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The DVD Page

An Introduction to DVD

What the CD is to the LP and 45, DVD (digital video disk) is to the VHS video tape. Introduced in March 1997, DVD stores movies on CD-sized disks, not bulky tapes. Other benefits include:

  • Digital picture quality
  • Over two hours per disk -- twice that for dual-layer or double-sided
    (All players can read dual-layer disks)
  • Up to 8 tracks of digital, CD-quality audio (supports multiple languages)
  • No-wear media, unlike video tape
  • Random access (no need to rewind)
  • In the future, recording should be an option

In brief, you get better quality than VHS, no worry about image degradation or tracking problems after several viewings, and drop-dead sound in a CD-sized disk that costs about the same as a video tape. The only disadvantages DVD has compared with video tape are the (current) inability to record and the fact that you need a DVD player to watch the movies.

DVD is an industry standard with broad backing; it looks like it will be with us for many years. However, there are changes coming, Divx and recordable DVD.

At this point, Apple and several other computer makers are making DVD an option or standard feature.

DVD sites

DVD articles

Divx

Update June 6, 1999: Divx is dead. Owners of Divx players purchased prior to 6/16/99 will receive a $100 cash rebate. Existing Divx movies will be supported for two years. If you own Divx, go to <http://www.divx.com/> for more details.

Circuit City has announced a modified version of DVD called Divx. A Divx player is essentially a DVD player with a modem and some new circuitry to allow pay-per-view of digital video disks. In brief, you buy the Divx disk ($5, a lower price than a regular DVD), have unlimited viewing for 48 hours from the first viewing, then must pay for each additional viewing.

Essentially, you buy the disk, watch it once or twice, then pay for future viewings. Divx is being positioned against video rentals: by making the disk inexpensive and keeping the viewing fee reasonable, the Divx user avoids a trip to Blockbuster. Bill Hunt reports that additional viewings will cost $3, a reasonable estimate based on video rentals.

Divx players work with both DVD and Divx disks; Divx disks are encrypted and cannot be viewed with regular DVD players, nor can DVD players be adapted to Divx. Divx may undermine the popularity of DVD, although they will probably be more expensive.

Disney, Paramount, Universal, and DreamWorks will release movies using Divx. (Disney and Universal also support DVD; Paramount and DreamWorks have not announced DVD plans.) Matsushita (Panasonic), Thomson, and Zenith will release Divx players. Divx product will be shown at the January 1998 Consumer Electronic Show, rolled out in selected markets in March, and available nationally during the summer.

Is Divx good or bad?

Although being promoted as an enhanced version of DVD, Divx also eliminates some of the freedoms associated with DVD and conventional videos.

  1. You must have a Divx player. If you have a DVD player, tough.
  2. You need to set up a credit account with Divx.
  3. You must have a phone jack somewhere near the Divx player.
  4. Viewings are billed based on the player, not the disk owner. (Bring your disk to a friend's house and your friend gets billed.)
  5. Divx players will always be more expensive than DVD players -- about US$100 more.
  6. Divx can track your movie viewing habits.
  7. If you watch a movie 7 times, a $20 DVD is cheaper.
  8. What's to prevent the kids from abusing the system while you're out?

Divx is a slap in the face to over a hundred of thousand who have already invested in DVD players. Buying a (more expensive) Divx player and spending $5 for the disk is more expensive than buying a DVD player and renting the movie once.

Divx doesn't make economic sense -- unless you're the movie studio profiting from the rental fees. The only way it will succeed is if a good percentage of popular movies are released only in Divx, not DVD.

The only way I'd buy a Divx box would be if it cost less than a DVD player with comparable features and quality. And I'd only use it as a DVD player.

Pro-Divx sites

Anti-Divx sites

Recordable DVD

There's a battle brewing between two incompatible recordable versions of DVD. DVD-RAM is officially supported by the DVD Forum and allows 2.6GB of data per disk side. The new DVD+RW standard promoted by Sony and Phillips provides a little more capacity at 3.0GB per disk. Both formats are backward comptible with DVD, but incompatible with each other.

Let's hope they come to some agreement before recordable DVD reaches the consumer market.

At this point, DVD-RAM is primarily a computer format. Since the disks are housed in plastic cartridges, they cannot be used in traditional DVD players.

Dan Knight

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