If we take a look at the way the home video technology has progressed over the years, we will be amazed at the extent to which it has changed in such a short period. The VHS (Video Home System) technology brought motion pictures into our living rooms and bedrooms. It was followed by the CDs, VCDs, and SVCDs that were more expensive, but provided excellent quality and utility. This was followed by the DVDs and DVD players that took the market by storm and became the most preferred mode for recording and viewing of movies. Most recently however, the latest technology that has joined the race is HD DVD (High Definition Digital Video Disc), that has much higher storage capacity and enhanced quality attributes.
Correspondingly, there has been a similar evolution in the digital data storage and handling industry. This journey started with the floppy, followed by the CDs, the laser discs, the DVDs, and then the HD DVDs. Data storage and handling are a field by itself and has grown at a phenomenal rate.
VHS
The first step towards home theater was the Video Home System (VHS), introduced in September 1976. It was developed by JVC along with some licensing agreements with Sony. The VHS is a recording and playing standard for the Video Cassette Recorders, well known all over the world as the VCRs. The VHS could record and play back all the analog television signals in existence at the time it was devised. By today's standards, it is one of the poorest quality video formats. The video recording cassette being big, its recording camera was also big and cumbersome. This led to problems of handling and transportation.
The VHS-C is the Video Home System-Compact, which is the same in quality as compared to the standard VHS, that is, half inch size and 240 lines of resolution. But as the name suggests, it is more compact and allows for the video camera to be lighter, smaller, and more convenient. The VHS-C has to be placed in a regular VHS sized case to enable it to be played on the VHS player. The 8mm VHS tapes are smaller in size and are very convenient to use in recording cameras, but are not compatible with the regular VCRs and cannot be played directly on the VCRs.
CD and VCD
The Compact Disc (CD) is an optical disc that is read by a laser. It is a polycarbonate disc designed to store data, music and video formats. These were played on CD players and were of the CD-R and CD-RW type in particular. It was designed by Philips and Sony in 1988. In 1993, Matsushita, Philips, Sony, and JVC introduced a CD format that could hold a full- motion video. It was called the Video CD (VCD) or the compact disc digital video and had a standard digital format for storing video on a compact disc. These VCDs could be played on VCD players and computers. A video CD can hold VHS-quality video of 74 minutes and has a CD-quality sound using MPEG-1 compression. The VCDs were very popular in the Asian countries due to their affordability factor, but did not get much popularity in the U.S. or Europe.
The low cost of media resulted in rampant unauthorized copying of movies and was hence not widely supported by the United States entertainment fraternity. The Super Video CD introduced later using the MPEG-2 compression was of better quality, but its playing time got diminished to 35 minutes. A DVDV or double VCD had also been designed, in which, a regular CD was 'Over-burned' to incorporate 100 minutes of video.
DVD and HD DVD
The DVDs came into the market in 1997 and were an instant success. This was mainly because of the reason, that even their cheapest version was capable of giving a better picture and sound quality than a VHS, and could process information much more effectively than CDs. With a DVD played back on a DVD player, a consumer could have a much better home entertainment experience. DVD players have been designed to play multi region DVDs, and can playback any TV standard like NTSC, PAL or SECAM. The DVD players are compatible with a wide range of media such as CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, MP3, DivX, and many more.
Riding on the success of the DVD market, the HD DVD or High Definition DVD was introduced in 2005 and was an adaptation of the existing basic structure of the DVD. The HD DVD has a greater storage capacity and can provide better audio and video quality as compared to a DVD. All this is achievable at a marginal cost increase, mainly because the HD DVD can be manufactured using the existing manufacturing facilities for DVDs. This affordability factor is a great contributor to the success of HD DVDs. The HD DVDs are available in ROM, readable and re-writable formats. The HD DVD players are designed using all the features provided in the DVD players. The HD DVDs are integrated with a state-of-the-art content protection technology which is unique to this medium.
The storage capacity is 15 GB for single layer, 30BG for dual layer, and 45GB for a triple layer HD DVD. Also it uses highly sophisticated compression techniques using MPEG-4 for increased capacity. A 15 GB HD DVD can store a full movie and incorporate additional features, with space to spare. Whereas as 30 GB HD DVD can store three movies of 150 minutes each and provide the high definition quality of playback. These features make HD DVDs a favored medium for storage and viewing of movies. With the widespread support from the entertainment industry leaders and the high quality service provided by HD DVDs, they are certainly poised for a highly successful stint.
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