DVD spins into the mainstream: HD-DVD and other DVD iterations are on the horizon - DVD Report

Post, March, 2004 by Mark R. Smith

One term that might be used to describe the increasingly strong grip DVD has earned in video culture is, simply, acceptance.

Several years ago, many DVD players cost more than $500 and pricey discs could reach $40. While most new technologies tend to be expensive, that was hardly a steady first step toward building a solid installed base.

Today, however, not only are some decks downright cheap (at $50 or less), but the discs have dropped in price, too--and are just as likely to be found in corporate offices, home studios or even cereal boxes, as at brick 'n' mortar electronics retail stores. Authoring requirements have evolved, too, and creatives need not take that small project to a high-end post house anymore, not when they can turn out smaller projects at home, with basic, affordable tools.

Yes, it is that acceptance of the technology by consumers that has meant an active market. DVD use has permeated society to the point that the Arlington, VA-based Consumer Electronics Association (www.ce.org) started referring to DVD players as "the fastest growing consumer electronics product ever" in mid-2002, with at least one unit in half of the approximately 110 million US households to date.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

HD-DVD PLAYERS?

With the SD market the picture of health, the attention within DVD's inner circle has been turned to the natural next frontier, which is high definition (HD).

Meanwhile, content is selling like hotcakes, too. Not only movies, but a plethora of episodic television shows--old and new--and music multi-disc packages, like the Beatles' Anthology, the Rolling Stones' Four Flicks and the Led Zeppelin DVD, all released in 2003. "One thing that is for sure," Hartley says, "is that the public likes bonus content."

Metropolis DVD of New York (www.metropolisdvd.com) designed, produced and authored the Stones and Zeppelin projects. President David Anthony, who executive produced Four Flicks, says the company produces many episodic television and music titles.

"VHS was an awkward format to collect music on, due to its limitations. But with DVDs, the fans can select, watch and listen to higher quality audio and video."

But the non-technical enthusiasts are creating, as well as viewing. "Consumers are making standard definition DVDs. And with resolution of SD for laptops getting higher and flat screen plasma displays getting sharper," Hartley says to expect HD-DVD to penetrate the US market "in a brisk fashion."

The big question, Hartley continues, is discerning when the HD and home viewing experiences merge. "It's starting now, I think. Enthusiasm for HD titles is coming from consumers and corporations for non-entertainment titles. And source materials are being shot, edited and created in HD."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Ralph LaBarge, president of Alpha DVD (www.alphadvd.com) in Crofton, MD, ran with that thought. "The next two big things" in DVD, he says, "will be dual-layer recordables, as well as HD-capable DVD players. Both the DVD-R and DVD R camps will release dual-layer burners at some point during 2004. I expect to see lots of product demonstrations at NAB this year, with product shipping during the second quarter."

He predicts that the first HD-DVD players will hit the market by the end of 2004, "though they may be hybrid models that play standard DVD discs and include Windows Media 9 or MPEG-4 content," LaBarge says, noting that the DVD Forum is still working on the specs for HD-DVD.

Jeff Stabenau, managing director with NYC's Blink Digital (www.blinkdigital.com), offers similar observations, but an expanded timetable. "HD-DVD technology is being developed, but it will be a couple of years before it reaches [the] consumer level," he says, also adding that it "makes sense when developing DVD assets to create them in HD as well."

But he remarked that the revolution is not all about what is being seen. "DVD-Audio is already the HD version of CD audio. So problems, in terms of acceptance, will impact that part of the market. I think the format is important as a replacement for standard audio CDs, which is why I like dual-format discs, in audio or video."

It's not just the audio quality, Stabenau continues. "I think the improved copy protection is important with DVD-Audio. "In addition, you create a physical disc as opposed to a download. Plus, you can add a music video to a DVD-Audio disc."

PICKING A WINNER

Since audio is often coupled with video, Stabenau and Hartley both mentioned the variety of choices, with Advanced Optical Disc (AOD, a.k.a. HD-DVD) and HD-DVD9 (both DVD Forum-based initiatives), Blu-ray (or BD, from a consortium of Sony, Thomson and others) and Microsoft offer their own technologies.

"There is also a newer format, Enhanced Video Disc (or EVD), out of China that seems to be gaining momentum there. It looks fantastic," Hartley says. "These technologies will be vying for consumers' attention. The best solution would be a single HD format."

DVD's mass acceptance has led to new ways of usage and promotion, says Brian Ring, who publishes dvdmarketer.com in Santa Monica. He notes a few of his findings during recent visits to media retailers.