DVDs have the capacity to store movies with reasonable quality video and audio. They can also include special features such as multiple audio/subtitle tracks, director's commentary, trailers, documentaries, music videos, outtakes etc.
Buying DVDs:
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* free delivery in the UK |
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Sometimes it's cheaper to import DVDs from abroad than to
buy locally (although depending on the number you import at once and the
package labelling you may be charged extra by UK customs).
1 pound=1.62 US dollars or 2.56 Australian dollars or 2.40 Canadian
dollars.
UK Customs will charge insane amounts of tax for any package with contents worth more than £18, or £36 if it's marked as a gift. Play247 and DVD Dynamic get around this by shipping every DVD separately, from Jersey and via Canada Air Mail respectively. DVD BoxOffice ships DVDs in bulk to a warehouse in England then ships them using conventional post. Amazon.com DVDs are distributed from Amsterdam and seem to avoid Customs charges usually but they charge $6 shipping per package plus $1.95 per DVD.
Some quality DVDs to buy:
Playing DVDs:
You need a DVD drive, decoder and player. A DVD drive can also read CDs but not vice versa because reading DVDs requires a different laser wavelength. A decoder is needed because the video and audio on DVDs are heavily compressed. On a PC the decoder can be software or hardware. If you want to hear DD 5.1 soundtracks (and believe me you do) you also need an AC3 decoder, DD amplifier, subwoofer and lots of speakers. If you want to play disks from multiple regions you can either buy a machine which can do it out of the box, or have it modified so it can. Or if you're using a PC you can get a region free drive and hack the software.
I use a Pioneer DV-545 standalone player whacked up via RGB to a 32" Grundig widescreen TV and via coaxial to Videologic's Digitheatre.
A lot of software is now supplied on DVD and some DVD movies (eg Blade and The Matrix) have DVD ROM features. Also playing DVDs on a pc monitor is useful for determining the aspect ratio of a DVD if it's unclear, and is also handy for testing if a certain disc won't play in a standalone player.
PC DVD software can provide progressive RGB output, which is potentially better than any standalone player, but they can only output this to a computer monitor. And 32" widescreen monitors tend to be a bit on the expensive side.
Performance on a PC largely depends on three things: processor (300Mhz+), graphics card (ideally needs to be AGP) and sound card (ideally needs to be PCI). DVD drive speed is unimportant but DMA must be enabled.
PC Software (these are all combined players and decoders, of which the best is generally considered to be Cinemaster): Cinemaster, PowerDVD, XingDVD, WinDVD, VaroDVD
DVD regions, Video types and Distribution Zones:
In their finite wisdom, the film studios decided to divide the world into six regions, the idea being that a DVD from one region will not play on a machine which is configured for another region (unless it's a Region 0 DVD, which will play on all machines.) The point of this is somewhat obscure as nearly all DVD players can be made to play all regions, and DVDs can be imported from other countries anyway.
Distribution Zones
DVDs are formatted for either NTSC (29.97 fps, used in
America and Japan) or PAL (25 fps, used in Europe). PAL has more lines of
resolution than NTSC (576 lines against 480) which theoretically means that
region 2 DVDs have better picture quality than region 1, but in reality the
picture quality depends on the source material and the encoding process. Also
if anamorphic processing is used the difference in quality is almost
negligible.
But PAL also tends to have more vivid colours than NTSC
Film runs at 24 fps, but to avoid electrical inteference
(or something):
PAL runs at 25 fps (1/2 of 50Hz). This is achieved by speeding up the playback.
This means that the audio has to be adjusted as well, annoying people with
perfect pitch. Also it means that PAL titles will be 4% shorter than the
original movie. (UK run time=24/25 US run time=96%)
NTSC runs at 29.97 fps (~1/2 of 60Hz). NTSC runs at the same speed as the
original movie so therefore the audio is unaffected but achieves 30 fps by
using 3:2 pulldown (somehow).
Region 2: special features usually inferior, though this is changing. Some R2 titles are anamorphic where the R1 is not eg. The Game. The BBFC like to cut movies, typically for violent scenes, and some are banned completely (Natural Born Killers). Warner Bros don't help by deciding that movies like The Matrix must reach as wide an audience as possible, even if that means cutting it (and thereby losing the audio commentary), to get a 15 certificate.
Why Region 1 is better:
Region 1 has a much larger range of movies than other regions and probably
always will, they are released months earlier (although some releases are now
bucking this trend) and tend to have superior special features, menu systems,
covers etc. and the full uncut movie. They do get cut sometimes for sexual
content however eg. Eyes Wide Shut but this is rare.
As each frame on a DVD only contains information that has
changed since the last frame, PAL and NTSC DVDs contain exactly the same number
of frames, but PAL takes up more space because of the extra lines, so it's
possible with NTSC to use a higher bitrate than PAL. Also region 2 DVDs tend to
have multiple language tracks, which leaves less space on the disc for special
features.
The main advantage of region 1 is that movies run at the correct speed. The 3/2
pulldown annoys some people but eventually it will be possible at a reasonable
price to buy a progressive DVD player which will ignore the repeater flag and
play back NTSC DVDs at 24fps. Audio on region 1 DVDs is always superior to
region 2, because it runs at the right speed and it can use a higher bit rate
(as PAL and lots of different languages take up space). SOme region 2 DD 5.1
soundtracks ae adjusted for downconversion to stereo, whereas a lot of region 1
titles have a separate dolby surround track for this purpose.
DVD disk types: (a CD holds 650 MB)
Dual layer DVDs literally have two disks glued together with transparent adhesive. The outer layer is semi-transparent and the spiral usually goes in the opposite direction on the inner layer. Layer transition may take a few seconds on some machines. Dual layer disks can be recognised by the gold colour.
Roughly 2 GB is required for 1 hour of video.
"Flippers", which have the movie split on two sides of the disk requiring it to be turned half-way through, are to avoided like bubonic plague. They are thankfully becoming very rare. (This isn't the same as having full screen on one side and wide screen on the other.)
Audio types:
If a DVD has a Dolby Digital soundtrack it doesn't necessarily mean that it is DD 5.1 (or that all the channels will be in use all the time), it just refers to the way it's been recorded i.e. digitally. Dolby Digital soundtracks can be mono, stereo, surround (DD 2.0) or DD 5.0 (no LFE channel), but most DVDs, especially new ones should be DD 5.1
Aspect Ratios:
DVD movies will have one of these video formats:
Most movies are recorded in a 2.35:1 ratio which is how
they are seen at the cinema. Of course this does mean a lot of the screen
becomes a black strip when watching on a standard TV screen or PC monitor, but
at least you can see the movie as it was originally made.
Even widescreen TVs will still have black strips when watching 2.35:1 movies,
as they have a screen ratio of 16:9 (1.77:1).
When I'm buying DVDs I choose whichever region has the best audio (ideally DD 5.1), video (theatrical aspect ratio, ideally 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen) and special features, make sure it's not a flipper and that the transfer quality is acceptable. If the movie has any kind of violence/sex then region 1 is usually better. The BBFC are just too busy with those scissors. Oh and I make sure I like the movie as well!
BBFC: British Board of Film Classification
DMA: Direct Memory Access
DTS: Digital Theatre Systems
DVD: Digital Versatile Disc
GB: Gigabyte
LFE: Low Frequency Effects
NTSC: National Television System Committee
PAL: Phase Alternating Line
Last updated 14/08/05. Written by Ed |