By Paul Hendrickson Pahendrickso@bsu.edu
The Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc, is better known as DVD. completely new
way of watching movies and videos. DVD is a digital, CD looking disc, which plays
not only music, but over two hours of crisp, high quality video.
500 lines of horizontal resolution gives DVD a picture quality twice better than that of a VCR. Technically speaking, DVD is a family of optical disks with very high dimensions on a MPEG-2 format, resulting in a better overall quality. MPEG-2 technology compresses digital information into a 6MHz bandwidth comparing adjacent frames and only recording sections of pictures that have move or changed, resulting in a higher quality video. Digital Video Discs are expected to one day replace VHS cassettes all together. They are aimed at anyone who owns a television and enjoys watching movies or listening to music. A standard DVD can hold up to 4.7 gigabytes of data, 7 times the amount of data a standard CD can hold. With outstanding picture quality, enormous data space, durability, more multimedia, and superior sound, DVDs are certain to eventually become the norm across the world. With a catalog of all types of movies, children's' shows, and popular music, DVDs are intended for all ages. SONY provides a great illustration and description of DVD products.
DVP-S7700 featuring: - "Plays three disc formats (DVD, Video CD and Audio CD)." - "Dual
Discrete™ optical pickup has separate lasers optimized for CD (780 nm wavelength)
and
- "DSP
(Digital Signal Processor) Servo LSI for up to 20% faster track and chapter
access,
- "Tilt
servo and Digital RF Processing for optimum disc tracking."
-courtesy of SONY
Many
companies are involved in the industry of DVD. Some of the main
players include:
Denon DVD Players
Super Disc (SD) and Multimedia CD (MMCD) were two early forms of DVD in 1994. A year later, Phillips/Sony announced and demonstrated MMCD. Toshiba and Warner were also hard at work, announcing and demonstrating SD. After agreements by manufacturers in the spring of 1995, a single standard format was determined in all the competing industries called DVD. Sony's role DVD has many features and specifications (for exact specs) which puts it in a class of its own. The main feature is the CD shape, made possible by MPEG-2 compression. MPEG-2 compares adjacent frames and only records the potion of the picture that has changed. With a digital format, DVD can hold up to 133 minutes of video, which handles 95% of all movies. Some DVDs
are double sided and can hold 8 hours of video.
Language Choice- includes audio tracks, subtitles, menus, and automatic selection of video scenes Special Effects Playback- option to freeze, step, slow, fast, and scan to any point on the video Parental Lock- objectionable material can be denied playback Programmability- ability to choose sequence of various sections Repeat and Random Play Digital Audio Output- Dolby Digital Stereo Surround and PCM stereo Plays
Audio CDs-8
tracks of digital audio account for supreme sound
Many DVD movies have several versions of the movie on them. Directors cuts are popular as well as narration by the main actors. For example, the "Fight Club" DVD has a version of the movie where Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and the director talk over the whole movie about how
they did each scene.
Missing/Alternate Scenes- Different, previously unseen versions are made available to view Trailers- Previews for the movie Talent Profiles- Biographical information on the actors, actresses, and producers Special Effects- Description and explanation of how the cast and crew did certain stunts and effects Editing- a behind-the-scenes look at post-production of the movie and how it was put together Widescreen-format fits a direct-view TV with a 4:3 aspect ratio and widescreen is ideal for rear or front projection systems capable of a 16:9 aspect ratio
Standard Prices for DVD movies, programs, and concerts range from $20 to $30. Street prices are $15 to $25, while some movies can be found for as little as $10. DVD has not yet followed the VHS format of initial high prices, but that might eventually change.
(click
for article on pricing) Most DVD players range from $140 to $3,000. The first DVD players started around $1,000, but prices have dramatically fallen and still continue to decline. Many discount retailers now sell players for close to $100. (click to see prices and to order from Circuit City)
DVD was first brought onto the scene in May of 1994. Sony and Phillips formally announced they were joining efforts in developing DVD. At the same time, Toshiba and Warner also announced plans they were working together on a similar, yet specifically different DVD technology. The companies soon found out manufacturers disliked the idea of two incompatible, competing formats of DVD. In January of '95, DVD made it's debut at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show under Sony. Three weeks later in Beverly Hills, Toshiba and Warner displayed their version of DVD. While at first it seemed Sony had the upper hand, Toshiba and Warner's version held more gigabytes, 10, and had thinner disks. Thinner disks yielded a density which accounted for a higher data rate, improving the quality of an MPEG-2 picture. While many companies, such as Matsushita, Thomson, Hitachi, Pioneer, and MCA, supported Toshiba, in the spring of '95, Sony, Phillips, and the Toshiba crew merged their technologies. The reason for this: A report by Apple, Compaq, Fujisu, HP, IBM, and Microsoft refusing to support the dueling standards. Toshiba's Super Density disk was selected, while Sony's data coding methods, EFM Plus, was used. By the August of '97, DVD was made available across the USA. In October of '98, One million DVD players had sold in the US. With demand rising and prices falling, DVD is flourishing and look to one day
replace VHS all together. For
more, click Info
1 Info2
the end of '98, sales more than tripled to 1,089,261 in one year. As of September 29th, overall sales have reached 5,092,289 in 2000. More than 10,510,000 players have been sold in the United States with numbers expected to continually
rise. Monthly
player sales statistics
WIth DVD being a relatively recent technology, new developments and stories frequently occur. Here are some sites with the latest news concerning DVD: http://news.excite.com:80/news/pr/001010/ca-dvs-single-board http://news.excite.com:80/news/bw/001009/ca-c-cube-microsystems http://www7.mercurycenter.com:80/premium/business/docs/dvdlaptop15.htm http://www.dvdreview.com/html/news.html http://www.dvdresource.com/index.shtml
- Numerous camera
angles to choose from during playback
- Availability
of movies released on DVD
Reviews for DVD movies and technology
For newsgroups, mailinglists, reviews, and chatting, the following sites are helpful: http://www.egroups.com/group/DVD-Info http://www.deja.com/=liszt/dnquery.xp?query=~g%20rec.video.dvd.advocacy http://www.digitalbayou.com/links_dvd_newsgroups.htm
The main concern with DVD are regional codes or zone locks. DVDs contain a coding, from the geographical region it was sold in, which prevents playback in certain other geographical areas. The idea is so disks bought in one country can't be used in another. There are two main reasons for the codes. The first, so motion picture studios can control the home release date of movies in different countries, because theater release dates differ from country to country. The second, studios sell distribution rights to foreign distributors and want a guaranteed exclusive market for maximum profit. Studios fear bootlegging and other mediums of buying DVDs by the consumer, so regional codes were the best solution. Players and disks are broken into 8 regions with players and discs identified by a region number superimposed onto a world globe. The regions include: 1) U.S., Canada,
U.S. Territories
Along with regional codes, DVD copying is a big concern. CPSA (content protection system architecture) is responsible for the security, framework, and overall access controls of all DVDs. CPSA mainly covers encryption, watermarking, and protection of analog and digital outputs. 6 forms of DVD protection apply: 1) Analog CPS
(Macrovision)
Links to the sources I used: Sony
October 16, 2000
|
"The Patriot," children's programming, and music concerts, like the
By the end of 1997, the first year of DVD on the market, 315,318 players
were sold. By
