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DVD Chapter <strong>13</strong><br />
719<br />
video or more. This initial capacity is no coincidence; the creation of DVD was driven by the film<br />
industry, which has long sought a storage medium cheaper and more durable than videotape.<br />
Note<br />
It is important to know the difference between the DVD-Video and DVD-ROM standards. DVD-Video discs contain only<br />
video programs and are intended to be played in a DVD player, connected to a television and possibly an audio system.<br />
DVD-ROM is a data storage medium intended for use by PCs and other types of computers. The distinction is similar to<br />
that between an audio CD and a CD-ROM. Computers might be capable of playing audio CDs as well as CD-ROMs,<br />
but dedicated audio CD players can’t use a CD-ROM’s data tracks. Likewise, computer DVD drives can play DVD-video<br />
discs (with MPEG-2 decoding in either hardware or software), but DVD video players can’t access data on a DVD-ROM.<br />
The initial application for DVDs was as an upgrade for CDs as well as a replacement for prerecorded<br />
videotapes. DVDs can be rented or purchased like prerecorded VCR tapes, but they offer much higher<br />
resolution and quality with greater content. As with CDs, which initially were designed only for<br />
music, DVDs have since developed into a wider range of uses, including computer data storage.<br />
DVD History<br />
DVD had a somewhat rocky start. During 1995, two competing standards for high-capacity CD-ROM<br />
drives were being developed to compete with each other for future market share. One standard, called<br />
Multimedia CD, was introduced and backed by Philips and Sony, whereas a competing standard,<br />
called the Super Density (SD) disk, was introduced and backed by Toshiba, Time Warner, and several<br />
other companies. If both standards had hit the market as is, consumers as well as entertainment and<br />
software producers would have been in a quandary over which one to choose.<br />
Fearing a repeat of the Beta/VHS situation that occured in the videotape market, several organizations,<br />
including the Hollywood Video Disc Advisory Group and the Computer Industry Technical Working<br />
Group, banded together to form a consortium to develop and control the DVD standard. The consortium<br />
insisted on a single format for the industry and refused to endorse either competing proposal.<br />
With this incentive, both groups worked out an agreement on a single, new, high-capacity CD type<br />
disc in September of 1995. The new standard combined elements of both previously proposed standards<br />
and was called DVD, which originally stood for digital video disc, but has since been changed<br />
to digital versatile disc. The single DVD standard has avoided a confusing replay of the VHS versus<br />
Beta tape fiasco and has given the software, hardware, and movie industries a single, unified standard<br />
to support.<br />
After agreeing on copy protection and other items, the DVD-ROM and DVD-Video standards were<br />
officially announced in late 1996. Players, drives, and discs were announced in January 1997 at the<br />
Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and the players and discs became available in March<br />
of 1997. The initial players were about $1,000 each. Only 36 movies were released in the first wave,<br />
and they were available only in seven cities nationwide (Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York,<br />
San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) until August 1997 when the full release began. After a<br />
somewhat rocky start (much had to do with agreements on copy protection to get the movie companies<br />
to go along, and there was a lack of titles available in the beginning), DVD has become an<br />
incredible success. It will likely continue to grow after the rewritable +RW format becomes available in<br />
2001 and changes DVD from a read-only to a fully rewritable consumer as well as computer device.<br />
The organization that controls the DVD standard is called the DVD Forum and was founded by 10<br />
companies, including Hitachi, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Victor, Pioneer, Sony, Toshiba, Philips,<br />
Thomson, and Time Warner. Since its founding in 1995, more than 230 companies have joined the<br />
forum. Because it is a public forum, anybody can join and attend the meetings; the site for the DVD<br />
forum is http://www.dvdforum.org.
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