DVD News DVD News

On the DVD Talk  Pages we bring you the latest DVD news from around the world. Late breaking news and interesting developments regarding DVD and the movie industry in general are covered here in detail for your reading pleasure.

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Fox is preparing an action packed August for DVD owners                     

We have just gotten the latest title announcements for Fox Home Video's August line-up, and it is going to be a hot month, indeed! As we had mentioned some time ago already, There's Something About Mary is coming to DVD on August 3, but the release schedule on that day also includes titles like Dr. Dolittle, Raising Arizona and A Life Less Ordinary.
On August 10 we will see the day & date release of Simply Irresistible starring vampire slayer Sarah Michele Gellar at a suggested retail price of US$34.98, while Jennifer Aniston is fighting for her own Office Space on August 17, also day & date with the VHS release.
August 31 is sizzling hot for action fans when Fox is pulling out the big guns and releases the Arnold Schwarzenegger Promotion 4-pack, including Predator, Commando, The Running Man and Total Recall. Fox is able to present these titles after licensing two of the films from Artisan Entertainment. The box set will come with a price tag of US$109.98.
The true highlight of the month however is the Bruce Lee DVD Promotion 4-pack. Fox is still keeping the four titles that will go into this box set in the dark, but they do own the rights to Chinese Connection, Fists of Fury, Return of the Dragon and Game of Death, so you never know... maybe those are the films we'll get to see in this box set for a mere US$99.98. Of course we'll keep you posted when more details come in
GENERAL FAQ's
Q:

WHAT IS DVD AND WHAT DOES IT STAND FOR?
A: DVD originally stood for Digital Video Disc but is now more often called Digital Versatile Disc because it can be used to store computer data as well as video. DVD is a format based on the compact disc. It is 5 inches in diameter and can have two layers on each side. What this means is by changing the focus of the laser that is reading the disc slightly, a layer below the surface layer can be accessed. This increases the storage capacity, especially when you consider that DVD can be double sided as well. You can store approximately 133 minutes of video on one layer, as well as 8 soundtracks, including a 5.1 soundtrack such as Dolby Digital, and up to 32 sets of subtitles. Also, DVD gives the option of different camera angles to be stored on the disc so that the user can switch between them and also different ratings (such as PG etc.) and aspect ratios.
Q: WHAT IS SO GOOD ABOUT IT?
A: The main benefits are excellent picture and sound quality. The video is compressed using MPEG-2 which gives a better quality picture than VHS and LaserDisc. The sound can be Dolby Digital, Musicam or both, and this can be mixed down into Dolby Surround to ensure backward compatibility. As well as this, you have all the benefits of CDs, e.g. instant access to different tracks and durability - no matter how many times you play a DVD the quality will always be the same. Add to this the option of multiple camera angles, different ratings, choice of aspect ratios (pan and scan or wide screen) and you have every movie lovers dream.
Q:

ARE THERE ANY DRAWBACKS?
A: At the moment DVD is not recordable. This means it can't replace the VCR - yet. A specification for a recordable version of DVD has been proposed by Sony which allows for 5.5 hours of DVD quality video and audio. This will not be available until at least the year 2000 however. Another possible drawback is lack of software. Major film companies such as Columbia TriStar and Warner have released titles, but there won't be the vast choice of VHS or LaserDisc at the moment.
Q:

WHEN WILL DVD BE RELEASED?
A: DVD has been available in Japan since October 1996. Only a handful of titles were available at the launch however, which limited sales but more are available now. Players from many different companies have also been released in the United States, along with titles from major studios. A European launch is planned for the spring, which should include a selection of players and titles.
Q:

HOW DO I GET THE MOST FROM DVD?
A: To obtain the best possible picture from a standard DVD player you should use S-Video connections. If however your DVD player has component video outputs and your TV has component video inputs you should use these. This will provide channels for luminance, contrast etc. so that the picture is displayed as intended. If you don't have these connections on both your DVD player and TV you will not be able to take advantage of this feature. For sound, the best results are obtained when the DVD player is used with a Dolby Digital receiver or 6-channel amplifier.

Q:

WHAT ARE THE REGIONAL DIFFERENCES?
A: So that Hollywood can control the distribution of movies, the world has been split up into regions by the DVD Forum. Players from one region will not play titles from another. There are also differences with the television standards i.e. NTSC and PAL/SECAM. Titles from Japan won't work with players from Europe without some kind of conversion even though they are the same region. Japan uses NTSC and most of Europe uses PAL/SECAM. There are some "multi-region" or "code-free" players that can play titles from any region.
Q:

WHAT’S DOLBY DIGITAL COMPATIBLE?
A: A player which is "Dolby Digital compatible" has the necessary electronics to output a Dolby Digital soundtrack to a receiver. The receiver must actually decode the information and send it to the relevant speakers, so it must be Dolby Digital and not just Pro-Logic. If however the DVD player has a built-in Dolby Digital decoder there is no need for a separate receiver as such because the player decodes the soundtrack. What is required is an amplifier with 6-channel inputs and outputs, i.e. front left/right, center, rear left/right and subwoofer. Any other amplifier will not produce Dolby Digital.
Q: WHAT ABOUT DTS AND DVD?
A: DVD titles with DTS soundtracks instead of Dolby Digital will be introduced later this year in the United States. DTS is a multi-channel audio format and some people say it is better than Dolby Digital. In order to listen to the DTS soundtracks on DTS DVD titles you need a DTS compatible player and DTS receiver/decoder. None of the current DVD players on sale are DTS compatible but many companies plan to introduce players with DTS digital outputs in the next few months. If you don't have a player with a DTS digital output you can still use DTS titles but you won't hear multi-channel audio, just PCM stereo or 3 channel Dolby Digital depending on the title. DTS compatible players should be compatible with Dolby Digital.
Q:

WHAT ABOUT DVD-ROM?
A: DVD-ROM is a version of DVD for computers, designed to replace the CD-ROM. It has the same capacity as DVD-Video which is far greater than normal CD-ROMs. DVD-ROM upgrade kits are now available and titles should follow soon. To play DVD movies on a DVD-ROM drive you also need an MPEG-2 decoder board. Some upgrade kits contain these too. A specification for a recordable version of DVD-ROM, called DVD-RAM, has been agreed upon and these drives should be available by the end of the year, although there are new proposals by other companies for rival formats.
Q:

HAVE ALL THE PROBLEMS BEEN SORTED OUT?
A: Everyone seems to have agreed on the regional codes and copyright issues. A recent change to the DVD specification means that PAL countries can have titles with just Dolby Digital soundtracks rather than Musicam. It is still not clear, however, which sound format the movie studios will use on PAL titles. There is also confusion surrounding classification of European discs. The British Board of Film Censors is worried that people in the UK may be able to access parts of the movies that were cut for British cinemas, but not for the rest of Europe. Other developments include several different proposals for recordable DVD and the introduction of Divx later this year in the United States.
Q:

WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN TO MY VCR AND LASERDISC PLAYER?
A: For the moment nothing, but DVD will eventually replace them both. LaserDisc sales were down considerably last year because of the news of DVD. In the short term DVD should replace LaserDisc. It is better quality, more compact and cheaper. Combination players from companies like Pioneer should ease the transition. When DVD becomes recordable and reaches VHS price then video recorders will be a thing of the past.

Why Letterbox?
Or the Easiest Way To Change Your Television Into a Home Theater

20th Century Fox What makes a Letterbox video better than a Pan & Scan video? One reason- you see the entire movie's picture. It all starts from the fact that theatrical screens are wider than your television screen, almost twice as wide in fact.

To illustrate the difference between the two versions, imagine yourself bringing a video camera to a theater to tape a movie. You have two options on how you can tape it:

  • Pan & Scan (how movies have been normally shown on TV)
    To tape the movie, you would zoom your lens in so that the picture fills your viewfinder entirely. By zooming in the picture is larger, but you can't see the entire screen (it's wider than your camera's viewfinder). To compensate for this, you can move the camera back and forth, concentrating on where the action is.
  • Letterbox (how movies in this listing are shown)
    To tape the movie, you would simply zoom your lens out so that you capture the entire picture within your viewfinder. By zooming out, you don't have to move the camera from side to side- all of the action is being recorded. The drawback is that the picture is smaller when compared to the Pan & Scan method.

Not all movies are recorded onto that wide of film. Some use film that is the same width as a television. Although the entire picture is recorded onto the film, the director places all of the action within the area that will be shown in theaters. The rest is simply filler. When transferred to video, a letterbox copy has black bars to cover up this filler, the Pan & Scan copy does not.

Until televisions are made the same width as movie screens, there will always be these two options. One fills your entire screen, losing part of the picture. The other shows the entire picture, losing some size. It's up to you to decide which is better. Just remember- can you really call your entertainment system a home theater if you can't even see the entire theatrical screen?

Movie Aspect Ratios
A movie aspect ratio is simply the ratio of the picture's width compared to it's height. A television has a 1.33:1 ratio. Movies are often filmed with a ratio of anywhere from 1.85:1 to 2.35:1.


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