The future of DVD

Posted on 27 Sep 2006 at 11:02

 

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The high-definition deal

Capacity is important, but it is not the be all and end all in determining the attractiveness of a disc format. After all, movie studios rarely release single titles longer than, say, an epic like The Godfather, so all that extra room must be for some purpose - and that's where the video-quality aspect comes into play.

The specifications of both the next-generation disc formats state a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (the best High-Definition video quality), with the usual array of embedded surround-sound options. By comparison, existing DVDs are encoded at a maximum resolution of 720 x 576. As a rule of thumb, a single-sided 25GB Blu-ray disc (or BD-ROM) will store around two hours of video encoded at the top resolution of 1920 x 1080.

None of this means home-video divisions of the film studios have to encode Blu-ray or HD-DVD discs at the highest specified resolution, merely that the option is there. To date, however, most discs released on the two formats have contained higher-resolution video than the original DVD releases.

Protection palaver

Much of the drive for these new disc formats comes from Hollywood. Film studios have been quick to realise that a new movie medium offers them a chance to put a stop to piracy, and both HD-DVD and Blu-ray include a copy-protection system called High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP).

An invention of Intel, this is designed to restrict the copying of HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs by requiring specific compatible hardware in both players (standalone and in computers) and displays, along with a new type of connection to link them together. At the moment, full implementation of HDCP has been limited to allow owners of high-definition TVs to watch high-definition discs. However, it's possible that in the future you may not be able to play some next-generation discs on non-HDCP-compliant equipment. Yet again, it's watch-this-space territory, which is a bad place for a technology that's already being rolled out worldwide.

The PC pitch

Inevitably, a lot of our discussion has been about the home entertainment angle of the next-generation DVD formats, because this is what the various interested parties are busy promoting. Naturally though, Blu-ray and HD-DVD will be coming to a PC near you soon. Toshiba has already introduced a laptop PC with an HD-DVD drive - the Qosmio G35 costs just under $3,000 (around £1,575) - and other companies are likely to follow suit.

However, the technology most likely to drive the next-generation DVD market in relation to computers is disc recording/burning. This is a big part of the marketing roadmaps of both the HD-DVD and Blu-ray camps, but broadly speaking it's not currently available for UK consumers to buy. Overseas though, Pioneer has just released the BDR-101A, a PC drive capable of burning to writable Blu-ray media - it costs $1,000 (about £525), so hardly affordable right now.

Next-generation inclination?

So, that's the next-generation DVD debate digested - is the technology worth getting excited about? Frankly, we don't think so. Undoubtedly, there are benefits to be had from higher-storage capacities, not to mention baseline content specifications designed to promote the distribution of movies in high-definition video quality. We're not at all sure that these aspects will prove sufficiently compelling for consumers to en masse abandon the existing DVD format in favour of one or both of the new contenders. Moreover, to fully appreciate improvements to video quality, consumers face not only buying a next-generation DVD player, but also a high-definition television set - and that's not to mention the cost of purchasing (or re-purchasing) movies in HD format.