Basically there is nothing mystique about a DVD player. All you need is a DVD-ROM drive, power supply, controller and decompression chip and some software for the playback and menu functions.
The decoder chip is the Vaddis III from the video specialist Zoran. As you can easily see on the photo, Dolby Digital is supported in hardware (it's 5.1 as 6.1 devices are still very expensive).
Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.
