The Times: Tech special - How the DVD changed our leisure habits
The digital versatile disc, or DVD, is the most popular piece of consumer technology since the mobile phone. David Rowan explains why
Every few years, a new technology comes along that revolutionises the way we enjoy home entertainment. Once the Bakelite wireless set entered the nation's sitting rooms, it was only a matter of time before the domestic parlour game died out. As soon as the video recorder arrived, the British family would never again accept a scheduler's view of what and when they should watch.
Today the DVD player is the device that is changing our leisure habits. By connecting a basic £100 machine to your television, you can turn the front room into your own mini-cinema. If you have a games console or a relatively new computer, you may not even need to buy additional hardware. For the film buff, the computer-game player and the serious music fan, the DVD format delivers digital entertainment at a greater quality and convenience than ever before.
According to the manufacturers, the DVD - short for digital video disc, and later digital versatile disc - is the fastest-growing consumer electronics technology of all time. As the price has come down and the amount of available content has multiplied, it has in the past few months overtaken the video as the most popular way of viewing films at home. It is not hard to see why: the discs, which resemble standard CDs, carry vast amounts of information that translates to a sublime viewing experience. And unlike video, they do not necessarily force you to buy a new machine: many new computers and games consoles are designed to play them.
Still, the machines are selling in extraordinary numbers. Last year, we bought around 2 million DVD players in the UK, more than twice the number for the previous year. In the US, the number sold doubled to 13 million. You can also record with the latest versions, which the specialist DVD magazines - there is already a shelf-full - are unfailingly generous in praising.
The story began back in 1994, just as the dominance of the compact disc was filling charity shops with yet more unwanted vinyl record collections. Hollywood set up a committee to study how entire movies could be squeezed on to a CD - ideally with extra background and interactive elements.
As usual, the big manufacturers failed to agree on a common format: not having learnt from the VHS vs Betamax battle, Philips and Sony chose something called the Multimedia CD, while Toshiba and Warner developed the Super Disc. Fortunately, within a year they had agreed on a common format known as DVD. The computer and games industries, then searching for better ways of storing large amounts of software, also embraced the technology.
The first DVD video players arrived in America in 1997, and a year later in Europe. Since then, rapidly growing demand has fuelled constant innovation.You can now buy recordable discs, rewritable discs, and audio discs in a variety of formats - and yet your existing CD collection will still work on the newest DVD players. Although, naturally, the latest DVD-audio discs will sound even better than last century's top-of-the-range CDs.
So why are people getting so excited? This comes down to the amount of digital data that can be hidden within the disc's bumps and grooves, typically 4.7Gb (gigabytes) on one side. A basic DVD holds around seven times as much information as a compact disc of the same dimensions; but if both sides are used and the recording track is doubled up, then there is enough room to store eight hours of the finest movie special effects. If you have ever sat waiting for an e-mail to download, you will understand that even a small document can take an age to arrive. So consider that an average Hollywood film would take at least a year, uncompressed, to download over a normal phone line. Now you can see why storage size matters.
There are still a few problems to resolve in the industry involving piracy and recordable formats (see Need to Know, below). But give them a chance: this market is barely four years old. And until something even better comes along, the DVD looks like being the future of home viewing.
(The Times, April 8 2002)
Every few years, a new technology comes along that revolutionises the way we enjoy home entertainment. Once the Bakelite wireless set entered the nation's sitting rooms, it was only a matter of time before the domestic parlour game died out. As soon as the video recorder arrived, the British family would never again accept a scheduler's view of what and when they should watch.
Today the DVD player is the device that is changing our leisure habits. By connecting a basic £100 machine to your television, you can turn the front room into your own mini-cinema. If you have a games console or a relatively new computer, you may not even need to buy additional hardware. For the film buff, the computer-game player and the serious music fan, the DVD format delivers digital entertainment at a greater quality and convenience than ever before.
According to the manufacturers, the DVD - short for digital video disc, and later digital versatile disc - is the fastest-growing consumer electronics technology of all time. As the price has come down and the amount of available content has multiplied, it has in the past few months overtaken the video as the most popular way of viewing films at home. It is not hard to see why: the discs, which resemble standard CDs, carry vast amounts of information that translates to a sublime viewing experience. And unlike video, they do not necessarily force you to buy a new machine: many new computers and games consoles are designed to play them.
Still, the machines are selling in extraordinary numbers. Last year, we bought around 2 million DVD players in the UK, more than twice the number for the previous year. In the US, the number sold doubled to 13 million. You can also record with the latest versions, which the specialist DVD magazines - there is already a shelf-full - are unfailingly generous in praising.
The story began back in 1994, just as the dominance of the compact disc was filling charity shops with yet more unwanted vinyl record collections. Hollywood set up a committee to study how entire movies could be squeezed on to a CD - ideally with extra background and interactive elements.
As usual, the big manufacturers failed to agree on a common format: not having learnt from the VHS vs Betamax battle, Philips and Sony chose something called the Multimedia CD, while Toshiba and Warner developed the Super Disc. Fortunately, within a year they had agreed on a common format known as DVD. The computer and games industries, then searching for better ways of storing large amounts of software, also embraced the technology.
The first DVD video players arrived in America in 1997, and a year later in Europe. Since then, rapidly growing demand has fuelled constant innovation.You can now buy recordable discs, rewritable discs, and audio discs in a variety of formats - and yet your existing CD collection will still work on the newest DVD players. Although, naturally, the latest DVD-audio discs will sound even better than last century's top-of-the-range CDs.
So why are people getting so excited? This comes down to the amount of digital data that can be hidden within the disc's bumps and grooves, typically 4.7Gb (gigabytes) on one side. A basic DVD holds around seven times as much information as a compact disc of the same dimensions; but if both sides are used and the recording track is doubled up, then there is enough room to store eight hours of the finest movie special effects. If you have ever sat waiting for an e-mail to download, you will understand that even a small document can take an age to arrive. So consider that an average Hollywood film would take at least a year, uncompressed, to download over a normal phone line. Now you can see why storage size matters.
There are still a few problems to resolve in the industry involving piracy and recordable formats (see Need to Know, below). But give them a chance: this market is barely four years old. And until something even better comes along, the DVD looks like being the future of home viewing.
(The Times, April 8 2002)
posted by David Rowan at Monday, April 08, 2002
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