Here is another article from CCN regarding the newest type pof DVD players. I think these will be a common feature in almost every household in the near future....just like the whole CD burning thing took over, next it'll be DVD burning.
DVD players do a lot more than just play movies
Thursday, November 14, 2002 Posted: 3:02 PM EST (2002 GMT)
(CNN) -- DVD players are likely to be popular gifts this holiday season, and not just because of their ability to play DVDs.
NEXT@CNN's Ann Kellan spoke with consumer tech expert Marc Saltzman, for a rundown of the bells and whistles offered on DVD players.
Marc Saltzman: The first one we are going to look at today is from Apex and it plays DVD karaoke discs. There are two slots for microphones. They are sold separately. You plug them in and you can adjust the volume and the echo level.... And you sing along with the DVDs that you buy at retail, maybe specialty stores or maybe online.... And I should mention that this player is also a three-disk carousel, so you can fit three different DVDs or CDs in here. And this player also supports picture CDs. What that means is you can take your favorite photos from your digital camera and burn them onto one of these with your computer and they will play them in a player.
Ann Kellan: How much is this one?
Marc Saltzman: It's only $170, which I think is reasonable because it also plays MP3 CDs. The value there is that if you have a computer with a CD burner, you can store up to 200 songs on one CD instead of the 80 minutes on a regular music CD.... The second DVD player we are looking at today is from Sampo, and what I like about it is that it's got a compact flash reader at the front of the machine. What that means is that you take your CompactFlash reader... from your digital camera. It typically stores photos on it, and you just snap this into the front of the player and it will start (a) slide show of your photos on your TV. You can also store music on a lot of CompactFlash cards. A lot of PDAs or personal digital assistants allow you now to listen to MP3 music on these CompactFlash cards. So this player will read those too. And you can maybe make a party mix for the next time you have guests over.
Ann Kellan: So, would you find that memory card in all digital cameras?
Marc Saltzman: No. That's a good question. There are about four or five different technologies -- one is called a memory stick from Sony. Another one is called SD. But a lot of cameras, probably the majority of them still use CompactFlash. It's a little bit bigger than a postage stamp, and it is pretty much the most common format right now.
Ann Kellan: Then we move up a level, don't we?
Marc Saltzman: Yes, well that player, the Sampo player, is about $150 bucks, which is pretty reasonable because it also plays MP3s as well. The next player we have is from Panasonic (and) we are jumping up in price a little bit to $700, because it's not just a DVD player -- it's also a DVD recorder. Most of our viewers know that most DVD players out there don't act as a VCR. You couldn't, say, tape your favorite shows. But when you buy black DVD discs, this player will record them.
Ann Kellan: And that technology has come down in price since last year.
Marc Saltzman: It has come down a few hundred dollars and so has the media itself. You can now buy a DVD-R disk for about $1, and a DVD-RAM disk, which this player will also write to, for about $5. And as you can see, it's the same size as a regular DVD or CD. And you pop it in and once again you can record onto it, either once in that format, or you can erase the DVD-RAMs and keep putting on your favorite shows.
Ann Kellan: So how much can you record on a CD?
Marc Saltzman: About two hours of high quality video, you know, like MPEG quality video, so it will be as good looking as the TV show you taped it off of. Now the last player that we have is the Toshiba DVD player. That's portable. It's got its own screen, in fact it's an 8.9-inch wide screen which is a nice wide screen angle for this DVD player.
Ann Kellan: Look how portable it is.
Marc Saltzman: Now keep in mind this is without the docking station, so without the battery. We have this plugged into the wall. But it adds a little more bulk in the bottom if you do want the battery, which lasts about three hours, by the way. So it's perfect for people who fly a lot, you don't have to watch the movie that they are playing on the plane.... It will read DVD movies (and) it will read music CDs, MP3 CDs so you can bring your favorite music with you to go, and DVD audio. So (it supports) multiple formats, it's $1,000, and it does have an 8.9 inch screen. It's very lightweight and portable, and (has) a beautiful picture quality.
Ann Kellan: So all of these do more than just play movies.
Marc Saltzman: That's right. And this is the trend that we are all seeing.
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