When video was its peak of popularity, the idea of putting a film onto a disc was an incredible one. Just like compact disc before it, DVD was an aspirational technology, and one that only those with extremely deep pockets could afford.
But looking around your local electrical store these days, you may have noticed the price of a standard DVD player has tumbled dramatically. Instead of paying up to €1,000 for the machines, you can now pick one up for as little as €70. Some of these machines probably won’t be brand names you immediately recognise, but these DVD players will work just as well.
Most people are familiar with DVD video and its benefits. Unlike video tape, the digital format is less prone to picture degradation (although scratching the discs themselves can be an issue) so you can watch your favourite films over and over again without reducing both sound and picture to a slightly fuzzy mess. With Dolby Digital soundtracks and large screens, you can use DVD to recreate your very own home cinema in the comfort of your living room.
When you change over to DVD, say goodbye to spending time rewinding or fast-forwarding discs to find the scene you want; DVD movies are split into titles and chapters that make it easy to find your favourite bits. And you’ll never have to remember to rewind films borrowed from your local video library. Depending on the DVD title you are watching, you might support for widescreen movies, multiple languages, director commentaries, subtitles, different camera angles or interactive features on your disc. But first, you have to choose your DVD player.
Spoilt for choice
There’s a lot of choice on the DVD market these days, and if you’re new to digital video, the list of unfamiliar functions may leave you baffled. But like everything in life, before you make your final decision, you have to weigh up all the possibilities and figure out exactly what you want, otherwise you run the risk of your DVD player becoming a mildly expensive, under-used bookend.
You can go for a basic player that will play your DVDs and music CDs but do very little else. These are usually the bargain DVD players that you can pick up for under €100, and work perfectly well. These
days, you can even pick up a branded player from the likes of JVC or Mitsubishi cheaply enough. In fact, you can get a Black Diamond DVD for €70 — the BD48DVD. This silver slimline DVD player has all
the functions need from your DVD player. It will playback Video CDs, Super Video CDs, audio CDs, MP3 audio, JPEG and MPEG files. It’s also compatible with PAL and NTSC signals, will Dolby Digital support.
The BD48DVD supports 16:9 widescreen and 4:3 aspect ratios.
JVC’s XVN33SL is also a good buy, at €199.99 from Peats. It uses a single chip AV decoder to process the played-back image, enhancing the picture frame by frame. Supported formats include DVD-
Video, DVD-R, DVD±RW (Video Format), CD, SVCD/VCD, CD-R/RW, MP3 and JPEG.
As you invest more money, you get more high-end extras, such as DivX support, an Ethernet port or hard disks. The Kiss range, available from 3D Logistics, includes the DP-1500 series, which comprises the DP-1500, DP-1504 and DP-1508. All three players have a built-in Ethernet port and a PC card slot. While this
may baffle the average user, the extras can come in handy. This enables the players to read audio, video and picture content straight from a PC, or to be connected to the Internet and play Internet radio stations. The card slot gives the user the option to use the DVD player with a wireless connection. The Kiss DP-1504 comes with a 40Gbyte hard disk; the DP-1508 has an 80Gbyte hard disk. Audio, video and picture content can be stored on the DVD player — up to 58 good quality DivX movies on the DP-1504 and 117 on the DP1508. The players are also compatible with CD/MP3, Ogg Vorbis, DivX, XviD, CD-RW and DVD+/-RW playback.
Another thing to consider when you are deciding on your DVD player is picture quality. Most (if not all) DVD players are capable of excellent picture quality, but it’s important to remember that the type of connection you use to hook the player up to your TV will have an impact on your picture. The highest quality connection is component, which consists of three cables, colour coded red, blue and green. It’s not standard on European TVs, but more expensive sets will be compatible with the connection. S-Video can be found on higher-end DVD players, and is a good quality connection for transmitting your digital video.
The most common type of connection is Scart, which is the 21-pin rectangular connection on the rear of your DVD player. Composite connections offers a lower standard of picture compared to other methods, but it will still be reasonable quality. This connects through a single cable, which combines the colour signals into a single
cable. Remember: A bad picture on a demonstration unit in-store may have more to do with the connection than the DVD player itself, so check before you buy.
Re-record, not fade away
But what if a DVD player isn’t enough? In the past, one of my personal gripes about ditching analogue and going for digital was that recording wasn’t an option. This meant having a DVD player for watching movies and a video recorder for taping the important TV programmes I’d have otherwise missed.
But since DVD recorders have hit the market — and become far more affordable in the process — the argument for clinging to the video recorder is losing weight. So if you still have your old VHS recorder,
chances are you due for an upgrade. Recordable DVD may seem a bit daunting at first with its differing formats, but with some guidance, the process should be a little easier.
First of all, the formats. There has been much talk of the differing formats and how it was shaping up to be another VHS vs Betmax war — and we all know how that turned out. Reluctant to end up with a format that may become obsolete at some stage in the near future, many consumers may have been put off investing in a DVD recorder. Buyers still have to contend with three major (and incompatible) formats for DVD recording — DVD-RW/R, DVD+RW/+R, and DVD-RAM — and it doesn’t look like that will change this year.
All three formats have ardent proponents, and each has merit. DVD-RAM, for example, can be rewritten 100,000 times compared with 1,000 for its rivals. It also offers double-sided discs, so you can get up to 9.4Gbyte of data per disc versus competitors’ 4.7Gbyte. It features error-correction mechanisms that slow down certain functions, but also protect your data. Its major problem is compatibility. Few of the DVD players and DVD ROM drives in the market today can read a DVD RAM disc. Panasonic’s line of DVD players includes some that can handle DVD-RAM, but it is in the minority.
Both DVD+R/+RW and DVD-R/RW are already more compatible than DVD RAM. Each claims slightly better compatibility than the other; no exhaustive list exists, however. DVD+RW has slightly faster speeds, requires slightly less time to format and save your disc, and lets you edit files directly on the disc without having to transfer your work to the hard drive and then re-import it to disc once done. But DVD-R/RW has been around longer, has a larger installed base, and is slightly cheaper, especially with its media. The format also builds in a bit more copy-protection mechanisms than DVD+RW, which may give it an edge with content providers.
However, the DVD manufacturers have come up with a solution — combo devices that are compatible with both DVD+ and DVD- formats. That’s not to say that one format won’t die off in the future, but at present, combo machines are looking like a good bet — although you may sacrifice a little on performance compared to the single format machines.
DVD recorders don’t have to be expensive. Peats is currently offering a multi-format DVD recorder from Liteon for €299 — the Liteon LVW5005. The recorder will burn DVDs in both +R/RW and -R/RW formats, and you can also use it to burn CDs. The Liteon machine has SP and LP recording modes, supporting MP3, JPEG, VCD, SuperVCD and CD-R modes. Connections include S-Video, Composite, Component and Scart Video out. It also has FireWire input, optical and coaxial out. You have various DVD recording modes such as the standard SP/LP. You can pick up a Philips DVDR70 recordable DVD player for €389 in DID Electrical.
However, you can also spend up to €1000 on a DVD recorder; the Sony RDR-GX& multi-format DVD recorder is available from Peats for €999. Get one with a hard disk built in and you’re looking at €1,199 for a Pioneer DVR5100, which comes with an 80Gbyte hard disk and the ability to write to both DVD formats.
The format that appears to be being left out in the cold is DVD RAM. Unlike the other two formats, which to all intents and purposes look identical, the DVD RAM discs come encased in a cartridge to protect them from dust and scratches. They can be recorded on both sides. However, they are not compatible with DVD+R/RW or DVD-R/RW machines. Panasonic supports this format — a Panasonic DVD RAM
recorder will set you back €499 for the DMRE55EBLS.
The future of DVD
The technology is constantly evolving and the future of DVD is looking bright — and small. One day, you’ll watch movies at home on 5in discs that make today’s DVDs look like VHS. We know the basic
technology that will make this happen: Blue-light lasers that increase disc capacity, allowing one DVD to hold hours of HDTV-quality video. But what we don’t know is which of the two formats will make it into your living room.
The two competing formats are Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD. If you remember the VHS versus Betamax war of the early 1980s, be prepared — a similar format war may be starting again. And the war will be about more than just home video. Today’s DVDs are a medium for computer software distribution, retail videos and PC backups. So next-generation, blue-laser DVDs will have to do all these things as well. The first retail blue-laser units on the market — which are currently available only in Japan and cost thousands of euro — are set-top video recorders.
Meet the contestants
Those recorders all use the Blu-ray format; this format is backed by Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, HP and other computer and consumer electronics companies. The competing format, HD-DVD, is primarily the product of Toshiba and NEC. Earlier this year, the DVD Forum officially endorsed HD-DVD, although the decision was by no means
unanimous. All of the major Blu-ray companies belong to the DVD Forum, and many of them have no current plans to back what they consider an upstart. And no company has yet announced an HD-DVD product, though Toshiba and NEC have shown prototypes.
Blu-ray was designed with an emphasis on capacity; HD-DVD targets compatibility. Blu-ray can hold about 50Gbyte on a two-layer disc compared with HD-DVD’s 30Gbyte (by comparison, today’s two-layer DVDs hold less than 9Gbyte). But a HD-DVD disc is physically closer to today’s DVDs, making it easier to manufacture discs in existing factories and to make drives that can also read and write today’s DVD and CD formats. HD-DVD discs share the same basic structure as DVDs but Blu-ray Disc, by comparison, uses a new structure requiring new production lines, which will drive up costs, at least initially. What’s more, Matsushita (better known by its Panasonic brand name) has already announced a Blu-ray recorder with CD/DVD support for the Japanese market.
As for HD-DVD’s smaller storage capacity, Toshiba Vice President Maciek Brezski says that the designers of HD-DVD ‘felt [that 30Gbyte] was enough to get you what you needed.’
When it comes to picture and sound quality, which both consumers and content producers tend to scrutinise closely, there is little to tell the two formats apart. Both deliver digital high-definition images that most users would be hard-pressed to distinguish. HD-DVD has an edge in that it uses more advanced video compression codecs, but backers of Blu-ray Disc are also considering using the same codecs — MPEG4 and Microsoft’s VC9 — thus eliminating this competitive edge in the future. However, where the two formats differ is in the area of disc production. ‘Both formats will offer excellent quality,’ says IDC analyst Wolfgang Schlichting. He also finds it ‘questionable whether [backward compatibility] will translate into something important.’
Does this mean war?
Everyone agrees on one thing: They don’t want a format war, which would dampen consumer enthusiasm and slow market acceptance. The problem is that both groups see only one way to avoid war: Having their side win. And no side can win without the support of the Hollywood studios, which — with one exception — have been reluctant to announce support for one format over the other. The exception, not surprisingly, is Sony-owned Columbia Pictures, which has publicly embraced its parent company’s Blu-ray. In any case, the studios definitely don’t want to have to support both formats, as that would increase manufacturing costs and inventory problems. For now, they’re taking a wait-and-see approach. IDC’s Schlichting sees two possible scenarios. It will either be ‘similar to DVD, where the two come together — forced together by Hollywood — to agree on standards, or one camp gives up before they start selling product.’
One solution no one believes likely is the one that ended the DVD +/- battle: combo drives that play discs in either format. That was possible because DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW drives are mechanically very similar — supporting both formats is not much more complicated than adding extra firmware and paying another licensing fee.
But Blu-ray and HD-DVD drives are fundamentally different; a combo drive would likely require one set of arms and motors for Blu-ray and another set for HD-DVD. It’s unlikely anyone will ever make such a
combo drive that would also be small enough to fit in a computer. Such a drive would also be prohibitively expensive: Existing Blu-ray drives cost $3000 or more, and a combo drive could cost much more than that.
Will we ever see blue lasers?
Whatever format they come in, blue-laser DVDs aren’t likely to appear in significant quantity before late 2005, at the earliest. And they probably won’t be common, or inexpensively priced, in this decade.The format war and high costs aren’t the only reasons for the slow roll-out. According to Schlichting, ‘The market is not really ready. DVD is a good enough media technology.’
It’s possible that either format will become the laser disc of the current decade — a superior, expensive medium adopted exclusively by cinephiles. Only when HDTV sets are common, players are cheap, and one format is the unquestioned winner will discs in that format penetrate the mass market.
11/10/04
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