DVD Demystified

The World Before DVD
The Second Year
69
1998 began with many predictions that it would be “the year of DVD.” These
predictions were about a year early, even though things began to look up for
the fledgling format. The DVD specification was treated to a minor freshening:
version 1.01 of DVD-ROM and version 1.1 of DVD-Video. A draft version
of DVD-Audio was announced. The first dual-layer discs, DVD-9s,
began to be produced, even though yields—the number of usable discs in a
replication batch—were only at 30 percent. Warner Home Video noted that
it made over $50 million in revenue from DVD sales. E4 finally shipped the
first DVD upgrade kit for Macintosh computers. Panasonic announced the
DVD-L10, the first portable player, which was a big hit with travelers and
those doing DVD presentations. Pioneer announced that its LD-V7200
industrial player would be available in the spring. With features such as
barcode control, external control, mouse and keyboard input, video blackboard,
genlock, and high reliability, the player met the needs of specialized
applications such as museum installations, video walls, training centers,
and kiosks. Sonic Solutions announced DVDit 22 , a simple, low-cost production
tool to convert PowerPoint presentations, HyperCard stacks, and Premiere
projects into DVD-Video titles. Initial excitement faded as the
product underwent numerous metamorphoses and rebirths before materializing
over two years later.
Announcements of DVD titles steadily rolled in, many from smaller studios.
A few of the major Hollywood studios had yet to take off their hat, let
alone throw it in the ring, although Fox tipped its bowler slightly and
announced it would release Divx discs.
Since DVD still had not been officially launched outside of Japan and the
U.S., a market for imported discs began to grow in other countries, fed by
fans who bought region 1 players from the U.S. In February, the UK Federation
Against Copyright Theft (FACT), raided a High Street record outlet
and seized imported region 1 discs. A pair of British entrepreneurs tried to
get around restrictions by setting up a region 1 DVD import business in
France, but they were sentenced and fined. However, since many European
countries had weak or no restrictions on imported movies, and since most
countries, even the UK, allow individuals to legally purchase titles from
22 Sonic puts an exclamation mark after the name of the product. Such abuses of punctuation by
out-of-control marketing departments must be rigorously opposed whenever possible.