Film buffs take note: DVD, a relatively new competitor to video recorders, offers cinema-quality sound and high-resolution video, plus on-disc extras like the director's cut of movies, foreign-language dubbing and subtitles, and interactivity.
DVD players hit the US market earlier this year from major electronics manufacturers, including Philips, Sony, Pioneer, Toshiba and Zenith.
Consumers who can afford the hottest equipment for their home theatre might pay as much as £3,800 for a DVD player. But most of the machines range from £350 to £550.
More than 300 movies both Hollywood blockbusters and classics are available on DVD discs, which look like CDs. Shoppers in the US can buy DVD titles for about $20 each in ordinary electronics stores, or rent them for roughly the same price as video titles from video shops. About a dozen new films a week come out on DVD.
They have not reached Irish shops yet, though they are available through mail order catalogues in Britain. DVD is essentially a bigger, faster CD (DVD reads about 30 times faster than an audio CD) that can hold video as well as audio and computer data. Many proponents of the innovation predict that DVD will replace expensive laser discs and possibly the ubiquitous video recorder. This is because DVD offers more features for watching movies. The discs hold up to eight hours of digital video. often including extra material such as the director's cut, unreleased endings of the movie, options for multiple camera angles and subtitles and dubbing in multiple languages.
In addition, DVD discs do not wear out unlike analog videotapes. The DVD players have special features. Many offer Dolby surround sound (which gives the effect of an expensive hi-fi system with speakers in front of and behind you as you watch a film) and come with a microphone so consumers can turn them into karaoke machines.
DVD players can also play standard audio CDs. Some of the more expensive ones are hybrids that play both DVD and laser discs. You can't cannot use your DVD player to record, although new players due next year will have that ability.
