not work on new disks.

b. Get an inexpensive DVD player to play non-restricted and your regional DVD's, and software to play the other region on your PC. DVD software usually makes you lock in a region, giving you several times to reset the region (around five). I have my PC set to the European region, so if I want to watch a restricted Euro-region DVD, I run it from the DVD drive on my PC.

[Ari]

carbro, I've been told that recordable DVD players currently have two competing formats for digital recording, and that it's not known yet which will prevail -- kind of like the VHS/Beta standoff of twenty years ago. The person who told me this recommended waiting until this issue is resolved before buying a DVD recorder.

[carbro]

Thanks, Ari! I have more patience than money.

I worked for a firm that represented Sony during its Betamax heyday. Remember that? A quantity of products had small flaws that did not affect performance, and Sony made them available privately for the bargain price of about $650.