How to Compare Picture Quality Before You Buy a DVD Player

Compare the picture quality before you buy a DVD player. It doesn’t matter what kind of budget you have for home entertainment, because if the picture quality of a DVD player, as well as the the audio quality, are poor, the purchase is not worth it, no matter the price.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• DVD

1. Select a time to go to your favorite electronics or home entertainment store. You are going to be spending a lot of time in the aisles, so try to arrange a time when the store isn’t busy for you to compare the video quality of DVD players.

2. Create your yardstick. A comparison without a standard of measurement is very difficult. Decide ahead of time what video system you are going to use to test each DVD player.

3. Pick a DVD. Choose a DVD that will test a player’s ability to render images on the screen. Professional reviewers use a variety of pre-made test DVDs for this purpose. Check the Resources section (below) for more information.

4. Watch the screen. Pay attention to how a DVD player handles images. Of particular concern are white and black rendering, resolution and true to life color.

5. Keep checking. Hook up another DVD player to the same video system and compare the performance of the player. Repeat this step until you have checked each of the DVD players that you wish to compare.

6. Try again. Give each DVD player a second run through with your test disk before making any decision to buy.

Tips & Warnings

• Something else to consider when comparing DVD players is compatibility. Different disk formats may affect the performance of a DVD player. This is more of a concern if you like to create your own DVDs.
• Use professional reviews of DVDs to test your ability to compare the video quality of a DVD player. Find a review of a given model and test the video quality before you read the review. Compare your analysis of the DVD player’s performance to that of the professional reviewer. If you find many points of similarity, you can trust your judgment about DVD picture quality.
• Take your time. Testing the video quality of a DVD player requires patience.