Knowledge
DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc. Due to
wide spreading of this disk as a media for high-quality video
distribution, DVD is often called Digital Video Disc. But most people just
use the abbreviation - DVD without specifying what V is. A DVD disc and a
CD disc look the same (both 120mm diameter). But that's the end of the
"sameness". It's essentially a bigger (not in size, but capacity), faster
CD that can hold cinema-like video, better-than-CD audio, and computer
data. DVD aims to encompass home entertainment, computers, and business
information with a single digital format, eventually replacing audio CD,
videotape, laserdisc, CD-ROM, and perhaps even video game cartridges. DVD
has widespread support from all major electronics companies, all major
computer hardware companies, and all major movie and music studios. With
this unprecedented support, DVD has become the most successful consumer
electronics product of all time in less than three years of its
introduction.
The DVD technology provides a storage
capacity that is at least 6 to 7 times greater that a CD. A greater than
two hour long movie can be stored on a DVD disc, with very high quality
video (two to three times greater than with a VHS tape). Added to this, is
an equivalent increase in audio quality. 5.1 channel surround sound is
available for home theater applications. In addition to the high quality
audio and video experience, the DVD Format defines a way to have multiple
languages on movies plus subtitles, again in multiple languages. Not all
movies have this feature, but the capability for them to do so exists. A
DVD disc can also be used for data storage for use in your computer, using
a DVD-ROM drive.
A DVD disc can store up to 17 Gigabytes (GB)
of data (compare with about 650 Megabytes (MB) of CD-ROM storage). This
greatly increased storage capacity is accomplished by using both sides of
the media and by storing two layers of data on each side. A single layer
DVD disc holds 4.7GB of data. For technical considerations a single sided,
dual layer disc will hold 8.5GB of data.
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