DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc, and is a type of disc, similar to a CD but able to store much more information. The most common use for DVDs is as a way to play video.

Most people will play DVDs through a dedicated DVD player that attaches to a television. While formerly expensive they can now be obtained for as little as £20. Alternatively DVDs can be played in a computers DVD Drive, or through some games consoles such as a Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft X-Box.

Being a digital format, DVDs can carry much more that just a single video. Many DVDs contain alternate soundtracks, in either different languages or a special commentary track by the director or other people connected with the film. Aditionally there can a wide variety of subtitles or different camera angles. Outside of the main feature, many DVDs have extra features such as deleted scenes; interviews with cast and crew; music videos; documentaries about the films; etc.

Also, unlike video cassetes, you can jump to any point in the film automatically, so no rewinding or fast forwarding.

The new formats emerging as potential replacements for DVDs are Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Both of these formats are backwards compatible with DVDs, so when you upgrade your player, your entire DVD collection will still continue to play.

A normal DVD can play over 2 hours of video, which is sufficient for most films. Longer films require alternate techniques to play the full length of the film such as double sided DVD, or a second disc. A better technique devised for DVDs is Dual Layering, where a second readable layer is on the same side, this means that there is no need to get up and change the DVD midway through the film. As your player selects the new layer the video may pause slightly. This is normal and nothing to worry about. Most DVDs time the layer transition to happen between scenes making it even less noticeable.

Just as VCRs from North America do not play the videotapes produced in Europe, DVD discs and players are tailored to one of the six worldwide regions. Discs and machines for the UK, Ireland and most of Europe are Region 2. Region coding was introduced by film distributors because of video release schedules which differ world-wide unlike most music releases. All DVDs provided by Filmnight.com are Region 2 and will work with UK DVD players.

NTSC ("the National Television Standard for Color") is a television format which is used primarily in the USA, Canada, Japan and parts of Latin America. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the television standard is PAL ("Phased Alternating Lines") which is also used in much of Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and Australasia. There is a third, less well used, format called SÉCAM ("Séquentiel couleur à mémoire") which has the same number of lines as PAL, but a different way of showing colour; SÉCAM is mainly used in France, her former colonies and the former Soviet bloc.

These systems are all incompatible, so a standard television set in a PAL country can not show an NTSC picture and vice versa. In recent years, as the cost of electronics has come down, and international trade in Videos and DVDs has increased, higher end sets are often fitted with decoders for multiple systems.

Because of this, some DVD distributors have chosen to release DVDs for the British market that have an NTSC signal instead of a PAL signal. In order to play these DVDs both your player and television will need to be able to handle NTSC signals. Please check with your equipment's manufacturer if you have any doubts.

When the distributor makes us aware of such releases, these will be clearly marked on the website. This information should also be made available on the packaging of the DVD. You are strongly advised to check compatibility before purchasing or opening the DVD's packaging, as refunds for packages that have been opened are at our discretion.

An aspect ratio describes the relationship between a screen's width and its height. There are:

4:3 (full screen)

The aspect ratio (screen size) of a standard television set, meaning four horizontal units to three vertical units. Sometimes referred to as 'full screen' or 1.33:1.

16:9 (Widescreen)

The aspect ratio (screen size) of a Widescreen television, meaning sixteen horizontal units to nine vertical units. Also sometimes referred to as 1.78:1

2.35:1 (CinemaScope™)

This is the widest screen format commonly used at cinemas. This format is more than twice as wide as it is high A widescreen TV will still display black borders above and below the picture when viewing this format.

A DVD-player can be connected to any television, but with a Widescreen TV you will get the most viewing enjoyment. With DVD-Video you can gradually build up your own Home Cinema system with widescreen TV and multichannel digital surround sound. DVD-Video can support multiple aspect ratios.

DVD video players can output widescreen video in a number of different ways:

Pan & Scan

With Pan & Scan mode, the video fills the screen by cutting off the parts of the image on the extreme left and right. Usually the viewing are "pans" so that the the part of the screen where action is happening is shown. Most "full screen" VHS is made using this method. Some people dislike it as part of the scene is cut out and thus does not acurately show what the film makers intended.

Letterbox

In letterbox format, the full width of the video is shown, and additional thin black bars will be shown at the top and bottom. For some movies shot in a very wide aspect ratio, such as 2.35:1, these bars are added even on a widescreen TV. Similarly, wiewing a traditional TV picture on a widescreen set will give black vertical lines and the left and rightSome people find the black bars distracting and feel it is a "waste" of that area of the screen. It has the advantage however of showing the entire film as the filmmakers intended.

Unchanged (Stretching)

With unchanged video, the DVD outputs the entire movie and lets the Television decide how it is to be shown, which is often done by stretching and distoring the image to fill the screen. This can result in a "squished" look, when viewed on a normal television, or a "fat" look when viewing a traditional TV picture on a widescreen set. This distortion can be quite distracting, however it does make the most of the screen and also shows the entire image

Anamorphic

Anamorphic video is a compromise solution between Pan & Scan and Stretching the video. The video is edited by the distributer to crop of a small amount of video and distorting the rest such that it looks best at the 16:9 ratio. It is then output unchanged by the player.

Most DVDs are produced in stereo as standard, even films originally produced in Mono are often "digitally remastered" to produce stereo sound. Most newer movies however are also produced in one of a variety of Surround Sound formats. If you do not have a Surround Sound system, these formats are all still playable on a normal stereo or even mono television. The most common Surround Sound formats are:

Dolby Pro-Logic (also known as Dolby Surround)

Dolby Pro-Logic emerged in home theatre systems in the early 1990's. It became the surround sound standard for Hi-Fi VHS, and is still the standard for today's TV broadcasts. It incorporates left and right channels, a centre channel, and also a mono channel for the left and right rear speakers.

Dolby Digital (also known as Dolby Digital 5.1)

Dolby Digital is cinema sound format using five separate channels of digital audio and five speakers, plus a dedicated sub-woofer channel to create detailed and accurate surround sound.

DTS

DTS offers the same independent channels for each of the 6 speakers as Dolby Digital 5.1 but many consider the sound clarity to be slightly better. This is achieved by storing more soundtrack information onto the DVD

The Superbit titles utilise a special high bit rate digital transfer process which optimises video quality while offering a choice of both DTS and 5.1 Dolby Digital audio. All Superbit DVDs start with High Definition masters. The Superbit Collection will set a new benchmark in high resolution DVD image and sound, creating the ultimate in home entertainment. By reallocating data normally used for value-added content, Superbit DVDs can be encoded at double their normal bit rate while maintaining full compatibility with the DVD-Video format. The result is picture quality that provides outstanding detail. Superbit DVDs play on all DVD players. Currently DVDs are encoded to optimise space for the feature plus added value and audio streams. The Suberbit collection reallocates and converts the physical space ordinarily devoted to added value to higher bit rate video transfer and both Dolby Digital 5.1 & DTS audio.

DVDs are the current standard method of storing video. However development has not stood still and there are two competing formats vying for position as the successor to DVD: Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Both of these can store more data than DVD, allowing even better quality video and audio, with more special features. The major studios have all backed one, or both of the formats released the first discs in late 2006.

Players of both systems will play current DVDs, and some players are being developed that will play both new formats.

Filmnight.com stock both formats.