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DVD DRIVES
A new generation of high-density optical storage, called DVD, is now appearing for
the desktop PC the abbreviation DVD stands for several different things. In the early
phase of DVD development, it stood for Digital Video Disc. Later on, it stood for
Digital Versatile Disc (because it could hold programs and data, as well as video and
sound). But regardless of what you call it, DVD technology promises to supply up to
17GB of removable storage on your desktop PC. This section explores the
background and workings of a DVD package, shows you the steps for DVD
installation, and offers some basic troubleshooting that can keep you out of trouble.

A CD-like disk

The DVD is a flat disk of the same size as a CD. It holds a diameter of 4.7 inches (12
cm) and is .05 inches (1.2 mm) thick. Data are stored in a small indentation in a spiral
track, just like in the CD; only the tracks are narrower. A laser beam of shorter
wavelength than used by the CD-ROM drives reads DVD disks. This allows for
smaller indentations and increased storage capacity. The data layer is only half as
thick as in the CD-ROM. This opens the possibility to write data in two layers. The
outer gold layer is semi transparent, to allow reading of the underlying silver layer.
The laser beam is set to two different intensities, strongest for reading the underlying
silver layer. Here you see a common type DVD ROM drive. The DVD drives come in
EIDE and SCSI editions and in 5X, etc. versions, like do the CD-ROMs.
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Specifications and Standards

The next step in exploring DVD is to understand the various specifications “on the
box,” and becoming familiar with the specifications that make DVD work and what a
DVD will support. You don’t need a lot of technical details, but you should recognize
the most important points that you’ll probably run across while reading
documentation.

ACCESS TIME

The access time is the time required for the drive to locate the required information on
a disc. Optical drives such as CD and DVD drives are relatively slow, and can
demand up to several hundred milliseconds to access information. For a DVD drive
such as the Creative Labs (Matsushita) DVD drive, DVD access time is 470 ms
(almost half a second), but access time for an ordinary CD is 180 ms. The reason that
DVDs require so much more time is because of the greater density of data. However,
not all drives are as slow. The Toshiba DVD drive bundled with Diamond Multimedia
Maximum DVD Kit quotes a DVD access time of only 200 ms (130 ms for CDs).

DATA-TRANSFER RATES

Once data has been accessed, it must be transferred off of the disc to the system. The
data-transfer rate measures how fast data can be read from the disc. The two typical
means of measuring the data rate are the speed at which data is read into the drive’s
on-board buffer (the “sequential” data-transfer rate), and the speed at which data is
transferred across the interface to the drive controller (the “buffered” data-transfer
rate). The Creative Labs (Matsushita) DVD drive offers a sequential data-transfer rate
of 1.35MB/s, and 900KB/s.

VARIOUS DVD TYPES

DVD-ROM

This is the simplest format made for data read-only. It is like a beefed-up CD-ROM.
This medium is usable for distribution of software and other data for PC use. The
outer layers can hold 4.7 GB, the underlying 3.8 GB. The largest version can hold a
total of 17 GB. A single layer DVD-5 disk holds 4.7 GB. A dual-layered DVD-9 disk
holds 8.5 GB. The dual-sided DVDs are named DVD-10 (9.4 GB) and DVD-18 (17
GB).
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DVD Video disk

This the most important standard. it is a highly sophisticated and very complex format
mixing video, sound and data in a very special format. DVD-R The Recordable DVD
are written once only like CD-R. This disk can hold 3.95 GB per side.

DVD RAM/RW

There a at least three different and in-compatible formats of re-writable DVD. The
disk can be written and read like a hard disk or perhaps more like a CD-RW.

BOOKS AND STANDARDS

CD technology is defined by a set of accepted standards that have become known as

books. Because each CD “book” was bound in a different color jacket, each standard
is dubbed by color. For example, the standard that defines CD audio is called Red
Book. Similarly, DVD technology is defined by a set of “books.” Five books (labeled
A through E) relate to different applications:

Book A defines the format and approach used for DVD-ROM (programs and
data)

Book B defines DVD-Video

Book C defines DVD-Audio (this specification is still under development)

Book D defines DVD-WO (write once)

Book E defines DVD-E (erasable or re-writable) and DVD-RAM

DATA FORMATS

All DVD discs must use a data format that describes how data is laid out. Data
formats are critical because they outline data structures on the disc such as volumes,
files, blocks, sectors, CRCs, paths, records, file allocation tables, partitions, character
sets, time stamps, as well as methods for reading and writing. The format use by
books A, B, and C is called the UDF bridge. The UDF bridge is a combination of the
UDF (Universal Disk Format created by OSTA, the Optical Storage Technology
Association) and the established ISO-9660 format used for CDs. You might see the
UDF referred to as standard ISO/IEC 13346. The UDF is a very flexible format that
has been adapted to DVD, and made backward compatible to existing ISO-9660
operating system software (such as Windows 95). Actual utilization of this disk
system on DVD discs will depend in large part on what Microsoft dictates as the
future operating system standard. Stand-alone DVD movie players are supposed to
use UDF, but computer applications will use the UDF bridge until UDF support
becomes universal (possibly as early as Windows 98).
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AUDIO AND VIDEO STANDARDS

Even with the huge data capacities offered by DVD, an entire movie’s worth of real-
time audio and video would never fit on a DVD without some form of compression.
Both audio and video must be extensively compressed, and MPEG (Motion Pictures
Experts Group) compression has been the scheme of choice. Video compression uses
fixed data rate MPEG-1 (ISO/IEC 1117-2) at 30 frames per second with resolutions of
352x240, or variable data rate MPEG-2 (ISO/IEC 13818-2) at 60 frames per second
with resolutions of 720x480. Audio compression uses MPEG-1 (ISO/IEC 1117-3)
stereo, MPEG-2 (ISO/IEC 13818-3) 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound, or Dolby AC-3 5.1
surround and stereo. MPEG-2 and AC-3 audio compression allow 48 thousand
samples per second, where MPEG-1 al-.lows only 44.1 thousand samples per second.
MPEG-2 compression is typically regarded as the preferred scheme for DVD.

CD COMPATIBILITY

One of the most important aspects of any technology is “backward compatibility”—

how well will the new device support your existing media. The same issue is true for
DVD drives. Because DVD technology is designed as an improvement over existing
CD-ROMs, the DVD was designed to replace the CD-ROM, rather than co-exist with
it. Ideally, you’d remove your CD-ROM and replace it with a DVD-ROM drive. This
means that the DVD must be compatible with as many existing CD-ROM standards
as possible. A typical DVD-ROM drive will support CD audio, CD-ROM, CD-I, CD
Extra, CD-ROM/XA, and Video CD formats. Multi-session formats, such as Photo
CD, are not yet supported on all DVD drives. At this point, you can talk about what
you need to configure DVD on your desktop, and how each part works. To get a DVD
setup running on your computer, you need three things: DVD media, a DVD drive,
and an MPEG-2 expansion board. One format that is not supported by any DVD drive
yet is the CD-R (recordable CD) format. The laser used in a DVD cannot read the
CD-R; in some cases, it could even dam-age the CD-R disc. However, new CD-R
blanks are being developed, which should overcome this problem.

DVD Media
At its core, DVD technology is identical to classic CD-ROMs—data is recorded in a
spiral pattern as a series of pits and lands pressed into a plastic substrate. The actual
size and dimensions of a DVD are identical to our current compact discs. However,
some key differences give DVD its advantages. First, data is highly concentrated on
the disc where classic CDs use spiral tracks that are 1.6 mm apart, DVD tracks are
only 0.74 mm apart. A typical pit on a classic CD is 0.83 mm, but DVD pits are just
0.4 mm. In short, the data on a DVD is much denser than on a regular CD . To detect
these smaller geometries, the laser used in a DVD operates at a much shorter wave-
length (a short-wavelength red laser). Second, DVD can use multiple “layers” of pits
and lands (each in their own reflective layer), so one physical disk can hold several
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layers worth of data. The DVD drive’s laser focus control can select which layer to
read. Finally, a regular CD only uses one side of the disc, but both sides of the DVD
can be used. Combined with this multi-layer technique, the DVD can supply up to
four “layers” of data to a DVD drive In actuality, DVD-ROM discs will likely only
use one side of the disc—at least for a while. What all this means is that a DVD disc
can offer up to 8.5GB of storage for a single-sided double-layer disc, or up to 17GB
of storage for a double-sided double-layer disc.
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The DVD Video Disk

The DVD videodisk is the most well known DVD format. It is a 4.7 GB disk, which
can hold up to135 minute’s top quality video with 8 digital soundtracks (AC3, Digital
Dolby) and sub-titles in 32 languages. Plus special features like interviews and
trailers, alternate versions. Playing of movies (with a new MPEG-2 compression)
requires a transmission rate of about 600 KB per second. That corresponds to the 4X
CD-ROM drives. The Dolby AC-3 is a sound system with five full range speakers to
surround you with sound, plus a supplementary low frequency special effect channel.
To get the full use of the movie sound tracks, you need a AC-3 compatible stereo set
up. The DVD videodisk is protected against illegal copying.

MPEG-2 DECODING
The video format on DVD disks is in MPEG-2 coding. That is a
compression technology, which requires lots of processor power. When you
buy or rent a DVD videodisk, the digital video stream of the movie has been
heavily compressed. Hence, the data stream from the disk has to be decoded
when you watch the film. This has to be done in real-time during the replay
(real time decoding).

Soft or hard decoding?

MPEG-2 decoding can be done in two ways:

• Software based decoding

• Hardware based decoding

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The PCs CPU using special software does the software-based decoding. This is not
always very good since it drains the PC. Also the CPU seldom is powerful enough to
perform a perfect decoding. Some graphics chips include DVD decoding features, but
have to work together with a software decoder as well. The software based decoding
does not require any new hardware, but it requires a very powerful CPU and/or
graphics adapter. If there is not sufficient processor power, you will see a loss of some
individual images. The movie gets "choppy." The hardware-based decoding is to
prefer. Here the PC is equipped with a special chip (on an adapter) which only has to
decode the MPEG data stream. The most well known products are based on the called
Real Magic Hollywood+ chipset. The advantage of the hardware based decoding is
that the result does not depend on the CPU in your PC. The disadvantage is that you
need to install an extra card in the PC to enable seeing DVD films. It often comes
with the DVD drive as here:
However, MPEG cards are not always powerful enough either, according to the
reviews and to what I so far have seen. All in all, I might wait for further DVD and
MPEG developments. In a couple of years the MPEG decoding will surely become a
standard task (included in graphics chip sets), which all PC’s can perform without
problems.

The regional codes

DVD movies are made in several "codes." Region one is USA and Canada,
while Europe and Asia is region two:
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When you play movies, your hardware (MPEG decoder) must match the DVD region.
The movies are made in separate formats, each with their own coding. The DVD
drives has to be set to one of the codes, and this setting can be changed perhaps five
times. Most players can be altered so the become code-free. The operation is quite
simple, but it is a violation against the one-year guarantee. Many European users
dislike the coding system: The companies sell the same movie at higher prices for
region 2 than for region 1. This region thing is a typical example of industrial
stupidity. From the consumers view, there is absolutely no need for this division of
markets. It only makes things more difficult and expensive.

Incidentally Sony PlayStation2 machine are capable of playing both region 1 and 2!
This was not intended. It only goes for some region 1 DVDs, though. To understand
their worry, we have to look ahead. Today it is hard to imagine many copies from
DVD videodisks made on DWD-recorders. But maybe in 5 to 10 years we will have
digital copies of all the Hitchcock movies circulating in Napster-like networks as the
situation is with music and MP3s today.
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