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HELP.
There's a DVD Under My Bed
by Trevor Schmidt
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GAMES MOVIES AND MUSICAL ODYSSEYS have all become bigger and more fantastic. The public eye is constantly
yearning for technological advancements. As creatures of habit, we need more. And
just when we thought CD-ROM technology was setting our boundaries in the early 90s,
DVD stepped onto the platform. An acronym for Digital VideoDisc or Digital Versatile
Disc, DVD shocked the constantly evolving media realm upon its release in early 1995.
The boundaries, it seemed, had been crushed by this massive storage medium. The capacity
of the DVD format was immense, it could contain any form of media and its data throughput
was given the speed of a bullet and the efficiency of a panther.
Let's take a step back in time to the early 90s. In an effort to push the digital
revolution the nine largest consumers electronic companies (including Sony, RCA,
Toshiba, and Pioneer) combined their resources to standardize a new media format,
and DVD was born. Soon DVD complied with standards set by the Motion Pictures industry
Studio Advisory Committee and the computer industry's Technical Working Group. The
major obstacles had been removed. Sales of home DVD players surpassed 1.5 million
within the first eighteen months of its release. According to sales estimates, DVD
players will sell as high as 20 million times over by the end of the millenium. These
new estimates are far higher than the 3 million estimated in late 1997. DVD is rapidly
gaining popularity on the market, but not in the way it originally intended.
DVD entered the market as a medium of virtual storage for video and audio targeted
at rubbing out VHS systems. With this optical storage medium viewers could be dazzled
by explosive video and audio in the comfort of home. Not long after this designers
prepared to introduce DVD-ROM for home computers, but suddenly realized that it would
have to happen sooner than intended. The home computer market was growing at an astonishing
rate by late 1995. It was late 1996 that DVD-ROM was thrust into the market with
the hopeful intention of creating the next Goliath, yet more improvements had to
be implemented before it became what it is today. You see it wasn't so much to advertise
DVD technology, as it was to educate and alert the public about it. People weren't
jumping on the DVD bandwagon as designers had hoped.
Considerable efforts were made to lower the cost of producing DVD players and ROM
drives. The initially high priced DVD products scared consumers and hindered sales
potential tremendously in early marketing stages. They were simply too expensive.
The first home theatre models ranged from $5000-$8000 (Can. funds) while the first
DVD-ROM systems ranged from an atrocious $20000-$30000 (Can. funds) including computer
hardware and software. Developers scrambled to lower production costs, as it was
immediately obvious that no one, aside from the rich, could afford DVD products.
Over the last two years DVD players and ROM drives have become very affordable with
the average cost of either platform being around $500-$800 (Can. funds). DVD-RAM
was introduced in early 1998 and now allows consumers to record data, music, and
video to DVD discs. There are also re-writable DVD-RW systems on the market that
allow consumers to re-record DVD discs in a drive supporting that format. Any of
these systems can be purchased for under $800 (Can. funds).
Here is a look at the facts about DVD systems:
* The disc itself is comprised of 2 individual layers glued together. Each is .6mm
thick and is either single or double sided.
* A two-layer, double sided DVD can hold up to 17 GB of data, each side can contain
approx. 4.7 GB of data.
* A high-density red laser that adjusts depth-read perception to obtain data from
the appropriate layer reads the layers of a DVD.
* Two physical sizes: 12cm (standard) or 8cm mini-disc. Physically equal to a CD
respectively.
* DVDs are read three times faster than a CD
* Each side holds the equivalent of more than seven CD-ROMs or over 3000 31/2"
floppies.
* Crisp, clear digital audio and video.
Some video and audio features include:
* Over 2 hours of high quality digital video
* Over 500 lines of picture resolution (VHS is limited to 240 lines)
* Menu jumps to specified scenes in a movie
* Watching the original movie trailer
* Choice of different languages, subtitles, and kareoke
* Parental lockout
* Zoom in or out (this is a feature equipped in certain DVD players)
* Multiple camera angles (up to nine different angles)
* Multiple movie endings (when included)
* Multiple aspect ratios (widescreen or standard)
* 295 hours of audio on a full-sized DVD (17GB)
Trevor Schmidt has
lived in Cochrane, Alberta for most of his life. Planning a career in the media industry
and sided with his love for computers, Trevor is currently enrolled in the Multimedia
program at SAIT.
**Note: Information for this article was gathered from the following sites for
educational purposes only. No profit will be obtained through using this information
or the similar DVD logo and is not the goal of this article.
* Creative Labs http://www.creative.com
* DVD Action
* Philips
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