DVDs

An optical disc storage format primarily used by consumers to watch films and television programs

DVDs arrived in the mid-1990s and soon overtook the supremacy of videocassettes for home viewing.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Video Home System (VHS) videocassette recorder (VCR) revolutionized home entertainment by allowing viewers to videotape television programs and watch them at their leisure and to rent or buy films on videotape. This viewing flexibility was undercut for some because the picture and sound quality of videocassettes was generally inferior to what could be seen and heard on television and especially in movie theaters. Then, digital video discs (DVDs) were developed to offer viewers considerably improved picture and sound.

Format Development

Two years after its introduction in 1976, VHS had a challenger in the laser disc, which offered much sharper images, offering 425 lines of horizontal resolution in contrast to VHS’s 240. With Criterion’s special edition release of Citizen Kane (1941) in 1985, which provided supplemental material about the film (generally referred to as bonus materials, or extras), another advantage was introduced. Laser discs never caught on with the public, however, because of their cumbersome size (comparable to long-playing records), their susceptibility to damage, their high cost, and their inability to record television programs. Three million laser disc players had been sold in the United States by 1997.

Consumers waited patiently while a cheaper, more adaptable technology was developed. By 1993, Philips and Sony had developed the smaller MultiMedia Compact Disc, while Toshiba had created its Super Density Disc. Philips and Sony, wanting to avoid a format war, eventually decided to proceed with the specifications of the Toshiba disc, and the DVD was born. Though the industry initially insisted that “DVD” stood for “digital versatile disc,” most consumers assumed it meant “digital video disc,” and the nomenclature was changed.

DVDs and DVD players entered the US market in late 1997. At first, only recent popular films were offered, with older and more esoteric films becoming available late in the 1990s. Some consumers were hesitant at first because the first DVDs were not recordable, but those who had been reluctant to buy laser discs quickly embraced the cheaper, smaller (the same size as audio compact discs), and easier-to-store discs. These buyers found that the picture, with the same resolution as laser discs, was vastly superior to that of videocassettes, and when connected to the proper equipment (receiver, speakers), multichannel audio was possible. As a result, Pioneer, the main champion of laser discs, abandoned this format in June, 1999.

Quick Success

Though DVDs were initially slow to catch on with the general public, matters soon changed as more and more consumers heard about the improved audiovisual quality and saw it demonstrated in electronics stores. The entertainment industry had assumed that DVDs would slowly supplement or perhaps even replace VHS, but experts underestimated the public by assuming that consumers would continue to rent much more than they purchased. Though some had developed VHS collections of their favorite films, the bulky tapes took up considerable room. DVDs occupied much less space, were at first only slightly costlier than VHS cassettes, and were generally more durable (though prone to scratching), inviting multiple viewings. They also did not require rewinding as VHS tapes did.

Contributing to this early success was the inclusion of extras. Following the lead of laser discs, the makers of DVDs offered commentaries by filmmakers and film scholars. Viewers could watch films either with or without commentaries, which explained the production details of the films and, with older films, placed them in a historical context. Consumers wanted more and more extras, and soon many films included things like on-set interviews, documentaries about the making of the films, deleted scenes, and more.

DVDs also offered viewers the option, for many films made since the mid-1950s, of watching them in a full-screen format—which filled every inch of screen space but cut off the corners of the images—or in the film’s original wide-screen format, meaning that the tops, bottoms, and sides of images were no longer excised. This pleased many cinephiles who had lamented the formatting changes to classic films upon VHS release. As television screens became larger, the wide-screen format option became more important.

In 1998, two million DVD players were sold in the United States, three thousand titles were available, and 9.3 million DVDs were sold. In 1999, four million players were sold, 6,300 titles were available, and twenty million DVDs were sold. DVDs and DVD players had an advantage that VHS and VCRs did not: the Internet. By the late 1990s, consumers had discovered the ease of purchasing online, finding that players and DVDs could be found at lower prices than in stores. By the end of 1999, four titles had sold over a million copies each: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), The Matrix (1999), Saving Private Ryan (1998), and Titanic (1997).

Internet commerce and DVDs have been linked since the introduction of the format. While videocassettes had been rented from stores such as the Blockbuster chain, DVDs could be rented online from Netflix starting in April, 1998. When the company introduced a flat monthly fee for unlimited rentals of DVDs delivered quickly by mail in September, 1999, online renting of DVDs took off.

Impact

Because DVDs were introduced relatively late in the 1990s, their full impact did not become clear until the early twenty-first century. Once the initial consumer excitement over improved picture, sound, and storage subsided, more and more titles were demanded, especially classic and obscure films, along with increased extras. Many enthusiastic DVD collectors built libraries of hundreds and thousands of titles. DVD producers were pleasantly shocked by the number of people wanting to own complete seasons of their favorite television shows. What began as an alternative to VHS eventually changed America’s viewing habits as much as the earlier innovation had. As a result, VHS itself slowly faded, with the last mass-market VHS title issued in 2006.

However, DVDs themselves soon faced challenges from newer technologies. Blu-Ray Discs, which use blue lasers in stead of the red lasers of DVDs, were officially introduced in 2006 and allow much higher resolution images and a greater amount of data. Cooperation from companies such as Sony and Philips again led to a standardization of formats, beating out Toshiba's HD DVD competitor. Ultra-high definition Blu-Ray technology later followed. These discs and players competed directly with DVDs, and retailers promoted special Blu-Ray releases of films with new special features in order to attract consumers who may already have purchased the DVD version. Though Blu-Ray technology was initially expensive compared to DVDs, and therefore less popular, it eventually ate into the market share of DVDs. Perhaps even more importantly, the 2010s also saw consumers increasingly turn to online streaming services for video content. Netflix pivoted from its DVD-mailing business to focus on streaming films and television shows, for example, and sales of DVDs declined.

Bibliography

Barlow, Aaron. The DVD Revolution: Movies, Culture, and Technology. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2005.

Bennett, James, and Tom Brown, eds. Film and Television After DVD. New York: Routledge, 2008.

Fitzpatrick, Eileen. “DVD POV: Perspective on a Deep-Pocketed Market.” Billboard 112 (May 27, 2000): 129.

Pahwa, Ashok. Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) Technology. Wiley, 2011.

Taylor, Jim. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About DVD: The Official DVD FAQ. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004.