Chapter 1

DVD’s Relationship to Other Products and Technologies 69
dent Kaneo Ito said the company expected laserdisc products to be in the
market for another one-and-a-half to two years).
Laserdiscs fill niches in education and training, but they are fading even
there. Existing players and discs will be around for a while, though almost
no new discs are being produced. Once over 9,000 laserdisc titles were in
the U.S. market and a total of over 35,000 titles worldwide could be played
on over 7 million laserdisc players. It took DVDs several years to reach this
level, and certain rare titles are available on laserdisc but not on DVD. One
bright point is that laserdiscs can now be had at bargain prices.
How Do DVDs Compare to Laserdiscs?
To answer this question, let’s examine some different criteria:
• Features DVDs have the same basic features as CLV laserdiscs
(scan, pause, and search) and CAV LD (freeze and slow), and they add
branching, multiple camera angles, parental control, video menus, and
interactivity, although some of these features are not available on all
discs.
• Capacity Single-layer DVDs hold over two hours; dual-layer DVDs
holds over four hours. CLV laserdiscs hold one hour per side, CAV
laserdiscs hold half an hour, along with 104,000 still images. A DVD
can hold thousands of still pictures, accompanied by hundreds of
hours of audio and text.
• Convenience An entire movie fits on one side of a DVD, so you don’t
have to flip the disc or wait for the player to do it. DVDs are smaller and
easier to handle, and DVD players can be portable, similar to CD players.
Discs can be easily and cheaply sent through the mail. On the
other hand, laserdiscs have larger covers for better art and text.
• Noise Most laserdisc players make a whirring noise that can be
heard during quiet segments of a movie. Most DVD players are as
quiet as CD players.
• Audio Laserdiscs can have better quality with Dolby Surround
soundtracks in an uncompressed PCM format. DVDs have better
quality of Dolby Digital or music only (PCM). Laserdiscs have two
audio tracks, analog and digital, whereas DVDs have up to eight audio
tracks. Laserdiscs use PCM audio sampled with 16 bits at 44.1 kHz.
DVD LPCM audio can use 16-, 20-, or 24-bit samples at 48 or 96 kHz
(although PCM is not used with most movies). Laserdiscs have surround
audio in Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital (AC-3), and Digital Theater
Systems (DTS) formats; 5.1-channel surround sound is available