Whether your living room is currently home to an HDTV or you're merely thinking of "someday," the SD-3950 stands ready to deliver the full potential of DVDs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts.

The SD-3950 also performs 3:2 pulldown. DVD mastering introduces a common distortion when adjusting 24 frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video; 3:2 pulldown digitally corrects this distortion. Conventional composite- and S-video outputs bring compatibility with nearly any television. The "expanded" mode in the player's black-level setting produces richer, deeper black tones in every image. PLUGE (Picture Line Up Generation Equipment) delivers black as well as below-black signals to a television.

A set of left/right analog-audio outputs channel audio to Dolby Pro Logic receivers and stereo televisions. Both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround-sound signals can be routed through the player's digital-audio output (coaxial) for direct connection to a full-featured audio/video receiver. The player's internal digital-to-analog converters work at 24-bit, 192 kHz resolution to ensure optimum sonic quality from a range of digital program material.

Enhanced Audio Mode (E.A.M.) offers three sound settings: normal (off), 3-D (virtual surround sound enhancement), and dialogue expander (which enhances center-channel frequencies in the range of human voices during playback of multichannel content). Other playback options include Power Picture Zoom (which lets you magnify a select area of an image), bookmarking (up to nine marks), and parental lock.