The Complete Guide to Portable DVD Players, Every Term Explained

Like any paperwork that accompanies electronic portable players, eBay listings and instruction manuals are full of jargon. And, as a DVD player retailer, it’s your job to understand what all the acronyms mean and what all the buttons do. But why? You might ask. There are two simple reasons:

1) You don’t want to look like a complete hobbyist to tech-savvy buyers.
2) You should be able to explain what it all does in plain and clear language for beginners who don’t really understand what they are buying.

Therefore, to help you, we have put together a list of almost all the terms that you are likely to encounter when selling portable DVDs online.

Media Formats

MPEG 1, 2, 3 and 4: Audio and video compression standards established by Moving Pictures Export Group. The numbers refer to versions where MPEG 1 is the first and MPEG 4 is the last. MPEG 4 is probably better known as the MP4 format that is used in MP4 players.

MP3: This is perhaps the most recognized audio format designed by Moving Pictures Expert Group. It is a standard for compressing audio files.

WMA: Windows Media Audio is an audio data compression standard developed by Microsoft, but widely played on many MP3 and MP4 players from China wholesale manufacturers. The video version of this format is WMV. DiVX – A compression technique that converts long video sequences into smaller segments without losing too much detail. It uses the MPEG-4 compression standard.

XVID: This open source compression technique competes with DiVX for market share and also compresses video in accordance with the MPEG-4 standard. The difference between the two is that DiVX is proprietary, while XVID is distributed under Gnu or is free to use.

JPEG – This is the format used for photos and is used by most digital cameras. Having this allows the user to play images from the camera on the portable DVD screen.

Disc Formats

CD – The shortest and best-known nickname for compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM). A CD is a pre-printed compact disc that contains data that can be read by a computer and various other players, but cannot be overwritten.

CD-RW: This is a CD that can be burned and read many times. The CD-RW can also be used to store different content formats. This is a bit like a blank VCR from the computer world.

CD-R: A CD-R (recordable) allows content to be written once and read many times. This type of disk stores all kinds of multimedia files; it’s a bit like a blank VCR where you record and then push the tabs to prevent re-recording. Short for Video Compact Disc. VCD is a format for storing video on CD. The VCD is like a VCR tape in that you cannot skip chapters or view rich data, just fast forward and rewind.

SVCD: the super video compact disc. While this successor to the VCD was meant to challenge the DVD format, it lacks the quality and storage capacity of DVD and never took off. DVD: digital video discs. They look like CDs, but they store six times more data and can display video in chapters.

DVD RW / DVD + RW / DVD-RW: Basically three variations of the exact same thing. A DVD RW is like a CD RW in that data can be read and written to many times. The + and – and competitor standards, although it is generally accepted that + is superior and therefore the industry standard for rewritable discs.

TV encoders

SECAM: This analog color coding system was developed in France for television broadcasts. It can still be found used in France, parts of Eastern Europe, and some former French colonies. PAL: Phase Alternating Line is an analog color coding system used in broadcast television in large parts of the world. PAL-encoded DVDs will only play on players that can decode this signal, and PAL and NTSC color encoding systems give security professionals and reversing camera installers endless headaches.

NTSC – This analog color coding system was developed in the US for television and quickly earned the nickname Never the Same Color Twice. It is mainly used in the US, neighboring countries, US territories, and parts of South America.

ATSC: The Advanced Television Systems Committee standard defines a digital broadcast standard for the US, Canada, Mexico, and one or two other territories.

DVB: The digital video transmission standard is (or will be) the industry standard for more than 130 countries. It is used for satellite, terrestrial and portable digital terrestrial (including mobile transmissions).

External ports

AV Out: Audio / video output point for connecting a DVD player to a home TV, car system, etc. AV In: audio / video input point for connecting external devices such as a video camera / game deck directly to the portable DVD player

VGA Output: Video Graphics Array is a type of port that was first introduced in computers, but can now be found in many devices with a separate LCD screen.

USB: The universal serial bus is probably the most generic input you will see on computers. With the USB, you can connect a large number of devices to the DVD player, including mobile phones, laptops, computers, MP3 and MP4 players, etc.

SD / MMC / MS card reader: Secure Digital / Multimedia Card and Memory Stick are all types of flash memory used in portable electronic devices, from MP3 / MP4 players, digital cameras, camcorders, mobile phones, etc.

HDMI – High Definition Multimedia Interface is an audio / video interface for transmitting uncompressed digital data. HDMI connects digital audio / video sources such as set-top boxes, Blu-ray Disc players, personal computers (PCs), video game consoles (such as PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360), and AV receivers to compatible digital audio devices, computer monitors, and digital televisions

S-Video – Separate video is an analog video signal that carries the video data as two separate signals, lumen (luminance) and chroma (color). S-Video is a midpoint between standard definition and high definition and S-Video transmits standard definition video (usually at 480i or 576i resolution), but does not transmit audio on the same cable.

Miscellaneous terms

Aspect Ratio: Aspect ratio is the fractional ratio of an image (or screen) width compared to its height. The two most common aspect ratios in home videos are 4: 3 (also known as 4×3, 1.33: 1, or standard) and 16: 9.

Screen Resolution: Screen resolution refers to the number of rows and columns of pixels on the LCD screen. A screen with a resolution of 800×600 will have 800 pixels horizontally and 600 pixels vertically in each image.

Modulation / Demodulation – This is a method of transferring a digital data stream and converting it to an analog stream.

FFT Pattern: FFT refers to the Fast Fourier Transform, which is the algorithm used to decode digital signals transmitted by television stations and broadcasters. An FFT pattern is used in DVB-T broadcasts.

NES / SNES: Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System are game consoles released by Nintendo in the early 1990s. Many third-party devices come with these built-in devices, including portable DVD players. ESP Protection – Electronic Skip Protection basically ensures that audio / video playback doesn’t skip, especially when used on mobile devices … let’s say in a car. By knowing what the terms mean, you go a long way toward becoming the technology guide you need to help shoppers through the buying process. So, what are you waiting for? Put your new knowledge to work and start improving your sales today.