Chapter 1

2 Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About DVD
What Does DVD Stand For?
All of the following phrases have been proposed as the meaning behind
DVD:
• Delayed, very delayed (referring to the many late releases of DVD
formats)
• Diversified, very diversified (referring to the proliferation of recordable
formats and other spin-offs)
• Digital venereal disease (referring to the piracy and copying of DVDs)
• Dead, very dead (from naysayers who predicted DVD would never
take off)
• Digital video disc (the original meaning proposed by some of the
creators)
• Digital versatile disc (a meaning later proposed by some creators)
• Nothing
And the official answer is? “Nothing.” The original meaning was digital
video disc. Some members of the DVD Forum have pointed out that DVD
goes far beyond video and have offered the painfully contorted phrase digital
versatile disc as a solution, but this has never been officially accepted by
the DVD Forum. (See “Who Invented DVD, Who Owns It, and Whom Should
Be Contacted for Specifications and Licensing?” in Chapter 6, “Miscellaneous.”)
The DVD Forum decreed in 1999 that DVD, as an international
standard, is simply three letters. After all, how many people ask what VHS
stands for? (Guess what? No one agrees on that one either.)
What Are the Features of DVD-Video?
The most important features of DVD are as follows:
• Over 2 hours of high-quality digital video (A double-sided, dual-layer
disc can hold about 8 hours of high-quality video, or 30 hours of VHSquality
video.)
• Support for widescreen movies on standard or widescreen TVs (4:3
and 16:9 aspect ratios)
• Up to eight tracks of digital audio (for multiple languages, commentaries,
and so on) that each have as many as eight channels