About nine months ago, I wrote an article about DVDs, their basic technology, and the benefits and disadvantages associated with them. DVD can no longer be considered an emerging technology or even a new technology. They have gained so much acceptance in just the last few years that it is really interesting to look at how far the commercial DVD format has changed.
When DVDs first hit the retail movie market, they boasted the opportunities for so many exciting extra features. In reality, the first features were only an introductory menu, the ability to jump between chapters, and of course digital encoding of picture and sound. But the quality of early DVD digitization was generally poor. DVDs just didn?t bring much more to the table than VHS besides a hefty price tag. Even laser discs were better: you could jump to any frame you wanted.
Sometimes it seemed that publishers put the discs together without even thinking. For example, my first copy of Seven on DVD was split up onto both sides of the disc. That?s right, in a movie as intense as Seven, you have to get up in the middle and flip over the disc. Needless to say, I have since obtained the "New Line Platinum Edition" DVD of the film.
The high price of DVDs was prohibitive for consumers. Yes, the quality was getting better, but was it really worth five to twenty more dollars a film? If DVD usage rise, and establish itself as a formidable competitor to VHS, publishers would have to start increasing the value of the product.
The first major addition to the format was the chapter list. It sounds basic enough, but this increased the ease of use tremendously. No longer would viewers be forced to deal with chapter numbers. They could now associate different scenes with descriptive titles and, in some cases, a picture or short video clip.
As newer double-layered and double-sided DVDs became available, publishers were able to fit more on them. They started including coming attractions for new movies, which could benefit their own publishing house or generate ad dollars from others. Next came information about the film on the DVD, including cast and crew biographies / filmographies and the in-theaters and on-television previews of the movie. New DVD-ROM features began to be associated with cinema discs like the script on the movie or an archived version of its official website also on the disc.
But the crucial additions that have made DVDs such a popular medium for purchasing were the video add-ons. Behind-the-scenes documentaries, deleted scenes, and music videos are what consumers have come to automatically associate with DVDs. Another popular feature is the commentary track that the DVD seemed destined for.
Since the format handles audio and video tracks separately, it opens the door for easy integration of foreign language dubbing and commentary tracks. The only issue that arises here is the limited memory capacity of the disc.
The other major push to the DVD format has been advertising. Each new major release is treated as an event, second only to opening night in the theaters. A good example of this was the recent release of Star Wars: Episode I, that was promoted for at least two weeks on radio, television, and the web.
These new "special edition" sets include hours of bonus footage, multiple discs, and more extras than one person really has time for. But all this does indeed justify the added price to the product. No VHS copy will ever be able to contain as many bonuses as a well-executed DVD can. It's even more interesting to note that deleted scenes have become so popular as a result of the DVD, that they are now being included on certain video copies of films too. As DVD sales have been skyrocketing, VHS sales have been tapering off, and that format is now the one forced to make a change.
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