DVD or Digital Versatile Disc Essay Example for Free

DVD or Digital Versatile Disc Essay There are a lot of new media technologies around today and more are being invented each day. DVD is one of the most recent developments and is getting more and more popular each day. DVD stands for the term Digital Versatile Disc and is generally like a CD but can store a lot more data on it. Due to the size of DVDs they can store a whole film on one disc, the quality of these films is really good and the sound can be amazing. They can also store large amounts of extras like deleted scenes from the film, extended scenes and documentaries. DVDs are the replacements for both VHS and CD due to the fact that you can now buy music DVDs and the main use of DVD which is for the storage of films. You can now also buy recordable DVDs and DVD writers so you can now record things from the television and put it onto DVD. Due to these facts DVD has become the fastest growing consumer electronics technology of all time. There are three main types of DVD; these are DVD-Video, DVD-ROM and DVD-Audio. DVD-Video was created to meet the requirements of the film industry by having great picture and great sound on one disc. DVD also offers features like surround sound, extras and different viewing angles. DVD-Video is now the fastest growing consumer electronics technology of all time. Several thousand titles and millions of players are now in use around the world, with annual sales of players and discs doubling each year. DVD-Video players were launched in Japan in November 1996, in the USA in March 1997 and in Europe in 1998. Since then DVD-Video has grown faster than any other consumer electronics format in all these regions. DVD-Video has started to replace VHS as the format of choice for pre-recorded movies, both retail and rental. With the introduction of recordable versions DVD-Video is now set to replace the VHS for home video recording and playback of pre-recorded video. DVD-Video have been set certain requirements to stick to by the Motion Picture Studio Advisory Committee which is based in Hollywood, just about all DVDs released follow these requirements but not all of them, it is not a legal requirement, and it is just a general recommended specification, these are: 135 minutes on one side of a single disc (covering 99% of all movies). Video resolution better than Laserdisc (LD). CD quality surround sound for true home cinema listening. 3 to 5 languages (audio) per title on one disc 4 to 6 subtitles per title on one disc Pan-scan, letterbox and widescreen formats Parental lockout features Copy protection Compatibility with existing CDs Chapter division and access (like Video CD) Manufacturing cost similar to current CD costs. A format called VCD (Video Compact Disc) was tried but did not fulfil the requirements as the sound was not very good and the playing time was not very good either as some films were too long for the disc. Most DVD-Videos also include extras that cannot be included on a VHS, such as biographies, directors commentary, making of the movie etc. An increasing number include DVD-ROM content, which can range from links to relevant websites to a full game based on the movie. The use of websites can allow the disc to be used in different ways with updated text and graphics information on the website complementing the video on the disc. There is also a change in DVD types between countries. You get certain DVDs types in certain countries and they call these regions. You use region 2 in UK and region 1 in America, there are also other regions for other countries. Yet you can buy Multi-Region DVD players which can play all regions of DVD. DVD-ROM Drives are just a sort of DVD player that is attached to a PC like a CD-ROM Drive. They can be used to store games, programs and any computer data. This can be an advantage because it enables you to be able to store massive applications or lots of smaller applications. Modern Game consoles also use DVD-ROM drives for example Microsofts X-Box and Sonys PS2 so they can have more realistic and sophisticated games. The Technical Working Group, representing the computer industry, listed the following requirements for a DVD-ROM specification for multimedia, games and other computer applications.