DVD Q & A
Don't know much about DVD in Australia and want to know a little bit more??? then
pleaseread on.
Below are some answers to a few questions you may have, if you have any more questions, e-mail us and we'll try our
best to answer them here for you.
What has
happened to date?
Okay, DVD here in 'Oz' has been underway now
since about October 97, well sort of. Here Roadshow Entertainment decided to get into the action a little
prematurely and begin to release DVD titles early. Although not a bad idea at the time it
may have damaged the effect of the overall success of DVD in Australia for the short term
and i'll tell you why.......
When 'Roadshow' decided to release titles
early in October they planned to release around a dozen or so mainstream movies by
Christmas 97. Unfortunately no other Movie Studio decided to join them, all of which opted
for the Official Release in April 98. When Roadshow's releases were scheduled to commence
there was already one small problem - No DVD Players ! Not much good releasing titles with
nothing to play them on so hardware manufacturers e.g. Samsung & Panasonic also
decided to release their DVD players early to coincide. No problem so far, except that the
companies thought that they could simply take the DCT master digital tape of the US
release of the movie and make a PAL DVD disk master here. Unfortunately Dolby made a
mistake when they designed the AC3 system. They forgot there are other TV systems in the
world differing from NTSC.
The pictures on a DVD are always at 24 frames
per second whether it's a PAL or a NTSC disk. (unless it was from a video source instead
of film) and the player speeds up the disk by 4% for PAL. In the Dolby system it makes the
decoder in the player synchronise the digital audio so it runs at the wrong speed if it's
played in a PAL player. In other words the sync is modified to allow for the extra 5
frames per second in NTSC. If you play the disk as PAL there are not only no extra frames
but the disk is running faster as well to make it even worse. This is what happened to the
first Roadshow release "Evita". The only way to correct the problem is to fix
the sync at the mastering stage, so a new digital master transfer has to be made at much
cost to the company. In other words instead of tacking us on to the master cost for the
USA they now have to make a new master.
This has caused much rethinking about release
schedules. It also affects Europe where if they wan't a foreign language AC3 track it
means another master. The problem dosn't happen with MPEG2 multichannel audio as the sync
problem dosn't exist.
Too late for poor old Samsung and Panasonic
who released the players with now no movies. Only a few stores put them out on display
such as Myer, David Jones, Harvey Norman and a few others and they were kind of hidden
down the back. The displays were pretty weak with them all only showing a Regionally
unencoded documentary on 'Africa' to the consumer public. Of course with no movies
available no one bought any players and so the initial consumer reaction to DVD in
Australia was far less than enthusiastic.
But since then the DVD momentum has gathered,
the interest in DVD here at the moment is showing definate signs of improving, we have
seen four titles now released from Columbia-Tristar with a further four each month. More
and more DVD player are getting released on the market so the signs are very promising
indeed.
What
movies are available at the moment?
As of August 1999, DVDs are being Distributed
in Australia by the following studios (click the link to goto the Studio Release Schedule)
Go To MichaelDVD for a
comprehensive List of DVDs released to date in OZ
What DVD
players are available at the moment?
Now 2 years down the track, there are quite a
few DVD players on the market. at the current rate manufacturers are releasing a new
model roughtly every 6 months, or earlier.
| MANUFACTURER |
PRICE ($AUD) |
| Akai |
Prices start from
around $450 (for the likes of the samsung) and go up to around $6500 (for the excellent
meridan)
The Average price seems to be around $900 RRP |
| Denon |
| Grundig |
| JVC |
| Kenwood |
| Meridian |
| Nakamichi |
| Panasonic |
| Philips |
| Pioneer |
| RCA |
| Samsung |
| Sanyo |
| Sony |
| Toshiba |
| |
Where can I buy DVD
Players and Movies's for Australia?
DVDs are now available from most major
retailers (Myer, David Jones, etc), as well as specialty Hi-Fi stores like Toombul Music
(in Brisbane), the best place to buy DVDs from is the On-line web stores, like The Video
Shift and EZY DVD.....they offer DVDs at a discount price and it works out cheaper overall
(please goto the LINKS page for on-line
DVD shops)
What Region is
Australia in and why?
Australia is currently in Region 4. The world
has been divided into 6 'Regions' by the creators of DVD for a variety of reasons but one
is the that is not to coincide with the 'Theatrical Release' in the same country. For e.g.
A DVD released for home sale in the USA is also released at the same time in the cinemas
in Australia. The studios don't want DVD owners in other parts of the world importing
movies for home viewing during this period as 'Theatrical' release schedules are different
from country to country. Only way around this it to import your DVD player from the same
'Region' as the movies.
What Will
the Audio Format be on PAL DVDs?
This was the reason for the initial delay
which frustrated 'Roadshow Entertainment' and put them behind the eight ball. The 'DVD
Forum' finally made up their minds and the vote was eight to two in favour of Dolby
Digital Encoding of audio. This means that the DVD specification for PAL
(Australian) DVDs say that discs "may" have a Dolby Digital Encoded soundtrack
to conform to the DVD standard, instead of MPEG2. This is great news for DVD in Australia.
Europe are not happy as they have been informed that they must have MPEG audio for the DVD
standard over there. Don't get me wrong I am not against MPEG2 audio , to be honest i've
never actually heard an MPEG 5.1 track but that fact of the matter is that at the moment
there is only a few commercially available decoders for MPEG2 available on the market
(some Panasonic DVD Players seem seem to include MPEG in their onboard Audio Decoders),
but you can easily obtain Dolby Digital just about anywhere. This is what has upset the
Europeans with the 'Official Release' as well scheduled for April 98.
Can my
Australian DVD player show USA DVD's?
The answer is yes and no. At the moment you can purchase 'modified' DVD players that will
be able to play DVD's from anywhere in the world in any format e.g. PAL or NTSC. But these
players have not been modified by the Manufacturer and you may put your warranty in
jeopardy. The majority of DVD's are regionally encoded, basically the DVD will check the
DVD player to see if it's the same region, the modification mentioned before disables the
region chip inside the player thus allowing it to play. I have heard however that some
Disney releases such as 'The Rock' will not play on these modified players due to a
conflict caused by the modification. The DVD players for sale in stores such as Myer etc
have not been modified and will ONLY play DVD's designed for Region 4 PAL. So you have a
number of options available to you:-
1. Import a player and ALL subsequent movies
from the Region of your choice e.g. USA Region 1.
2. Purchase a 'Modified' DVD player which must be NTSC/PAL compatible and
Region selectable.
3. Purchase a DVD locally and be happy with the Australian release schedule.
Will DVD
take off in Australia?
Now Nearing three years since DVD was
launched in OZ, the answer is a bg YES! It's doind incredibly well. So well in
fact that for the the Upcoming release of Gladiator Columbia are set to ship 100,000
copies on DVD in Australia alone!
1. The prices of Laserdiscs in Australia is currently way too high for the average
consumer. Expect to pay around $AUD80 per Laserdisc title compared to around $30-$35
2. Audio and Video quality is again superior to Laserdisc and the format is more
convienient (generally no side flipping, although there are some Warner titles released
here that are). VHS tape looks ghastly compared to DVD.
3. Features, DVD can hold Trailers, commentary, extra footage, pictures, interviews,
production notes etc etc. You Don't see that on VHS!!!!!!!.
4. Dolby Digital sound, as heard in movie cinemas across Australia in your own lounge
room. VHS tapes will only ever offer the outdated Dolby Surround audio.
DVD in the USA has taken off big time, Home
Theatre is becoming more and more popular as time goes by. Just pop down to your local
Hi-Fi shop and look at all the Home Theatre setups available on display with surround
sound speakers etc etc. and you'll see what I mean. In the end time will tell but the
future looks promising.
What kind of Home
Theatre setup do I need?
This obviously depends on your budget. Dolby
Prologic is fine to start off with and will not be replaced by Dolby Digital in Australia
for many years to come. Once more and more Australian DVD's with Digital audio tracks are
released the demand will increase. If you want to experience the ultimate audio however
then Dolby Digital is the way to go...and once you've heard it, you won't want to go
back!!!!
Here are a few Home Theatre setups to think
about:-
BEGINNER (from about $2000)
1. 59 - 68cm TV ($500+)
2. Hi - Fi VHS Recorder ($300+) or DVD Player ($450+)
3. Dolby Pro logic audio system. (and speakers) ($1200+)
INTERMEDIATE (starting from $4500)
1. 68cm-78cm TV ($700+)
2. DVD player ($700+) & Hi Fi VHS recorder ($500+)
3. Subwoofer ($1000+)
4. ProLogic or Digital audio (and speakers) ($2000+)
ADVANCED (waaaaaaaaay past $5000)
1. 78cm plus TV ($1500+) (Widescreen)
($2500) / Rear Projection TV ($4000) or Video Projector.($8000+)
2. DVD Player ($1000+) & Hi Fi VHS recorder ($500+)
3. Subwoofer ($1500+)
4. Dolby Digital Audio (as well as DTS) ($1500+)
5. Speakers ($3000+)
(Cinema Chairs, a Lexicon Remote Control and motorised Curtains for your Big
screen are a big plus :-)
Glossary of
Terms
Anamorphic Widescreen (The movie's
image has been squeezed in horizontally so as the entire image fits into a 4:3
image) This way a widescreen TV can unsqueeze the image to a screen of
1:78.1 (without loosing its horizontal resolution). Alteratively, by setting
the TV format to be 4:3 Letterboxed on your DVD player, your TV will recieve a
letterboxed image (see LBX above), Or if your 4:3 TV is capable of 16:9 switching you set
the TV format to 16:9 this way the images resolution is fully maintained...see our Letterbox -vs pan & scan article for more info
DVD (Digital Versitle Disc)
DD (Dolby Digital) (One to Six
Channels of Digital Surround Sound)
Dolby Prologic (Four channel Surround
sound encoded into 2 channels. Rear speakers are Mono only)
DTS (Digital Theatre
Systems)
Subwoofer (Speaker that can produce
very low bass. Essential for most modern day movies).
MPEG audio (2 channel sound)
MPEG2 audio (an extention on
MPEG audio that is Multi-channel surround sound)
LBX (Letterbox) (Image is shown in
it's true format as the Director intended and was filmed. Image is shrunk slightly to fit
entire picture onto screen, leaving black bars at the top and bottom of your TV to give
appropriate image format)
P&S (Pan & Scan) (Image has
been cropped by as much as up to 40% in order to fill the screen. Most VHS tapes for sale
and rental are all Pan & Scan)
16:9 Enhanced see Anamorphic
Widescreen
DIVX Let's not get into
THIS topic unless you want to piss me off.....besides..DIVX is now DEAD!!!!!!!!
Disclaimer: All of the above statements are my
formed by DVDown Under's 'OPINION' . They are designed for information only and do not
represent any statements from any other person or company. Please seek further advice
before acting on any decisions made based on any of the above information. If any of the
above statements made by myself are incorrect or misleading please let me know and I will
takes steps to rectify them. Thank You. Original Author of the document was Paul
James....content has been added to changed with new information received. |
