DVD players have been on sale in the USA and Japan since 1996 and are starting to appear in the UK this year. Looking the same as the CD, the DVD works in a similar way in using a laser beam to read information embedded on the disks surface. This will allow the DVD to play present CD disks.

The main attraction of DVD, however, is its huge storage potential, a single sided disk being able to store at least seven times the data of a normal CD, or more than four gigabytes of data. This is equivalent to two hours of broadcast-quality video.

The DVD has two layers on any one side, the top layer being transparent. The laser can be focused to read either the top or, by passing through the first, the second layer. As data can be stored on both sides of the disk, this means that a DVD, using both sided, can store up to 17 gigabytes of data.This being equivalent to about eight hours of video.

DVD disks, because of their large potential storage capacity, would allow video material to be released without scene editing. This means that it would be left to the viewer to decide on a particular camera angle to watch. It would allow, for example, detailed analysis of a scene, such as a sporting event, from the front, back, or various other angles.
There is also room for high-quality Dolby soundtracks, in addition to the compressed MPEG soundtrack, giving audio buffs the best possible sound quality.

Each scene in a film, stored on DVD, has its own classification, allowing the DVD player to be programmed to not showing particular scenes or even complete films. This will allow parents to edit out adult rated scenes, or films, that they do not want their children to watch. The facility can also be pass-worded to prevent reprogramming, by the kids, without parental permission.

Video, along with audio soundtrack, is stored on the disk using a compression technique called MPEG( Motion Picture Experts Group, a compression standard that compresses all redundant data between frames) which yields compression ratios from 20:1 to 150:1, and will be familiar to internet users.

The first players, which also play audio CD's have now started to appear and are selling for about £400 without the ability to record.
The DVD for fitting to a computer is available, inclusive of MPEG 2 video card, for £200. The player will also allow the playing of normal CD-ROM and audio discs.
Recordable players, only for use with DVD-Rom's that store computer data, have also started to appear. Recordable video players for the consumer market should start appearing by the late summer of 1998.
The worries by the classification bodies, on how to cope with medium that can carry multiple versions of the same film, has also been settled.
The DVD also carries a regional code that prevents people from buying titles from other parts of the world.