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"Are we getting Conned?"

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Sat 03/03/01 at 20:13
Regular
Posts: 787
Although DVD is most excellent there is a few things that bother me about the format. Firstly when i first heard of DVD there was the saying of "Entire series on 1 DVD", but the majority of TV series that have been put on DVD are 2,3 or more DVD`s and i`m just wondering if this is right?
As a complete Tech dumby in this area i know nothing of what the actual space there is on a DVD wether it be a Standard one or a dual play one.
Can a actual series (about 12 half hour episodes say) be put on a dual play DVD?
What is the running time of a dual play DVD.....how many hours can be put on it?.
I just get that old feeling that companies out there are putting `some` series on more DVD`s to make more money, granted they could put lots of `extra`s` on.
Don`t get me wrong i love DVD`s and DVD`s that are more than one disc, my Favourite at the moment is Gladiator, which was worth every penny of the 20 quid i bought it for, a excellent film and extras that are actual useful, enjoyable and interesting, and make the whole package complete.
I`m looking forward to the day when the Star Trek serie`s (the original, TNG, Voyager and DS9) are put on DVD, but will the average joe public be conned by lots of DVD`s when the episodes could be packed up on a lesser amount.
Techy people please enlighten me:)

Tue 06/03/01 at 16:07
Regular
"Looking for freedom"
Posts: 622
All of these
> extras add up to a lot of space on a DVD. You can add two more
> languages and lose a lot of space to put the main feature on, it's
> scary how quickly this all adds up.

The menu animations and graphics also take a chunk of space. Subtitles don't have a big impact but multiple languages do. After all the video is actually 2 seperate streams - one for video and one for (each) audio. But do we really need more than one spoken language? Surely if a film was dubbed for it's international release the DVD could be pressed with the appropriate soundtrack and save space for other things?

BTW: Congrats to Smokedkipper for his filmaday win on this
> topic!

Ta muchly! I only found out through reading this reply. I never thought one of my (seemingly endless) Region 1 promotions would be allowed as a winner, but the bit about the BBC is all too common and needed saying.
Tue 06/03/01 at 14:33
Moderator
"possibly impossible"
Posts: 24,985
But then Entarta didn't have to have subtitles or different languages either. Or trailers, or special features.

All of these extras add up to a lot of space on a DVD. You can add two more languages and lose a lot of space to put the main feature on, it's scary how quickly this all adds up.

Film companies have to keep their costs as low as possible because the competition for DVDs is vast. They are all trying to bring out the best package with the best contents to beat the opposition, so it's unlikely that they will split a series onto more than one disc unless they have to.

BTW: Congrats to Smokedkipper for his filmaday win on this topic!
Tue 06/03/01 at 09:36
Regular
"Looking for freedom"
Posts: 622
Armatige Shanks wrote:
> SmokedKipper wrote:
Why don't longer films come on two discs
> then?

From Encarta :
it is possible to put a recording of a
> two-hour film on one disc, and a four-hour film on a double-layer
> disc,

So in a scarey, strange and somewhat unsettling way, we
> were both right :)

I can explain this. We are both right, it's just we are answering a different question. The Encarta article will be using pure, uncompressed video as an example whereas DVDs use MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) layer 2 data compression, thus allowing more video (of seemingly the same quality) in the same amount of space.
Mon 05/03/01 at 21:00
Regular
"Eric The Half A Bee"
Posts: 5,347
SmokedKipper wrote:
Why don't longer films come on two discs then?

From Encarta :
it is possible to put a recording of a two-hour film on one disc, and a four-hour film on a double-layer disc,

So in a scarey, strange and somewhat unsettling way, we were both right :)
Mon 05/03/01 at 20:59
Regular
"Eric The Half A Bee"
Posts: 5,347
SmokedKipper wrote:
Why don't longer films come on two discs then?

I dunno... magic? High hopes? Luck? :)
Mon 05/03/01 at 20:54
Posts: 0
I think the problem also is that companies who make and distribute the DVD`s know that fans will buy it, even if they are being ripped off and buying DVD`s that are not full and could have had more episodes, stick a few extra`s like unseen footage and us fans will buy it, i`d be daft enough to buy say a series of any of the Star Trek with a unseen episode, because i`m a fan of that genre, but then again thanks to SmokedKipper i know what the capacity of a DVD is and what can be stored on them, so i will be more weary of future purchases.
Here`s looking forward to the DVD Blackadder Box Set!
And the Star Treks series.......whenever they decide to grace the DVD format.
Mon 05/03/01 at 20:37
Posts: 0
The capacity of DVDs isn't really the point is it? Three hour videos have been around for years but TV series videos were always stuck on 1 to 1 and a half hour vids so the series coud be stretched onto a few more tapes.
Mon 05/03/01 at 18:47
Regular
"Looking for freedom"
Posts: 622
Armatige Shanks wrote:
> I've always been under the impression that 1.5 - 2 hrs worth of
> Video footage can be stored on a DVD?

Why don't longer films come on two discs then?
Sun 04/03/01 at 23:40
Regular
"Eric The Half A Bee"
Posts: 5,347
I've always been under the impression that 1.5 - 2 hrs worth of Video footage can be stored on a DVD?
Sun 04/03/01 at 20:06
Regular
"Looking for freedom"
Posts: 622
The thing is, an entire 6-8 part TV series could easily fit on a DVD with loads of extras and, due to the lesser quality of the original recording, compressing it less would not make it any better in the end, so why waste the space?

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