![DVD VIDEO logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/DVD_VIDEO_logo.png)
DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
discs. DVD-Video was the dominant consumer home video format in
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
,
North America,
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
, and
Australia in the 2000s until it was supplanted by the high-definition
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
Disc. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and an
MPEG-2 decoder (e.g., a DVD player, or a computer DVD drive with a software DVD player). Commercial DVD movies are encoded using a combination MPEG-2 compressed video and audio of varying formats (often multi-channel formats as described below). Typically, the data rate for DVD movies ranges from 3 to 9.5
Mbit/s
In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits ( bitrate), characters or symbols ( baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are mu ...
, and the
bit rate is usually adaptive. DVD-Video was first available in Japan on November 1, 1996 (with major releases beginning December 20, 1996),
followed by a release on March 24, 1997 in the United States—to line up with the
69th Academy Awards
The 69th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) took place on March 24, 1997, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. During the cerem ...
that same day.
The DVD-Video specification was created by
DVD Forum
The DVD Forum is an international organization composed of hardware, software, media and production companies that use and develop the DVD and formerly HD DVD formats. It was initially known as the DVD Consortium when it was founded in 1995.
H ...
and can be obtained from DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation for a fee of $5,000.
[DVD FLLC (2009]
"DVD Format Book"
Retrieved 2009-08-14. The specification is not publicly available and every subscriber must sign a
non-disclosure agreement. Certain information in the DVD Book is proprietary and confidential.
Video data
To record digital video, DVD-Video uses either
H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 compression at up to 9.8 Mbit/s (9,800
kbit/s
In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multi ...
) or
MPEG-1 Part 2
MPEG-1 is a standard for lossy compression of video and audio. It is designed to compress VHS-quality raw digital video and CD audio down to about 1.5 Mbit/s (26:1 and 6:1 compression ratios respectively) without excessive quality loss, making ...
compression at up to 1.856 Mbit/s (1,856 kbit/s). DVD-Video supports video with a
bit depth of 8 bits per color, encoded as
YCbCr
YCbCr, Y′CbCr, or Y Pb/Cb Pr/Cr, also written as YCBCR or Y′CBCR, is a family of color spaces used as a part of the color image pipeline in video and digital photography systems. Y′ is the luma component and CB and CR are the blue-diff ...
with 4:2:0
chroma subsampling
Chroma subsampling is the practice of encoding images by implementing less resolution for chroma information than for luma information, taking advantage of the human visual system's lower acuity for color differences than for luminance.
It is u ...
.
The following formats are allowed for H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 video:
* At a display rate of 25
frames per second
A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent.
Frame and FRAME may also refer to:
Physical objects
In building construction
*Framing (con ...
,
interlaced
Interlaced video (also known as interlaced scan) is a technique for doubling the perceived frame rate of a video display without consuming extra bandwidth. The interlaced signal contains two fields of a video frame captured consecutively. This ...
or
progressive scan (commonly used in regions with
50 Hz image scanning frequency, compatible with analog
625-line 625-lines is a standard-definition television resolution used mainly in the context of analog systems. It was first demonstrated by Mark Iosifovich Krivosheev in 1948.
Analog broadcast television standards
The following International Telecommuni ...
PAL
Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...
/
SECAM
SECAM, also written SÉCAM (, ''Séquentiel de couleur à mémoire'', French for ''color sequential with memory''), is an analog color television system that was used in France, some parts of Europe and Africa, and Russia. It was one of th ...
):
: 720 × 576 pixels (
D-1 D1, D01, D.I, D.1 or D-1 can refer to:
Science and technology Biochemistry and medicine
* ATC code D01 ''Antifungals for dermatological use'', a subgroup of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System
* Dopamine receptor D1, Dopamine ...
resolution, 4:3
fullscreen or 16:9
widescreen
Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...
aspect ratio)
: 704 × 576 pixels (
4CIF resolution, 4:3)
: 352 × 576 pixels (
China Video Disc
Super Video CD (Super Video Compact Disc or SVCD) is a digital format for storing video on standard compact discs. SVCD was intended as a successor to Video CD and an alternative to DVD-Video, and falls somewhere between both in terms of technica ...
resolution, 4:3)
: 352 × 288 pixels (
CIF
Cif is a French brand of household cleaning products owned by the Anglo-Dutch company Unilever, known as Jif in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Middle East and the Nordic countries.
Cif was launched in France in 1965 and was marketed in competit ...
resolution, 4:3)
* At a display rate of 29.97 frames per second, interlaced or progressive scan (commonly used in regions with
60 Hz image scanning frequency, compatible with analog
525-line NTSC
The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...
):
: 720 × 480 pixels (
D-1 D1, D01, D.I, D.1 or D-1 can refer to:
Science and technology Biochemistry and medicine
* ATC code D01 ''Antifungals for dermatological use'', a subgroup of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System
* Dopamine receptor D1, Dopamine ...
resolution, 4:3 or 16:9)
: 704 × 480 pixels (
4SIF resolution, 4:3)
: 352 × 480 pixels (
China Video Disc
Super Video CD (Super Video Compact Disc or SVCD) is a digital format for storing video on standard compact discs. SVCD was intended as a successor to Video CD and an alternative to DVD-Video, and falls somewhere between both in terms of technica ...
resolution, 4:3)
: 352 × 240 pixels (
SIF
In Norse mythology, Sif (Old Norse: ) is a golden-haired goddess associated with earth. Sif is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the ''Prose Edda'', written in the 13th century ...
resolution, 4:3)
The following formats are allowed for MPEG-1 video:
* 352 × 288 pixels at 25 frame/s,
progressive (CIF/
VCD
Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard optical discs. The format was widely adopted in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the ...
resolution, 4:3)
* 352 × 240 pixels at 29.97 frame/s, progressive (SIF/
VCD
Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard optical discs. The format was widely adopted in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the ...
resolution, 4:3)
The MPEG-1 Part 2 format does not support interlaced video. The H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 format supports both interlaced and progressive-scan content, and can handle different frame rates from the ones mentioned above by using
pulldown. This is most commonly used to encode 23.976 frame/s content for playback at 29.97 frame/s. Pulldown can be implemented directly while the disc is mastered, by actually encoding the data on the disc at 29.97 frames/s; however, this practice is uncommon for most commercial film releases, which provide content optimized for display on progressive-scan television sets.
Alternatively, the content can be encoded on the disc itself at one of several alternative frame rates, and use flags that identify scanning type, field order and field repeating pattern. Such flags can be added in video stream by the H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 encoder. A DVD player uses these flags to convert progressive content into interlaced video in real time during playback, producing a signal suitable for interlaced TV sets. These flags also allow reproducing progressive content at their original, non-interlaced format when used with compatible DVD players and progressive-scan television sets.
Audio data
The audio data on a DVD movie can be
PCM,
DTS,
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II or MPEG-2 Audio Layer II (MP2, sometimes incorrectly called Musicam or MUSICAM) is a lossy audio compression format defined by ISO/IEC 11172-3 alongside MPEG-1 Audio Layer I and MPEG-1 Audio Layer III (MP3). While MP3 is m ...
(MP2), or
Dolby Digital (AC-3) format. In countries using the
PAL
Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...
system standard DVD-Video releases must contain at least one audio track using the PCM, MP2, or AC-3 format, and all standard PAL players must support all three of these formats. A similar standard exists in countries using the
NTSC
The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...
system, though with no requirement mandating the use of or support for the MP2 format. DTS audio is optional for all players, as DTS was not part of the initial draft standard and was added later; thus, many early players are unable to play DTS audio tracks. Only PCM and DTS support 96 kHz sampling rate. Because PCM, being uncompressed, requires a lot of bandwidth and DTS is not universally supported by players, AC-3 is the most common digital audio format for DVDs, and 96 kHz is rare on a DVD. The official allowed formats for the audio tracks on a DVD-Video are:
* PCM: 48 kHz or 96 kHz sampling rate, 16 bit or 24 bit
Linear PCM
Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio applications. In a PCM stream, the ...
, 2 to 6 channels, up to 6,144 kbit/s; N. B. 16-bit 48 kHz 8 channel PCM is allowed by the DVD-Video specification but is not well-supported by authoring applications or players;
* AC-3: 48 kHz sampling rate, 1 to 5.1 (6) channels, up to 448 kbit/s;
* DTS: 48 kHz or 96 kHz sampling rate; channel layouts = 2.0, 2.1, 5.0, 5.1, 6.1; bitrates for 2.0 and 2.1 = 377.25 and 503.25 kbit/s, bitrates for 5.x and 6.1 = 754.5 and 1509.75 kbit/s;
* MP2: 48 kHz sampling rate, 1 to
7.1 channels, up to 912 kbit/s.
DVDs can contain more than one channel of audio to go together with the video content, supporting a maximum of eight simultaneous audio tracks per video. This is most commonly used for different audio formats—DTS 5.1, AC-3 2.0 etc.—as well as for commentary and audio tracks in different languages.
Data rate
DVD-Video discs have a raw bitrate of 11.08 Mbit/s, with a 1.0 Mbit/s overhead, leaving a payload bitrate of 10.08 Mbit/s. Of this, up to 3.36 Mbit/s can be used for subtitles, a maximum of 10.08 Mbit/s can be split amongst audio and video, and a maximum of 9.80 Mbit/s can be used for video alone. In the case of multiple angles the data is stored interleaved, and so there is a bitrate penalty leading to a max bitrate of 8 Mbit/s per angle to compensate for additional seek time. This limit is not cumulative, so each additional angle can still have up to 8 Mbit/s of bitrate available.
Professionally encoded videos average a bitrate of 4–5 Mbit/s with a maximum of 7–8 Mbit/s in high-action scenes. Encoding at less than the max bitrate (like this) is typically done to allow greater compatibility among players, and to help prevent
buffer underrun
In computing, buffer underrun or buffer underflow is a state occurring when a buffer used for communicating between two devices or processes is fed with data at a lower speed than the data is being read from it. The term is distinct from buffe ...
s in the case of dirty or scratched discs.
Aiming to improve picture quality over standard editions,
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment offered "
Superbit"—a premium line of DVD-Video titles having average bitrates closer to 6 Mbit/s. Audio quality was also improved by the mandatory inclusion of both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround audio tracks. Multiple languages, angles, and extra audio tracks were eliminated to free up more space for the main title and thereby to ensure the highest data rate possible. In January 2007 the Superbit line was discontinued.
Other features
Some DVD hardware or software players may play discs whose MPEG files do not conform to the above standards; commonly this is used to support discs authored with formats such as
VCD
Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard optical discs. The format was widely adopted in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the ...
and
SVCD
Super Video CD (Super Video Compact Disc or SVCD) is a Digital data, digital format for storing video on standard compact discs. SVCD was intended as a successor to Video CD and an alternative to DVD-Video, and falls somewhere between both in ter ...
. While VCD and
CVD video is supported by the DVD standard, neither SVCD video nor VCD, CVD, or SVCD audio is compatible with the DVD standard.
Some hardware players will also play DVD-ROMs or
CD-ROMs containing "raw" MPEG video files; these are "unauthored" and lack the
file
File or filing may refer to:
Mechanical tools and processes
* File (tool), a tool used to ''remove'' fine amounts of material from a workpiece
**Filing (metalworking), a material removal process in manufacturing
** Nail file, a tool used to gent ...
and header structure that defines DVD-Video. Standard DVD-Video files contain extra information (such as the number of video tracks, chapters and links to extra features) that DVD players use to navigate the disc.
The maximum chapters allowed per title is 99 and the maximum titles allowed per DVD is 99.
File system
Almost all DVD-Video discs use the ''UDF bridge'' format, which is a combination of the DVD MicroUDF (a subset of
UDF 1.02) and
ISO 9660
ISO 9660 (also known as ECMA-119) is a file system for optical disc media. Being sold by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) the file system is considered an international technical standard. Since the specification is ...
file systems.
The UDF bridge format provides backwards compatibility for operating systems that support only ISO 9660.
Most DVD players read the UDF filesystem from a DVD-Video disc and ignore the ISO9660 filesystem.
Directory and file structure
A DVD volume for the DVD-Video format has the following structure of directories and files:
![DVD-Video Layout](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/DVD-Video_Layout.svg)
* AUDIO_TS directory: empty or not present on DVD-Video discs; contains files only on
DVD-Audio
DVD-Audio (commonly abbreviated as DVD-A) is a digital format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. DVD-Audio uses most of the storage on the disc for high-quality audio and is not intended to be a video delivery format.
The st ...
discs; it is also known as an Audio Title Sets directory; included on DVD-Video discs for compatibility reasons
* VIDEO_TS directory: stores all data for the DVD-Video; it is also known as a Video Title Sets directory. This directory is required to be present on a DVD-compliant disc.
* ''Video Manager (VMG) files:''
** VIDEO_TS.IFO file: the Video Manager (VMG) information file—stores control and playback information for the entire DVD—e.g. the First Play PGC (Program Chain), locations of all Video Title Sets (VTS), table of titles, number of volumes, domains for multiple languages and regional and parental control settings, information about subtitles, audio tracks, etc. This file is required to be present on a DVD-compliant disc.
** VIDEO_TS.BUP file: the backup copy of the VIDEO_TS.IFO file. It is part of Video Manager (VMG).
** VIDEO_TS.
VOB file: the first-play Video Object of the DVD-Video disc, usually a copyright notice or a menu. It is part of Video Manager (VMG). This file is not required to be present on a DVD-compliant disc.
* ''Video Title Set (VTS) files:''
** VTS_01_0.IFO file: stores control and playback information for the Video Title Set 01—e. g. information about chapters, subtitles and audio tracks. A "VTS_zz_0.IFO" file (where "zz" is from 01 to 99) is required to be present on each VTS.
** VTS_01_0.BUP file: a backup copy of the VTS_01_0.IFO file. This file is required to be present on a DVD-compliant disc. It is part of Video Title Set (VTS).
** VTS_01_0.VOB file: Video Title Set 01, Video Object 0, contains the menu for this title. This file is not required to be present on a DVD-compliant disc.
** VTS_01_1.VOB file: Video Title Set 01, Video Object 1, contains the video for this title. At least one file "VTS_zz_1.VOB" is required in the VTS and each "VTS_zz_x". DVD-Video can contain up to 99 (1–99) titles with max 10 (0–9) VOB files each. The last possible VOB file is VTS_99_9.VOB.
** ... etc.
IFO
Ifo is a Local Government Area in Ogun State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Ifo at .It has an area of and a population of 698,837 at the 2006 census "Adebami-Tella". The postal code of the area is 112.
Transportation
Ifo is con ...
files store control and playback information—e. g. information about chapters, subtitles and audio tracks. They do not store any video or audio data or subtitles.
BUP files are only backups of the IFO files.
Domains
Data structures recorded on a DVD-compliant disc are components of one of the four data groups called domains:
* First-play (FP) – First Play PGC located in the VIDEO_TS.IFO file
* Video Manager (VMG) – contains VIDEO_TS.IFO, VIDEO_TS.BUP and VIDEO_TS.VOB
* Video Title Set (VTS) – contains "VTS_zz_x.IFO", "VTS_zz_x.BUP" and "VTS_zz_x.VOB" files (where "x" is from 1 to 9)
* Video Title Set Menu (VTSM) – uses "VTS_zz_0.VOB" files
Container
Video, audio, subtitle and navigation streams are
multiplexed
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
and stored on a DVD-Video disc in the
VOB container format (Video Object). VOB is based on the
MPEG program stream
Program stream (PS or MPEG-PS) is a container format for multiplexing digital audio, video and more. The PS format is specified in MPEG-1 Part 1 (ISO/IEC 11172-1) and MPEG-2 Part 1, Systems (ISO/IEC standard 13818-1/ITU-T H.222.0). The MPEG-2 ...
format, but with additional limitations and specifications in the private streams.
["What Is a VOB File"](_blank)
Retrieved 2009-07-26.
Retrieved 2009-07-24. The MPEG program stream has provisions for non-standard data (as AC-3, DTS, LPCM or subtitles used in VOB files) in the form of so-called private streams. VOB files are a very strict subset of the MPEG program stream standard. While all VOB files are MPEG program streams, not all MPEG program streams comply with the definition for a VOB file.
DVD recorder
A DVD recorder is an optical disc recorder that uses optical disc recording technologies to digitally record analog or digital signals onto blank writable DVD media. Such devices are available as either installable drives for computers o ...
s can use
DVD-VR The DVD-VR standard defines a logical format for video recording on DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM style media, including the dual layer versions of these media. As opposed to media recorded with the DVD+VR recording standard, the resulting media are ...
or
DVD+VR
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can ...
format instead of DVD-Video. DVD-VR format store multiplexed audiovisual content in VRO containers.
[DVD Demystified (July 13, 2009]
"What Are .IFO, .VOB, .AOB, and .VRO files? How Can I Play Them?"
. Retrieved 2009-07-28. VRO file is an equivalent to a collection of DVD-Video VOB files. Fragmented VRO files are not widely supported by hardware or software players and video editing software.
DVD+VR standard defines a logical format for DVD-Video compliant recording on optical discs and is commonly used on DVD+R/RW media.
Subtitles
DVD-Video may also include up to 32
subtitle or ''subpicture'' tracks. Subtitles are usually offered as a visual aid for
deaf and hearing impaired viewers, displaying translated dialogue into other languages, or displaying karaoke lyrics.
They are sometimes used to present additional information about the video being played. Subtitles are stored as
bitmap
In computing, a bitmap is a mapping from some domain (for example, a range of integers) to bits. It is also called a bit array or bitmap index.
As a noun, the term "bitmap" is very often used to refer to a particular bitmapping application: t ...
images and therefore can contain any arbitrary text or simple image. They are restricted to a 16-color palette, but are usually implemented with a limit of 4 colors. 16 levels of transparency are also supported to allow blending, but this is also not always implemented.
The subtitle tracks are contained within the
VOB file of the DVD.
DVD-Video may also contain
closed captioning
Closed captioning (CC) and subtitling are both processes of displaying text on a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information. Both are typically used as a transcription of the audio po ...
material which can only be viewed on a television set with a decoder.
Chapters and angles
DVD-Video may contain chapters for easy navigation, and continuation of a partially watched film. If space permits, it is also possible to include several versions of certain scenes, called "angles." Today, the multi-angle feature is mostly used for internationalization. For example, it can be used to supply different language versions of images containing written text when subtitles would not do (e. g., the
Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
's spell book in ''
Snow White
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...
'', and the scrolling text in the openings of the ''
Star Wars'' films). Multiple angles have found a niche in markets such as
yoga
Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consci ...
,
erotica
Erotica is literature or art that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erotic art may use ...
,
animation (e.g. for
storyboards
A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in th ...
), and live performances.
Extra features
A significant selling point of DVD-Video is that the storage capacity allows for a wide variety of extra, or bonus, features in addition to the feature film. These extra features can include
audio commentary
An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add informatio ...
;
documentary features, commonly about the making of the main title;
interview
An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" ...
s;
deleted footage;
outtake
An outtake is a portion of a work (usually a film or music recording) that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and D ...
s; photo galleries;
storyboards; isolated
music scores; trivia text commentary; simple games;
film shorts;
TV spots
A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
;
radio spots;
theatrical trailers which were used to promote the main title; and
teaser trailers advertising related movies or DVDs.
Extra features often provide entertainment or add depth and understanding to the film. Games,
bloopers, and galleries provide entertainment. Deleted scenes and alternative endings allow the audience to view additional content which was not included in a theatrical release. Directors cuts allow the audience to see how the director envisioned the main title without the constraints which are placed on a theatrical release.
Other extras that can be included on DVDs are motion menus, still pictures, up to 32 selectable subtitles,
seamless branching for multiple storylines, up to 9 camera angles, and DVD-ROM / data files that can be accessed on a computer.
Extra features require additional storage space, which often means encoding the main title with lower than possible data rate to fit both the main title and the extras on one disc. Lower data rate may decrease visual and sound quality, which manifests itself in various
compression artifacts. To maintain quality the main title and the extras may be released on several discs, or the extras may be omitted completely like in the "
Superbit" line of DVDs.
Restrictions
DVD-Video has four complementary systems designed to restrict the DVD user in various ways:
Macrovision
TiVo Corporation, formerly known as the Rovi Corporation and Macrovision Solutions Corporation, was an American technology company. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company is primarily involved in licensing its intellectual property ...
,
Content Scramble System
The Content Scramble System (CSS) is a digital rights management (DRM) and encryption system employed on many commercially produced DVD-Video discs. CSS utilizes a proprietary 40-bit stream cipher algorithm. The system was introduced around 1996 ...
(CSS),
region codes, and
disabled user operations (UOPs). There are also anti-ripping techniques intended to foil
ripping software.
Content Scramble System
Many DVD-Video titles use Content Scramble System (CSS) encryption, which is intended to discourage people from copying the disc. Usually, users need to install software provided on the DVD or downloaded from the Internet such as
MPlayer
MPlayer is a free and open-source media player software application. It is available for Linux, OS X and Microsoft Windows. Versions for OS/2, Syllable, AmigaOS, MorphOS and AROS Research Operating System are also available. A port for DOS using ...
,
TotalMedia Theatre,
PowerDVD
CyberLink PowerDVD is a universal media player for movie discs, video files, photos and music. During 2016, PowerDVD achieved certification from the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) for the playback of Ultra HD Blu-ray Discs, and became the world's ...
,
VLC or
WinDVD
WinDVD (owned by Corel Corporation which bought InterVideo in 2006) is a commercial video player and music player software for Microsoft Windows. It enables the viewing of DVD-Video movies on the user's PC. DVD-Video backups stored on hard dis ...
to be able to view the disc in a computer system.
CSS does not make it difficult (any more) to copy the digital content now that a decoder (
DeCSS
DeCSS is one of the first free computer programs capable of decrypting content on a commercially produced DVD video disc. Before the release of DeCSS, open source operating systems (such as BSD and Linux) could not play encrypted video DVDs.
...
) has been released, nor is it possible to distinguish between legal and illegal copies of a work, but CSS does restrict the playback software that may be used.
CSS has caused major problems for the inclusion of DVD players in any
open source operating systems, since open source player implementations are not officially given access to the decryption keys or license to the
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
s involved in CSS.
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is software that is deemed within the free and open-source software to be non-free because its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner exercises a legal monopoly afforded by modern copyright and i ...
players were also difficult to find on some platforms. However, a successful effort has been made to write a decoder by
reverse engineering, resulting in
DeCSS
DeCSS is one of the first free computer programs capable of decrypting content on a commercially produced DVD video disc. Before the release of DeCSS, open source operating systems (such as BSD and Linux) could not play encrypted video DVDs.
...
. This has led to long-running legal battles and the arrest of some of those involved in creating or distributing the DeCSS code, through the use of the controversial U.S.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or ...
(DMCA), on the grounds that such software could also be used to facilitate unauthorized copying of the data on the discs. The
Videolan
VideoLAN is a non-profit organization which develops software for playing video and other media formats. It originally developed two programs for media streaming, VideoLAN Client (VLC) and VideoLAN Server (VLS), but most of the features of VLS ...
team, however, went on to make the
libdvdcss
libdvdcss (or libdvdcss2 in some repositories) is a free and open-source software library for accessing and unscrambling DVDs encrypted with the Content Scramble System (CSS). libdvdcss is part of the VideoLAN project and is used by VLC media p ...
library. Unlike DeCSS, libdvdcss can access a CSS-encrypted DVD without the need of a cracked key, thus enabling playback of such discs on opensource players without legal restraints (although DVD rippers using this library may still be subject to restrictions).
The DMCA currently affects only the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, however many other countries are signatories to the similar
WIPO Treaty. In some countries it is not illegal to use de-scrambling software to bypass the DVD restrictions. A
number of software programs have since appeared on the Web to view DVDs on a number of different platforms.
Other measures such as anti-ripping, as well as U.S. and non-U.S.
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
law, may be used to prevent making unauthorized copies of DVDs. CSS decrypting software, or ripping software, such as
DVD Decrypter,
AnyDVD,
MacTheRipper, and
DVD Shrink
DVD Shrink is a freeware DVD transcoder program for Microsoft Windows that uses a DVD ripper to back up DVD video. The final versions are 3.2.0.15 (English) and 3.2.0.16 (German); all other versions, such as DVD Shrink 2010, are illegitimate. D ...
allows a disc to be copied to hard disk unscrambled. Some DeCSS applications also remove
Macrovision
TiVo Corporation, formerly known as the Rovi Corporation and Macrovision Solutions Corporation, was an American technology company. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company is primarily involved in licensing its intellectual property ...
,
region codes, and disabled user operations (UOPs).
Anti-ripping
After DeCSS ripping software became available, companies developed techniques to introduce errors in DVD-Video discs that do not normally affect playback and navigation of a disc, but can cause problems in software that attempts to copy the entire disc. These approaches, which are not part of the official DVD-Video specification, include Sony
ARccOS Protection, Macrovision
RipGuard, X-protect, ProtectDisc SecureBurn, Anaho, Fortium, and others. All of these methods have been circumvented (as might have been expected, since all standard DVD players naturally circumvent them to play and navigate the discs normally).
Riplock is a feature that reduces drive noise during playback but inadvertently reduces ripping speed.
Disabled user operations
DVD-Video allows the disc to specify whether or not the user may perform any operation, such as selecting a menu, skipping chapters, forwarding or rewinding essentially any function on the remote control. This is known as User Operation Prohibitions, or Prohibited User Operations (UOPs or PUOs). Most DVD players respect these commands (e. g., by preventing skipping or fast-forwarding through a copyright message or an advertisement at the beginning of a disc). However,
grey market
A grey market or dark market (sometimes confused with the similar term " parallel market") is the trade of a commodity through distribution channels that are not authorized by the original manufacturer or trade mark proprietor. Grey market pr ...
players ignore UOPs and some DVD "re-authoring" software packages allow the user to produce a copy without these restrictions. The legality of these activities varies by jurisdiction and is the subject of debate. (See
fair use
Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests ...
.)
Region codes
![DVD-Regions with key-2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/DVD-Regions_with_key-2.svg)
Each DVD-Video disc contains one or more region codes, denoting the area(s) of the world in which distribution and playback are intended. The commercial DVD player specification dictates that a player must only play discs that contain its region code. In theory, this allows the motion picture studios to control the various aspects of a release (including content, date and price) on a region-by-region basis, or ensure the success of "staggered" or delayed cinema releases from country to country. For example, the British movie ''
28 Days Later
''28 Days Later'' is a 2002 British post-apocalyptic horror film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. It stars Cillian Murphy as a bicycle courier who awakens from a coma to discover the accidental release of a highly contagiou ...
'' was released on DVD in Europe several months prior to the film's release in North American movie theaters. Regional coding kept the European DVD unplayable for most North American consumers, thereby ensuring that ticket sales would be relatively unaffected.
In practice, many DVD players allow playback of any disc, or can be modified to do so. Entirely independent of encryption, region coding pertains to
regional lockout
A regional lockout (or region coding) is a class of digital rights management preventing the use of a certain product or service, such as multimedia or a hardware device, outside a certain region or territory. A regional lockout may be enforced ...
, which originated in the
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
industry.
From a worldwide perspective regional coding may be seen as a failure. A huge percentage of players outside of North America can be easily modified (and are even sold pre-modified by mainstream stores such as Amazon.co.uk) to ignore the regional codes on a disc. This, coupled with the fact that almost all televisions in Europe and
Australasia
Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologi ...
are capable of displaying NTSC video (at the very least, in black and white), means that consumers in these regions have a huge choice of discs. Contrary to popular belief, this practice is not illegal and in some countries that strongly support free trade it is encouraged.
A normal DVD player can only play region-coded discs designated for the player's own particular region. However, a code-free or region-free DVD player is capable of playing DVDs from any of the six regions around the world.
The
CSS license prohibits manufacturing of DVD players that are not set to a single region by default. While the same license prohibits manufacturers from including prominent interfaces to change the region setting it does not clearly prevent them from including "hidden" menus that enable the player's region to be changed; as such, many high-end models in the U.S. include password-protected or otherwise hidden methods to enable multi-region playback. Conversely in the UK and Ireland many cheap DVD players are multi-region while more expensive systems, including the majority of
home cinema
Home cinema, also called home theaters or theater rooms, are home entertainment audio-visual systems that seek to reproduce a movie theater experience and mood using consumer electronics-grade video and audio equipment that is set up in a room ...
systems, are preset to play only region 2 discs.
In China, DVD-Videos for
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...
are usually released in MPEG-1 video, with MP2 audio. By forgoing Dolby standards, manufacturers cut costs considerably; encoding in lower bit-rates also allows a TV series to be squeezed onto fewer discs. There is no region coding in such cases.
There are also two additional region codes, region 7, which is reserved, and region 8, which is used exclusively for passenger transport such as airlines and cruise ships.
Programming interface
A
virtual machine
In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization/ emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve specialized h ...
implemented by the DVD player runs
bytecode
Bytecode (also called portable code or p-code) is a form of instruction set designed for efficient execution by a software interpreter. Unlike human-readable source code, bytecodes are compact numeric codes, constants, and references (norma ...
contained on the DVD. This is used to control playback and display special effects on the menus. The
instruction set is called the Virtual Machine (VM) DVD command set. There are 16 general parameter registers (GPRM) to hold temporary values and 24 system parameters (SPRM). As a result of a moderately flexible programming interface, DVD players can be used to play games, such as the DVD re-release of ''
Dragon's Lair
''Dragon's Lair'' is a video game franchise created by Rick Dyer and Don Bluth. The series is famous for its Western animation-style graphics and complex decades-long history of being ported to many platforms and being remade into television a ...
'', along with more sophisticated and advanced games such as ''
Scene It?'', all of which can be run on standard DVD players.
Players and recorders
Modern
DVD recorder
A DVD recorder is an optical disc recorder that uses optical disc recording technologies to digitally record analog or digital signals onto blank writable DVD media. Such devices are available as either installable drives for computers o ...
s often support additional formats, including DVD+/-R/RW, CD-R/RW,
MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
,
WMA,
SVCD
Super Video CD (Super Video Compact Disc or SVCD) is a Digital data, digital format for storing video on standard compact discs. SVCD was intended as a successor to Video CD and an alternative to DVD-Video, and falls somewhere between both in ter ...
,
JPEG,
PNG,
SVG,
KAR and
MPEG-4 (
DivX/
Xvid
Xvid (formerly "XviD") is a video codec library following the MPEG-4 video coding standard, specifically MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile (ASP). It uses ASP features such as b-frames, global and quarter pixel motion compensation, lumi mas ...
). Some also include
USB
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...
ports or
flash memory readers. Player prices range from as low as
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
20 (
£10) to as high as US$2,700 (£1,350).
DVD drives for computers usually come with one of two kinds of
Regional Playback Control RPC-1 and RPC-2 are designations applied to firmware for DVD drive
In computing, an optical disc drive is a disc drive that uses laser light or electromagnetic waves within or near the visible light spectrum as part of the process of read ...
(RPC), either RPC-1 or RPC-2. This is used to enforce the publisher's restrictions on what regions of the world the DVD can be played. (See
Regional lockout
A regional lockout (or region coding) is a class of digital rights management preventing the use of a certain product or service, such as multimedia or a hardware device, outside a certain region or territory. A regional lockout may be enforced ...
and
DVD region codes.) While
open-source software
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...
DVD players allow everything, commercial ones (both standalone models and software players) come further encumbered with restrictions forbidding the viewer from skipping (or in some cases fast-forwarding) certain content such as copyright warnings or advertisements. (See
User operation prohibition.)
When DVD drives first became commercially available in 1997, they often came with special cards, which were designed to pass through either the integrated video on the computer
motherboard or the
video card
A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or mistakenly GPU) is an expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display device, such as a computer mo ...
. The cards were necessary since most computers did not have sufficient processing power to handle the encoding on the discs. As CPU speeds and video card memory drastically increased in the late 1990s, in addition to software alternatives such as
PowerDVD
CyberLink PowerDVD is a universal media player for movie discs, video files, photos and music. During 2016, PowerDVD achieved certification from the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) for the playback of Ultra HD Blu-ray Discs, and became the world's ...
becoming readily available, these cards quickly became obsolete.
Video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
systems with DVD-Video playback functionality include:
Panasonic Q
The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...
(a variation of the
GameCube sold exclusively in Japan),
PlayStation 2,
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...
,
PlayStation 4,
PlayStation 5,
Wii (with an unsupported hack),
Xbox
Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the ...
(additional remote required),
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
,
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
, and
Xbox Series X
The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 2020, ...
.
Competitors and successors
In April 2000, Sonic Solutions and Ravisent announced hDVD, a
high-definition extension to DVD. However, hDVD failed to gain much popularity.
On November 18, 2003, the Chinese news agency
Xinhua
Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...
reported the final standard of the Chinese government-sponsored
Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD) which is another extension of standard DVD. Shortly thereafter the development of the format was halted by a licensing dispute between Chinese companies and
On2 Technologies, but on December 6, 2006, 20 Chinese electronic firms unveiled 54 prototype EVD players and announced their intention for the format to completely replace DVDs in China by 2008. However, due to a lack of sales, support for EVD has recently been dropped by the Xinhua Bookstore in
Wuhan
Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city an ...
, which was a major supporter of the format.
Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD
Two competing high-definition (HD) optical-disc formats,
HD DVD
HD DVD (short for High Definition Digital Versatile Disc) is an obsolete high-density optical disc format for storing data and playback of high-definition video. Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the ...
and
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
, were introduced in 2006. The HD DVD format, promoted by Toshiba, was backed by the
DVD Forum
The DVD Forum is an international organization composed of hardware, software, media and production companies that use and develop the DVD and formerly HD DVD formats. It was initially known as the DVD Consortium when it was founded in 1995.
H ...
, which voted to make it the official successor to DVD. Opposing HD DVD was the Blu-ray format, led by the
Blu-ray Disc Association, which shares many members with the DVD forum.
With HD DVD launched in March 2006 and Blu-ray launched in June of the same year, a
format war
A format war is a competition between similar but mutually incompatible technical standards that compete for the same market, such as for data storage devices and recording formats for electronic media. It is often characterized by political an ...
started. Industry analysts likened the situation to the
VHS/Betamax format war of the 1980s. At the time of their launch, consumer awareness of either high-definition format was severely limited, with the end result that most consumers avoided both formats, already content with DVD. In February 2008, Toshiba capitulated, citing low demand for HD DVD and the faster growth of Blu-ray, and the inclusion of the format in the video game system
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...
(PS3), among other reasons.
Toshiba ended production of their HD DVD players and discontinued promotion of the format, while the HD DVD movie release schedule concluded by June 2008.
After HD DVD was discontinued, Blu-ray became the ''de facto'' high-definition optical disc format. However, sales figures suggest that DVD is in no immediate danger of disappearing. All standard DVDs will play on existing Blu-ray players, making the switch to Blu-ray much easier than the switch from VHS to DVD. Moreover, some labels are cutting back on Blu-ray Disc releases in favor of DVD-Video, claiming that low sales do not justify the more expensive Blu-ray Disc format.
In addition, a growing number of hardware vendors are enhancing their Blu-ray players with Internet connectivity for subscription-based video downloads.
Ultra HD Blu-ray
Ultra HD Blu-ray (4K Ultra HD, UHD-BD, or 4K Blu-ray) is a digital optical disc data storage format that is an enhanced variant of Blu-ray. Ultra HD Blu-ray discs are incompatible with existing standard Blu-ray players, though a traditional Bl ...
is the latest version available, supporting
4K resolution content.
CBHD
China Blue High-definition Disc (CBHD) was introduced in September 2007. This format is based on
HD DVD
HD DVD (short for High Definition Digital Versatile Disc) is an obsolete high-density optical disc format for storing data and playback of high-definition video. Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the ...
. While the Blu-ray format is marketed internationally, CBHDs have sold significantly in the Chinese market.
See also
*
Comparison of video player software
*
DVD-VR The DVD-VR standard defines a logical format for video recording on DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM style media, including the dual layer versions of these media. As opposed to media recorded with the DVD+VR recording standard, the resulting media are ...
*
DVD+VR
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can ...
*
DVD authoring
DVD authoring is the process of creating a DVD video capable of playing on a DVD player. DVD authoring software must conform to the specifications set by the DVD Forum.
DVD authoring is the second step in the process of producing finished DVD ...
*
List of DVD authoring applications The following applications can be used to create playable DVDs.
Free software
Free software implementations often lack features such as encryption and region coding due to licensing restrictions issues, and depending on the demands of the DVD produ ...
*
Superbit
*
VR mode
References
External links
DVD-Video informationincluding virtual machine instruction set information.
{{Homevid, state=collapsed
Audiovisual introductions in 1996
Audio storage
Consumer electronics
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
Japanese inventions
Rotating disc computer storage media
Video storage