Movie Theater Experience at Home with HD DVD and HD DVD Codecs
There was a time when Betamax and VHS stood as the de facto medium standard in which movies were distributed. Gone are those days when the optical disc storage technology came to become the industry standard in movie distribution.
During the 90s, DVD systems became the standard in movie distribution, boasting truly impressive crystal clear screen resolutions, leading to movie viewing experiences worth remembering. Today, HD DVD stands to become the next generation of DVD, boasting even more clear-cut quality high definition movie resolutions, yielding to movie theater experiences within the comforts of one's own home.
HD DVD is basically the result of the joint development between Toshiba and NEC. The DVD Forum, the original makers of the DVD system, voted approval for HD DVD, as it is basically based on the same platform the original DVD system is rooted on. Its main difference, i.e. advantage, over standard DVD comes in the form of its data storage capacity, which results to the higher potentials for high definition moves. Standard DVDs have data capacities of up to 4.7 gigabytes, with dual-layer class DVD discs capable of storing up to 8.5 gigabytes of data. With HD DVD discs, 15 gigabytes of data could be easily stored, with dual-layer HD DVD discs capable of storing up to 30 gigabytes of data. This impressive storage capacity, coupled with the utilization HD DVD codec systems, make HD DVD perfect for high definition movies, as well as large space demanding software applications and games for personal computer systems.
Through the utilization of HD DVD codecs, HD DVD is known to provide the same resolution as broadcast HDTV, without the compression artifacts and signal noise often associated with broadcast HDTV. Resolutions of up to 1920 x 1080 pixels could be easily achieved through the successful blend of HD DVD codecs.
Video HD DVD codecs include the advanced H.264.AVC video codec, as well as the VC-1 video codec. HD DVD codecs also include support for legacy MPEG-2. The Microsoft VC-1 HD DVD codec is known to be quite highly efficient, enabling HD DVD discs with feature length videos of reference quality, and still having enough space for interactive features, and specials like director commentaries, or behind the scenes features, and other movie specials. VC-1 HD DVD codecs, as an official SMPTE standard, is basically the codec of choice of three major Hollywood studios.
All in all, HD DVD codecs make it possible for HDTV, in fact even better, quality movies to be easily distributed as high definition movies.
