DVD and Its Discontents.

AuthorSHARRETT, CHRISTOPHER
PositionPros and cons of using digital video disks - Brief Article - Column

ANYONE PAYING even half-serious attention to the home entertainment and film industries knows that a new technical revolution has once again changed the way we watch movies. I'm speaking of the DVD craze, which arguably may be on the verge of making obsolete VHS videotape, a medium that a scant 20 years ago seemed positively something out of science fiction and a treasure to those who love movies, as well as all the people who would become hooked on taping everything from sports to soaps to game shows off of television.

For those who have sampled DVDs--and they are the fastest-growing home entertainment item--their advantages over VHS videotape are obvious. DVD offers an incredibly crisp picture and is far more durable than tape. For years, film buffs have complained about the image quality of VHS, which strikes many as similar to watching a movie through a gauze filter. Digital technology has helped videotape, but it will always have limitations.

The video disc wears very well, is almost indestructible in reasonable hands, and has none of the imperfections associated with tape. More important, DVD players allow you to jump from scene to scene without rewinding or fast-forwarding. Movies being released on DVD are very often in the original aspect ration (the height and width of the image) intended by the filmmakers. The cherry on the cake is the capacity of the DVD. A video disc can hold an enormous amount of information, and movies released on DVD often come with extras, including feature-length audio commentary by directors, actors, and writers, along with complete screenplays, featurettes on special effects, and myriad other goodies.

To this point, you may have thought this is a cheerleading piece for the home video industry. Let me change horses. DVD is often remarkable, a treat several steps beyond the (for me) still-wondrous world of videotape, but may I also suggest that it may be yet another way of encouraging false consumer needs? Just as the CD made many of us repurchase our old record collections, DVD seems a way of making us rebuy our film libraries. For the average film scholar or serious buff--and certainly the average consumer--VHS is just fine. Movies have long been released in letterboxed, widescreen editions on tape, and the clarity of the picture provided by DVD may depend on the quality of your television. This takes us to an interesting quirk about DVD.

You will often hear DVD fans extolling the virtues of the new...

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