DVD Conference Europe '97.......................
Four hundred delegates and speakers descended on Berlin's Estrel Hotel last week for the second annual DVD Forum conference, organised by Understanding & Solutions. All presented an outwardly united and determinedly optimistic front: DVD is on the brink of launch in Europe and the Forum claimed 100 titles would be ready by the deadline of Q1 1998, with an estimated 250 on release by the end of the year. But this optimism masked undercurrents of disunity: key members - notably Sony, Yamaha and Ricoh - did not even turn up for the event, leaving Philips isolated in opposition to the Forum's DVD-RAM standard and backtracking on MPEG-2 multichannel audio (see lead story).
Recordable DVD wars
The Forum also brushed aside the rift over recordable DVD standards. The Philips/Sony/HP breakaway standard, DVD-RW, was absent from all published literature; it was referred to as phase change rewritable (PC-RW) and labelled as a sideroad on the DVD migration path from DVD-Video to DVD-RAM.
This can't have pleased Philips but it affected not to notice. "Many people have been talking about format wars," said Marino Karasso, md of Philips Research in the UK. "This is not the case." He pointed out that consumer wars were a long way off in any case. To compete with VHS, he reasoned, recordable DVDs would need to have a capacity of 10-15 Gb. He reckoned that an attractively priced solution "can not be expected before the year 2000." In the labs, Nimbus has developed DVD test masters that would allow greater than 50Gb per side. "The next generation has to be good enough to make that leap," said Nimbus's Adrian Farmer. "It's probably not good enough to go to just 15Gb."
For all this talk, proponents of the 'orthodox' recordable standard, DVD-RAM, along with its forebear, the (currently) 3.9Gb DVD-R, were winning the PR war. Koji Hase of Toshiba led a session in which both technologies were demonstrated, highlighting the interchangeability of the media and aimed at the PC, rather than the consumer, market. They weren't terribly exciting, but they worked. It certainly seems as though the problems that dogged CD-R in its early days have been circumvented. As far as DVD-RAM is concerned, the backers are waiting for 4.7Gb technology before they launch consumer products - claimed to be about a year away. It has to be said, with working DVD-RAM products on show now, the argument for DVD-RW is losing credibility.
Adding value
Encoders stressed the need to highlight DVD's inherent advantages over other competing technologies such as pay-TV in order to win hearts and minds. Developers must take advantage of DVD's features, such as multiple camera angles, subtitles, subpictures, languages and audio channels. Harvey Mabry of Panasonic in the US went as far as to say that it was a 'social responsibility.' Sarah Bradley, DVD studio manager for EMI's Abbey Road Interactive, said that the nascent industry had a great opportunity, but that "we will squander it if we bring out low-end discs." She said one way to ensure high-quality was to raise the bar by cooperating with other DVD studios. She recommended 'intelligent preprocessing' of content ('cleaning up' original material) and using surround sound whenever possible, remastering the audio if necessary.
Bob Auger of Electric Switch agreed. He pointed out that in Europe, subtitles are part of the normal viewing experience due to the diversity of languages. This made DVD an ideal technology, with its ability to add several different subtitle tracks. Auger also noted that DVD presented a great opportunity for the deaf and hearing-impaired - estimated at 17 per cent of the UK population - for the same reason. One company, subtitle expert Visiontext, was actually exhibiting at the conference on this premise (tel: +44 171 925 2300). Auger added that PAL TV in Europe was of higher quality than NTSC, and this must be borne in mind. "European viewers will expect DVD to look better than broadcast TV," he said. Auger bucked the conventional wisdom when he pointed out that the competition from digital video broadcasting (DVB) would raise the quality threshold for TV viewers. DVD would have competition, but together, both technologies would grow the market and assist DVD in its penetration of the VHS market.
However, one anonymous delegate expressed bewilderment that the same old 'quality' arguments were being aired all over again, just as they were with CD-ROM and CD-i. "They should have learned by now," he told IM. "Otherwise the first-generation DVDs will be just like old CD-ROMs. The end user's going to go 'here we go again'."
We congratulate Understanding & Solutions on managing to attract over 400 delegates to Berlin. Next on the DVD calendar comes our DVD Summit on the strategic issues for the PAL countries, starting on 13 November at the Trianon Palace, Versailles. It carries a higher price tag as it is not subsidised by the Forum, but it promises to provide lively, independent debate from a galaxy of speakers. The focus will be on publishing and development, rather than the technical nitty-gritty. Contact: Gian Walker on +44 1438 742424; email gwalker@phillipstld.co.uk; or visit phillips.com for more details. |
