Back to Basics...

[JustSomeGuy]

When I rent a dvd from my local video store what type of media is it?
Is it usualy a DVD-R in ISO 9660 format?
The oldest most basic DVD players must be capable of playing what type of media?
I guess I'm frustrated by the number of dvd formats my DVD player won't play and
kinda tired of it playing on my player but not being able to gaurantee it will play
on a friends player... What have I missed?

[Soopafresh]

Might be time for a new player. The ones from Philips that play DivX are decent and low cost.

[redwudz]

Commercial DVDs are pressed, no -R or +R there, that's only with burned discs. They could be described as DVD ROM.

All DVD players, including older ones would be able to play any pressed DVD that has the proper region and format. That would be region 1 and the NTSC format in the US. Some will play burned -R DVDs. Newer DVD players should be able to play burned DVDs + or - DVD formats and possibly raw MPEG or JPEG, or with some, Divx or Xvid AVI type formats. This would also depend on the media manufactures compatibility with the player.

For DVD player compatibility, they need to have the proper format, NTSC, PAL or other. They need to have the proper region coding, Region 1 for US. Region is not normally used on a burned disc, or is set by software to all region, so should not be a factor.

Then you have DVD -R and DVD +R with burned discs. Finally, and maybe the most important factor in burned discs is quality and compatibility with both the DVD burner and the DVD player. Not all discs are compatible with both. Using a high quality DVD disc is your best insurance. Taiyo Yuden or similar are worth the extra cost. Cheap DVDs are usually no bargain if they don't function on all your players.

Bottom line, no burned disc is guaranteed to play on all players. You need a pressed commercial disc for that. But quality DVD media should play on most all newer DVD players. That is about as good as it gets with burned DVDs.

[JustSomeGuy]

Might be time for a new player. The ones from Philips that play DivX are decent and low cost.

Ya.. maybe a blue ray... Or are we still in the beta/vhs debate stage for hd dvd?

[FulciLives]

If you want a new DVD player look for the Philips DVP-5140 or the Philips DVP-5960 ... both are fairly low-cost yet decent DVD players that handle a variety of formats (such as DVD-R and DVD+R and DVD+R DL) but also will play MPEG-4 (DivX and XviD) video files.

Both models are pretty much the same except the DVP-5960 adds HDMI output with DVD upconversion although based on the type of TV you have that may or may not be a big deal. The DVP-5960 also adds a 1.1 USB input port but it seems to be rather buggy.

Unless you have a HDTV with poor internal scaling I would just get the DVP-5140

I don't know about Canadian prices but the DVP-5140 is sold at WALMART here in the USA for as little as $50 US Dollars.

Then you can wait to see who wins the HD format wars ... HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman