DVD Player Connections

DVD players have several ways that you can connect them to your television and other electronics, the most popular other electronic device that people connect their DVD players to is the home cinema system or Hi-Fi system. The quality of the connection that is used will have a large bearing on the quality of the sound and picture you experience but you will also need compatible equipment, on this page we will run through the various connections available and what you will need to use them.

The main wire used for connecting a DVD player to a television is a scart lead, these are simple as they only have one connector at each end and they offer high quality picture and sound reproduction. There are however different levels of quality with scart leads and the prices vary quite allot, the more expensive scart leads are generally worth the extra money as they offer better quality because they use better and thicker wire and better insulation around the wire. The number of scart sockets is also sometimes important with DVD players although one is usually enough as it is rare that you would want to connect to any other electronics with a scart lead, the number of scart sockets on a television is more important as you can have several electronics being connected to a television.

There are also a couple of other connections available for DVD players that offer even better quality, these include the S-Video connection which was developed for video recorders but still offers better quality when used with DVD players. Then there is the component output that offers the best quality connection possible between a DVD player and a television, a component connection delivers the ultimate picture quality! To use these S-Video and component connections you will need a television and DVD player with the appropriate connection sockets, if one does not support the connection then you will not be able to use the connection. These connection types are generally found in the top end electronics and are usually more expensive but you can find them at good prices if you shop around, if you have a television with a component connection available then it really is worth looking for a DVD player that also has a component connection as the picture quality will be much better.

There are then different connections available for the sound of the DVD player, the audio will work fine using a scart lead so that the sound will use your television speakers. DVD sound should really be given better quality audio equipment though so there are also other options for connecting your DVD player to a home cinema system or Hi-Fi, to get stereo sound from the DVD player into a Hi-Fi you simply use the audio connection that most DVD players have. To get surround sound from your DVD player into a home cinema system the DVD player will need to have an optical connection, this can support Dolby Digital, Dolby DTS and Dolby 5.1 so if you have a home cinema system an optical connection is very much worth looking for.