Announced in September 1995 by the DVD Consortium, the DVD format is a merger between two rival formats, namely, the MMCD (MultiMedia Compact Disc) and SD (Super Density).
DVD is not a single standard. There are different encodings for audio, video and data. Discs for use in the USA will use Dolby AC-3 audio encoding while all others use the MPEG-2 audio encoding. Discs may also contain "regional codes" which prevent discs produced in one region being played on a player produced for another region.
Briefly, the DVD format specifies the followings:
- Trick mode : search/rewind, slow, pause, play slow/fast forward, play slow/fast forward
- very large storage capacity
- interactivity (e.g. 3 camera angles, menu button navigation)
- Video will be stored in MPEG-2 format
- Audio Dolby AC-3 audio (USA) and MPEG-2 audio (Europe)
- 8 different sound tracks (8 for MPEG-2, 6 for AC3)
- 32 closed caption (subtitle) tracks
- Maintain backwards compatibility: all DVD players will read audio CDs (some players read CD-R) and DVD-ROM drives will read existing CD-ROMs
|
Format
|
Sides/layers
|
Gigabytes
|
x
CD
|
Typical
hours
|
Min
to Max hours
|
| DVD-5 |
SS/SL
|
4.38
(4.7)
|
6.9
|
2.2
|
1.0-9.0
|
| DVD-9 |
SS/DL
|
7.95
(8.6)
|
12.5
|
4.0
|
1.9-16.5
|
| DVD-10 |
DS/SL
|
8.75
(9.4)
|
13.8
|
4.5
|
2.1-18.1
|
| DVD-14 |
DS/ML
|
12.3
(13.2)
|
19.4
|
6.5
|
2.9-25.6
|
| DVD-18 |
DS/DL
|
15.9
(17.1)
|
25.0
|
8.0
|
3.8-33.0
|
| DVD-R |
SS/SL
|
4.38
(4.7)
|
6.9
|
2.2
|
1.0-2.5
|
| DVD-RAM |
SS/SL
|
2.40
(2.6)
|
3.8
|
1.2
|
0.6-4.9
|
| DVD-RW |
SS/SL
|
4.38
(4.7)
|
6.9
|
2.2
|
1.0-2.5
|
| DVD+RW |
SS/SL
|
2.79
(3.0)
|
4.4
|
1.4
|
0.6-5.4
|
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