There was a time when I watched all my movies at home on videotape. I was comfortable with videotapes and my VCR, and I figured that since the important thing was the artistic quality of the movies, it wouldn't matter much whether I watched them on videotape or DVD. But then I took the DVD plunge, and now I won't rent or buy anything on videotape if I can get it on DVD.
The reasons I prefer DVD are that it provides better picture and better sound, and many DVDs come with a variety of special features, such as director's commentaries, documentaries, interviews with stars, deleted scenes, outtakes, and explanations of how special effects were achieved. For example, if I didn't have a DVD player, I would have missed watching "Citizen Kane" while listening to Roger Ebert's outstanding running commentary on this great movie.
DVD players are quite affordable: on a tour of my local Best Buy, Circuit City, and Wal-Mart stores, I found a good selection in the $40 to $100 range. Also, it's usually pretty easy to hook a DVD player up to any of the newer TVs. Finally, most people who are familiar with playing music CDs don't have much trouble adjusting to using DVDs. The advent of DVD has turned out to be a wonderful development for those of us who like to watch movies at home, but there are a few things you need to know before you plunk down your hard-earned money. While I can't cover every possible consideration in buying a DVD player, I can briefly describe most of the things that most first-time buyers need to keep in mind.
First, there's something important I ought to tell you about hooking up a DVD player to a TV: most DVD players come with cables intended to plug into AV receptacles. It's worth your time to look your TV set over carefully to make sure it provides at least one set of AV receptacles. You're looking for two or three small holes, lined up in a row and usually labeled "video" and "audio." If these receptacles are present at all, expect each set of receptacles to consist of one hole for video plus two holes for audio on a stereo TV or one hole for audio on a monaural TV. If present, AV receptacles are typically located on the front or the back of the TV set, sometimes behind a little door that flips open.
