Special Interest DVD-Video: From the Beginning …

Emedia Professional, Dec, 1998 by Mark Waldrep

Some of my friends have finally taken the plunge and purchased a DVD-Video player and the obligatory "home theater" big screen monitor and surround sound system. The first titles they've bought have been standard Hollywood fare with their heavy use of visual special effects and thundering 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtracks. But after the initial system check has been completed and the adrenaline rush has subsided, the real question that remains for those of us who are not avid film buffs and who rarely view a Hollywood film more than once is, "What else if available on DVD-Video besides feature films?"

The answer: special interest video. The first DVD-Video products ever released were three IMAX titles and a collection of animated shorts. As DVD-Video players continue to attract buyers, and especially with the introduction of DVD-ROM-equipped computers capable of playing DVD-Video titles, special interest titles have real market viability that should prove compelling to consumers and content creators alike.

ROARING TO SPECIAL INTEREST GLORY

Today's DVD-Video market is advancing beyond the "early adopter" stage, with well over 1,000 titles released to date. No longer are DVD-Video shelves and online catalogs offering only linear conversions of Hollywood blockbusters and restored classics. You may have to search them out, but special interest DVD-Video titles are proliferating and are finally being produced with real production value, unlike the "shovelware" that gushed forth from some early publishers.

One category of special interest viewing gaining early attention is airplane videos. It doesn't seem to matter whether it's World War II aircraft or sleek new corporate jets; sales of the dozens of VHS home video titles which focus on the world of flying and the historical development of aviation are consistently high. So it was with interest that I began work on a series of ten DVD-Video titles from Program Power's "Roaring Glory" series. Rather than a hastily edited rehash of vintage footage with resonant narration and sound effects, these titles were completely new productions shot at the aviation museum in Chino, California. The subject of the series, World War II fighter aircraft, was familiar enough, but with recently produced high-quality video and audio of these planes actually flying now available, these airplane projects have become perfect candidates for DVD-Video. I met often with series producer Jim Flocker to discuss how to create the most compelling interactive DVD-Videos possible using all of the available materials from his vast archive. These special interest airplane titles had to be the definitive product about these particular fighters, products capable of motivating aviation fanatics and pilots to purchase the hardware necessary to view them.

We were not content simply to transfer the linear video to the DVD-Video disc, encode the audio track in two-track mono, slap on a still menu, and run to the replicator, as many budget DVD-Video publishers do. Each Program Power disc features multiple camera angles, animated menus with composite video chapter selections, smooth "through the clouds" video-based transitions between screens, Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mixes, a slide show of the fighter in question, interview's with veteran pilots, the complete training film, and a comprehensive previews section. Additionally, we added a DVD-ROM hybrid section with a 79-page flight manual that PC users can view and print out. Most of the discs in the series will also connect the user directly to the Internet using our proprietary software package called SpinWare, which can "unlock" additional assets on the disc from the Web site. Once you've acquired one of the products in the series, the chances are you're going to want the others. Enter the Internet and online commerce.

THE PC FACTOR: INSTALLED BASE AND WEB CONNECTIVITY

Perhaps the most compelling reason that special interest DVD-Video software will flourish is because of the rapid acceptance of the DVD-ROM drives, MPEG-2 cards, and software players into most multimedia PCs. The market research is unambiguous in this area. DVD-ROM installations will exceed DVD-Video numbers by at least 10:1, with an estimated base of over 50 to 75 million machines by the end of the year 2000. Almost all of these machines will play any DVD-Video disc. There remains some question as to whether individuals will watch full-length feature movies on their computer screens, but it is completely within the realm of possibility to expect users to view short subject titles. It seems reasonable to imagine computer users catching moments of a "plotless" special interest DVD-Video title on their PC on a break or during their lunch hour.

The computer platform has one other significant advantage over the set-top DVD-Video players of the current generation: Internet connectivity. Hybrid DVD-Video/DVD-ROM products are just beginning to appear in the market place, but will undoubtedly become the standard as the market of DVD-ROM-equipped computers continues to expand. There are also plans to put Web connections on (non-Divx) DVD-Video players and specialized set-top boxes so the integration of the Web and television can be accomplished in the living room.