What' s the Latest on DVD Technology?

Three years ago I wrote an article about the advantages and disadvantages of the DVD (digital versatile disc) format and its value to academics. I also spoke about the availabilty of discs, in both your local video store and in the Learning Support Services collection, and the availabiltity of players as well.

So where are we now with this technology and how might these updates affect your teaching?

Availability

Let's start with the growth of the DVD industry. Go no further than your favorite video store and you'll see that DVDs are taking over the home-entertainment market. Though the number of households with VCRs still exceeds households with DVD players by three to one, the current purchasing, marketing and production trends clearly show that this will change soon. First, people aren't just renting DVDs, they're buying them for the outstanding video, audio, and "special features". Here at LSS, our collection has grown from three to seventy in less than three years. Second, Hollywood studios have pushed very hard to get their movies, old and new, into DVD format. Most of these materials are the more desirable feature films and not smaller market, less-profitable productions like documentaries, training films and other educational materials. Additionally, the cost of DVD material has dropped significantly. Our department librarian, Mary Prochniak, is noticing that the prices of videotape materials are considerably higher than the prices for the same material in DVD format. She says that tapes can be anywhere between $50 to $70 more. Finally, the biggest reasons that the DVD format will overtake the VCR is that they can a) now record programs and b) can be authored by the everyday computer user. Is it a stretch to say, as some media analysts have, that the VCR will be obsolete in five years? 

Player Updates - Regional Coding

In the 1999 article, I talked about Regional Coding. To recap, regional coding is an attempt by Hollywood to control the availibilty of a certain film in different parts of the world. A film in the United States, for instance, will go to release on DVD before it hits the theatres in the UK. To maximize profits, each DVD disc and player is given a region code so that disc can only be used in a player with the same region code. A DVD in the United States (Region One) should not be able to work in a player from the UK (Region Two). Notice how I said "should not".

While hacking is the most controversial way to thwart the encoding, let ' s talk about the less nefarious approaches for working around the code. First, multi-region or "universal" players do exist though they are not necessarily advertised as such. More on that in a minute. LSS has five such players scattered throughout the department including one in the AV Pool for checkout and two in our Language Lab. This player does not care where the disc came from because it adjusts to accomodate the code. 

While some players do an automatic adjustment, many  manufacturers of DVD players have been programming manual controls in the machines to circumvent the region codes. These companies are implanting "cheat codes" in their players so that the consumer can use menu options to reset the player to "multi-region." The cheat code is a combination of buttons to be pressed on the remote control that will allow the user to gain access to this universal feature. Why is this legal? Is it?  Those who would say it is argue that, like the "universal" players which are not adverstised as such, these manufacturers don't sell the units as "multi-region" players and they don ' t publish the cheat code anywhere in the equipment documentation. Cheat codes are provided directly or indirectly to the retailers of the machine who then put it up on a website or publish it on a slip of paper that they sell with the player. The manufacturer ' s position is, "If you learn that your machine handles multiple regions through a cheat code, congratulations. But we won' t be telling you that it does that or what the code is."

If this isn' t ridiculous enough, some Hollywood studios have countered with a Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE) which, as the name suggests, is an "extra" layer of security on Region One discs so that they detect when they are being played in multi-region players. The disc will not play in such a device and issues a statement on the screen telling the user that there is nothing wrong with the disc, but that he/she should play it on a Region One player only. This seems to be futile as well as I found one website that had listed the directions for working around this enhancement for several players.

All this silliness should soon become a thing of the past given the hacking and cheating going on to subvert regional coding, but what will really put it to bed is the fact that movie release times between regions are getting closer.  

Recorder Update - The Format War

There are six different recordable DVD-ROM formats: DVD-R for General, DVD-R for Authoring, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD+R. The competition for the recordable DVD market has been intense and to make a long story short, it has basically come down to those who support DVD-R/RW and those who are backing DVD+R/RW. Both formats can be used for video production, and while DVD+R/RW does a better job handling computer data, DVD-R/RW currently leads in the market.

So what is a poor consumer to do? Which drive should one buy? Which format and media should you back?

The answer? Stay tuned.

In the meantime and as a short term solution, Sony has just announced that they are ready to start shipping their Dual DVD RW drives which will support all four recordable formats. They have created a pair of drives, one internal and one external, that will handle both sides of the conflict. According to Forbes.com, the external model ($430) will connect to a PC via USB 2.0 or FireWire, and the internal unit ($350) will connect via the standard ATAPI interface. While these drives won ' t put an end to the format war, consumers can feel comfortable that, whatever the outcome, their drives won't be obsolete.

DVD in Academics

DVD players are becoming more and more prevalent in classrooms across campus and instructors have been turning to this option with increasing regularity. Some of the new releases are even offering a closed-caption feature that makes the DVD accessible to people with hearing disabilities. Mind you, this is not subtitling, but genuine closed-captioning generated for a deaf or hard of hearing audience.

Not only does the DVD offer these diverse language features along with superior image and amazing sound, it also provides the ability to quickly scroll through chapters and navigate to important segments -- a real time-saver in the classroom. This particular feature has been the focus for many instructors who have produced their own DVDs. Software applications such as iMovie and iDVD on the Macintosh have made it very easy to churn out a slick-looking DVD in a couple of hours, and let's not forget the extended shelf life of DVDs versus a VHS tape.

To learn more about the LSS DVD collection , DVD technology and how you might use it in your teaching, contact us at 262-1408.

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