Going High End
Some people are early adopters of the first degree, and they were probably the first on your block to own a high-definition television. If you're ready to go all out on home entertainment, it might be time to invest in an HDTV. It blows away the quality of a standard television by upping the resolution to as many as 1080 horizontal lines by 1920 vertical dots--about six times more picture information than an analog TV can handle.
If you are planning to use an HDTV, you'll need to buy a progressive-scan DVD player (with its component cables) to connect to your HDTV to get truer picture quality. But you can get an even better image with a digital video interface connection.
A standard DVD player uses a digital-to-analog converter to change the digital information on a DVD disc into a format that an analog TV can understand. Even a high-quality converter will lose some data during the process. The digital video interface sends digital data directly to the HDTV, which speaks the same digital language, so you get the best picture you can. A DVI connection is included with Samsung's $300 DVD-HD931 player (you also get the other cables, too). Like the Toshiba SD-3950, the DVD-HD931 offers advanced music playback--it can handle DVD-Audio discs.
Can't Let Go of VHS?
If you're not ready to completely sever ties with your VHS tape collection, you can opt for a pricier DVD/VCR combo player, so you can get the best of both worlds. Starting at $200, these units allow you to watch both DVDs and VHS tapes, and enjoy better picture quality than if you just had a regular VCR. You'll also overcome a weakness of standard DVD players: With a combo unit, you can record your favorite TV shows onto VHS.
Most of these combo players support progressive scan, too. The $250 JVC HR-XVC25U includes a four-head stereo-sound (or hi-fi) VCR recorder in the unit. (Four-head VCRs offer better image quality; almost all VCRs use four heads these days.)
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