DVD Standards

[airpolgas]

When buying DVDs, there are certain features that I look for, and I consider should be used as standard.

1) Option of Widescreen/Fullscreen
2) At least recorded English subtitles (extra languages a plus)
3) At least capable of 5.1 sound

Any additions? Be realistic :D

What do you think should ALL DVDs have?

[Chris Blount]

All DVD's should be enhanced for widscreen TV's when the original aspect ratio (OAR) is wide.

All DVD's should be compressed to maximize dual layered technology. (What I mean by that is compress the movie so it fills the entire 7 GB capacity just like Superbit DVD's do) Even with extras on the disc, I have seen "Special Editions" only use about 5 GB.

[gcutler]

Good old Wal-Mart/K-Mart/Target and those type of stores have lobbied the DVD makers to put out Pan-n-scan instead of widescreen because their customers prefer those better. While I guess Best Buy and Media Play tend to attract the Widescreen fans. So unless they plan to product a "Both Version" copy, some vendors will go "Pan-n-scan". But I think those DVDs who are controlled by the director or the actors (or those who probably are Oscar nomination material) will probably go Widescreen???

[Chris Blount]

I saw in interesting feature on a cheap APEX DVD player the other day. It had a P&S mode where the player would zoom into the picture to eliminate the black bars on 16X9 material. Even though it crops a little bit of the ends off, it seems like a great feature for those who don't want the black bars. The only problem is that on really wide Panavision material (2.35:1), you would still get the black bars.

I realize that most DVD players have a P&S or "zoom" mode but the program material has to be flagged to take advantage of the feature. On this APEX player, the feature is built into the machine.

What I'm driving at here is that DVD player manufacturers are also listening and trying to come up with a viable alternative. The studios only releasing P&S titles is stupid and I'm sure they know it which is why these titles are not the norm.

[airpolgas]

That's why I have option #1 on my wish list... to keep both parties happy. I rented a DVD a while back (forgot the movie) where it was dual sided -- one side is P&S, the other widescreen.

It's already "do-able" but in the studio's minds, is it cost effective? :(

I also have the Peanuts DVD and it just pisses me off to know that ALL 6 episodes could have fit in one DVD.

[Steve Mehs]

I never buy a DVD unless it's in OAR and in DD5.1 and reasonably priced, thats why most of my DVDs came from WalMart or BJs. I tend to stay away from SB titles because I don't wanna pay for something that I have no use for at this time. Not a must have, but I enjoy behind the scenes featurettes, it was fun watching how Tim Burton and crew made Sleepy Hallow and the stunts Nick Cage did in Gone in 60 Secs were done. I also like titles like, Die Hard, Gladiator and Hannibal that have a special features disc.

For DVD-A, the DVD must have a DD5.1 track in order for me to get it, but I haven't seen much DVD-A content I like.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by airpolgas
That's why I have option #1 on my wish list... to keep both parties happy. I rented a DVD a while back (forgot the movie) where it was dual sided -- one side is P&S, the other widescreen.

It's already "do-able" but in the studio's minds, is it cost effective? :(

I also have the Peanuts DVD and it just pisses me off to know that ALL 6 episodes could have fit in one DVD.

It is possible if you have a DVD+-R/RW type drive to take the portions of the DVDs you like and reauthor them into a custom DVD just for you (don't even think it would be immoral if you had purchased all the DVDs in question) Just like to good old days of your favorite song mixes :)

[invaliduser88]

Originally posted by gcutler
Good old Wal-Mart/K-Mart/Target and those type of stores have lobbied the DVD makers to put out Pan-n-scan instead of widescreen because their customers prefer those better. While I guess Best Buy and Media Play tend to attract the Widescreen fans. So unless they plan to product a "Both Version" copy, some vendors will go "Pan-n-scan". But I think those DVDs who are controlled by the director or the actors (or those who probably are Oscar nomination material) will probably go Widescreen???

I thought it was funny that the widescreen DVD's of Star Wars Episode II were selling like hotcakes at Toys R Us when they were on sale.

[airpolgas]

Originally posted by Invaliduser88
I thought it was funny that the widescreen DVD's of Star Wars Episode II were selling like hotcakes at Toys R Us when they were on sale

There is a good chance that buyers of SW Episode II are technically savvy, and appreciate the fact that they are getting a superior DVD. I even liked the test for your home system included in that one. That was sweet, and I don't have a home theater yet :D

[Mark Holtz]

Originally posted by airpolgas
That's why I have option #1 on my wish list... to keep both parties happy. I rented a DVD a while back (forgot the movie) where it was dual sided -- one side is P&S, the other widescreen.

It's already "do-able" but in the studio's minds, is it cost effective? :(

Unfortunately not. What you probably had was a double-sided single-layer DVD. Without getting too technical, single-layer DVDs can hold aproximately two hours of material, while dual-layer DVDs can hold aproximately four hours of material.

Single layer DVDs are simple to manufacture in both single-sided and dual-sided format. In fact, for many early DVD titles, it was not uncommon to have to flip a DVD over in the middle of the movie.

Single-sided dual-layer DVDs, however, are harder to manufacture. By refocusing the laser, the DVD player can read both sides. We're talking about a layer difference of less than a millimeter. The process is harder than single layer discs, but has since been perfects, and is a common method of releasing movies now.

The hardest to manufacture is the double-sided dual-layer DVDs. This has not taken off because of the higher defect rate of double-sided dual-layer DVDs, plus they are more expensive to manufacture. The format has not been popular with DVD owners, especially those whose DVD players can hold multiple discs.

Just how much harder is it to punch out double-sided dual-layer DVDs? When Artisan Entertainment released Terminator 2: Judgment Day, they were going to release it as a DVD-18. Demand, however, was much higher than expected. So, for a while, there were two formats of this DVD: Two single-sided dual-layer DVDS and one double-sided dual-layer DVD.

Ready for another surprise? Part of the DVD standard is that there are instructions so that your DVD player can actually pan-and-scan a letterboxed DVD. However, no studio has made the attempt to utilize this standard and has elected to use two different transfers for pan-and-scan and widescreen. It's cheaper that way.

[Mike123abc]

The widescreen vs P&S has bit me a couple of times. I like only widescreen, but I have bought 2 movies in P&S by accident. Makes me mad because I am stuck with it. It would be far better if they gave the choice of 2 disks in the package to play the one you want. I am happy that some packages have that in them.