Nuggets: DVD does MP3

DVD has been the fastest adopted consumer electronics format ever. Fact. The world just can't have enough DVD players at the moment. Cashing in on this insatiable demand, manufacturers keep on cranking out new machines.

Not wanting to be left out of this DVD frenzy, LG Electronics has a couple of new players out this month.

The DVD-3350E is its top-of-the-range offering. A nice touch is its built-in MP3 decoder that lets you whack your MP3 library onto a CD for playing in something other than that horrible grey box in the study.

There's a built-in Dolby Digital/MPEG-2 decoder, DTS (Digital Theatre Sound) digital output, and a last scene memory feature that stores the last position played on up to 15 discs. You can also set preferences for up to 15 DVDs, including subtitle, audio language and audio and speaker configuration.

Slightly lower down the evolutionary scale is the DVD-3200E. The money you save by buying this one means you lose the advanced features detailed above but get the same basic functions. Which we'll spend the rest of our time going through. Please pay attention.

A zoom function lets you select any part of the picture and zoom in at 4x or 16x and a marker facility stores up to five scene positions in memory for instant access.

The Graphic User Interface gives you menu icons on screen, letting you control function settings, including surround sound balance, angle, and audio output options, via the remote control. There's also the usual password lock to stop your kids watching Debbie Does Dallas when you're out.

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