DVD player

This page relates to a hardware device used to play DVDs. For the Microsoft Windows software program, see DVD Player (Windows). For the Apple software program, see DVD Player (Apple).

The interior of a DVD player

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

A DVD player has to complete these tasks:

• Read a DVD disc in ISO – UDF version 1.2 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 downsampling) 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