Some Funny Things Happened At DVD Forum

Emedia Professional, Dec, 1998 by Dana J. Parker

Every so often, the DVD Forum sponsors a conference to provide an update on its activities. The most recent--held October 1 and 2, 1998, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport--was sponsored by the Forum's relatively new 17-member steering committee. While Forum events are always worth attending in order to get the latest official news, the real value in being there is to compare notes with other DVD groupies who are capable of providing the unspoken corollaries behind the official Forum hype.

For example, take the keynote by Warner Home Video's Warren Lieberfarb, who stated that "DVD is going to be the media of the millennium." A pretty safe statement, all things considered, except that the meaning of "millennium" can be either a period of a thousand years, or a thousandth anniversary of one year's--or one day's--duration. If the former, it's not likely; if the latter, well dub. Better to state that DVD is the media of the next five years, which just happens to span the year 2000. What it lacks in alliteration it makes up for in accuracy.

Lieberfarb did admit that Hollywood was responsible for trying to block every technological advance in film since the medium's inception, from talkies to television, to drive-in theaters, to video cassette recorders, to cable, to DVD--only to realize revitalization and new revenue streams from its inability to legally halt the progress of each. Unfortunately, he was unable to offer assurance that Hollywood had learned its lesson and would in the future emulate the computer industry's alternate philosophy of insisting we can't do anything truly creative until the next generation of processor or operating system arrives.

He went on to compare, in oranges-to-apples fashion, the first-year sales of DVD players to those of VCR and CD in their first year. From this perspective, sales of DVD players have exceeded those of VCRs by a factor of ten, and of CD players by a factor of four, in the same time period after initial introduction, as long as no one takes into account population, the economy, cost of living, competing formats, cost of goods, or industry backing.

The rest of the first-day sessions were devoted to DVD-Audio, the appointed savior of the recording industry. In another oranges-to-apples scenario, the avid push on the part of the recording industry for a new digital audio format might seem a reasonable facsimile for the avid pull of consumers for CD audio more than ten years ago. The difference is that then it was consumer demand (despite industry indifference) for a durable, high-quality alternative to vinyl at a time when music distributed on a physical medium was appealing to a broad demographic of 30-something baby boomers, and now it's just as likely that the vibes that move you are available as MP3 files on the Internet.

The DVD-Audio listening experience was admittedly awesome. In the demonstration room, attendees were treated to selections from Haydn to Enya on state-of-the-art two- to six-channel surround systems with the highest-fidelity speakers, perfectly positioned for optimum multichannel listening. The experience was like sitting fourth row center in an orchestra. The only problem was that most who exited the demonstration asked the inevitable question: "But how many people will upgrade their entire stereo system for it?"

The second day's morning speakers covered DVD-ROM content (Microsoft), copy protection (Toshiba), and the state of the DVD-ROM market (Understanding and Solutions). It seemed like the ideal time to check out the exhibits, which consisted of tabletops from five non-Forum companies and large displays of Forum-made DVD Video, DVD-RAM, and DVD-R/RW products. The biggest surprise was the collection of DVD-R and RW drives and media. Not only was there a prototype of the Pioneer DVD-RW, due out by IQ 1999, but there were also prototypes of DVDR/RW drives by Yamaha and Ricoh, and an "experimental" DVD-R drive by Sony, looking oddly familiar in a model 900E CD-R case and using 4.7GB Taiyo Yuden DVD-R media. Even more impressive was the DVD-R and RW media display, in various shades of magenta and violet, and in 4.7GB capacities. Manufacturers of DVD-R/RW media include JVC, TDK, Ricoh, Pioneer, Mitsui Toatsu, Verbatim, and Maxell. Also on display was the new DVD-RAM-capable DVD-ROM drive by Panasonic, and DVD-RAM media by Panasonic and Maxell.

The rest of the day's speakers covered DVD-RW and DVD-RAM, the two rewritable formats endorsed by the DVD Forum. In something of a mixed message to attendees, the presenters of the DVDR/RW format update, who positioned DVD-RW as "an authoring tool for content development,"s were followed by presenters of the DVD-RAM format update, who positioned it as the "best single format" for everything else. Both rewritable formats are dosing in on 4.7GB media capacity specifications, but only one--DVD-RW--will actually have 4.7GB products on the market soon. According to best estimates from informed sources, DVD-RAM media won't make it to 4.7GB for at least another two years, spec or no spec.