Theory: 1) DVD Player

A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVDAudio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards.

Technical Details: A DVD player has to complete these tasks:

Read a DVD disc in ISO UDF version 1.02 format optionally decrypt the data with either CSS and/or Macrovision read and obey the DVD's Regional lockout codes and display a warning if the player is not authorised to play the DVD decode the MPEG-2 video stream with a maximum of 10 Mbit/s (peak) or 8 Mbit/s (continuous) decode sound in MP2, PCM or AC-3 format and output (with optional AC-3 to stereo downmixing) on stereo connector, optical or electric digital connector output a video signal, either an analog one (in NTSC, PAL or SECAM format) on the composite, S-Video, SCART, or component video connectors, or a digital one on the DVI or HDMI connectors.

The interior of a DVD player

CD/DVD/AVI/MP4 playback Additionally, most DVD players allow users to play audio CDs (CDDA, MP3, etc.) and Video CDs (VCD). A few include a home cinema decoder (i.e. Dolby Digital, Digital Theater Systems (DTS)). Some newer devices also play videos in the MPEG-4 ASP video compression format (such as DivX) popular in the Internet.

Portable players Most hardware DVD players have to be connected to a television; there also exist portable devices which have an attached LCD screen and stereo speakers. Portable DVD players are often used for long road trips and travel.

Video Video is another issue which continues to present most problems. Current players typically output analog video only, both composite video on an RCA jack as well as S-Video in the standard connector. However, neither of these connectors was intended to be used for progressive video, so yet another set of connectors has started to appear, to carry a form of component video, which keeps the three components of the video, one luminance signal and two color difference signal, as stored on the DVD itself, on fully separate wires (whereas SVideo uses two wires, uniting and degrading the two color signals, and composite uses only one, uniting and degrading all three signals).

2) DVD Disc DVD is an optical disc storage format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity thanCompact Discs while having the same dimensions. Pre-recorded DVDs are mass-produced using molding machines that physically stamp data onto the DVD. Such discs are known as DVD-ROM, because data can only be read and not written nor erased. Blank recordable DVD discs (DVD-R and DVD+R) can be recorded once using a DVD recorder and then function as a DVD-ROM. Rewritable DVDs (DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM) can be recorded and erased multiple times. DVDs are used in DVD-Video consumer digital video format and in DVD-Audio consumer digital audio format, as well as for authoring AVCHD discs. DVDs containing other types of information may be referred to as DVD data discs.

Capacity and nomenclature of (re)writable discs

Capacity Designation Layers Diameter Sides (total) (cm) (GB) (GiB)

DVD-R

SS SL (1.0)

12

3.95 3.68

DVD-R

SS SL (2.0)

12

4.70 4.37

DVD-RW

SS SL

12

4.70 4.37

DVD+R

SS SL

12

4.70 4.37

DVD+RW

SS SL

12

4.70 4.37

DVD-R

DS SL

12

9.40 8.75

DVD-RW

DS SL

12

9.40 8.75

DVD+R

DS SL

12

9.40 8.75

DVD+RW

DS SL

12

9.40 8.75

DVD-RAM

SS SL

1.46 1.36*

DVD-RAM

DS SL

2.65 2.47*

DVD-RAM SS SL (1.0)

12

2.58 2.40

DVD-RAM SS SL (2.0)

12

4.70 4.37

DVD-RAM DS SL (1.0)

12

5.16 4.80

DVD-RAM DS SL (2.0)

12

9.40 8.75*

Technology DVD uses 650 nm wavelength laser diode light as opposed to 780 nm for CD. This permits a smaller pit to be etched on the media surface compared to CDs (0.74 m for DVD versus 1.5 m for CD), allowing in part for DVD's increased storage capacity. In comparison, Blu-ray Disc, the successor to the DVD format, uses a wavelength of 405 nm, and one dual-layer disc has a 50 GB storage capacity. Writing speeds for DVD were 1, that is, 1,385 kB/s (1,353 KiB/s), in the first drives and media models. More recent models, at 18 or 20, have 18 or 20 times that speed. Note that for CD drives, 1 means 153.6 kB/s (150 KiB/s), about one-ninth as swift.[21][23]

Referrence:

a) c) e)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_player

b) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DK_Digital_DVD_1080_open.jpg

d) http://www.samsung.com/my/consumer/mp3-audio-video/dvd-player
http://www.osta.org/technology/dvdqa/dvdqa6.htm