Page 151 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

1 0 | The DVD: Home V ew ng of Mov es Comes of Age

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Kristina Chew

the dVd: hoMe Viewing oF MoVies CoMes oF age

The DVD has revolutionized home viewing of movies and television pro-
grams and is an important part of the high-tech media development of the
twenty-first century. Far cheaper to produce, easier to store, and capable of
housing much more information than a VCR tape, the DVD also offers interac-
tive possibilities for the viewer that have changed the way people relate to films
and many television series. The DVD is part of a long series of technological
developments, starting back in the 1920s, that have ironically been resisted,
at least since the dawning of the television era, by the very people destined to
make the greatest profits from them.

whaT is a DvD?

A DVD, or “Digital Video Disc” (sometimes “Digital Versatile Disc”), is an
optically read storage device that can be used to house images (both still and
moving) and sound for playback. Its size, the same as the older compact disc
(CD), was chosen because it allowed manufacturers to use the same carriers
they were making for CD players. Though primarily used for movies and games,
it can be used for much more, providing a discrete and portable vehicle for the
storage of data of all sorts.
By 1999, just two years after the DVD was first offered for sale in the United
States as a vehicle for movies, thousands of titles had been transferred to the
new technology. As the price of players (thanks to the decision to use the CD
size) was low, people were quick to switch to the DVD format for home view-
ing. In addition, the DVDs proved easier to store than much bulkier videotapes,
could provide movies in their original aspect ratio (the height/width ratio of the
studio release), could be easily accessed at any point in the movie (while VCRs
required rewinding and fast-forwarding), and could contain much more infor-
mation, making it possible to add attractive extras that convinced many people
to replace their old videotapes completely.