The Loewe gets it right in the high-definition picture department, delivering images that will blow you away

Stylish looks; Hi-def picture quality

Dodgy DVD pictures; No DTS HD MA; No MP3/WMA/DiVX playback

The menu system is well laid out but sluggish to navigate, and the Loewe Assist remote control is littered with puzzling buttons. It is, however, one of the most elegant zappers we've encountered, made from aluminium and with keys that give a satisfying c...

The SD-280E is best suited to the bedroom or kitchen, as it lacks many of the latest features youâ-'d look for in a main DVD player

DiVX and MP3 playback; Nice looks; Easy to use; Good value for money

No HDMI or USB; Lack WMA/WMV support; No upscaling

It also decodes JPEG and MP3 files, but not WMA or WMV files, and the lack of a USB port means you can't plug in MP3 players or flash drives. For this, you'll need to stump up a little extra for the SD-580E

HDMI upscaling up to 1080i for £20? Surely not!

Bargain price; Mostly good build quality; Upscaling options; Plenty of other features

Not compatible with MP3, WMA or DivX; Poor analogue audio quality

Fails jaggie tests on the Silicon Optix HQV Benchmark disc, but does extremely well on horizontal and vertical text crawls

You can view the 7 inch screen in the open position or flip round and lay back down

Rotating and folding display; Decent DVD performance; Bargain price

Poor quality speakers; Feels cheap; We had issues trying to play some file formats

The feel is very much of lightweight, cheap plastic, but LG delivers fair value for money with such a low price

It's difficult not to be impressed by this deck's slick fascia

The gloss black design looks great; Sensibly stripped-down; Good file compatibility

No component video output; Poor video scaling

An sub-£100 HDMI upscaler sounds like just the thing for the TV in the spare room, but unfortunately this Samsung isn't it

The DV980H is a very slim player, even though it packs a great deal in

Supports 7.1 surround sound; USB port plays DiVX/XViD; Audio quality

Average upscaling performance; Basic onscreen menu system

It's a shame about the scaler, because the Oppo performs fine as a regular DVD player. Far better is Oppo's £180 DV-981HD, which offers top Faroudja scaling and a fine all-round performance

This is not Denon's most musical player, but it handles SD video well

Relatively tidy scaling up to 1080p; strong SD images too

Stereo playback doesn--'t quite match the Cambridge; some jagged lines caused by scaling

On this model we rate the scaler as not just another cynical selling point

Visually, the deck is distinctive and has been styled to match other Pioneer components

Extensive audio compatibility; LAN connector

Design; Disc-loading times; Not a Profile 1.1 player

Overall, I'd say that this is the only pre-profile 1.1 dedicated player that genuinely has any legs. And it earns that kudos through its superior audio compatibility and LAN functionality

The Sony BDP-S300 delivers the kind of picture performance that we've come to expect from an entry-level BD deck

However, as a straight DVD spinner, the S300 is only average. Frequency response at 5.8MHz is mediocre, and player deinterlacing is poor. It failed both our jaggies test and a horizontal text crawl test

This Oppo proves conclusively that there's still a real benefit in having a high-quality DVD player in the rack

Excellent video processing; DVD-A/SACD playback; Multiregion

Average pics from DivX files; Online purchase only

For those with a large DVD collection (that'll be all of us then?) this Oppo proves conclusively that there's still a real benefit in having a high-quality DVD player in the rack